The other day I was talking with someone about trying new things. He told me he had just done something for the first time and felt super cringe at the end. I love those people. The ones who try, who put themselves out there even when it feels awkward.
The project I’m presenting at Signals this year started the same way. I brought a collection of personal letters and digitized videos with me to Japan, where I spent three months in residency. It felt random. Mortality, memories, fragments of my own archive. It felt a llittle cringe when I talked about it to people. Like cliche or whatever. And then I just started building.
That’s the nature of the work I do. Sometimes projects start as scattered ideas, experiments, or even half-formed questions. Through a process of making, testing, and reshaping, they begin to take form and meaning.
That’s what creativity is. Acting on ideas before you know if they’ll work. Following threads that might unravel. Chasing sparks even when they feel a little off.
So here’s to all the “cringy” people out there, the ones experimenting, making, building, and trying anyway.
Respect.