Hands. Wonderful, fabulous hands.

This post is based on the article: A brief rant on the future of interactive design by Bret Victor November 8th, 2011.

I found this article today, posted by some of the members of The Graphic Designers of Canada in their email forum. The things I like about this article are numerous. One, it is visually stunning. I always loved mixing typography with image, words with pictures, and Bret Victor does this with style, simplicity and functionality. This is likely why I became a graphic designer, so I could shift between the symbol and the representational, all in the space of five square inches. As a child, I read a lot of books, yet the excitement I would feel about a picture book, or one with demonstrative illustrations was way beyond reading books with pages of blocks of text. In my 20s, I read mostly non-fiction, again, it could  have been about the pictures and diagrams more than a disinterest in story telling.

Another thing about this article I like is the discussion of invention. I am constantly thinking of how to invent things, either what the thing would be, what it would look like and how it would work, and the how to get it out into the market place, or at least off the drafting table graph paper. Here is a quote from Bret Victor, “…This matters, because visions matter. Visions give people a direction and inspire people to act, and a group of inspired people is the most powerful force in the world. If you’re a young person setting off to realize a vision, or an old person setting off to fund one, I really want it to be something worthwhile. Something that genuinely improves how we interact.” Visionaries, dreamers, inventors, are they all able to harness the force he suggests they possess, or maybe that possesses them? Do people actually chase these visions as often as we think they do? Also incredibly important beyond the courage to chase is the funding for inventions and innovations. I like that he believes young people can be the dream machines, and older people the ones to buy the fuel for all those moving trains. It is practical, and I also like practical.

Hands. The article is basically about hands. Another thing I think a lot about is function and form. Chicken and egg. However, look at things and people closely, and you will see how the form is connected to the action, purpose, energetic expression of the object. And as a sculptor, my hands are so happy to move in all the different ways and have the strength to actually manifest a three-dimensional object. It is rugged, it is physical, and it makes me feel joy and relaxation. We as a culture however, seem to be moving towards what Bret calls the ‘Pictures under glass‘ technology, which derive the hands and finger tips of anything but the smooth, glassy surfaces of technological devices. His reasoning is touching you could say, as it is a call to remain human, fully conoscente of our hands intended purpose. That perhaps we need to rethink the direction of our technology or risk losing the sensitivity of our fingertips.

Another important thing I like is his understanding of how culture and societies evolve. In his words,

“The most important thing to realize about the future is that it’s a choice. People choose which visions to pursue, people choose which research gets funded, people choose how they will spend their careers.

Despite how it appears to the culture at large, technology doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t emerge spontaneously, like mold on cheese. Revolutionary technology comes out of long research, and research is performed and funded by inspired people….With an entire body at your command, do you seriously think the Future Of Interaction should be a single finger?“

Choice and change. I have already reflected on these and think about them a lot as well. I also realize I could be more grateful to the inspirational people who make research and innovation a career. As an artist, I can see we have a lot in common. 

Out of the blue, a group show and vernissage

I have been invited sort of last minute to show two sculptures at La Maison d’Aurore in the Plateau, Montréal. It is in part to celebrate the 35th anniversary and to help the public become more aware of artists in their community.

The vernissage will take place at 4816 rue Garnier, the 17th of November from 5pm to 8pm and I will be in attendance. The gallery will be open to the public in the evenings of the 24th and the 1st of December.

I have decided to show Isaac Newton, ranked among the greatest scientists who ever lived, and Plato, considered one of the the greatest of all the philosophers. Newton’s contributions to calculus, optics, the theory of gravity, and several other subjects were groundbreaking and laid the foundation for physical science as it is known today. This was around 1670 at the dawn of the Age of Reason when the shift from intuition and belief towards scientific knowledge and reason as the right means to the discover the truth was beginning. Interesting that in the Post-Post Modern world, intuition is making a serious comeback as a way to acquire knowledge.

Plato also lived in a major era, the Golden Age of Greece, when new ideas of democracy and of intellectual study were developing the models of government, art, philosophy, drama and literature that we still value in modern Western cultures. Plato helped lay these foundations for science and philosophy and he opened the first institution of higher learning in the Occident. Imagine urban social organization without democratic principles and without galleries, theatres and universities.

Opened in 1976, La Maison d’Aurore is a community centre in the heart of Plateau Mont-Royal whose mission is to improve the lives and the environment of people living in the neighbourhood.
The general objectives are:

• To break isolation by providing a place of belonging, information and public space.
• Promote independence and dignity.
• Promote a collective responsibility to meet people’s needs, especially those of the local neighborhood.
• Acting in consultation with local stakeholders to promote the common good.
• Create a true community for mutual support and solidarity.

