Staying Connected

The title of this show in the Marsh Gallery

at the Herron School of Art and Design is 

Connection: Exploring Interpersonal Communication.

I had seen some of the artists installing the exhibit

a few days earlier and was glad I returned.

The theme of their work was based in their attempts 

to gain an understanding of the ways people 

interact with each other, specifically through 

social media, e-mail and text messaging. 

What I found fascinating, and ironic,

was much of the exhibit was hand-made.

While the artists definitely used electronic imaging

and printing for elements of their exhibit,

a lot of the pieces were hand-cut, the colored thread

used to create connections was pinned by

industrious hands, and the notes left by visitors

were virtually all hand-written.

The immediacy of the hand-made conveys 

an intimacy that is lost in the electronic media. 

While we may communicate with thousands 

of folks each day, people tend to feel

a certain safety, an anonymity in e-messages

that has proven to be illusory: people write 

mean and hurtful things on the social media, 

things they would not think of writing on paper.

Conversely, folks who develop on-line ties

very often exist in comparative isolation, unable to engage in 

actual interpersonal action, a lonely existence, for sure.

I wonder, however, whether anyone will read

all of the notes that have been left?

Will they be able to categorize and form

any conclusions from the little pieces of paper?