I think I get what I’m doing at PiCL now – it’s a work in progress, in fact you could say I’m making it up as I go along.  I am and I’m fairly certain everyone else is – with a mixture of intuition and past experience plus the willingness to go out on a limb and stand there looking foolish.  A bit like this…

My inner geek has been released.

I was sent this link to The Pale Blue Dot film a while back.  It’s a 5 minute clip which features a narration from astronomer, Carl Sagan, from his book ‘The Pale Blue Dot’ wherein he reflects up the view of the earth from outerspace.  This powerful narration is accompanied by clips from 64 feature films that help to illustrate the points he makes.  (All backed up with an instrumental track by the band Mogwai).  In the office we’ve been desperate to identify of some of the films used in the montage.  I recently tracked down the list on-line, posted below in full, as a team we have made a pact to watch all 64.

What I find interesting is the links being made, from an initial viewing of a 5 minute clip – to a marathon film viewing effort.

Is this a way, to borrow a socio-edu-artspeak phrase, of “building social capital” within the team?

Anyway for those who enjoy lists and films here it is:

Cosmos: Carl Sagan The Planets
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Some Like It Hot
The Big Lebowski
Moulin Rouge!
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Memento
The Elephant Man
Das Leben der Anderen
Amelie
Red Beard
The Ten Commandments
Glengarry Glen Ross
Terminator 2 – Judgment Day
The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
Yojimbo
2001 – A Space Odyssey
Monty Python and the Holy Grail Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 
Life Is Beautiful
Cinema Paradiso
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Dead Zone
Ultimate Jordan
Leon – The Professional
Once Upon a Time in the West
Vanilla Sky
Gattaca
Gladiator
Braveheart
Red Sorghum
Hero
Reservoir Dogs
Gangs of New York
American History X
Taxi Driver
Mystic River
Citizen Kane
The Right Stuff
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dancer in the Dark
The Usual Suspects
Miller’s Crossing
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Rounders
Scent of a Woman
The Infernal Affairs
What Time Is It There?
Brazil
Superman – The Movie
North By Northwest
The Shawshank Redemption
Patton
Mission To Mars
Blade Runner
Rear Window
Lady and the Tramp
The Proposition
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Feathers in the Wind
In the Mood for Love
Singin’ in the Rain

Over the summer the office quietens, the schools are closed and the phone doesn’t ring (so much).  I took last week off – I was in need of some rest and restoration, and spent a week in my studio, which I’d rearranged and tidied and cleaned a few weeks previously.  I’d been desperate to spend time in my studio, shielded from disturbance and free from distractions.  It’d been quite a while since I’d sat in this space and I was dismayed at how difficult it was to begin again.  I thought the “ideas fridge” was overloaded but I discovered these ideas had turned ephemeral and hovered tantalisingly out of reach. I’d recently experienced a vivid dream: I was busy making artworks –  I could see exactly what I was doing, but now that I had sat down to explore this, my attempts at recall were hazy and the imagery indistinct.  The first day of being in the studio was a frustrating experience and I felt like giving up.  What was the point?  Why was I sitting in this space?  Why did I even want to make “artworks” anyway?

That was Monday and it wasn’t a good day.

I had a long conversation with my wife when she got home that day – she’d been in her studio working flat out.  I conceed I’m a bit jealous – she doesn’t seem to lack for inspiration or impetus.  But she in turn envies aspects of my process – I keep sketch books, I make work for myself and not to anyone else’s requirements.  Some parts of her work she makes over and over again.  Over and over again.

The next few days, I decided to try and look at the situation differently.  I was in a hurry, but really there was no pressure – so I decided to slow down.  I spent more time reading a book that had been recommended by my colleague Jo – The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  A quiet and moving book.  The main character loves literature, philosophy and films, particularly Japanese films by Yasujiro Ozu. Something that sparked a particular interest was her thoughts on “Wabi“.  A worldview that finds beauty and enlightenment through the acceptance of transience.  This idea really struck a chord with me and it became something to think about whilst working.  I used to paint, a slow process filled with many false starts and even more dead ends.  I realised that this is no longer a practical or viable or even satisfying process.  Constraints dictated by space and time point towards a solution that’s quicker in execution, that allows changes of direction, that is more flexible and responsive:

Paper.  Scissors and glue; and a razor sharp scapel.  Sometimes, Felt tip pens.  Through the week, I steadily built up a body of experimental collage – enjoying the experience, the process of selection and placement.  Finding relationships in colour, positioning, line, texture, tearing and cutting, old and new, plain and patterned.  It felt good to create work that balances logic, decisions made because of visual grammar and rules of presentation against the illogical: decisions that feel instinctive, materials chosen without deliberation and often randomised.  A ragged scrap of graph paper or a torn piece from a magazine often redirecting the flow of the piece.

