E17 Designers Market

Well, I made my way around the E17 Designers Market, and I must confess it was quite a surreal social experience which included a blue dress, embroidered art jackets, exquisite jewellery, chocolate cake, red wine girls, flowers, a stage, a man singing and palying guitar, a desk, disorganised flyers, vintage stuff a plenty. I loved it, even if people stared at me quite a lot.  It seems all you have to in London to stand out is wear a faux fur coat!  I think everyone should dress up for art events, its socially liberating and much more fun.

Friday 27th November

Tonight I'm going to the Rose and Crown pub to see if any of my informal invitations have been accepted to meet up for a chat by creatives who have contacted me through the "Intraweb."  Afterwards I shall make my first visit to a creative event held by the E17 Designers.  I'm looking forward to it, but first I have brave the nightmare of Friday afternoon Christmas hopping, and somehow get a new fireplace home by carrying it on my shoulder.

For some reason I always like to physically carry things home rather than always rely upon transport.  The more difficult the journey, physically or mentally in carrying all manner of objects home, always provides me with an interesting anecdote, and when I finally arrive home and install whatever it is, it always fills me with a sense of achievement akin almost to a spiritual experience.  If you can't people across rivers on your shoulder anymore, you may as well recover discarded objects that still have use, and carrying them and their past lives to pastures new.

Every object has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.

We all have a Book to write.

Today, thanks to someone who emailed me over the intraweb, but who I have never met, I was inspired to write the bare chassis of a entire chapter or three for my future book.  I am doing everything to avoid the reality of writing a whole book, but somehow the idea keeps coming out whether I like it or not. No matter how often I shove the idea into the deepest parts of my unconscious, the notion won't go away.  My sister will be happy she has been trying to prod me into writing a book for years, but I counter by telling her that if she is so keen, why doesn't she write one instead, I much prefer the hands on approach of day to day creative activity.

East London Art Trek

I'm currently on an art trek visiting artists homes, studios, projects and creative enterprises around East London.  This week I began at the Art House, which I am now refering to in my mind as "Art House Central"; this was my jumping off point to visit Inky Cuttlefish Studios, The Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, Lot One Antiques and the various Units in Wood Street Market (several times) all in Walthamstow E17.

This organic social process of creativity and community has resulted in various ideas for writing a play, performing a poem, showing an installation, and other creative inspirations. None of which I shall probably finish. None-the-less, I'm sure something creatively constructive will emanate and evolve out of this new social process of art.  It's just a pity winter is now icing in.   I may have to wait for next spring for any real creative outputs to escape the confines of my mind, and blossom into reality.

In return for thier creative time, coffee, and energy (I ask far too many questions) in allowing me into thier studios and workplaces, I've been offering myself as a community volunteer to anyone needs an extra pair hands from time to time.  My body is crying out for more varied forms of everyday physical exertion, and I get so bored with press ups, sits up, and running about the park.  Where are all the people who need things carrying and lifting when you need them!

My creative volunteer offer has been taken up by one person so far, so I'm now in the process of writing up a couple of paragraphs for thier upcoming website. (Just finished the first draft) If it turns out okay and they like it, I may write up a longer and more in-depth piece on thier creative enterprise if they want me to. In return, they have offered me a discount on thier creative products and services.

Art Trail Wanderer
_______________

When all the crowds, have been and gone,
The trail worn cleft and cold,
Reality returns, for everday art,
as stories shared and told.

The reviews are read, the shows are closed,
For yet another year,
Exhultant artists celebrate,
Some shed a tiny tear.

The fun is over, at least for now,
The ghost of  Morris recedes,
Joyous, energised, and all aglow
The new art work proceeds.

Out of chaos, new flow and ebb,
Paint, Print, and Sculpture teased,
And lo behold! a new art mag is born
For the creatives of east 17.

The bands gig on, performers play,
In Theatre of Rose and Crown,
The wordsmiths hone their poetry,
And a stranger comes to town.

I used to live in an art squats he says,
but I've had enough of the dirge and drink,
The chaos of underground art events,
and the bands who are much worse than they think.

I'm done with DJ's who cannot spin,
without smoking a massive joint,
and the new age hippies, who dance at the Moon,
Well, I think you see my point.

Don't get me wrong, I had a ball,
The best five years of my life,
But amidst the glitter ball nights of cabaret,
There was also the stress and the strife.

The parties, although legendary,
The art shows magnifique,
I had to leave my hallowed space,
When the Community became a clique.

For any artist, whether Fine,
Outsider, or underground,
A time may come, when spirit is lost somehow,
Your ideas gone from golden to brown.

I left the perfect Blue Room,
I needed a change of scene,
The art was getting to self-obsessed,
The newcomers far too green.

Why don't you try the Art Trail,
Said a stranger, when I felt low,
An Indian spirit path I ventured?
No it's up the road in Walthamstow.

