STEPHANIE BROOKS: TEMPORARILY CLOSE

Flaccid Enthusiasm creates a new punctuation suggestion in an exaggerated manner to ask the viewer, "When have you used an exclamation point but not meant it? When have you overused exclamation points?" Many of us are definitely guilty of this habit!!!!!! The work asks viewers to explore the ways we convey emotion with punctuation. When enthusiasm is deflated, shouldn't there be another punctuation mark for that...whether it's exhaustion, doubt, or suspicion in a textual response? In an email, when writing "Great!", do we intend to say “great,” or does it sometimes mean "whatever"? Does "Thank you!" convey sincere gratitude, serve as a placeholder of acknowledgement, or does it sometimes politely say "Go fuck yourself"? We inhabit a culture of the virtual, and writing...especially punctuation...is complicated. Flaccid Enthusiasm is a monumentito to the failings of punctuation in contemporary culture.