I am not sure what to expect seeing as this is a group show, however, given all my involvement with the Montreal Healing Arts Community and their vision to benefit the community, this sounds divine and I am looking forward to being a part of the show.

Top ten sustainability movements I love

Currently I am spending time creating community and thinking a lot about healing. A few friends and I have started a small group called the Montreal Healing Arts Community which is a web of practitioners and individuals who encourage health, networking and community outreach. Our vision states that we believe in empowering and uniting individuals to cultivate sustainable health for themselves, their communities and nature. So in honour of this group, the countless hours of volunteer work we and others have donated, the launch of our new website and the amazing qualities of herbal tea, here is my top ten list of sustainability movements that I love…

10.  The Millennium Seed Bank Project, an international conservation project launched in the year 2000 by Dr. Peter Thompson and housed in the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building situated in West Sussex, England. Its purpose, to limit the chance of the extinction of wild plants by storing the world’s largest collection of seeds in large underground frozen vaults. In April 2007, it banked its billionth seed, and in October 2009, it reached its 10% goal of banking all the world’s wild plant species in its seed vault. Science at its best.

9.  The City of Montreal’s transportation plan for meeting the mobility needs of its residents while reducing the reliance on cars. With their massive investments in the development of alternatives to the car, like public transit, carpooling, car sharing and such active forms of transportation as walking and bicycling, the Transportation Plan is paving the way for a major change in travel habits and behaviour. Such as the first Bixi on the streets in May 2009 and the now 5,000 public bicycles in 400 stations across the city thus making Montreal the first North American city with a self-service bike network of this size.

8.  Human-powered equipment - electrical appliances which can be powered by human muscle power rather than conventional sources of electricity. A promising alternative to batteries most well known being the mechanically powered wind up flashlight and radio. Dishonourable mention: wireless objects like keyboards and the computer mouse.

7. Car Sharing. ’If you live in a city, you don’t need to own a car.’ Said in November 2000 by one who you would not expect, William Clay Ford Jr., Chair of the Ford Motor Company Ltd.

6.  “What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live.” This book charts the rise of a rapidly growing socio-economic paradigm shift and describes how technology is enabling the sharing and exchange of all kinds of assets from money to cars to skills to power tools in ways and on a scale never possible before. Hurray to the concept of the neighbourhood power drill.

5.  The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. They intend to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years. Match that to the average run of a political government at four measly years.

“The point is to explore whatever may be helpful for thinking, understanding, and acting responsibly over long periods of time.” - Stewart Brand

4. Traditional Chinese Medicine. TCM physicians and acupuncturists can treat complex and difficult diseases of the human body, acute medical emergencies and chronic conditions which often stump Allopathic medicine using acupuncture and moxabustion, tuina massage techniques, herbs, medicinal cookery, and Internal Martial Arts such as Qigong. The only caveat? The patient is required to do some if not most of the work in the healing process. 

When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.
~ Rabindranath Tagore

The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world.
~ Marianne Williamson

3.  The Girl Effect promotes the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and then the world. When girls have safe places to meet, education, legal protection, health care, and access to training and job skills, they can thrive. And if they thrive, everyone around them thrives, too. Brilliant.

2.  Ted Talks has a mission: Spreading ideas. “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” In fact, half of this top ten list comes from listening to a Ted Talk. Incredible resource of knowledge and cutting edge consciousness.

And at the grand numero uno spot…

1.  Change: The process of becoming different.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
~ Leo Tolstoy

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
~ Margaret Mead

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
~ Confucius

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

You get the idea.

So that is my list. I encourage you to add your favourite sustainable movement as sharing was on my short list. 

Did I escape, I wonder…an opera prop

…A chamber opera in three parts.

Finally, the Medusa head will be revealed on opening night!!! 

“In a contemporary telling and healing of the Medusa myth, a frenzied man drives the audience to their deaths, a tormented outcast prepares herself for the hunt, and two weary statues come to life, seeking reconciliation at the edge of a reflecting pool. The politics and place of human relationships are hurled onto the stage for operatic examination in this sizzling ball of raw musical gesture and emotion where Debussy meets David Lynch. Concordia Music/Creative writing grad Sebastian Hutchings and Music/Theatre grad Sarah Albu present their first collaboration. Featuring two singers, six instrumentalists and atmospheric video projections, this work lives at the intersection between chamber music, alternative theatre, tragic opera and performance art.

