Choose your own adventure

Since I’m getting ready to start grad school at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in a matter of days I thought I’d share the personal statement I wrote for the application. I wanted my experience with the program to be interactive right from the start so I decided the statement should be a ‘choose your own adventure.’ Here it is.

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Yes, that’s right. I’ve written my Personal Statement as a Choose Your Own Adventure. It’s a true story. It’s my story. There is only one path that will take you all the way to the end. Every time you make the same decision that I made, you progress. When you decide differently than I did, the next point you jump to will be a dead end. You’ll know you made it all the way to the end when you find yourself applying for ITP. Have fun!

1. It’s 1989 and you’re in 7th grade. The fear is palpable. Today is the day. It’s the day you should’ve prepared for. It’s the day that seemed so unreal until it actually arrived. But it’s here now, and you didn’t prepare a thing. Everyone in class has something. They’re each presenting their projects, explaining what scientific concepts they used. And now it’s your turn. Do you…

a) Explain that you didn’t prepare anything and take a failing grade (go to 2)

b) Use the items in your pocket and make a science project up on the spot (go to 3)

 

2. Don’t take any chances! The safe way is always the best way. You’ve followed this concept your entire life and it’s served you well. You’re now middle management in a profitable corporation. You love your house and your wife and your 2.5 kids and being outside on the weekends mowing the lawn. You sort of have the vague idea that you’re missing out on something, but you’re pretty sure life is great. No really, it is….

The End.

 

3. You take out a 9 volt battery and a small spring from your pocket. Placing the spring across the terminals of the battery you hold it up for the class and say “look, it’s warming up.” After a half-hearted attempt at explaining why it worked you walk away with a passing grade! Little did you know at the time that you were creating a short circuit. Not only did you pass, but the battery didn’t explode, and you lived to tell the tale.

 

Fast forward. It’s the year 2000. You’re taking time off from school and working on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center, on one of Cantor Fitzgerald’s trading floors. The brokers are trading millions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities back and forth every few minutes. The greed is out of control. They look at porn on the internet when not trading, and if a deal goes bad they throw heavy objects across the room in a rage. You got the job through a temp agency, but the brokers like you so they keep having you come back. They’ve offered you a real job and promise to get you networked with other brokers. Do you…

a) Take the job and start down a path of affluence (go to 4)

b) Turn down the job and return to music school to finish your degree (go to 5)

 

4. I’m writing this one in the first person because I don’t want to make light of it. Almost everyone I worked with at the World Trade Center died on 9/11. If I had taken that job I would’ve most likely died as well. The decision between money and art literally was a decision between life and death. Hindsight is 20-20 right?

 

5. You’ve done it! You finished school with your degree in music! You’re living in NYC and have turned into a great saxophone player. You’re doing some studio work and playing in a few different bands. One of the bands is amazing. It feels like these are your people and this is your music, the music you’ve always been wanting to play. Do you…

a) Push the boundaries and experiment within the context of this band and try to find a unique voice (go to 6)

b) Not risk it and play things that you know people will like (go to 7)

 

6. The band fires you for taking too many chances. You end up traveling for a bit, doing meditation courses. You start working with kids in nature, teaching them about community and ecology. It’s actually pretty nice.

Fast forward to 2010. The saxophone has been left behind, but you are working on music, mostly writing songs and experimenting with sound. You’ve also become friends with Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer for the rock band Weezer.  After exchanging demos with him for a while he has asked you to possibly join Weezer on guitar!  He has a small audition in mind though. He wants you to record a guitar part for one of his demo tracks. Do you…

a) Play the same part exactly as he had already recorded it (go to 8)

b) Come up with a new part for the song (go to 9)

 

7. The gigs keep coming in and you’re playing music. People know they can rely on you to play any style of music accurately. A lot of the music stinks of course, because that’s what sells, but still, the bills are getting paid. You sometimes wonder what it would be like if you had developed your own voice more…

The End.

 

8. Wow, being in a rock band is AMAZING! Girls, money, fame! Too bad you have to play those crappy barre chords every night. Oh well… Can I have a ride in your Ferrari?

The End.

 

9. Oops, Rivers didn’t like you getting creative. Better stay within the box next time. Well, there is a silver lining (isn’t there always?): you met your wife, Kiori! She’s a beautiful Japanese contemporary dancer. You two have cooked up some crazy ideas involving huge sculptures and tens of thousands of LEDs and people making music with their bodies’ movements. You just need some funding to make it happen. You’ve found a grant that might provide some dough but you need documentation of past work. Too bad you’ve never done anything like this before. Do you…

a) Try to put together a technologically interactive performance and document it in less than a month with no prior experience at all (go to 10)

b) Try to find a real job to support you and your new wife (go to 2)

 

10.

(1) Create system where Kiori’s movements are picked up by a webcam, generate music, and the images are projected & manipulated – check!

(2) Secure location to perform that has ability to document performance – check!

(3) Write grant and accomplish all of the above in less than month – check!

(4) Get grant and make huge interactive art project – not check….

Well, you see, you don’t get the grant, sorry…. You do learn a huge amount in the process though. It’s really about the process right? Each step is a joy, right? Well, here’s your choice, you can…

a) Keep trying to make it happen (go to 11)

b) Go and get that job already (go to 2)

 

11. Hell yeah, you became Artist in Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center! And people love those street installations you’ve been doing. Come to think of it, two thumbs up for that workshop with the kids the other week.  You’re just scratching the surface though, there is so much more to learn, to create. Don’t you feel as if you’re still pulling that battery and spring out of your pocket like you did in 7th grade, with your limited knowledge of what you’re doing? And what about community? Didn’t you used to teach kids about that? How come you’re trying to do this all on your own? You don’t have to. I of course applaud you for always taking chances, experimenting, trying to create something new at every twist and turn of life. It is interesting where these turns have taken you. Sometimes successes are failures and vice versa, and they all brought you inexorably here. But this is your path, right? And you want the subtlety of it and the grandeur of it and all of that, right? OK. Well, it will take some work, but there is a place. It’s called ITP…