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  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2024/create-with-intention",
  "description": "It's more important to make things that communicate the worlds that we want to see.\n",
  "path": "/essays/2024/create-with-intention",
  "publishedAt": "2024-11-24T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": "essay",
  "textContent": "For a bit of time, I've felt tension on figuring out what to write about. It's not unfamiliar\nfrom [some former tension][1] — what am I now throwing into the digital void? These spaces aim\nto provide people a way to bridge one another that aren't as easy to cross physically. What we lose in\nthe physical, we try to emulate in the digital to varying degrees of success. Social media is one\nform of this emulation, blogging; another. I'm finding that instead of participating deeper in what\nright-wing Internet relish, that I should be trying to participating the age-old tradition of\nmaking art. That's if I want to add something to pool of instantaneously archived information we swim\nin on the Internet.\n\nWhen one thinks of art, it commonly goes to the idea of providing room to convey the idea of the\nexpressions of expensive (or stolen) works in publicly available (but privately owned) viewing\nhouses. This is one of the accessible form of public art for those living in the metropolis zones of the\nWestern World. Computers and the Internet provided an exploration of extended forms of media\ndistribution. Video games are an interesting introduction to this space. It's only about 30 years\nold in its form. I mention it because, prior to video games, a public art that could immerse people\nin a semi-autonomous way would be the theatre play. Stay with me — the way a performance of a\nplay can be unique for each audience based on their response; video games can provide a unique\nexperience for the player — an emulation of a play. They both allow (and sometimes require)\nengagement from those spaces. Social media has provided something of a glue layer for other forms of\nart that you can see happen a lot more whenever a notable artist releases music. Instead of\nfolks jumping up and dancing together at a concert; in its best form, social media depicts a open\nmusic cafe with folks listening and engaging with music together.\n\nWhen the art is something that provokes thought and conversation while being engaging and\nrecord-breaking, we get _very_ rare moments for growth in our collective understanding. One example\nof this is when Beyonce's Lemonade album was released. We got conversation about abolition coming to\nthe table within an ecosystem that would have talking on anything else. Many have ideas as to\nwhy things might have not materialized in some institutionalized way. It'd be a distraction from the\nwork that _does_ exist and grew in numbers in reaction to these ideas — still strong to this\nday.\n\nArt is what pulls people across class, regions and other markers of division together. The ability\nto produce art in this time is vital and controlled. I always encourage folks to check out the\nindependent arts of every medium to help give air to stories that you want to see more of —\nphotography, food, music, clothing, jewelry; you name it. I'm glad to see many of them grow over the\nlast decade. There's a lot we can do when it comes to having more control over how we tell\nstories and what we can teach each other. Art serves as a medium that can be as accessible, if not\nmore so, than reading. In a well planned out approach, it could help improve our intelligence in\nmultiple ways.\n\nThis has faintly been on my mind since 2022, when I was considered going back to school for music.\nI was thinking about learning how to play the saxophone again. Life got quite complicated around\nthen so I halted all thinking about it. But the idea of producing art, especially something that I\ncould speak on, was important to me. I'm opening this up to anyone else who's been nervous about the\nidea of making art. It doesn't have to win an award, but it can be just a way to express yourself.\nSelf-expression guided on one's own means is needed in a curated world such as ours.\n\n[1]: /essays/2024/what-do-i-gain/\n[2]: https://libguides.broward.edu/c.php?g=487832&p=3336430\n[3]: https://youneekstudios.com/",
  "title": "Creating with Intention"
}