Andrew

What is a ritual, practice, or routine in your life that is important for your psychological wellbeing and/or fulfillment? Why?

Will

I am a pretty dedicated yard sale / flea market attendee; you could say "a picker." My parents would take us to the flea market in the next town over as a kid, and I've maintained the habit of going out and sorting through mounds of secondhand junk every weekend. Digging the trenches of material culture gives you an essential perspective on what human productive activity really boils down to in the end (even and especially if you don't go home with anything). You also meet people and hear their stories, hone your eye and think about design (plus get stuff for the studio on the cheap).

Andrew

What is a human-made creation that brings out the best in you? Why?

Will

The bicycle. I don't ride as much as I used to, but it's very important to me to re-situate myself in my location with a casual bike ride every so often. The ability to cover ground, and the satisfaction of getting there with your bodily energies, with none of the alienation that the cocoon of a motor vehicle brings.

Andrew

When do you cherish the slow or hard way of doing something? Why?

Will

My artistic practice does have a component of design work behind a computer, but the vast majority of my studio time is spent doing everything I can possibly do by hand, often in an inefficient, messy and eternally frustrating manner and I would prefer to keep it this way. In theory I could pivot to utilizing more advanced digital fabrication for almost every stage in my process, but ultimately that would undermine my sort-of control-freak conception of how to carry out creative work, which involves having my hands on every milimeter of the final product. The satisfaction of making things by hand is unmatched, ineffable and I think a core part of being human.

Andrew

What is something you appreciate or long for from the past? Why?

Will

I grew up proximal to Appalachian-style old time music; fiddle-centric pre-country mountain music. The modern form of this is an at least thrice revived facsimile of a much older traditional music, wherein "tunes," very roughly standardized songs, would be passed around through communal play. You can see regional and individual differences in how these tunes would be expressed in a given geographical locale, or by specific players, but the underlying genetic code of the tune would change only very slightly over time, serving as a common basis for collective music. Only in adulthood, and after experiencing the innovation and individuality obsessed technoculture have I found myself longing for a sort of tradition, of rule systems for cultural expression that participants can slip in and out of, where individual expression naturally slots into the collective production of a "body of work." This contrasts with today's situation, in which atomization of culture is at an all time peak.