So I set forth,  towards the East,
I crossed the road Lea Bridge,
Maybe I'll wander as a poet I mused,
But I'm no Samuel Taylor-Coleridge.

I picked up a new art mag,
I took it as a sign,
To stay awhile in Walthamstow,
By mystic life design.

I browsed through all the charity shops,
The markets, and the pub,
And somehow got distracted,
By the people, and the hub-bub.

So even though its finished,
Your art trail crowd departed,,
My lonesome trek upon your trail,
Has only just got started.






______________________________________________________

Quotes on Art, Creativity, Community, and Consciousness.

The Bahaus School of Art

"Schooling alone can never produce art"

_________________________________________


Albert Camus



"The meaning, nature and history of art is directly related to the meaning, nature, and history of Society"

"Contemporary art is nihilistic"

"The Society based on production, is only productive, not creative"

"Beauty is the procedure of rebellion, it resists the real while conferring unity upon it."

_________________________________________


Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Concerning The Spiritual in Art:

"Art possesses a spiritual value that is part of the autonomy of art which is expressed in a naturalistic way that anyone can appreciate as a vital creative expression of his/her social and spiritual experiences"
_________________________________________

Piet Mondrian

"Art and life are not separate domains"

________________________________________


Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

"The source of my painting is the unconscious"

_________________________________________


Mark Rothko (1930-1970)

The unfriendliness of Society to his/her activity is difficult for the artist to accept.  Yet this very hostility can act as a lever for true liberation.  Freed from a sense of security and community, the artist can abandon his plastic bank-book just as s/he has abandoned other forms of security.  Both the sense of community, and of security depend on the familiar.  Free of them, transcendental experiences become possible."

_________________________________________


Lev Vygotsky (The Psychology of Art, 1971)

"Art is the social within us, and even if its action is performed by a single individual, it does not mean that its essence is individual"

_________________________________________

A Theory of Creativity By C.R Rogers

I maintain that there is a deperate social need for the creative behaviour of creative individuals. It is this which justifies the setting forth of a tentative theory of creativity - the nature of the creative act, the conditions under which it occurs, and the manner in which it may be constructively be fostered.  Such a theory may serve as a stimulus and giude to research studies in this field.

The Social Need
_____________

Many of the serious criticisms of our culture and its trends may best be formulated in terms of a dearth of creativity.  Let us state some of these very briefly:
1)  In education we tend to turn out conformists, stereotypes, individuals who education is 'completed', rather than freely creative and oriiginal thinkers.

2)  In our leisure-time activities, passive entertainment and regimented group action are overwhelmingly predominant, whereas creative activities are much less in evidence.

3)  In the sciences, there is an ample supply of technicians, but the number who can creatively formulate fruitful hypotheses and theories is small indeed.

4)  In industry (Business), creation is reserved for the few - the manager, the designer, the head of research department - whereas for the many life is devoid of original or creative endeavour.

5)  In individual and family life the same picture holds true.  In the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the books we read, and the ideas we hold, there is a strong tendency towards conformity, towrads stereotypy.  To be original or different is felt to be 'dangerous'

    Why be concerned over this?  If as a people, we enjoy conformity rather than creativity, shall we not be permitted this choice?  In my estimation such a choice would be entirely reasonable were it not for one great shadow that hangs over all of us.  In a time when knowledge, constructive and destructive, is advancing by the most incredible leaps and bounds into a fantastic atomic (genetic) age, genuinely creative adaptation seems to represent the only possibility that we can kep abreast of the kaleidoscopic change in the world.  With scientific discovery and invention proceeding, we are told, at a geometric rate of progression, a generally passive and culture-bound people cannot cope with the multiplying issues and problems.  Unless individuals, groups, and nations can imagine, construct and creatively revise new ways of relating to these complex changes, the lights will go out.  Unless we can make new and original adaptations to our environment as rapidly as our science can change the environment, our culture will perish.  Not only will individual maladjustment and group tensions occur, but international annihalation (War & human destruction) will be the price we pay for a lack of creativity.  Consequently it would seem to me that investigations of the process of creativity, the conditions under which this process occurs, and the ways in which it may be facilitated, are of the utmost importance.


It is in the hope of suggesting a conceptual structure under which such investigations might go forward, that the following sections are offered.


The Creative Process
__________________


There are various ways of defining creativity.  In order to make more clear the meaning of what is to follow, let me present the elements which for me, are a part of the creative process, then attempt a definition.

In the first place, for me as a scientist, there must be something observable, some product of creation.  though my fantasies may be be extremely novel, they cannot be usefully defined as creative unless they eventuate in some observable product - unless they are symbolized in words, or written in a poem, or translated into a work of art or fashioned into an invention.

To be continued.

(Circa 1980 Phillips Stereo Radio Turntable:  Donated To The Creativity Party By Anonymous Female)

How to be an Art Terrorist At Tate Modern.

