wdydwyd?

Sun gives me déjà vu | SXSW | For Love | Love can destroy you | Reason I survived

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:28:00 +0000

The sun gives me déjà vu sometimes

Thrivable takes "wdydwyd?" to SXSW

See all photos

Find Jean Russell at SXSW & make your sign (find them often in Beacon Lounge with a Conscience 8BC or the Good Capitalist Party).

Mushin's answer | Basel, Switzerland | via Thrivable.org

I do what I do (IdwId) because it is a pleasure to do it as long as IdwId is consonant with what I value in the depths of my soul.

I may not know what I value, or better, I may not be able to express in words or concepts what I deeply value, but when I express it in my very action - in what I do and how I do it - I know it for certain by a sense of whole-soul pleasure.

So IdwId because I cherish a life of pleasure and a rich soul-life for me and all that I come in touch with.

Laconia High School Art Department | Rosendale, WI

By Alexandra Chavez | Los Angeles, CA

anonymous submission

Submit anonymously

MUSIC VIDEO: 'cause I'm a Chocolate Milk-a-holic

By Jordan Woolbright | Los Angeles, CA

Photos on the wdydwyd? Community Site are a great & easy source of interesting content
for your Twitter stream: here's how to do it.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit your art here.
Become a Collaborating Artist.
You can submit an answer anonymously by going here.
Follow wdydwyd? creator on Twitter: @Deifell

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0000

We all have the ability to do amazing things. I do what I do to fully realize my ambitions so that I can look back on my life knowing I wouldn't have lived it any other way.

When our car stopped, a swarm of children attacked the doors. They slammed on the windows, crying “BENS! BENS!” I had no idea what they were shouting until our tour guide told us, “They are asking for pens.” I was bewildered at the thought that these children in Kenya had to beg for everyday essentials like writing utensils.

I seldom thought about why it was that I had been to so many places around the world at such a young age. Instead, as a child at least, I simply wondered why others had not. To me it seemed normal. Every winter vacation, my family visited a country we had never seen, and every summer another. My parents have always valued worldliness and wanted my brother and me to have as comprehensive a perspective as possible and because of this, my most cherished value is open-mindedness. By now, I’ve visited about thirty countries around the world on every one of the seven continents. It wasn’t until recently that I thought about how unorthodox this all was.

Over the past few years, I started seriously thinking about my obligation to my parents. When people hear about the places I’ve been, they expect a lot out of me, as they should. My parents have invested an incredible amount of time, effort, and money into bettering me. Though I know they would never ask for anything in return, I do what I do because I have an obligation as an incredibly fortunate individual to make the most of the opportunities I have been presented with. After coming here to UCLA, I realize how much I can do and, having seen first-hand families in Kenya living in houses, if they could even be considered them, built out of sticks and mud, the tired eyes of the locals following our car as we drove by, I now know how much there is to do. What my parents have done for me has shaped who I am, and I know that I would be a very different person today had I not seen the things I’ve seen.

Photos on the wdydwyd? Community Site are a great & easy source of
interesting content for your Twitter stream: here's how to do it.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit your art here
Become a Collaborating Artist
You can submit an answer anonymously by going here
Follow wdydwyd? creator on Twitter: @Deifell

I want everyone to like me | The Small Things | Hand I was dealt | We're Fools

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:36:00 +0000

If I boiled down everything in my life, it would probably fit into 1,728 cubic inches of space. This small box would have little odd things in it, such as pictures of my rather large family, Harry Potter books, a rosary, a tennis racket, eyeliner, and drawings, among other things. These peculiar objects represent the little pieces of me, and compose who I am.

But just who am I? I’ve battled with this question for years, and I admit I’m still finding the answer. But so far I have discovered that I am short, a victim of acne, and nearly legally blind. I have short dark hair that I often dye with home kits and straight teeth that were not given naturally to me. I am insecure, a worrier who cares a little too much about how I am perceived. I am someone who wishes to follow her heart, yet can’t seem to decipher what it wants.

And yet I know I want so much more out of life.

Every day, I smile. I smile in greeting to good friends, when I view my favorite shows, or when I witness something spectacular. I smile when I hear a good joke, or when my day is going by just perfectly. I have the kind of smile that reflects my joy in the things around me and that leaves me open to be hurt.

