What Do You Do? How Do You Do?
I’d like to quote Mårten Spångberg, not to enhance the distribution of his book, SPANGBERGIANISM because frankly, he can distribute it quite well on his own – I imagine him throwing copies over the Millennium bridge, at your face and on your doorstep. I mention him because I can’t think of anyone who said these words more genuinely:
Stop talking about yourself as a dancer. You are not a dancer! …Something that is, announces itself as static, as autonomous in the most uninteresting of ways, as independent in the sense of not being part of the game…Dance is something that one does, not something one is.[1] (2011, 115)
What resonates with me now is the aftermath of this statement and how it affects the way I view myself and my work, as well as those around me. Why are we obsessed with labeling ourselves under a category that is just what we do, sometimes do, or have done? Sure, it’s great to talk about these things. After all, what else would we talk about?
Well, for starters, we could talk about ANYTHING. I’m sure the conversation would carry on and inform us a hell of a lot more about the other person in our company. How do you get to know someone for who they are, what inspires them, how they change… by a profile updated on Facebook?
Excuse my hippiness for a moment while I imagine people living together, not quite in the Lennon & Oko way where all the world can live off of music and pear trees, but then again, maybe….
Maybe a group of friends, so close to you that you call them family, live under the same roof as you. [Here I must insert a very important note that these people hanging out are not a ‘collective’ or a band of artists living an ‘artist’s life’; although they do arty things, come together and (re)collect]. These friends go in and out, to and from work, and when they come together they don’t necessarily talk about work as if ‘work’ is their life, but rather live and do things throughout the day. I know this sounds very simple because it is.
Talk about what you do and work at as fluid projects in your day-to-day routine, by all means, PLEASE do. I want to hear about your new found love in the bedroom or in Dali, origami - folding paper or clothes - or in the bacteria you discovered on the bathroom tile…the idea you have now that if you had just taken semantics, you would understand the universe….
I want to know all of what people do but for God’s sake don’t go on about your profession as if your life is fixed in that one little title. And, if you really care, don’t ask me what my work is or if I have work. Of course I have a job, if that’s what you mean; it’s London and I need to make money to survive.
Does that job or what I’m working on make me (or you)? Maybe there is a dire need for more time in our lives to be able to go on about the nitty-gritty things that make up who we really are. In that case, start with a great story – I’ll buy you a drink and stay a while.
[1] Spångberg, Mårten. (2011). SPANGBERIANISM. Stockholm: Spångberg.
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wicked089 answered:
Thank you for that post, it fits perfectly for barterers also…
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theshrinkingviolets posted this