Anyone browsing my blog will realise that I'm not using the medium as a straight forward online "dear diary" to the world, but that I am using this blog "adddress" or free site, as an integral p-art of my overall creative process.  I slurge and purge my mind of creative thoughts, idioms, emotions, memories and stories of events past and present in a seemingly random, spontaneous or even chaotic manner.

I don't even give much thought to correct grammar, punctuation or even spelling, as it's the immediacy of the moment of what I'm thinking about each day, week, or moment that is central to my creative thought process.  Of course I do put some effort into the overall blog and its content, but I don't worry too much about how it reads, or what people may think of it, or me.

This blog is simply a semi-spontaneous part of my overall revolutionary creativity theory and social art process, and a central point where my ideas, thoughts, experiences, and actions can converge and interact with each other as they do within the unconscious part of my mind on a subliminal level.

This blog is a manifestation of my unconscious and conscious creative process of  mind and life seen through images, read through words, and reflected upon as an way for me to view the wood through the trees.

I feel and hope that at some future point I will probably focus upon a single thread, idea, or aspect of my overall revolutionary strategy and creative project, but that to force this process would be limiting myself, as well as narrowing my creativity in the same way the education system forces us to specialise in a single subject or skill to prepare us for work in a State managed economy of destructive global capitalism, which (as I'm sure you know) is itself ultimately controlled by an elite cartel of global American businesses, world banks, and international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, which is also controlled by American business power to influence the White House to veto decisions and projects. So there.

Back to the blog.  If I really wanted to attract a lot of attention quickly, I would simply sit down for a while, think of the best course of action to take for public exposure, go to central London and "do something", possibly leading to my arrest, and ultimately media exposure of whatever I choose to talk about or portray myself as. And clearly the creativity party is in no fit state yet for such grandiosity.

Publcity is not difficult to do, it just a question of what you do with it when you get it.  I remember a few years ago myself and a friend stood a hundred metres away from the entrance to the Tate Modern art gallery with two art works lent against a wall next to us, not to sell them but just for the spontaneous fun of a sunny Saturday morning, and it to see how people would respond. 

Within an hour, three policeman turned up and politely asked us to move on.  Flabba-gasted ( yes I really was!) by this turn of events as we were in no way obstructing the Thames river path, and were clearly a hundred metres away from the Tate entrance, so I enquired by what law we were required to move on?  "Under the The Terrorism Act" the Police officers replied. 

After a few minutes of jovial banter to and fro with the Police, they more or less admitted (but not directly) that the Tate Modern had phoned them, and they had been dispatched to move us on. We who had nothing with us except two works of recycled art, were seen as a public nuisance to the great State of Art Tate Modern, or perhaps in case we carried out some form of public art disorder, which neither of us had any intention of doing.

We just wanted some free public feedback on our creative work at that time, and knew the public traffic near the Tate would present us with the most "international free public arena." After several minutes of debate, we were informed that if we didn't move on we would be arrested under the Terrorism Act.  Excellent I thought, let's do this, exactly the type of political art opening I had been expecting to present itself to us at some point.

I had absolutely no intention of moving as I realised the significance of the moment in terms of free publicity for  The Creativity Party, and of all the possible outcomes and consequences, but my friend who was with me at the time had no experience of these Creative Individual 'V' the Conformity of the State points of conflict, and looked rather pertured by my calm and casual refusal to "move-on" in the face of these Governement enforcers of people control.

I looked at my friends disposition, and briefly even considered leaving her there with  two large art works while I triumphantly and willingly accepted my State arrest for simply daring to stand "too near the great Tate with "unknown art," I could already read the predictable News at Ten tele-promter:  "a self-proclaimed revolutionary artist" has been arrested Under the Terrorism Act outside the Tate Modern today for.......blah blah blah."

Not wishing to bring my friends' world to suddenly and dramatically into my world of creative social art resistance, I rather relunctantly agreed to move away, but I hated the fact I knew somewhere up on one of the upper levels of the Tate, behind a large plate glass window of an office there were senior Tate  art personnel smiling smuggly at their easily won victory, wrongly assuming that in the face of Police action I would experience anything other than fear, and react with meek compliance.  I knew that although this battle was lost, the creative and cultural resistance against capitalist conformity and the anti-creative existence that the State attempts to blanket everyone with, could be challenged another day.  If you are going to be arrested, make sure you choose the time and the day, not the State stormtroopers, in this way you are in control of the process, and are less likely to be batoned around the head or body, or pushed to ground and killed accidently.  Make no mistake, the chances of a policeman being made legally cupable for violence towards a protestor is neglible.   Do not expect the law to protect you, you have to protect yourself.  I always wear a cycling helmet, body pads, and as much body armour beneath my clothing as possible if I'm on a demo or art mission of sorts.  Avoidance of conflict is the best option......the ordinary police man is just a potato head acting on orders..........and if they can get a good story down the Station about they clobbered some poor protestor around the head they will without question...............I spent five years working with the criminal justice system as an covert-observational researcher...........I know.