Although smiling is a simple action, it is a highly influential one. I share my smiles as openly as I can to reach out to others across short distances, to connect in even that small way. I consider smiles to be bridges between people. I flash one every day in hopes that I can receive one in return, and build friendships. Since I haven't yet discovered who I am on my own, perhaps a few friends could help me on the quest. And by connecting with one, two, or hundreds of individuals, maybe then I will discover just how great life can be.

William DuBois | Graphic Designer / Illustrator | Brooklyn, NY

Clare Mulvany | social entrepreneur | Dublin, Ireland

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.
Or, become a Collaborating Artist.
You can submit an answer anonymously by going here.

BM08_BecauseTheScars_Kaltz - wdydwyd?

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:59:00 +0000

Despite her age, Libertine is far beyond her years and I can only imagine the depths to which she has suffered as she reaches for heights above and beyond my vision or understanding. I am content when I envision the person she will be once she reaches my age. I hope to be around to know her then!

Photography by doxie from D-troit | Collaborating Arts at Burning Man 2008

BM08_whe_pendergast - wdydwyd?

Photograph by Thomas K. Pendergast | Collaborating Artist at Burning Man 2008

"wdydwyd?" exhibit on playa in 2009 | In conjunction with Red Lightening.
"wdydwyd?" started in 2004 at Burning Man. Video below of spontaneous playing at the exhibit.

Amir Bramell | bartender | Sebastapol, CA

Photography by Time Salz & Carla Detchon | Burning Man 2008

BM08_BecauseTheScars_Kaltz - wdydwyd?

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:55:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:27:00 +0000

See Louise's gallery of wydwyd images, which also includes the one below.

Mart by Louise Wilson | photographer | Birmingham, United Kingdom

By Anonymous

You can submit an answer anonymously by going here.

"Take 5" by Sarah Hirsch | political science | Houston, TX

I work in politics because I was tired of being a bystander. It is our job to fix what may be broken. Doing nothing is simply not enough.

See Sarah's gallery of other wdydwyd images

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.
Or, become a Collaborating Artist.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0000

It's easy to look away.

By Athena Hahn | artist | Claremont, CA

By anonymous

I made this photo because I like someone who runs every time she's scared.
When I have her, I don't want her. When she cares about me, she runs away.
She always runs from every relationship. Then I want her back.

You can submit an answer anonymously by going here.

By Patricia Freels | student | Los Angeles, CA

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.
Or, become a Collaborating Artist.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:36:00 +0000

hot lust for words | born in wrong century | i am | most dreams die

By Zehra Khan | artist | Paris, France

I have written on a few people over the past years. By overlapping text it becomes another mark making technique, and I don't have to worry about someone reading all those thoughts/tangents/recipes/fiction/autobiography. Some of my most satisfying writing happens that way.

By RA Friedman | artist & photographer | Philadelphia, PA

Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated with the past. Using traditional and modern tools in dialogue with vintage photography allows me to time travel, for the mind to wander to mythical places that live between past and present, truth and fiction. It's way more interesting than doing pretty much anything else.

By Barbara Rapp | contemporary artists | Velden, Austria

part of my series "die demaskierung der verdrängten weiblichkeit" — unmask the repressed womanhood [hand lettered 15x15 cm print of my artwork acrylic on stretched canvas 80x80cm]

By Dylan Bowermaster | student | Los Angeles, CA

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.
Or, become a Collaborating Artist.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:38:00 +0000

By Valentina Mogilevskaya | fine art | Los Angeles, CA

This piece is the reason for which I make art, because I can't stop and it turned into an obsession.

By Olivia Anthony | UCLA student | Los Angeles, CA

By Jane Linders | photography | St. Louis, Missouri

Jane is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.
See Jane's wdydwyd gallery of other images.

Alana Wauters | Counselor, Skills Specialist, woman | Portland, OR
Photo by Thomas K. Pendergast | photojournalist | San Francisco, CA

Thomas is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.
See Thomas's wdydwyd gallery of other portraits from Burning Man '08.

