Meta Quo

For some weeks now, some of you have been asking, “Where has TINSQUO gone?”

Today, if you’ll permit me a moment of meta, I’ll explain the recent absence of posts:

In an alleged effort to improve efficiency and security, my webhost upgraded its server to a new platform and, in the process, eradicated my ability to post...anything…for over ten weeks.

From the start TINSQUO has been dedicated to tracking the forward edge of studio activity – the idea being that the overarching process of an artist’s evolution is a work in and of itself.

Since we launched in 2003, I’ve gone light on including too much in the way of my quotidian biography because 1. I figure it’s necessarily represented in the work and 2. Biographical information can be an obscuring illusion that precludes a viewer’s opportunity to approach each work as a primary experience of one’s own perception.

But I would like to express my gratitude to all those who reached out to see if I was OK. Thank you. I am moved. Fortunately, I did not fall off the face of the earth – just the digital version of it. The reason why is quotidian in the extreme.

The technical explanation for this disruption – as far as I can gather – is that they relocated the MySQL database to a remote server and, for a long time, were unable to adjust my Movable Type blogging software to account for this new reality. Fortunately, I was an indefatigable squeaky wheel and – despite being told point blank that such a thing was impossible – eventually obtained the necessary fix.

In the interval, work on the oil painting Joan of Arc Riding My Little Pony moves forward. Presently all the elements are in place at a preliminary level of finish.

Also, for mysterious reasons the YouTube video of Canyon Ascent embarked on a rapid acquisition of new viewers – on average about 500 a day for 9 days or so. Thereby garnering the dubious distinction of being targeted by the infamous swarms of YouTube haters. (Now, in response, there is a sort of “kindness backlash” underway. The forces of light and darkness battling it out on a YouTube message board).

Finally, in some inchoate way I’m getting the sense that this unplanned digital holiday will turn out to be a blessing – a disruption of the status quo. I don’t know yet what I mean by this, but going forward: “Welcome to TINSQUO Version 3.0.

(Why 3.0? In the dusty prehistoric blogging epoch of 2002 I launched the first iteration of what would become the current TINSQUO. Little remains of this ancestor which was parked at the proto-trendy super long domain of THEREISNOSTATUSQUO.com. A few choice relics persist on this site though in the Thank You Project and Thread Of Remembrance.)

Posted by mark at May 5, 2008 02:08 PM