So with that in mind, if you are just an ego-tistical self-serving publicity seeker with no idea about your creative strategy, or you are desparate for you creative work to be seen, just go and hang outside the Tate, don't bother carrying out some form of puerile protest inside the building, just lean against the River rail with an art work for an hour or two, (don't give up as they will be watching you, and you will already be in battle of wills with the Tate Modern to see who blinks first), they will want you moved away, but without causing undue attention or negative publicity. 

Refuse to give up your public right to stand where you want when the stormtroopers turn up, after all the Tate doesn't own the river path, or do they? It doesn't matter as the Police will never say outright you are tresspassing on Tate property, how can they, for this would be an admission that that it is the Tate Modern who have called them out, and can you imagine how that would look in the media, unknown artist arrested under the Terrorism Act on behalf of the Tate Modern for trespass? 

And where was the defendant at the time of arrest?  "Errrrr about a hundred metres away from the entrance to the building you honour." What do mean s/he was outside the building, I thought the law of Trespass meant he had to be arrested on the premises."   "well the surrounding area, and the public footpath is also owned by the Gallery m'lud."   please explain to me how this person has been arrested under the Terrorism Act while on a public pathway. Was he carrying anything suspicious or related to terrorist activities?"  "Err no your honour."  Was he in possession of anythng likely to cause one assume s/he was a public threat of some sort?" No you honour. Then why was he arrested?.   He refused to move when asked by the police.  "Yes I understand that, but I'm trying to find out why was s/he being asked to move in the first place?"

Errrr.........(You see the police can admit they were called out, but why were they called out?  Any average lawyer could pick apart the fact that the Tate have the Police on speed dial, and both the Police and other public organisations are abusing the widening of the Terrorisim act5 since  911 to oppress and control social behaviour legal or otherwise.

You get the picture, it would be only a matter of  further court questions and debate before it became clear you were arrested under the terrorism act for having art with you outside the Tate.  Cue, your public statement on the the steps of the court house when you walk free and join the historical ranks of every revoltuionary artist-creative before you.

When/if you get arrested under the Terrorism Act explain you are exercising your creative and social freedom, (make sure you push for this at the Station, as the Police will attempt to either let you go immediately with a caution, or change the charge to one less "publicly contentious" such a public disorder or refusal to comply with an officer, and hope to give you fine, so that you'll go away quitely. Don't go aawy quietly, they will reach a point where they want to just get rid of you....hang in there,  a lawyer will be provided for you, and phone me too, I love a good legal wrangle down the Station.

They may even charge you, put you in the cells, and hope you become so concerned and frightened that in a few hours you will agree not to do it again just to get out of there.  Ignore all of these mind games, and be steadfast in your creative-artistic right to stand a hundred metres away from the Tate, but still directly in front of it, and then the rest is up to you how you deal with your story, the media-press publicity about you and your art, turn it to your advantage and mention the increasing restrictions on public and social freedoms, invite all the journalists and media to your studio, home, flat, student digs, bedsit etc.

And if your art or your creative product is any good you should be up and running with your new socially-enaged, socially conscious, radical process of art or creativity.  By all means inform anyone and everyone during this process that you are an occasional participant of The Creativity P-art-y it will help you tremendously at the Police Station to make sure they charge you under the Terrorism Act. Organisations are always seen as more threatening to the State than individuals.

At all times outside the Tate be polite and courteous, do not give the Tate or the Police any excuse to charge you with anything except the fact you refuse to move from a perfectly good spot near the river, where you are waiting for friends.

The only way they can move you on is under the Terrorism Act which is being used as a cover-all to control a myriad of perfectly acceptable behaviour to most people. But not the Tate, and not the Government.

If you are wondering why I don't go and carry out this art-activist action (again) myself, it's because I don't need to, as I'll probably get arrested just for writing this.

Of course if a small group of creatives-artist would like to test any of the above please let me know and I'll accompany you to the best spot.

David X.

Current Activities

Hi, I'm currently writing & posting the most complete, comprehensive, and satisfying definition of creativity that I have come across which I am posting (gradually) at the link "Definition of Creativity".  I'm also in the process of posting my own theory of creativity which I have coined (called) "Cosmosis Creativity Cell", or rather it coined (named) itself when I first concieved of it in 1999.  I call it The Creativity-Cell for short everyday use.

Here is a piece of note paper I have tried to condense everything on regarding this theoretical concept. I have told people about it, and tried to publish some basic details, but I shall try to post a more complete version just in case I get hit by a bus or something.
Here is some note paper, with my theory on it.........

And here is an image for my Niece who is in hairdressing.............which is far more interesting to most people.

Radical Theory To Hairdressing

I like this contrast, after all, if I can't explain a radical theory to the hairdresser, then who can I explain it to without it becoming an intellectualized, elitist, pretentious ideal?

