“An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.” J.D.Salinger
(photo: TimeMagazine cover, 1961)
Farewell, Salinger
January 31st, 2010Wabi-Sabi
January 20th, 2010
(Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, by Leonard Koren)
Wabi-sabi is the essence of Japan. The art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity of nature. It means accepting the life cycle – growth, decay and death. It is simple. It is slow and pure. It reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi are all the changes that appear on things with time and use – crack, crevices, rust, spots, frayed edges. Marks of time are are kind of quiet beauty – beauty that waits to be discovered.
It is a fragmentary glimpse: the branch representing the entire tree, shoji screens filtering the sun, the moon 90 percent obscured behind a cloud. It is a richly beauty that is striking but not obvious. For Japanese it is the difference between kirei – just pretty – and omoshiroi, the interestingness that kicks something into the realm of beautiful (Omoshiroi literally means “white faced”, but it’s meanings range from fascinating to fantastic).
D.T. Suzuki described wabi-sabi as “an active aesthetical apprectation of poverty”, with “poverty” having more romantic meaning like being satisfied with the little hut, a room of two tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau. Wabibito means a person free at heart. Simple, unmaterialistic, humble by choice and in tune with nature.
Wabi stems form the root wa, which refers to harmony, peace, tranquility and balance. A common phrase used in conjunction with wabi is “the joy of the little monk in his wind-torn robe”:) A wabi person is free from greed, indolence and anger and understands the wisdom of rocks and grasshoppers. Sabi by itself means “the bloom of time”. It connotes natural progression-tarnish, hoariness, the extinguished gloss, the understanding that the beauty is fleeting. It is a gift of time, an aching poetry in things that carry their years with grace.
Lecture on nothing for the Year Twenty.Ten
January 3rd, 20101950 now-famous “Lecture on Nothing” by John Cage exemplifies his outlook on art and music. Cage inspired artists such as Rauschenberg and Kelly, whom he made friends with in 1949, to approach their art without preconceived ideas and with great openness. Actually, it was probably mutual influence taking into consideration “White Paintings” by Rauschenberg (below) and 4′33” by Cage.
At the beginning of this lecture, Cage tells the listener that the lecture has no point and will go nowhere :) “I am here and there is nothing to say. If among you are those who wish to get somewhere, let them leave at any moment” (Cage Silence 109). He implores the audience to enjoy each and every moment of the lecture even though he admits that it is pointless. Asks why are we the Westerners forced to see value only in things seeming to have deep meaning or that have eventual goals or aims? “Our poetry now is the realization that we possess nothing. Anything therefore is a delight (since we do not possess it) and thus need not fear its loss” (Silence 110). Openness to new things, pure openness, I just love his way of thinking and feeling.
But it is a below excerpt I wanted to dedicate to the New Year Twenty.Ten:
“I begin to hear the old sounds – the one that had thought worn out, worn out by intellectualization – I begin to hear the old sounds as though they are not worn out. Obviously, they are not worn out. They are just as audible as the new sounds. Thinking had worn them out. And if one stops thinking about them, suddenly they are fresh and new.”
Well, I wish you all the ability to see old things in fresh perspective, not worn out.
Laaast kristmas aj gejw ju maj hart. Nice Holidays People!
December 22nd, 2009Yeah, hilarious! :) I LOVE that version.
“Is it a beaver or is it really my hair?” :D
(thx to @inoutin)
Laika
December 5th, 2009Laika is a dynamic font which changes its shape and appearance based on a broad spectrum of inputs developed by Michael Flückiger and Nicolas Kunz for their thesis at Bern University of the Arts in Switzerland. Like the idea.
LAIKA from Michael Flückiger on Vimeo.
Be a man of action
December 3rd, 2009If ever there were a man of action, it’s expertise theorist Jason Randal, whose boundless passion has led him to develop a jaw-dropping array of specialties. In his kinetic talk, Randal discusses how to use “stretching” to increase memory and focus, the relationship between play and learning, and the transformative power of surrounding yourself with enthusiastic, passionate people. Listen to his speech at 99%conference. I love his closing advice from this speech: “reduce everything you wanna do to what you can do right now and… do it”.
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Randal holds a PhD in social psychology and is a member of MENSA. He works in three languages, has published numerous magazine articles and three books including Magic For Professionals and The Psychology of Deception. Randal is a board certified master hypnotherapist, a licensed locksmith, a NAUI master scuba instructor, a licensed special effects technician, and a master certified flight instructor for both airplanes and helicopters. As a seventh degree black belt master in karate instructed six years for the karate schools, for ten years Jason was a technical advisor and stuntman in Hollywood.
Precognition or biased way of seeing
November 29th, 2009We all have it as a part of our evolutionary equipment. Patterns, expectations, assumptions, biased thoughts; even precognition when step outside the scientific field. Trying to look at the world without being overwhelmed by the gained knowledge is a tough experiment, but seems to be necessary while exploring creative power. As a (creative) thinker you must take for granted that what you see is not certain. As for me I do not take anything for certain and it has always been that way since I recall (which didn’t seem to be advantage at all, but…). Beau Lotto tries to find out what is really out there.
What I did before
November 19th, 2009
Really. Truly. Have no idea:) (ffffound)
On randomness, part 2
November 5th, 2009What does randomness look like? Random walk project by Daniel A.Becker explores the notion of randomness. It consists of 14 double-sided A2 posters contained in a transparent plastic sleeve. Ten sheets explain the phenomena of randomness in mathematics and physics – four focus on all-day randomness and the quality of pseudo random number generators. Without title or specific order the sleeve contains the folded sheets at random like a pack of cards. It has no thematic order, unlike the playing cards in a pack. The layouts of the poster backs are visually influenced by randomness. Each reverse side is unique as is the reverse of the same topic in different sets. Visualizations and random layouts are made with the program “proce55ing”.
Claude Lévi-Strauss died
November 4th, 2009It has to be mentioned about. Claude Lévi-Strauss, the French anthropologist whose revolutionary studies of what was once called “primitive man” transformed Western understanding of the nature of culture, custom and civilization, has died at 100. I was writing about his 100th birthday a year back on this blog. Undoubtedly, he was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century!
(news&photo: nyt)