"Reason number 4" by Preet Shihn | software | San Francisco, CA

Preet is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.
See Preet's wdydwyd gallery of other reasons why.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:35:00 +0000

By Isa Gordon | artist, clothing designer, entrepreneur, pod lady, cyborg in training | Los Angeles, CA | Isa's website

although i may seem on the surface like a typical mild mannered artist, there lurks beneath the facade a closeted scientist and mathematician. and anyone who has ever seen me make pie (one of my favoritist things ever, 2nd only to clouds and chaos) knows that i do so with the precision of a laboratory scientist. i recently created a variation of this image for another project, and have been totally infatuated with it since. so when i heard about the wdydwyd call for entries, with little time before deadline to create from scratch, i immediately knew i wanted to use this image. so i took a look, examined all the symbolism i'd embedded in it & thought: why exactly DO you do what you do? and the text immediately came to me. it not only fits the image to a tee, it oddly encapsulates my world view as well.

Isa is a Collaborating Artist, and helped produce the exhibit at Burning Man.

Submit your own images answering "wdydwyd?"

Larry Harvey | Executive Director | Burning Man

By Agnieszka Godlewska | Painter, Jazz Singer, Art Director, Photographer | Istanbul, Turkey

Agnieszka is a Collaborating Artist.

By Dawn | Minnesota

By Nicole De Brabandere | Ceramic Art | Toronto, Canada

This image illustrates the complexity and self-deception involved in constructing or understanding self-image and personal motivations. I chose this as a theme when answering wdydwyd? because every time I thought that I had an answer I began to question its validity.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:47:00 +0000

i wonder if, ultimately, i have any say in the way my life moves

By Adine Schoonmaker | Artist/Photographer | Brooklyn, NY

I spent most of my 20's suffering from undiagnosed Thyroid cancer and my early 30's in treatment and recovery. I began to feel as though i was normal and pretty by my late 30's. I am now experiencing all the excitement and passion that i should have been enjoying in my youth. But now that i am "blooming" i am also noticeably aging. I do what i do because i still want to feel alive when men stop noticing me.

Andres Amador | artist | San Francisco | analogia.org

sometimes i wonder if, ultimately, i have any say in the way my life moves and how i respond.

Are you going to Burning Man this year? — Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just hang out with us.

Crimson Rose | Director of Art Management for Burning Man |
Burning Man staff Polaroids

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email. Larry's portrait coming soon. Why does he do what he does?

Call for Entries in collaboration with Brooklyn Art Project & Working With Artists
[due July 31]

More info, examples, criteria, and uploading instructions here.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:42:00 +0000

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

Burning Man staff featured each week through August.
Sign up for weekly email.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Time away from the wife is limited

By Vikki Cobain | digital imagery | Birmingham, UK

i am very happy these days: i am studying a wonderful craft and learning all the time. I have wanted to do this all my life but money and kids prevented this freedom. I used to work in corporate offices .... i used to get told off for ringing home, checking on my kids, for wearing a white stripe on a black top.... i hope i can do this justice. My son, Max (22) said, 'Do it - it's your time now, Mom'. Its great they understand. i love my kids and want them to be proud of me.

See Vikki's gallery of images

Vicki is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

Blue | Professional Instigator | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:11:00 +0000

anonymous | Willmington

I like someone who runs every time she's scared. When I have her, I don't want her. When she cares about me, she runs away. She always runs from every relationship. Then I want her back.

comments

Submit your answer anonymously here.

Molly Renda | graphic designer | Durham, NC

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

Malcolm Baker & Conrad Kohn | educators, musicians | Denver, CO | collaboration with Working With Artists

comments

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:19:00 +0000

I've abandoned responsibility and embraced frivolity

David Brown | Postdam, NY

comments

just living is not enough

Michael Michael | Genetic Programmer | Burning Man staff Polaroids | Black Rock City, NV

wdydwyd?
Experience is the only real value that comes from being alive.
What Michael does to help make Burning Man work:
I use my time to visualize Burning Man into the future.
comments

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

Because the world is too flat

Tony Deifell | visual artist & social entrepreneur | San Francisco, CA

I lived in Florida when I was a teenager. I didn't realize how flat it was there — in so many ways — until I had left. My dad is a pastor, so I read the Bible from time to time. One of my favorite passages: "Before every man there lies a wide and pleasant road which he thinks is right. But, it ends in death." What else is there to say about flatness? It ends in death.