The Creativity and Art Issue (Plus a thought on the football world cup.)

There is often confusion in most peoples minds about what is meant by creativity, and what is the difference between creativity and art; are they the same thing?  The answer is no, creativity and art are not the same they are related and over-lapping concepts.

In order to make art you need to express a degree of creativity, the more creativity expressed, the more original or significant the work of art is likely to be. Your creativity, how you express it, and why will be a combination of your unique talents, abilities, and personality, combined with, or diffused through, your social and educational experiences of life.

In general, most people, and art institutions also, equate creativity in art with the degree of "skill" in making the creative art product.  You could be a highly creative person with lots of ideas but with with no special practical skill, or you could be highly trained at an art School for instance, have a very high degree of practical skill, but possibly far less persoanl creativity to express your learnt skills in any original art way.

Therefore, it is unlikely that in either scenario art of any worth will be produced, above or beyond the pleasant or pleasing run of the mill art you can see everyday in shops and galleries, which are fine to decorate restaurant walls or hotel lobbies, they may even sell for ten of thousands of pounds.  This doesn't necessarilly mean they are great works of art, for those are few and far between; it means more often than not that the artist has been able to position themselves and their work successfully through education, networking, publicity, contacts, and no little luck within suitable art outlets and galleries of the established art market for someone to view the art and like it enough to buy it.

You could be the best artist in the Britain, but if no-one sees your work, your art is in fact invisible, producing invisible art is something I'm rather good at myself.  In fact, most of best work has never been by any other living soul.  That's just the way it is sometimes.

In short, you can learn the required specialist knowldege of an art form such as photography: "apperture speed" or "lighting" etc, and how to develop your own photographs with the right chemical processes in a dark room, but this does not mean you will take great photographs or produce what could be considered photographic art.

What is clear is that you can not produce great art without great creativity, but you can produce great works of creativity in the whole range of human activity without making "formal" art. 

People have a tendency to equate all creativity with art, and vice-versa, only the other day a student of philosophy said to me "I'm not creative" as he has fallen into the trap most people have when thinking creativity is only art.  Simply "thinking" is a creative activity, cooking, gardening, learning, playing, writing, conversation, sport, work, driving, in short, all human activity involves some form or degree of creativity; maybe not the highest levels of original creative genius but some level of creativity is needed simply to make everyday decisions, and carry out ordinary tasks, and no-one would considered any of it art.

I am pleased to say, I have had a further conversation with this student since, and he nows informs me that the only creative thing he possibly does is have conversations with people, mainly about his passion for philosophy.  Luckily I was photocopying definitions and descriptions of creativity at the time so I gave him the best ones to read.

Creativity is fundamental to "all of human activity, experience, and expression", Art is what human beings make as specific and unique expression "of" our human creativity, and we are the only only species that does this, make art for the sake of it, and no other practical purpose.  Even if no-one ever paid money for art, even if there were no art Colleges, and even if we had no formal understanding of art, human being would still make art, as seen by the cave drawing and painting in France from some 20, 000 years ago.
.
For those who wish to fully appreciate the definition of  Creativity, and its relationship to Art and other forms of human activity I recommend reading the full defining account of creativity by two of the best thinkers, researchers and writers on the subject:

Frank Barron and David. M. Harrington
Univesity of California, Santa Cruz

I will be posting their article online soon as I regard it is the best and fullest account of what creativity is that I have come across in my own ten years of independent creativity research into these issues, and my own experimental social art processes.

References
________

"Creativity, Intelligence, and Personality"  (Barron, F. and Harrington D.M (1981)  Annual review of Psychology 32.

Also Note.

"Creative Evolution"  Henri Bergson (1911)

Footnote
_______

I saw the white frame (Above -Below) poking out of a bin outside a house, and as I collected it, a woman shouted though the window "It's rubbish". I asked several people on the way home if they thought this frame was a piece of rubbish and no-one agreed, and as you can see above and below, her rubbish has entertained me for several hours.

Yet again, the British public are subjected to another bout of humiliating sporting failures from the rich and pampered sports "stars" of football and tennis.  It's all in the mind.  Although I do have to confess, that as soon as I heard the World Cup was in Africa, I dismissed Englands chances to win as zero,  the simple practical fact is that  the English game of speed and power is not adaptable nor suitable to the slower skillful style required to play at the highest level in extreme heat of African or South American climates.  What about Germany I hear I you say!  Germany are lucky, in one respect that they always put a "team ethos" before individual skill is applied, its built into their social heritage and national consciousness, the England team is the other way around. Our social heritage is based upon individualism over collectivism, hence the self-serving egos, and drunk footballers falling out nightclubs and throwing money around.

If the England team only fielded players who had not been photographed either drunk or exiting a nightclub within the past year, hardly any of the current so-called "first team" would have played in the World Cup, instead Engerland would have bee represented by a group of young, fit, healthy, hunger english terriers, and can anyone say that like that like the fearless youth of the German team we wouldn't have done much better?

