9.07.2008

What The Hell Is Psychic Friends Anyway?

At the meeting tonight we discussed a lot of things. Heres the biggest thing I got from it.

We don't really have an idea about what a collective is about or what we are as a collective..

How do we continue to exist (much less have a show) if we don't know these things?

One thing we really seem to lack is structure. We call ourselves and "art collective" but "art" and "collective" are two of the broadest words I can think of. It seems like we haven't really talked about who we are, what we're doing and why we're doing it, mostly because whenever we get together in a big group, we get distracted. I figure that we can use this blog as a medium to discuss things like this and anything related to our own and each others work. A little of this has been happening already, but most of it has been posting our own work and others commenting on it. This is a good discussion to be having, but it could be so much more.

So, I guess the question that I'd like to pose to everyone here is: What is Psychic Friends about to you? What do you want it to be? What do we want to do with this collective?

I think it would be a huge step if we had a if we had this discussion and began to define the collective some.

Heres my answer:

Psychic Friends to me is about doing work with my friends. Talking about work and collaborating on things. I'd like it to be about producing work together that we can all feel is our own and pushing each other's boundaries by collaborating. If we actually all got together and made work either as a big group or in smaller groups and talked about it, we could do a lot of these things and learn a lot in the process.

Tell us what you think!

12 comments:

Emily said...

so I just wrote a very long lj entry about this, but only a small portion of psychic friends use livejournal.

with that said, I'm not going to repeat what I said there here because it is so long (and not to mention not well written)

however, to me, psychic friends has been a source of inspiration and subject matter for my art, as well as one giant friend. I think we have the capabilities to be so much more than that though. we're a resource for each other (whether it be showing someone how to do something, being a part of someone's personal project, lending supplies or materials, or giving input) but can we be a resource for the collective?
maybe collaborative art isn't for everyone, but that's ok. discussing our personal art can be a collaboration just as everyone drawing on the same piece of paper can be a collaboration.

Neil Sanzgiri said...

the first thing that might help is to use this forum as a means to actually listen to each other in an organized manor.

what I get out of psychic friends thus far is a network of creative resources for anyone to use however they please. And if I can get that much out of our discussions, I would be very pleased.

We each have our own unique talents, and I feel those are our tools to best fit each project we might work on - may it be individually or collectively.

This blog is the perfect example of individual teamwork that is
necessary for us to grow as artists and "psychic" friends.

We should research other collectives and come to some sort of understanding of what the term means. On the other hand, we should also give up our perceptions and inhibitions of what a collective really is and also define what we wish to do with our resources.

If, for some reason, our reservations remain, we need to figure out why we are so set on a dead idea.

Neil Sanzgiri said...

"maybe collaborative art isn't for everyone, but that's ok. discussing our personal art can be a collaboration just as everyone drawing on the same piece of paper can be a collaboration."


perfect! that's one thing i forgot to mention on my collaboration post. send us the link to your lj post??

Emily said...

http://delawareareyou.livejournal.com/85628.html

Carey Chiaia said...

"what are we all about? right now, we're all about being friends and using our friendships to lead a more fufilling life in one way or an. so why not let that show through in our show? if not in our actual art, then in the way we handle it."

Sorry to be quoting you so much Emily, but thats so true.

Right now, this collective to me is about doing work with my best friends and that is really satisfying to me, I couldn't ask for more, so why don't we all just sit down and do some projects together? start small and see how it feels maybe? lets try this collective thing out for real! I think it would be a great step if we even started doing some of those big collective drawings at meetings as exercises in working together.

Neil Sanzgiri said...

first of all, everyone should read emily's live journal post. it's great.

sorry to quote you again!! but "I would love to see more organization as far as meetings go, less of people shouting over each other and less of people having personal conversations while someone else is speaking."

thats what this blog should be! lets use this perfect medium of thinking things through before we just say them.

also "I think what's stopped us from really doing anything has been the fear of failing."

i agree completely. lets let go of the fear and start accepting things for what they are. that doesn't mean settling for less necessarily, but it does mean coming to some sort of consentual compromise.

i feel like we should also start to get to know each other a little bit more as artists. i sort of touched on that tonight when i was saying how i don't really know what anyone wants to do with their life or their art, and i think that is very important. this blog should also be used to understand each others art further.

also again "I just think it's common courtesy to listen to someone when they're trying to say something and wait until they are finished to share your thoughts- in a 'meeting' setting at least."

MY BAD :(

dougbot said...

hey.
first off: sorry i didn't come to the meeting tonight, i was reading and being a general buttdick.
secondly: psychic friends collective is a great thing to me, even though i haven't put nearly as much into as anyone else. i feel like even though i didn't put anything in the zine and even though i haven't posted any art on the blog yet, i still feel a part of the group, and i think that's an important part of being in a collective. this is a place where i feel accepted as an artist and a person and a friend and gosh-darn-it, that's great.
psychic friends 4lyfe.

Neil Sanzgiri said...

thats really great doug! i want everyone to feel valued and respected more than anything.

i also think the zine was kind of a learning experience. it didn't "fail" it just wasn't the right time or method of achieving what we wanted to say.


let's keep this going guys! its working i think.

Psychic Friends said...

i agree with everything people are saying and i think at least in these respects we all have the same understanding. as far as where we want the collective to go, we'll figure that out along the way. and people's individual motivations are going to be what develops that. the collective, to me, is a group of all of my best friends that i can relate to, if not through my work then very personally. and i think our work definitely relates. i haven't been posting at all and i realize that i've only been working independently, and i really need some serious input! thinking about things too much by myself is really freaking me out. now that we're all in different classes, we need to talk to each other more. and then, even though we can't be in them we'll be getting some of that education. i've already gotten so much information even beyond concerning art from you guys. i hope this makes sense. maybe it doesn't. actually, i'm just talking out my ass.

-peechiang

Max Guy said...

We can keep discussing these things but it will become redundant and eventually we'll just be beating around the bush. Without dismissing anyone's ideas, I say we all share our proposals as to what we should do next and just jump right in, no matter how many of us cooperate.

Once we've done/ made a few things we'll be able to put things out on the table and analyze or work and its relations to the collective as a whole.

Max Guy said...

Its not about perfection at this point, it's about discovery. A show doesn't necessarily have to answer a question or display something finite. We can create a forum through this show to question and analyze more, and the people who come to see it will contribute their feedback as well.

Mel Barat said...

"Its not about perfection at this point, it's about discovery"

i couldn't have said it any better.