Steve Wright

I’m a high school Computer Science teacher. I think Don Quixote was a hero, not a fool. Or maybe I think that it’s heroic to be foolish. I definitely tilt at windmills. It’s not always a good idea.  I appreciate the mundane, the unfinished, difficult utility, broken beautiful. I appreciate repair. When I’m making things, when I’m doing art, I want serendipity to be more likely. I like to fix what’s not broken. I like to break things. I learn from my mistakes. I want spellcheck to always be mad at me.

I’m interested in an art of a new ordinary. I have spent a lifetime working in behavior change – a teacher, a program director, a product manager – to arrive in a place where our behaviors are barely our own. Where we work, what we wear, how we eat, how we move, how we rest, how we revive, are all influenced, are all nudged. So I want to break them, the ordinary things — our plates, our lamps, our planters, our coffee tables, our beds — make them intentional to see them and maybe see ourselves. Imperfect things for imperfect people. Broken things for broken people. Ordinary things that ask us to imagine ordinary. Not outrageous things. Not beautiful things, though that would be nice. Different things. Useful things. Heroically foolish things.

Audrey Lorde defined the ends of the spectrum where I live: from “Poetry is not a luxury” to “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House.”  I am neither poet nor radical but I wish I was. I want to be of service. “Can I fix that for you?” “Can I make you a set of cereal bowls?”