I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. He wanted me to know that he had decidedly disconnected from the Internets. His decision underlines an anecdotal trend I'm seeing, people wanting to simplify and focus on real world social interactions.
This reminded me of some stories I had heard about a few of my favorite artists. I can not say for sure but I heard that Samuel Beckett had a phone line that would only make outgoing calls. Apparently he was very responsive to meeting all sorts of visitors at a hotel near by his house though. Then you have the stories of how Giacometti was very much absorbed by his work not unlike a hermit monk. Which brings me to Thelonious, after his cabaret card was taken away, he apparently spent lots of time at home playing and performing for a small circle of friends. All these giants took time and space to let their work evolve, and responded to personal intimate impulses. What if every sculpture, story, and composition of theirs had crossed our feed readers as they happened?
I wonder how a constant stream of calls, email, RSS feeds, twits, and the like change the vectors for our work and our relationships. With all the talk about open-betas with users, and transparency what do we loose? Can we afford to disconnect and spend years doing great work only to re-emerge in a transformed world? What the Internet gives to me is the chance to connect with great minds, hearts, and creatives all over the world. Surely there are even greater minds, hearts, and creatives silently disconnected stitching transcendent works that will take us all by surprise. I think we can be certain of that.