Conducted by Sebastian Hutchings with stage and artistic direction by Sarah Albu and Sebastian Hutchings. Performed by soprano Sarah Albu, baritone Clayton Kennedy and the Vital Organs Ensemble featuring Ellen Gibling, harp, Aysel Taghi-Zada, violin, Viviana Gosselin, cello, François Gagné, clarinet, Jeffrey Stonehouse, flute, and Lindsay Roberts, oboe. lighting: Ishelle Macz … video: Josh Davidson … scuplture: Lauren Trimble … stage management: Lucia Corak

Running alongside The Mysterious Case of the Flying Anarchist August 3-6th inclusive at Théâtre Ste-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine East with shows at 9pm nightly, following the 7:30 showings of The Mysterious Case…

Tickets $10 at the door, $15 for both shows. For advance tickets, e-mail vitalorgans.opera@gmail.co​m.

http://vitalorgansopera.wo​rdpress.com/

Starving artists and Traditional Chinese Medicine

They come running at you, eyes slightly wild, hair dishevelled and at best they make semi-coherent sentences to your ears. Unless you are an artist or a musician or mad scientist, you recoil slightly, realizing you are about to be pulled off your carefully balanced state of three meals a day and regular bedtime, consistent paychecks and bills paid on time and in full. Yes, that person that just loped up to you like a slightly mad, skinny wolf is indeed an artist. They make their  own guidelines ruled by the muse rather than the rational mind and they likely haven’t eaten a warm meal in days.

The reason for this is environment as much as the internal spirit that propels them to create. Imagine if you will the life of the average artist. It is rare they make a living directly from their art 100% of the time so they probably have a ‘day job’ to pay the rent and other bills. Because they are driven to be artists, they likely have no relevant degrees or training which would give them a professional career and how useful is a Visual Arts degree in making money, really? So their job is likely minimum wage or slightly higher and they won’t work full-time because they need energy left over for the creative process. That means their take home salary might be 12,000$ a year if they are lucky because they also choose jobs which are dispensable and thus so are they, often getting laid off or fired regularly.

Now comes the expense list. They need to pay for the studio, the supplies and the other related expenses of their art. (All you ceramic artists and oil painters who use your living room as a studio, just stop now while you still have decent lungs and livers.) And these are paid directly after the rent and those other critical survival bills we already mentioned. And then they have to go out and socialize throughout the city in the evenings for those all too critical social contacts or their art is as meaningful as someone who randomly replicates the Sistine Chapel on their bathroom ceiling, which might be cool on YouTube for a couple of weeks but it is not going to lead to fame and fortune. Then comes time to visit the grocery store. What? 20$ left in the wallet! Imagine trying to buy a week’s worth of food with that. Imagine now the psychological impulse of saying in the aisles of the grocery store ‘screw it,’ and the artist resorting to buying a pack of smokes, coffee and milk and a case of beer. You can create on the various highs these stimulants produce at least they think to themselves whereas oatmeal and Ramen noodles just don’t trigger passion and spark.

——————

I have been studying Traditional Chinese Medicine theory for years and it is likely entirely foreign to you and to your family doctor. The basis revolves around Five Element theory and the system of meridians and energy that flows through the body. The system of meridians is related to the physical organs of the body such as the heart and lungs. Each organ is related to an emotional response, sensory organ, and soft tissue among other things, and has its own energetic function within the body. Another important aspect of TCM theory is Pre-Natal Qi and Post-Natal Qi. The former is created at the moment of our conception, like a bank account of energy we are given, the size of which can differ greatly in each person, and from which we can ‘withdraw’ or ‘deposit’ energy throughout our lives, and the later is the energy we gain from breathing and eating which we either use up or deposit. The only glitch being that, unlike most bank accounts, our Qi is not accruing interest and if you deplete the original deposited amount, you die.

Let’s revisit the starving artist. Any digestive anomalies that may be deemed irrelevant by Western Medicine Physicians may be associated with Spleen Qi Deficiency in TCM. The foods we eat are digested by the stomach and then sent to the Spleen organ system to produce Blood and Qi, the invisible yet ever flowing energy of life according to TCM. When the “Spleen” meridian system falls into poor condition, it cannot create Qi and Blood from consumed foods and will therefore affect the entire body, as well as the emotions. The disruption of the spleen includes worry, dwelling or focusing too much on a particular topic and excessive mental work. The emotional response of persons with extreme Spleen Qi imbalances often manifest as obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Sound like the neighbor who stays up all hours of the night and drops loud things as they rush across the room at 3 in the morning? Little did you know they are actually trying to resolve the interplay of light and shadow on the 10 foot canvas they brought into their living room via the sliding glass door (using dollar store candles because the hydro bill was not paid in two months). That very same neighbor you saw hunched over, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer on their back balcony at 8 o’clock in the morning while you sipped your coffee and headed out the door for work.

