white canvas? – pouring out in aid of clarity

I feel like there is a white canvas staring me in the face. I remember this feeling from years ago in my painting classes. I would have meticulously made a non-standard frame, stretched the canvas over it and prepared the surface… then I would stare at it afraid to make the first mark.I don’t know if that fright is learned from others explaining the situation and the popular term or actually something I am experiencing. Have I self-imposed this white canvas or am I really stuck?In this case my canvas is a reflective document which will lead into the final write up of my PhD research. A piece of work which has scattered my brain, body and creativity all over the place; all over the internet.Nodes, are the way I can visualize the research outcome, based on tags of the significant words which explain the main points of the work. And, so I can see the project in my mind and on the screen as an interactive node-based visualization which demonstrates an extended field of vision brought about through technology mediated experiences within the digitally networked domain. I can see how the document ties artists working with new media and multiple areas of theory inform and foretell this shift. I can see how we need to look beyond the confines of the standard screen window as an access point for information. But, my head is overflowing with information and I really have no idea where to start.I have again in front of me a non-standard frame. It’s a practice-based PhD and the work is art. How do I make it all happen, it all pour out of my head, and how do I draw it all together when it is all scattered everywhere? My online tools where I have recorded all my research as I progressed through it, this blog, twitter, delicious are all separate and still very linear based. It’s the visual web I have before me that is daunting, it reflects the complexity of the internet, because it is housed there, because it is about the internet.