comments

Beacuse the door was open

Anonymous | somewhere in the world

comments

I pick up bottles and cans because it's money and I'm not stealing from people

Clyde Martinez | former United Airlines employee | loaded planes | Bismark, North Dakota

I came to California to have my cancer treatment.

comments

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do? We dare you to answer it. Submit here
Or answer anonymously here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:30:00 +0000

By Preet Shihn | software | San Francisco, CA

I am overjoyed when someone comments on my photo on flickr, or comments on my non-existent blog. I am saddened when I check my email and there is no non-spam email. When I grow up, I want to be e-popular.

Preet is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist. See his other answers. Submit your own images answering "wdydwyd?"

Bryan Donnell | filmmaker | Los Angeles, CA | www.bryandonnell.com

Sign up to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year.

* Honest * | multilingual mix media art student | United Arab Emirates

Mum walks in and asks: why are you painting with your blood? I answer; because that is the way I can feel. I don’t know what I would have done if it was not for art. It is my breathing space, my world out of this world, where no one exists but everyone does in a different way. I don’t paint every painting literally with my blood, but they are representations of my blood, my soul, my inside brought out through an image. I’m okay

Paul Showalter | Genetic Programmer | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

By Savannah | art student | Columbus, OH

the antithesis of depression

By Liz Evans | photographer | Malvern, United Kingdom

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do? We dare you to answer it. Submit here
Or answer anonymously here.

preserve world funkiness

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Self-forgetfulness

By Crosscreek | Las Paredes, Mendoza | Argentina

Writing requires solitude, stillness and silence. Absorbed in the act of creating prose or poetry, I forget the limitations of self and the material world.

Because it's nostalgic and it use to make me thin

By Tom | cashier & struggling pre-pharmacy student | Royal Oak, Michigan

i don't take as many now

Because it feels so good when I stop

Ludwig | computer guy | Burning Man staff
Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.
Or answer anonymously here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:00 +0000

To vibrate higher

By Mikhayla Harrell | Artist, Designer, Dreamer, Yogini, Dancer, High School Art Teacher | Albuquerque, NM

To vibrate higher....to remember what the heart
already knows.

Mikhayla did wdydwyd with her class at Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science. Join the Teachers & Educators Group for more.

I am a feather in the wind

Jade Castrinos | singer | Hollywood, CA
Burning Man Polaroids

dreaming gives me hope

By John Moyer | Psychotherapist | Pittsburgh, PA

Because I wanted the pain to go away 4 awhile

anonymous | small town, Illinois

what I did has ruined me

Submit your answer anonymously here.

Because there's no place like home

Josh Camire | Media Communications | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Because Katrina made me

Stephen DeBerry | fixer | East Palo Alto, CA |
Burning Man Polaroids

I took my wife down to New Orleans last spring so she could experience Jazzfest and get a sense of some of my Creole family heritage. I hadn't been to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. A friend of mine took me to the Lafitte Housing Project in the Treme neighborhood and I was shocked that after seeing hundreds of private residences that were crushed, torn, twisted or completely missing the Lafitte buildings were standing tall and strong, yet the doors and windows were blocked with steel barricades and the residents who had been displaced by the storm had been evicted by the city and federal governments. I stood on one door step and read the illegal eviction notice posted by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and in that moment I realized that I had nobody to run to; that I had to be part of the solution rather than relying on someone else to fix the problem. Since then I've joined the board of a nonprofit called www.friendsofneworleans.org and I've also been working on a housing project to build new homes for New Orleans — see the NYTimes article. What's (not) going on in New Orleans and the gulf region after this natural disaster simply isn't right. If you're interested in contributing skills, time, funding or any other form of support, please contact me at: stephen at deberry dot net

comments

So others will experience the amazing things you are capable of creating and sharing

Melissa Alexander | Executive Director, Black Rock Arts Foundation | San Francisco, CA | Burning Man staff Polaroids

wdydwyd?

I believe there is room for everyone to experience the phenomenon of the world, and one of these is the very human one of creating and experiencing art. I also believe that we live in a world we make up, and I'm working hard to make up a world that's good to live in and at every scale.

