Why ants? While reasearching how to get ahold of some ants as reference pets, I realized just how little I know about them. There are sites–– an entire online world of enthusiasts–– about ant keeping, and I haven’t been a part of it. So why am I pursuing this as a thesis topic?
After all, I have plenty of hobbies and passions of my own which I’ve been involved in for years: social dance, musicianship, coffee, filmmaking, and classic video games. Why not do something stemming from those?
Also, I’ve defined some of the characteristics that have been laced throughout my past work: an acknowledgement of the context of the work, generally featuring a ragtag team of creative friends who follow their dreams and do it “their way” –– so why doesn’t any of that apply? After all, I’m currently working with Vaguely Spectacular, which is a sort of Bad News Bears organization, but I continue to think of my ant project as separate from that. Have I been drawn in by the desire to make a masterpiece, and therefor cast it as the work of an individual? I should likely focus instead on the orchestration of the organization to create the piece, as Jamie did with Spectre, since that’s a central passion of mine as well, it turns out (the art of producing).
So, next design brainstorm: Themes or subjects from my past which could win out over ants. And after that: Organizational structures which could win out over the lone wolf paradigm.
