Summer solstice

I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell I am doing (at least with my sticker project).  Since 2004, I’ve been to Berlin six times and made dozens of trips to NYC, plus individual trips to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Munich, and Madrid (mostly work-related except for NYC).  Students, alumni, and friends have picked up stickers in Amsterdam, Rome, and several cities in eastern Europe.  A couple of thousand stickers by now.  A growing database.  An exhibition in 2006.  A blog with musings and lots of links.  Two conference papers.  A few sticker contacts.  A faculty carrel.  A SLU-funded study trip to Germany with three students this summer.  Another upcoming exhibition in the fall of 2010.  A short list of publishers, residency programs, and grant opportunities.

Now what?

I need to figure this out.

The reading and research I’ve been doing leads me to Web sites regarding antifa, anarchy, (anti)-authority, identity, nationalism (often through sports), politics, war and political conflict, globalization, etc.

There is such a huge amount of material out there that I’m not sure where to focus my energy.  What’s my angle?  Cultural studies seems the most apt, but I don’t know anything about social theory, literary theory, political economy, etc.—or I should say, not enough to write about in relation to stickers and street art.  I met recently with a consultant in academic publishing who thinks I’m onto something with my sticker project.  She suggested I write about this material in relation to my interest in visual literacy and media literacy, which would certainly be unique.  But would it be of use to anyone in any sort of circumstance or situation?  She reminded me that publishing is about sales.  Yeah, I know.  I just don’t know how my project translates into $$.  If anything, the stickers and street art I’m interested in reject capitalism and capitalist authority wholeheartedly.

Just today, I came across a blog linking back to mine called Anti-German Translation.  They had used a few of my antifa images in a post called Variousness 8 (30sep09).  The ATG Web site led me to a fantastic list of resources with categories labelled: anti-german translation picks; antifa; autonomous culture; autonomous politics; eurozone; football; conspiracy; kritik and theory; middle east; thinkers; documentationsarchiv reporting global fascism; icare news; the cst: monitoring anti-semitism; contested terrain: platform against anti-semitism and for emancipation; shift: anti-capitalist perspectives; 3wayfight: our enemies’ enemies are often not our friends; slackbastard: against fascism, for anarchy; and planet kommunismus.  Each category includes scores of links.

See what I mean?  So much reading to do, much less make sense of.  I’ve always thought of myself as a studio artist, not a writer.  I like making things.  I do like to write, too, though.

A new me, perhaps.  Just in time for the summer solstice.