What Melissa does to help make Burning Man work:

I work for the Black Rock Arts Foundation to inspire community and civic engagement through the creation and exhibition of interactive art.

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To help you put the pieces back together again

Hannah Engel | student | UNC-Chapel Hill

I am taking a class about disaster relief help, and the content of that class really inspired me to create this image. Being left in a situation where you have absolutely nothing can be stressful, confusing, and even lonely. Disaster relief workers are the people who are there to help the displaced survivors and...help them put the pieces back together again.

comments

Join the "Teachers & Educators" group & see how wdydwyd has been integrated into classrooms at UNC, UCLA, SF State and others.

Because... (I love the word because)

Leila Davenport Ross | Charleston, SC | META

I have always loved words- big ones, little ones, interesting ones, simple ones, words that are fun to say, etc. I especially love to hear a six year old read them slowly and steadily from a page in a book or write them down on a piece of paper with the concentration and care of a tight rope walker. That's why I taught first grade in a public school for five years. Some children are lucky enough to learn literacy from a family member; this process begins at infancy under ideal circumstances. But the sad reality is that many of our children learn in an old, moldy classrooms under florescent lights with the help of kind, passionate, patient teachers. When the right pathways connect in their little brains, the magic of literacy happens... it is amazing to witness firsthand. Smiles wash over their faces (usually a tooth or two is missing) and to feel their true happiness and pride. Unfortunately, I fall directly into the U.S. statistic of a young teacher who quits after a five year burn out due to bureaucratic red tape, the emotional toil of some abused or neglected students, the ridiculous demands of standardized testing, being overworked and underpaid, blah, blah. So now, I am in limbo about what to do with my crazy life- still trying to figure out what to be when I grow up. I also must believe that my teaching a few great kids how to read and write and instilling the love of learning in them in some way, has paid off. My love of words however, remains steadfast.

comments

I feel so luck because everything, I have managed to keep...

By Eric "Vavoom" | Middle-of-nowhere, MO

Never give up hope because sometimes,
it's all you have left.

comments

Eric is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Become one yourself.

Because I see

Dave Gilbert | graphics / photography / promotion | Rocky Hill, CT

BECAUSE I SEE, I take pictures.

More specifically: Because since birth I have seen everything in two dimensions (using only one eye), I love photography and all forms of art that involve a flat surface. Or at least that's the explanation that makes the most sense to me! I have never minded having no depth perception -- it's just the way it's always been, and I believe it has defined me and given me certain advantages.

comments

Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.
Or, submit anonymously by uploading here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Heal the planet thru intimate communication of love

Shanti Owen | Dating Coach | New York, NY |
Burning Man Polaroids

Je t’aime encroyablement mon amour…I want to expose this planet to the real possibilities of magic in this life time. I personally have never found more of this magical energy that in an intimate relationship with a lover. Life is a beautiful paradise as a singular observer and a mythically epic novel or gigantic sensual majesty in communion with a sacred other…

Shanti Owen's page

See the endless potential

Kat Steinmetz | Human Resources Consultant - Singer - Make Up Artist | San Francisco, CA | Burning Man staff

wdydwyd?

Because the beauty, the creativity, the inspiration, the…endless potential…is blinding and breathtaking and I simply MUST take part in it.

What Kat does to help make Burning Man work:

At Burning Man/Black Rock City, I’m the Human Resources Consultant…I’m also a singer, makeup artist, and costume bitch extraordinaire…never the same girl twice.

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Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

Because I can

Leslie Burns | photographer (and critter wrangler) | Charleston, SC headed to Athens, GA

So often we take for granted all of the abilities we have, the powers we possess. People tell us we cannot do something. We tell ourselves we cannot do something. So, we don’t do it because we think we can’t do it, but we never even try it. I do it because I can do. This is reason to celebrate.

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Because I love drums

John Barron | community drummer | Waterford, Ireland

World Gallery | created & submit your own photo here

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I do a lot of it to avoid doing something else instead

jtf mulder | film, TV and pop culture historian | southern CA

comments

jtf mulder is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.
Become one yourself.

