I've Got Your Back! - #31

Obsessed with locating Broken Screen: Expanding the Image, Breaking the Narrative, I resolved to pay $1.50 and see if Interlibrary Loan could find it for me.  A book review promised 26 conversations with artists, filmmakers, designers, and architects. I learn from artists. 

Doug Aitken writes in the preface he organized this 2006 book to capture the essential motivations behind the creative process. The conversations focus on ideas about nonlinearity and fragmentation. 

Skimming the book I learned that nonlinear stories are needed, according to Amos Vogel, "because the old-fashioned, straightforward, linear narratives - with their beginning, middle, and happy endings - have none of the real mysteries of existence that we all know to be true in our own lives."

It was, however, an interview with Robert Wilson that fascinated me the most. Here's Robert:

"It's always that space in back of you that's as important as -- or almost more important than -- the space in front of you."  

My mind keeps mulling over the idea that what is behind me is as important as what is in front of me.  I pondered it yesterday while lying face down on the massage table.

I've noticed more people saying, "I've got your back." I want to continue paying attention to what is in back of me.

Here are two questions for you. Pretend that I am interviewing you and write your answers in the comment section or reply to this email:

Do you want your entertainment to have a happy ending? 

What do you think of the idea that what is behind you is as important as what is in front of you?

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

The image was taken from our hotel, "Ink" in Amsterdam.