In Light of My Career

So – career. I’ve got no clue what I want to do yet – or, more accurately, too many contradicting clues – so I’m gonna talk about something I’ve already done. Around the start of this year – I think that’s when it was, at least – I spent a few days in what was probably my most interesting job. I was a hand for the lighting crew on an exhibition held at Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, which is, as the name might suggest, a sculpture park. It started as an atelier founded by Seward Johnson (of the Johnson and Johnson Johnsons, which is where most of the money came from), and the exhibition I worked on was about his history and, by extension, that of the space. It was the first serious lighting gig I’d worked – after a year or two of doing tech on and off in high school – and, while I can’t say it was fun (I spent a whole day cutting colored plastic into lens covers), it was definitely an interesting and rewarding experience. It really reinforced the value, to me, of learning through experience – all the how-tos and instruction manuals in the world mean nothing compared to an hour of expert-supervised practice. Obviously, there’s fields where theory and practice are one and the same, so this isn’t a universal truth, but more and more I find myself questioning the value of pure study.  Still, though, introspective crap aside, I’m really glad to have had the opportunity I did – it allowed me an entirely different perspective, and there’s nothing better than a new perspective to help you fill out your understanding of something. I’m pretty sure it’s not the career path I’d want to take in the true long-term, now, but some of the knowledge and skills involved are essentially universal – I learned a lot about working within a team & within the limitations of a space, and a little bit about social engineering – the subtle kind, the sort that’s present in any workplace, any unequal space.