Graffiti book | Burning Man

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:09:00 +0000

wait a moment: i'm thinking about what i do

Giuseppe Gavazza | composer | Turin, Italy | META

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It's easier this way

Shannon Holman | writer | Brooklyn, NY | META

Life can be quite jagged sometimes, lots of slings and arrows, very few outrageous fortunes. It seems quite natural to want to take the edge off with a drink or whatnot. But for me, as it happens, it's actually easier to live without all that. I find that a surprising fact, and that's what I was thinking about when asked why I do what I do.

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I do what I do in order to put my son and daughter through college

Tom Whiteside | filmmaker & film historian |
Durham, NC | META

I know that there are many ways to answer the question. I answered in the conventional sense, as if I were meeting someone for the first time and they ask "What do you do?" meaning "What is your job?" So my reading was "Why do you have your job?" My son and my daughter are both in their twenties. Parenting changes over the years - no longer involved with the daily routine of their lives, I nonetheless still feel responsibility towards them every day. Helping them pay for college is a big part of that. So without being philosophical or without telling too much of my personal story, I stated what was an important reality in my life at that point in time. My daughter has graduated, my son will graduate in a few months. Things change.

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Because I care and want to share

Harley Dubois | Black Rock City Urban Planner / BRC City Manager | Burning Man staff | San Francisco, CA

wdydwyd?

When I was in college I decided my ideal job would be in the arts and have real meaning in the world. I got my dream. I have the opportunity to change people's perspective on the world and their place in it on a daily basis.

What Harley does to help make Burning Man work:

On the playa I manage Black Rock City and year round I work to improve the operations of Burning Man and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.

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Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email.

Thank God I woke up in time

By anonymous

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Submit your own image answering "wdydwyd?"

Or, submit anonymously by mailing to the address in postcard above, or uploading here.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:51:00 +0000

To feel

By Frederic Bourgeois | culture (dance, music, literature) + english teacher | Brussels, Belgium

"and yet, feeling is a large thing without which one could carry out nothing." vincent van gough, in letters with his brother théo.

i'm a selfish person. i first want to feel. that's definitely what drives me out of me. so i wrote that i wanted to feel.

then, as i like to quote, i opened this book i'm reading at the moment and the first underlined sentence i saw was the quote above. so it's just a coincidence, somehow. but a good one.

as a selfish person, i think it's more about being emotional, so that maybe, somehow, people would be emoted by the feelings that went through me? but that sounds a bit too pretentious for me. so let's just say i want to feel. yeah. just... feel.

comments

Frederic is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Become one yourself.

Feel proud and never ashamed

Burning Man Polaroids

Nicole Johnson | playa name: Hot Damn | counselor | San Francisco, CA

I work for the homeless, the junkies and crackheads, the criminals, the wild men pushing shopping carts—our cultural cast-offs. For me the work comes with a sense of peace and gentle ease. I need to be useful, I need to be virtuous. Compassion and curiosity are my highest ideals. When I fail to be those things I die in pieces. When I succeed... ah! To feel proud, to feel open and transparent and unfolding. That is why I do what I do.

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Because I have to live up to their expectations

By Numair Abbasi | student | Karachi, Pakistan

everyone expects something of you... whether it's your parents... your friends... your family or your teachers...

i don't do what i want to do... i do what others want me to do.

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It gives me joy. I can do no other

Tom Maxwell | musician | Pittsboro, NC | META

So, I wrote "it gives me joy," which seems a good reason for doing something, and "I can do no other," which felt more correct.

Truth be told, I seldom know why I do anything. Well, actually, I do, but "vanity" or "testicular/intestinal compulsion" don't read well, and can result in a kind of joy.

The second line was a rip from some dimly remembered German. I almost wrote "Ich kann nicht anders," but that would have been just too "too." I recently looked it up. It was Martin Luther who said it, freezing outside with Castle Church in Wittenberg. He had been called to account for his 95 Theses.

"I stand here," he said. "I can do no other."

Works for me.

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So I don't have to do the same thing over and over

Mara Sloan | journalist looking for work in political affairs | email her marasloan@gmail.com | Atlantic Beach, FL | META

From about the age of 12, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. Every day you get to learn something new. You also get to learn a lot about things you never could have guessed would come your way. One day I wrote about the history of butterflies and how they are harvested in other countries and sent here. Another day I met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and learned how the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee works. The possibilities are endless, and that’s what keeps it interesting. I knew I’d never be one to sit behind a desk and do the same thing every day. Another perk in writing – you can go anywhere and still have a fun job.

