Once upon a time in Los Angeles the skaters let me tag along. Even though I’ve “given up” on skateboarding, which used to give me so much joy, the community continues to inspire me. Skaters are like true hackers who will do anything and everything to find a place to get their flow on, no matter how weird and dirty and dark. In many ways skaters share the same joy that the very best engineers I know seek – to find the ultimate flow state, to create moments of beauty.
That American skaters can do it in Southern California, a place that is honestly very ugly in my opinion despite the great natural beauty, and turn joyless, lonely parking lots and strip malls and abandoned swimming pools into pure energy is amazing.
It also teaches me again and again that I have to be discerning and find my people. For a while I was stuck in this depressing world of women’s crafts. They are doing cool things but they are definitely not my people. Instead of women rounding each other up to volunteer to teach children or talking about cooking for their families (always drudgery cooking, never creative joy), it was so invigorating to be around skaters giving me tips they’d learn from other skateboarding filmmakers….
I found myself angling my cheap camera and leaning over the pool. They knew so much about technique, and part of the light projections is not only putting art on things but also making the way more clear so that skaters could see where they are going in the dark of the night… without provoking attention from others around them!
No matter how many ideas or potential you have, if you are surrounded by the wrong people in your personal life, they will not provoke great things! You really are who you hang out with.
I also felt a little miffed that I Hadn’t absorbed my lessons from the TouchDesigner workshops at SudoRoom’s dark mode. In the grime I could have been adjusting my images so that they curved better against the pool. I also got used to being directed not to move or shine things in people’s eyes.
This gave me a lot of motivation to learn more in light projections. It’s such a nice setting that feels completely different from a static art piece in a museum or gallery or even in a concert.
I’d also like to experiment more with light projections that follow dancers in movements instead of locking into a screen behind a stage. I guess in that way skaters are like dancers, and it would be even more fun to physically tune the projections to people who have musicality.
Thanks for the inspiration! And this is definitely motivating me in my TouchDesigner journey. I’ve found my people, and sadly it is only by extracting those people who’re not your people that new pathways are made clear.
