Sometimes I have dreams where the power’s gone out, and only good things happen. All my neighbors come outside and suddenly want to talk.  I only practice my instrument, instead of trying to embellish it with tech.  I read more.  I feel more connected to earth and other humans. I have better jokes.

In other dreams I see the interconnectedness of all of us, and I visualize it as an internet.  I focus on the relationships, not the things each node in the internet shows.  I don’t get distracted by how busy and complicated everything is.  I stay up all night programming something that I can’t wait to show off, and I’m possessed by writing code the way I’m possessed when I’m writing something good or playing with someone and it clicks.

That may not work – I may come back and clean that up later, but after a long Friday this is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of illustrating the modern predicament I think alot of us artists are in.  How to stay true to your craft and use technology without letting it use/own you.  It can own you through distracting, it can own you by making you adapt your art to it, rather than the other way around.  

Regarding distraction I like what Brian Eno says in the latest issue of Tape Op:

Eno: I don’t have Internet at Home… I have Internet here [studio] so I can attend to things during the day. I’m finding that I’m grazing much less that I used to.
Tape Op: Like wandering around the Internet looking at things
Eno: Yes. It’s lazy, really. It’s like being in the waiting room at a doctor’s office and there are a bunch of magazines lying around

Eno and John Maeda are two voices who kind of talk me down when I’m ready to chuck every bit of tech I use in music and go back to basics (which I still do for periods anyways).  I’m not a designer (yet) but I think John Maeda is to design what Eno is to music, though their ideas apply to either.  Here are two videos which I’ve found stoke the fire and help me see clearly as well:

John Maeda’s recent talk at Adobe’s new Adobe Digital Museum.
Here’s his Ted talk:

I don’t know any videos of Brian Eno, but I _am_ inspired by his Bloom generative music app. Mail me if you know of other cool Eno things I should check out!