How to Sound Smart at a Privite View

Recently I’ve been stressing out about Douglas’s comment about me showing a piece of work at the fine art interim show. He feels as though my work does not belong in a gallery context and fears that I am just doing it for the sake of doing it. Although in some respects I agree with him in terms of commodity and documentation (obviously) I feel as though my work does not fit into any context and moreover simply exists. Process driven by nature mean that a lot of my work simply happens where it happens and that documentation in some respect simply acts as a validation of the event actually occurring (where ever this may be).

In relation to the interim show I wish to see it as a place where an idea or process can happen within the context of an event. This has probably come across from reading my new book ‘sounding smart at parties’.

Recently upsetting a friend when someone referred to him as being very intelligent by saying ‘no he isn’t, he just waits to say the right thing at the right time’ made me think about the possibility of this in relation to ‘useless knowledge’. Can you sound smart simply by saying the right thing at the right time? By using trivial knowledge to better your self in a situation? By making the useless, useful? This is certainly the attempt of this book which to me is attempting to be a short cut to wisdom (or at least sounding cleverer). It is however personal endeavour to a fairly useless extent. Yeah sure it will make you SOUND clever but the small nuggets of information given to you here are never going to actually make you as clever as you seam.

Think what I wish to do is use seemingly pointless information within a correct context to make it useful (in the sense of making myself sound smart.)

Context dictates the usefulness of the knowledge.

I therefore wish to use the following chapters within ‘sounding smart at parties’ at the private view of the exhibition –

• The Art Conversation
• The Film and Performing Arts Conversation

With the possibilities of

• The Political Conversation
• The Philosophy Conversation

Lets see if it will work