A farmer wanted more milk from his dairy operation and employed a psychologist, an engineer, and a physicist to make suggestions. They thought for a while and then made their proposals:

The psychologist said, “I think you should make the cows feel happier and more relaxed in the barn by painting the stalls green and playing recordings of birdsongs. Then they’ll let go of their milk more easily.”

The engineer said, “If you make each stall in the barn a bit smaller, you can add a few more stalls and have more cows for milking.”

Then the physicist began, “Let’s start by assuming the cow is a sphere…..”

So it’s a physics joke and not everyone appreciates those. But the physicist has the last laugh, because by her logic pretty much anything can be approximated as a sphere, so she has a unified way to make sense of the world. It’s an absurd and insipid structure, but it is functional in its own way. It might be pretty popular with a few small adjustments, and then maybe even I’d go for it. For example, instead of depending on a sphere, perhaps the physicist could have used something a little richer.

The asterisk is often associated with the fine print, the qualification, or the caveat. But it also provides us with a fresh start in that mythic American way, sweeping aside inconvenient and cluttering content that might otherwise crimp our excitement or sense of hope, while at the same time assuring our responsible side that the unpleasant bits of reality are available if we feel we ought to take a look. The asterisk opens just enough space so that optimism can breathe. But its a funny kind of optimism because what might dash it, is linked to it.

In this show the asterisk serves as the basis for a new medium. When combined with ping pong balls, the asterisk’s shape lends itself to simple, functional, animation system. It serves as the basis of the videos and sculptures, and it is a system that I hope to encourage others to adopt. For more information please see w w w.asteriskspit.com .