The earliest medical descriptions of depression date back some three thousand years to The Inner Classic, an ancient Chinese medicine textbook which explains how mental illness is the result of imbalance in the body, or disharmony between nature and human beings, who must enjoy a harmonious interrelationship with nature in order to stay healthy. That takes us back to breathing and eating and how our physiological activities depend on the harmonious relationship between organs within the body. According to TCM, depression manifests itself in the mind or the heart but most often it is rooted in a stagnant liver or by a qi deficiency in the kidney and/or the spleen. If the spleen is the root cause, this could be due to insufficient diet. To achieve permanent recovery and to improve brain function a person needs; lots of protein and a large quantity of fresh green vegetables to improve internal body functions and to detoxify their systems, high quality essential fatty acids to nourish the body and complex carbohydrates for energy, supplements like A Vitamin B complex for necessary support to the brain, and antioxidants to protect the body from the attack of free radicals at the molecular level and help neutralize toxins in the brain. The starving artist can not have this kind of diet on 20$ a week. The reality is that even 100$ a week would be stretched thin when buying sufficient proteins, fruits and vegetables, and supplements to recover from years of malnutrition.

The artist who finds themselves driven to create in our culture is often unfairly relegated to a human anomaly of spirit and personality yet according to TCM, it is more likely due to the result of an inadequate diet stemming from poverty and a perhaps misplaced priority for creativity over healthy living. So the next time you see an artist and leap to the conclusion that they are likely nuts, rather than move away take them out to dinner, wait a couple of hours for digestion to occur to see what happens and then make your conclusions. And keep in mind how this applies to hysterical women, malnourished children, lonely seniors and the working poor, and perhaps you will discover a new kind of compassion for the people around you.

Another Vernissage I am part of …

The Art of April-Anna & the Open Mind Eco Festival Presents the Pre-festival Group Art Exhibition:  “Enchanted Forest: a visionary art experience.”

June 9th to July 9th, 6pm-10pm.
Recommended donation at the door is $5-$10 per person.
[ahimsa] community space 5369 St. Laurent, Suite 240  Montreal, Quebec

What to expect, a Vernissage and cocktail (sponsored by BareFoot Wines) and a Fundraiser in the format of a Chinese Auction. The prizes are amazing and you choose your own adventure as in you can place as many raffle tickets on the item/s you want and each raffle ticket increases your chances of winning as every item is a seperate draw. (The fundraiser is for the art galleries & body art competitions at the Open Mind Eco Festival and the money raised will go towards prize money for the competitions, money for tools such as folding tables & chairs, outdoor canopy tents, food for artists and more.  The Open Mind Eco Festival last year had over 900 attendees. This year will be even more magical and full of fun adventures and is great for all ages, families are welcome. Website: http://www.openmindfestival.com/)

Here is the list of activities for the evening. It sounds like an unforgettable event and is yet another celebration of art and artists that a friend of mine has organized.

1. Opening & closing with a mini-singing bowl concert by Andrea Ostiguy
2. DJ Eliazar, Kyra Shaughnessy & tba
3. Belly Dance by Sharon Levinger
4. Baladi by Keera Sama
5. Chinese Auction

6. Vernissage featuring the art of:

• Plume (Richelieu, QC)
• Aurel – Pumayana (Australia/France)
• April-Anna (BC/Montreal)
• Chris Dyer (Peru/Montreal)
• P.John Burden (Maritimes/PEI)
• Elissa Baltzer (PEI/Montreal)
• Serene Daoud (Montreal)
• Jacqueline Hana Tyracek (Vancouver, BC)
• Adriane Enns (BC)
• Lauren Trimble (Montreal)
• Benjamin Wong (Montreal)
• Valérie Blanchet (Montreal)
• Gabriel – DJ Zen (Quebec)
• Marie-Line Vasseur (Montreal)
• Lena Breijer (Montreal)
• Yasmine Desrochers
• Valerie Lambert (Belgium)
• Jonathan Lee (Toronto)
• Cornelia Dudli
• Allison Ryan (Montreal)
• Cyens

Blue Bird of Happiness

Gaia Gathering and God

 

What does one do as an artist when religion never seems to be a static thing? When it is elastic, evolving, growing, stretching as new people, places and facts are introduced. And never do we get all at once, but they come in stages, waves or variegated matrixes. I can honestly say I was raised as an apathist with sub-conscious Catholic values who was personally fascinated by cosmology myths.

