Accidental Art
Art is Where You Find It
By E.C. Gladstone
Someone wiser (or at least older) than me once said that ‘Art is where you find it.’
Today we are in an age where perception far outweighs reality–for better or worse–whether we talk about web 3.0, social media, or ‘alternative facts.’ What better a time, then, to challenge the very notions of art and expression? And in an era of AI perfectionism, to the point where all ideals will surely ossify, what could be a stronger statement than to amplify mistakes?
That is exactly what you are seeing on these pages: Misteaks [sic].
Mistakes from a tool so common that nearly everyone has one on their body at all times: a mobile phone, ‘found’ after the fact, often without any clue as to where and when they were taken. Not a single one taken in intention, but kept and collected over several years to be honest, curated and edited in a way that says something to me. Maybe they will speak to you, too.
The world doesn’t wait for us, and often the hardest goal in life today is to live in the present. These are pure expressions of those moments: flawed, unintentional, but still enriching. Wrong turns on the highway of life, if you will. But I think there’s another version of beauty in that. It’s the space that is the most human, a space that AI will never fill. These are images I’ve been collecting for some time, saving and editing the ones that say something to me.
Back to art and definitions: there’s an urgency to give context to creation–titles, locations, dates. The few who have seen these images before have always asked. But I think it’s a distraction. More information here actually clouds the message. I’m not even an ‘artist’ by most parameters, nor am I claiming to be. So, for whatever their aesthetic value, take what you find. And go make your own.
In an alternate universe, there's an Eric Gladstone who is a massively famous artist. However in this universe, he's a former music journalist (check out Anything But Nirvana on Amazon) and now team leader of The Feast of Friends branding agency.