German progress is also fortunate this time in that as yet they have not come up against another "team" or one with the required number of skillful players to overcome the functionalist German team machine.  In Spain they will now be faced with a team, that is both a "team" and a team that has more skillful players.  Quite simply, Spain are currently the best team in World football, and I expect them to win the whole tournament.

Close of 3 Day Social Art Event

1950's HMV radio gram reconfigured into contemporary multi-media console. (Showing Grand Prix World Cup Football, and Wimbledon highlights)

!950's HMV Radio Gram showing Muse Live From Glastonbury as "After Dark Live Installation)

Phew, I was seriously tired after that weekend, it's taken me almost two days to recover.  I'd like to thank everyone responsible for the gifts of items and objects to recycle, and to Joe in particular for his efforts regarding pre-event publicity, and his participation during Sunday afternoon.  Now its time for reflection and to see what we can learn for future creative progress and events. 

A few things have already emerged concerning some of the recycled art, in particular the HMV multi-media station constructed from an original HMV radio-gram shell. One guest commented that they could easily see it in Tate Modern.  Here are a couple of other quotes I remember:

"Inspiring" and "I feel honored to be here" 

I was quite pleased with how it all worked out, but let's not get carried away, it was almost a month of constant hard work, and we need more people from all backgrounds, and across all interests if this is going to succeed.  You do not need to consider yourself artistic nor creative to get involved, its more important to have a sense of community across any area of life whether its education, art, work, gender, music, media, or politics.  The term creativity is not specific to just art, it is specific to all areas of life. All art is not creative, and all creativity is not art.  Whereas all life can be considered in a creative sense, but can all life be considered as art? 

Essentially western culture has reduced this argument to a religous debate around the nature of existence; is there a supreme being (God) or did we emerge out of the scientific analogy of a "Big bang". hhhhhmmmmm.... anyway here is nice paint spattered designer jacket.

Black Pierre Cardin Jacket.
__________________________

 A Couple of people tried this on and it was intresting to see how a normal suit jacket suggests a completely different fashion style and rock n roll persona when it's been creatively recycled, I think more people should give new life to old clothes with some random daubs of paint, School Uniforms for one!  Why should it only be art students who get to do this type of thing, surely if the Government wants more "creative minds" as they claim they do, then kids should be able to express thier individuality through thier School uniforms.  I think we have just found the first Creative Social Policy for the Education Department of The Creativity P-art-y.

Preview Night Friday 25th June

I'm so tired after last night and the constant work over the past three and half weeks, but it was worth if so far. The space looked amazing last night. Thanks to the objects people have donated to me to work with.

A Big Thank you to Sabrina from East Finchly for help with the photography.

After Dark Installations with Found Objects


 
 

 



 

I've got to get back, I have to re-open in half an hour for the Sat. afternoon viewing......

Creativity Weekend: 25th - 27th June. Day: 2 - 5pm Evening 7 - 10pm

The Creativity Manifesto Through a Social Process of Art

Humbly Offers

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"A Creative Community Micro-Event."

@STUDIO SEVEN

"Studio 7 is an Interactive Living-Art Installation made from found objects and Recycled items"

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 Featuring

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Recycled Art Exhibition  (Bring items to experiment with or objects to display if you want)

Music, Refreshments. (bring whatever you can to contribute and p-art-icipate in this evolving SOCIAL PROCESS of ART).

ADDRESS: Studio 7, 2nd Floor, Lime Lodge, Montalt Rd, Woodford Green, IG8 9RX.

Directions: Tube Central Line, 15 min walk from Woodford Green Tube. Bus 275 from Walthamstow Central to Mill Lane (15 mins), 2 min walk.

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The Invitation

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White Tile, Feather, Calligraphy Ink, Candle Holder.

This is what I refer to as Creative Zen, I always wonder what future use I can make of each single object I find that has had a previous life with someone in the Community. Days, months or even years later, the single perfect opportunity arises that brings several objects together for a single social art use.  The feather I found a few days ago, the ink two years ago, waiting to be used, and the candle holder a few months ago.  So I will write a few hand written invites with this collection of items.  Which means they are no longer separate objects discarded by life and nature; they have been recycled into a new living art process of creativity and community.

I have three weeks to do something with this, what would you do?  This is the largest and most impressive frame I've ever found.  For the first few days I felt intimidated just looking at it! I've never painted anything this large before, but somehow following my own process of creative Zen, I feel ready for it. The right frame at the right time, I walked past it for a month wondering whether it was too much for me, but then a strange coincidence happened which decided it for me. I guess I'm now in the right frame of mind.  Although, it's  It's taken me almost a week to decide where to hang it, let alone anything else.  Let's leave it for a while, and begin the real work.....

