When you work in systems, particularly creative systems, they can continue indefinitely. The way I work, especially in art is to create a series, e.g. my
Intervals and
Macrophage series. The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that they don’t really rely on systems--it starts over again at the beginning of a calendar year and isn’t connected to any serial framework. If you work in systems you don’t have to be concerned with the year number changing. Other corollaries are political and geographical boundaries. 500 years ago there were few established country boundaries per se. It’s the whole idea of metageography, so a year can create a boundary as well—like 1966 was for me. Every year we’re on the threshold of something undefined but is a boundary nonetheless. Once we step over it there’s a new way of thinking. But you could just as well have a new way of thinking without thresholds or boundaries as a scaffold.
12/29/2023
[12/29/2024: Any day can be a New Year’s Day and the weeks and months following. The test is if the new ideas produce a new series. Make working in systems a tradition. Traditions are systems as well, but they don't need resolution because they aren't supposed to change].
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