As a young adult, I went on a search for what I thought I was missing, what we refer to in youthful people as phases. ‘Oh that is just a phase, she will grow out of it.’ Buddhism was quite prevalent for me for a while, with Tibetan monks offering prayer sessions and sand Mandela ceremonies near the small community where I lived. With a belief of non violence and do no harm, it resonated well with my peaceful ambitions. I embraced it as a near Jainist in my extremes until life threw me a curve ball that meant breaking some basic rules of the philosophy. Then it was just a chaos of whatever I could research. All incredibly interesting but nothing that held my heart.

There was a parallel universe to Buddhism at that time also strongly represented within the community by Neo Pagan, Shamanic and Wiccan folks. Circles, rituals, female and male roles of divinity, it was in fact what I sought out intellectually, a religious intention in which men and women were equals. I was quick to dismiss the main religions for this reason, all the priests, rabbis, and imams were male when I was young. Yet Pagans seemed determined to embrace the female energies, to uphold the dark and draw down the light, to combine the heart and the body and the mind in the mission to be spiritually aware and unlike the assumptions about a demonic witch craft, determined to do things that were healthy and positive for the individual and the community. It was also a way to throw off dignity and propriety like they were old, reluctant cloaks and to have a lot of fun laughing in the woods.

But as I said waves change in size and intensity, and as I moved closer to the city, the practices and customs I was surrounded by changed. I retreated away from the rites of passages, from the body of experience back to the intellect and to the written word. And there I started to develop a fondness for the madness of mystics. Those brave souls who saw things differently than most and had a direct connection to the Divine. Perhaps that is in fact what a mystic is, a human without a guru but just an honest relationship with God. One definition of a Mystic; a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect. ‘Beyond the intellect,’ that rules out books then as a sole means to find God. Good thing I hung out with Pagans and eventually had a mystical, love experience that my mind has still never understood! I think I met a lot of mystics in my youth on looking back. Misguided, lost, struggling or no, they were not living life with the regular handbook as a directive. And truth, no matter how strange, how banal, how tragic, how beautiful, was quickly becoming a way to see the mystic as well. My favourite mystics became the Sufi poets from the past. Rumi is such a mystic, well known throughout the world for his love poetry referring to the divine, but there are many others.

An interest in Sufism ultimately leads a researcher to its source which is Islam and the Koran although I have heard it said that Sufis, like Wiccans, predate the three religions of the Book. Quite a kettle of fish there I know, considering the role of women in many Muslim countries but in my research I found out a lot of interesting paradoxes and even some truths regarding the way men and women are viewed through the lense of Mohammed and how cultures can all get it right and wrong depending on who you are listening to.

This all leads me to where I wanted to go which was the idea of one god versus many gods, Monotheism and Polytheism. There are Hard Polytheists who believe that all gods are distinct beings who are real and divine. (This has a sub category of Integrational Polytheists who consider that all gods of all cultures are equally real beings, otherwise, only one culture’s gods are in fact real whether it is Thor God of thunder or Venus Goddess of love, but not both at the same dinner table.) Soft Polytheists believe that gods are aspects of one god, or the psychological archetypes or personifications of natural forces. In New Age and Neo Paganism, it is usually soft polytheism, as is the pantheon of Buddhist deities who represent states or manifestations of distinct physical elements and physical energies in the path to enlightenment. And then there are the monotheistic religions which are definitive that there is only the one God, period.

I have had to ask myself in the past year if I am capable of being a Muslim, or a Christian, or a Pagan and the only answer I could return with is that I believe there is only one God and that I have a wonderful belief in nature and in truth. And that would be the very same god that 1.65 billion Muslims, 2,2 billion Christians and possibly all the 1 million wiccans are praying to, thinking about, having conversations with and devoting their lives to. The very same nature that the nearly seven billion of us are breathing in and out every day, drinking and expulsing, benefiting from or eking out a living with. And the same truth we all have to rule us, guide us, define us, and illuminate us. I find that idea comforting as the bullets and the insults fly past our ears, the bullies and the bandits battle, the debates and the debacles rage on, change remains the only constant, and the whispers are still about do they love me or do they love me not.