The Art of Labeling : The Labeling of Art

If you were paying attention, which most of you aren't, after that last post you would be wondering "what the fuck was that?"

That's Aaron J. He's an artist. As I write this, he's got a fine-tipped Sharpe jammed into a sketch pad, making improvised ink blots loaded with amorphous symbols, and not just sexual ones. The one he just showed me was a bowler.

In return, I showed him the paragraph I wrote about him. The above paragraph. He looked up from his sketch pad, his eyes watering. He must be high from Sharpe fumes, because I certainly am sitting just a few feet away. "A bowler could be confused with a hat," he mumbled.

"What?"

"A bowler could be a hat. Clarify what kind of bowler it is."

"Oh, right."

"And put this exchange in there too," he ordered. "That'll blow their minds."

Interesting life-as-art stuff is so hot right now. And that's exactly why I brought Aaron in on this project, or blog. Blog project. Visionary thinking like that is exactly what this blog project needs. Clearly, the last 8 or 9 posts were so boring that none of you bothered to come back, myself included.

But Aaron's post about iPod marketing and being crazy, that was right on the money. I couldn't imagine a better first post. It's exactly what this blog project about marketing and being crazy is about! Concerned for your topically-organized blog experience, I asked Aaron to label his post "marketing and "being crazy."

Aaron flipped out. He doesn't want to use labels. You see, we just had a big fight about labels. At one point I do recall Aaron declaring, "If you think this project needs labels then I'm out!"

I defended the purpose of labels, "They're like titles. They help the reader know what a piece is."

"Who's to say they need titles?"

Such an artist. Thinks he doesn't need titles. "You're not listening to me. I know what I'm talking about."

"Then tell me what the labels mean to this project."

"Blog project. Labels are terribly important to this blog project's branded experience. They help reinforce the identity of the blog, which is just a reflection of our lives right now. We spend 80% of our time talking about marketing and being crazy."

"Okay. Whatever."

So, I'll be doing all the labels.