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To vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition

Burning Man Polaroids

Terry Schoop | playa name: Retro | Manager - Burning Man Community Services | Burning Man staff | Berkeley, CA

wdydwyd?:

I quite enjoy the collaborative nature of the work I do at Burning Man. It seemed the right thing to choose at the time (about three years ago) and I haven't regretted it since. That, and it's pretty cool too.

The wdydwyd? shoot at the Burning Man office fell on Halloween. Terry's mask, costume, and words on his sign in the photo are all from the film "V for Vendetta", and Terry originally answered wdydwyd? in character.

The mask and costume are from the film V for Vendetta. The film is set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war. An extreme fascist party has arisen and is now the ruling power. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent and theatrical campaign to bring down the government. The V-rich quote is from the moment in the film when V meets a teenage girl named Evey Hammond. V has just saved her from a gang of police agents who were about to rape her. She asks V who he is? He remarks upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is, then explains he is a "vestige of the vox populi . . . " and the Vs grow from there on.

One of the inspirations for the V for Vendetta source material, the eponymous graphic novel, is the short story "Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by my favorite author, Harlan Ellison.

What Terry does to help make Burning Man run:

I support and represent the project managers or councils that govern twelve departments that run the city during the event. I review several email lists, attend many planning meetings, work on budgets, plan staff training and other events, write reports, edit documents, and do everything I can to keep the cats herded.

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noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:30:00 +0000

On a good day...

By anonymous | Grapevine, TX

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Bring art & dreams to life

Bettie June | Art Production Manager & Artist Advocate | Burning Man staff Polaroids

wdydwyd?:
Connecting with people and learning about their ideas, their visions, their artistry makes each day a vibrant adventure, one that can catapult from executions of sacred geometry to plans for mobile light installations to visions of genius surrounding the Man. I offer an ear, a shoulder, a brain for figuring out how to make these ideas come to life, both for the artist as well as the viewer. I feel excited and honored that I get to learn more and celebrate artists every day! Working with the artists is my art project!

What she does to help make Burning Man work:
I spend my time working at Burning Man helping artists. I work closely to help them identify the best ways to execute their artistic visions, while upholding the ten principles. I also help organize and curate the art space around the Man, and manage the art tours.

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To finally do it without doing it

Dyanna Taylor | filmmaker | Santa Fe, NM | META

I've been exploring how we first limit ourselves in our imaginations, long before the world limits us.
Self editing. Filmmaking is a collaborative art. It is the rare filmmaker who can complete a film project totally alone.

In that collaboration, and I've been making films for over 30 years, the single creative entity must give way to the collective, no matter how singular the vision.

I have wanted to create, to make films without a self consciousness, without the imagination "editor" in my head, without any outside influence. I've wanted the moment of creation, and in my case cinematography, to do itself. To happen without mind, without efforting. It is dawn here, and I am watching the wind in the pinon trees outside my window. It is just wind doing wind. No thought, self awareness, or limitation. I guess I'm really talking about life. and I'm getting a little too serious for 6:55am....

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For Love

Tom Patterson | freelance writer, independent curator & art critic | Winston-Salem, NC | META

I took the wdydwyd question broadly & "seriously," as it were. I also answered it with the title of a widely known collection of poems by Robert Creeley, a Black Mountain poet, which seemed appropriate to the occasion: for love. Love of particular someones and somethings—another person, an object made by another person, an idea, an ideal, a vision—is my motivating inspiration in just about any serious endeavor I undertake.

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To never let the kid in me die

By Andrew John Busscher (pictured) | student |

Chapel Hill, NC

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Because it's convenient

By Kevin C Pugh | photographer | Worcester, United Kingdom

Pictured: James

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Kevin is a wdydwyd? Collaborating Artist.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Reason # 2: because I want to stay connected

By Preet Shihn | software | San Francisco, CA

Fascinated by the question, I want to take a series that entails all the many reasons. This being the second one. See the first one.

