Publicity

HOT AIR shot from the Timisoara Opera House

radio interview on "Detroit Today" on 11-11-09

I was interviewed on the local NPR radio station a couple of days ago about HOT AIR. It has been a bit of a re-entry whirlwind, but I was quite happy to get the work noticed a bit more, so I did it. The show, "Detroit Today" on local NPR was looking back to the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of communism thoughout eastern Europe that followed. (I am about three-quarters of the way through the "tape")


I am about to write an essay on the project. I have been preparing it in my mind for quite a while now, but yesterday I had to make some decisions about the course that this story will now take because I am writing an explanatory press release for design publications. I don't often think of publicity as a good thing, but in the course of having to jump into the press to talk about my work, I have had to draw conclusions about the project which have forced me to be focused again on what I was trying to achieve. And here's the thing, for a while now I've been less open or forthcoming about the work. This didn't happen out of malice but rather out of inexperience... and I'm not sure it could have happened any other way... but I have been guarded about my thoughts and intentions with the work because of my inability to predict the resulting outcomes. Would I still be allowed to go to Romania? Would Timisoara still embrace, support, and promote the work? Would there be sympathy from the public? In the end, and in retrospect, it seems likely that none of my fears would have materialized and, in fact, that much of the paranoia went the way of the communist regime. So, seemingly I could have said a bit more... and soon I will.