First Night After Dark Installations With Found Objects

Science and Art (Note on a wall: June 2010)

Scientists are like artists, and who in their right mind would think of locking up a bunch of creative minds in a University, or an institution?

(James Lovelock:Gaia Theory)

Definition and Explanation of Creativity

"Being, is living creatively"

(Gilles Deleuze)

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

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Creativity is the ablility to bring something new into existence.  It shows itself in the acts of people. through the creative process taking place in a person or group of persons, creative products are born.  Such products may be quite diverse:  mechanical inventions, new chemical processes, new solutions or new statements of problems in mathematics and science; the composition of a piece of music, or a poem, story or novel; the making of new forms of in painting, sculpture or photography; the forming of a new religion or philosophical system; an innovation in law, a general change in manners, a fresh way of thinking about and solving problems; new medical agents and techniques; even new ways of persuasion and of controlling the minds of others.

Implicit in this diversity is a common core of charisteristic that mark creative products, processes and persons. Creative products are distingusihed be their originality, their aptness, their validity, their usefulness, and very often by a subtle additional property which we may call the "Aesthetic Fit".

For such products we use words such as fresh, novel, ingenious, clever, unusual, divergent.  The ingredients of the creative process are related functionally to the creative forms being produced: seeing things in a new way, making connections, taking risks, being alerted to chance and the opportunities present by the contradictions and complexities, recognizing familiar patterns in the unfamiliar so that new patterns may be formed by transforming old ones, being alert to the contingencies which may arise from such transformations.

In creative people, regardless of their age, sex, ethnic background, nationality or way of life, we find certain personality traits recurring: an ability to think metaphorically or analogically as well as logically, independence of judgement (sometimes manifesting itself as unconventionality, rebellion, revolutionary thinking and acting),a rejection of an insufficent simplicity (or a tendency to premature closure) in favour for a  more complex and satisfying new order or synthesis.

A certain naivete or innocence of vision must be combined with stringent requirements set by judgment and experience.  The act of the verification is a final stage in the creative process, preceded by immersion in the problem, incubation of the process subliminally, and illumination or new vision.


The Birth of Creativity
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The creative aspects of Mind and of Will engaged the attention of the major philsophers-psychologist of the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Alfred Binet, the famed constructor of intelligence tests, was known first through the pages of L'Annee Psychologique in the 1880's and 1890's as the author of widely ranging emprical studies of creativity (including research by questionnaire and interview of leading French writers) and the originator of dozens of tests of imagination (devised first as games to play with his own children).

The fateful decision to exclude such occasions for imaginative play from his compendium of tasks prototypical of needed scholastic aptitudes has led to much mischief in educational appllication and to continuing confusion about the relationship of intelligence to creativity.  The former as generally measured is important to certain aspects of the latter, but people of equal intelligence have been found to vary widely in creativity; and, alas, some notbaly creative persons have also been found notably lacking in whatevert it takes to get on successfully in school.

Of  the two most famous psychoanalysts, Carl Jung made a greater contribtuion than Freud in this field, developing especially the notions of Intuition and of the Collective Unconscious as the sources of creation.  Henri Bergson (1911 [1907], in Creative Evolution, distinguished intuition from intellect as the main vechicle of the creative proces in-mind-general and in what, in retrospect, is more than mere vitalism he attributedwill as elan vital, the chief motivating force of the creative process in nature. Nearly a century after Bergson's initial formulations, Gregory Bateson (1979) was writing in that same tradition, and his gradueal developments of an "Ecology of Mind"  found expression in his Mind and Nature: A Necessity Unity.

 

Eureka (1999) Clarity Out of Chaos (2009)

 

Mind Map No.1 (Black, Green, Red Marker Pens, White Emulsion, Mixed Media On Found Board 1999)

Mind Map No.2 (Black Green, Red Marker Pens, White Emulsion, On Found Board, 2009)

Marks Upon a Beach By David & Joanne (Cornwall 2008)

The creative process is one of humankind's great unfathomable mysteries.  The experience captured in the photograph above is one of my own classic examples:

I had no thought except to write a title in the sand to make my mind feel more certain and solid about my future creative intentions. Somehow I thought that if I wrote it in the sand it would be a statement to myself that such a manifesto would somehow come into being.  As I was enjoying the process, my thoughts were drawn to the Normandy beach landings in World War II, and how symbolic beaches seem to be considering that in the UK, we live on an Island.  I could not help but think of all those thousands of lives lost on the Beaches of France in WW II in the fight for freedom.  How could scenes of such natural beauty become killing grounds of such base destruction of human life?

I knew that in an hour or so the tide would rise and the sea would erase anything I wrote in the sand.  It was just a temporary mark soon to be washed away.  As I came to dot the two letter I's in "creativity", I had a beautiful inner feeling that two hearts were more appropriate. Then as I went to dot the third "I" in th word manifesto which had been written by Joanne, a friend of mine who had invited me down to Cornwall; I realised I would not be able to, as there was already a large rock there embedded upon the beach in the exact spot above the third "I".  It was by pure chance she had written the word manifesto there, as it was where I had written the word "creativity".  But somehow, in my mind the rock was symbolic of something I couldn't quite grasp at that moment.  All I knew and felt, was that somehow it seemed perfectly appropriate the rock was there, and would remain there long after the words and we two people had gone.