Preet is a wdydwyd? Collaborating Artist
Submit your own images answering "wdydwyd?"

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My soul is hungry

Dawnna Marie | Burning Man | Polaroid

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I can't fight my destiny

HazMatt | Purchasing / Logistics Manager

Burning Man staff | Polaroids

wdydwyd?:
I do what I do because curiosity compels me; the more I learn, the more questions I have. I do what I do because everything in my life has led me to this moment and I'm trying to get to a place where I can feel the moment for what it is, endless. Also, I picked up a bucket of sh*t in 2001 and never put it down. Long story.

What HazMatt does to help make Burning Man work:
I manage DPW Business Services which includes the purchasing department, for event-related materials procurement, and oversight of many of our infrastructure vendor contracts such as the port-a-potties, heavy equipment rental, generator rental, golf carts and portable buildings. I am also a member of the management team that oversees DPW and Burning Man's Nevada Operations.

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To be closer to the person I want to be

Leonardo Letelier | founder, Sitawi | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Polaroids of Harvard Business School graduates

Alternative answer:

To be closer to the person I want to be.

A year and a half ago I decided to leave a prestigious consulting firm. Having received several offers, a good consultant always makes a table and determinates pros, cons, short term/long term trade offs and options, but even after that I could not decide whether it was better to open a private bank in Rio for a major bank or become the COO of one of the most successful NGOs in the country. There was simply no better answer to “ what do I want to do next?”. Only after I changed the question to “who do I want to be next?” the answer was evident: I started sitawi, a loan fund for social enterprises in Brazil to provide capital and advice in adequate terms, leveraging my background to accomplish a higher purpose – in the process reconnecting my rational and emotional sides and receiving daily doses of inspiration from the most generous people one can find. Last week I was in a plane when a former colleague asked me “are you content with your choice?”, I just replied “no, I am happy!” (http://www.sitawi.net)

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You do what you can

Herb Parker | sculptor & Professor of Art at the College of Charleston | Charleston, SC | META

You work hard and try to realize your ideas. Never stop.
Discipline and determination will see you through. Your work is not outside of life but an integral element of that life. Allow your work to grow with you.
(http://www.cofc.edu/~parkerh)

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noreply@blogger.com (Tony Deifell) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:22:00 +0000

Because I too... am impossible

D.A. | Playa Restoration Manager | Dept. of Public Works for Black Rock City | Burning Man staff | Polaroid

wdydwyd?:

That we should live in a day and an age where the citizens of the planet earth rise up, kick ass, and claim their rightful roles as active stewards of the world...

What D.A. does to help make Burning Man work:
I lead a crew of 100 strong out on the Black Rock Desert Nevada, known as DPW Playa Restoration for Black Rock City's Burning Man, the largest practicing Leave No Trace Event in the world.

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Because people in need are just that... in need

Kerry Quakenbush | Board Liaison, AIDS Project Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA | Burning Man Polaroids

There was a time when I worked in an industry of greed. A place where people strove to get more and more while overlooking friendships and people who were less fortunate. I started a whole new way of thinking when I began focusing on homeless people, sick people and people suffering under the terrible effects of substance abuse. I realized that I had no way of knowing how people got into the situations that they were in, but it wasn't my place to judge. There are those who get really hungry. Some get really troubled and have bad times. And some people get really sick. I work daily to try and give people who are in need a better standard of living. It takes so little to make someone smile and feel a little better.

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Because I'm a fool for love

David Lipten | composer by training & grant writer/consultant by trade | Mt. Pleasant, MI | META

At the time of this photo, I'm sure my response had everything to do with the precious little person with me in the photo. At least part of my answer may have also been prescient (the fool part, anyway) since I have found that I chose to do something with my life (music) that I love that also proved to be incompatible with everything else in my life that I love; namely, my family and, most especially, my daughter. I remain, however, as in love as ever and probably as much of a fool. It doesn't matter since love is all that matters. (www.davidlipten.com)

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Social Entrepreneurs Ireland

Sean Coughlan by Clare Mulvany | Dublin, Ireland

Clare is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist

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So that I know I am real!

FiSHTank_42 | Graham, NC

World Gallery | created & submit your own photo here

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