Decisions influenced by ambience – throughout the week I chose a variety of music – electronic, techno and increasingly classical music: Rachmaninov, Chopin and Handel.  Drawing from these audio textures, tonality, timbre –  relationships – harmony/dissonance.   For me this type of music describes certain spaces – through pace, placement and dynamic range.  Both types of music seem to require a similar ear – the effect being accumulative, the techno through it’s repetitions and gradual changes and classical through it’s detailing and changing of time/pacing/ or attack.

I’m back at work now, PiCLProgrammer once again – but feeling rested and restored – connected once again to the interests that sustain my inner core, better able to touch and briefly hold the inspirations that so often flash by like “dancing particles”.  How do I work in a way that is holistic and integrated?  Concentrated but open? My frustrations are born of a compartmentalised view of  my work(s)  - perhaps now this view can be dismantled…

Standards by Tortoise (2001 Thrill Jockey)

Why did this change my life?  It sparked a conversation with someone who subsequently became a dear friend (and one of the best men at my wedding) and the conversation still shows no sign of ending 5 years later.  The conversation has challenged how I listen, think about and respond to music and resulted in me taking up djing as a hobby.

What’s the music like?
It’s experimental, playful and fun.  It explores the territories between “post-rock”, ambient, jazz and techno.  It switches between bombastic showiness to tight and nimble rhythms, often in the same track.  It’s well crafted, patient and ego-free.  It’s got bass, handclaps, noodles, wibbles, squelches and possibly even a vibraphone.

I saw this a while back from the shifthappens conference http://kilo75.com/blog/post/shift-happens-review-notes.html and stored it away in the ideas-fridge to think about another day.  Whilst at our own conference, the Creative Agents Retreat, during a session on creative reflection – I decided to try and put this idea into practice for myself.  I initially described it as a personal wordle  - wordle.net for those who haven’t used it is an a website that uses an algorithm to count how often words appear in a body of text and then displays them, the more the word is used the lager it’s appearance.  However I feel that this exercise is more about capturing the essence of a discussion or meeting.

This activity gives me a feeling of pride in my notebooks – for too long they have just been dull repositories of task lists and things to remember – now they are perhaps becoming pieces of art in themselves.

An interesting look at how people organise themselves – particularly on the web and through “open source” projects.  It draws some creative links to earlier  open source projects: Genome mapping of the humble earth worm, Cornish Engines in the 1800s and the Iliad – open source poetry from antiquity.  (Hundreds of authors over several centuries taking license and adding their own polish).

One of the most important points that the book raises is the increasing complexity of problems and tasks and the need for people to pool their skills and resources in order to solve them.   A vital way of viewing things and working in the coming years?

____________________________________________________

I have decided to try and collect interesting phrases and concepts, although English is an incredibly diverse, rich and flexible language sometimes there are some striking gaps….

If you have more suggestions, please add them in the comments below.

Wabi Sabi

Japanese – imperfect beauty.  asymmetry

mono no aware

Japanese – the pathos of things

Doxa

Greek – common belief or opinion

Eudaimonia

Commonly translated as happiness but might be better thought of as human flourising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yedD4JsZyT0

Atomic Spin

Quantum Entanglement

and Arthur C Clarke’s Three Laws

phew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvKWEvKSi8

Dan Meyer, a maths teacher based in California with an interesting approach and attitude to his craft.

His blog is worth reading too.  http://blog.mrmeyer.com

One of the ideas he was discussing that particularly resonated with me was the problem that people can have with irresolution.  We’re more comfortable with defined outcomes, we like to know what’s happening and where we’re headed.  It links closely to the idea of the philosophical ‘pit’ much explored by anyone who has spent time working with a ‘Drama and Philosophy’ strand.  Developing and expanding the ability to work through an idea (or ideas) without necessarily knowing where it’s going to lead or even whether it’s correct.

I’ll crib from Dan’s lecture a quote from Einstein (if I keep quoting Einstein long enough maybe some of his genius might rub off on me… or not).

“The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.”
A Einstein.