“Product/ivity” is made out of pieces from the same sketches, drafts, and other fragments used in the piece “A Bigger Yes.” I conceived of them together–of the impossibilities of new life, joy, and creation during some periods–and of the ways good work can be shadowed by the impetus to publish and be turned into something to get “credit” for. The participants talked about the double-bind of doing work that is community-engaged or community-powered, for example. Or the ways creative pursuits were both unwelcome and expected to be turned into publications.
One person looked at “Product/ivity” and saw it as a beautiful view through a stand of aspen tree trunks, emerging from a forest into a meadow. I had created the black lines to represent a bar code, three-dimensional off the paper, and also used them as stems and flares of movement in “A Bigger Yes.” I want to hold on to the multiple perspectives of that view. We love what we write and the work we do. With the written word we have power to impact others beyond those we know to imagine. And the articles and books are just products–written to please institutions that may betray us–not worth our health or wholeness. It is all of that.
Studies
