in the nature of the beast

Writers/filmmakers/people who publicise their work* through their blogs/twitter accounts/facebook pages appear to use the medium less as an aggregator and more as a selective filter that lets in only the praise and keeps out the criticism.

This is only natural I suppose.

But I'm more fascinated by the phenomenon of linking to reviews at all. It assumes on the part of the consumer 1) laziness; 2) an inability to make up one's mind without help; 3) a willingness to be directed.

Also fascinated by what this says about the author**.

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* Specifically, reviews. Information about availability/ readings/performances/exhibitions are different beasts.

**Here I'm distinguishing between the person who created said material -film, book, music album, painting - and the person in charge of disseminating information about it. It's when they're the same person and that things become really interesting.

turning word into artefact

At first, we thought of a pottery workshop. Then a friend, who's been working with papier mache, suggested we make masks and get the kids to paint them. I wanted them to also mess around with the mache.

So that's what we did. One week before, we tore and soaked lots of newspaper. Every other day we tipped out the iron-coloured water. Ground, sieved, mixed with fevicol, and made masks. We decided on a couple of coats of primer, to give the kids a good canvas on which to work.

Here is both process and product: