First/Last

The Garter Hype Cycle acts as a map of where first word/last word pieces are probable–the Innovation Trigger technologies are often still too young and expensive to suitably fit into artist’s hands (quantum computing comes to mind).  First word art begins to emerge as technologies begin to summit the Peak of Inflated Expectations as the technologies become more accessible and popularized outside of academia, whereas in order to artistically “kick” something out of the Trough of Disillusionment and onto the Slope of Enlightenment (and perhaps eventually into the Plateau of Productivity), one needs to create last word art. Creating last word work, redeeming technologies by pulling them from irrelevance back into the public’s interests (and eventually expectations), the is perhaps the allure of the Trough of Disillusionment to Schulze.

I would say my work is First Word in nature. As an artist my goal is to experiment and play with technologies available to me, not necessarily to create technology-defining work. The technologies I choose to work with, however, tend to be those that are falling off the Peak of Inflated Expectations, arguably because they tend to be more accessible to me, as a Midwestern teenager, than a quantum computer or a brain-computer interface.