take something down

It was a fancy liberal arts college that introduced me to Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: a urinal, signed “R. Mutt.” This, they told me, was one of the most important artworks of the 20th century.I didn’t buy it at the time. Instead, I filed it away under “things fancy people claim to enjoy.” Since then, I’ve come to appreciate Dada and modern art in general, but what stays with me about Fountain is the room. A urinal in a bathroom is plumbing, but set it apart with a little placard nearby and people will observe.Every day, more and more stuff comes my way online. More posts, newsletters, shows, books. Much of it is good, important, or both. Despite my best efforts to weed and curate, I encounter a constant flood of excellence and urgency. I spend a good chunk of my time swimming upstream through a deluge, trying to hold onto my reserves of attention long enough to make something of what I’m experiencing.This is why the idea of an ordinary object standing alone with a sign that says look…