We finished  the beach markings and looked over the words; but again, for some reason, I felt an intuitive sense that it was not quite complete. A few minutes passed in this relaxed state of this feeling, and then gradually I felt a slow warm glow within myself, an almost strange mental and physical sensation that somehow led me to mark the symbol of Yin and Yang inside the final letter "O". 
It was at this moment that Joanne who had clambered up the rocks behind the beach to get a view from above took this photo, one of series she took as she documented our collaborative creative process.  I had never written the words on a beach before, and never in this way with these spontaneous additions, even though I have written down this idea probably hundreds of times before.  Somehow, in that moment,  I felt that for a few fleeting moments, everything made absolute perfect sense. 

Two years later, as I post this on the internet now, I realise that the two hearts could represent myself and Joanne, and the Yin Yang could represent both our masculinity and feminity. Or maybe it's an collective unconscious representation of all of us.

Why and how the creative process in humanity occurs is a mystery, I just know that it makes me feel really alive, in tune with my-self, nature and the Universe. Every single human being is creative, humanity has always been creative since the beginning of our evolutionary (creative) process, being-creative is what we are.


(A Grain of Sand is Connected To The Whole Universe (Zen Philosophy)

The Creative Process in Nature

                                           

                                             "It's not often one can improve upon nature"  

(James Lovelock: Independent Scientist/Inventor, Author of Gaia Theory on BBC TVseries, "Beautiful Minds")

Cells are the simplest form of self-contained, self-sustaining life.  Everything that we consider to be "alive" is made up of living cells.  In "Society and Solitude" (1912) Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

 "all art should to nature for its inspiration, true art resides in the model, in the plan, for it is upon this that the genius of the artist is expended."

On Creativity, On Art, On Writing.

On Creativity

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

                                                                   (Sylvia Plath)


"the creative process is the emergence in action of a novel relational product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual on one hand, and the materials, events, or circumstances of his life on the other."

                                       C.R.Rogers (1954) Towards A Theory of Creativity.

On Art

"An an artist I notice things and it's my job to give an adequate response"
                                                                                                             (Gustav Metzer)

"The role of the artist is to notice, the role of the art is to tell".
                                                                                            (Lawrence Weiner)


On Writing

"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise."


                                                                 (Sylvia Plath)

Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. To raise new questions, new posssiblities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination."  

Albert Einstein

Found Objects

On Writing

"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise."

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

Sylvia Plath

Mental Experiments With The Perspective of Time

What tells the time? The hands, the clock, or both? If a clock is turned sideways, and the hands remain in the same position, what is the time? If the clock and the hands are both turned sideways is the clock out of coventional time, or am I just playing about with a clock in a moment in time? Where is Einstein when you need him.

If you decide to catch up with work does this mean you are attempting to catch up with time, by making up for lost time. Is time  reality, or a social construction to help understand the world. How can we prove that time exists, and that we are moving through time? Each day I get a day older so therefore I am moving through some form of physical time from birth to end; this is the period of time that my life lasts.Or does it if we are all made up of atoms and particles that exist from the very moment time began, and go back into atoms and space dust. To be continued......

The Proverbial Black Suit (2005)

The classical male suit wear for attending art events seems to be the black suit.  Black is always considered to wearable for any event, anywhere, anytime.  I went for a classic three button design by Pierre Cardin.  But after numerous outing I began bored with it and decided to make it interesting by creating my own inimitibale design upon it with white paint.  I went for a military style overlaid with art activism. 

Art By Candlelight

I have a strange fascination with combining candles and other forms of light with works of art.  It staggers me that galleries always stick to the conventional method of curating art on white walls in stark light.  I once staged an underground exhibition in the dark lit only by candlelight, it was winter and a few weeks until Christmas, so we served people mulled wine and showed them around in small groups by candlelight. It made for an incredibly intimate and beautiful creative social experience, and the music that permeated the walls of the venue from the club next door only seemed to enhance the exotic surreality of the event.

Cosmosis Creativity Cell

These are the three words words that ended up being placed in the centre of a mind-map during a process of  conscious andunconscious self-exploration during a two week process of life reflection.  It was my first significant creative epiphany , and without a doubt one of the strangest, yet most sublime experiences of my conscious life. 

On the basis of this process/experience and the feelings/thoughts that had begun to emerge into my mind during the weeks preceding it,  I decided I had no choice but to resign from my normal Criminal Justice non-profit job. Ideas and thoughts had begun to impinge upon my everyday thinking when I was supposed to be concentrating on work;  My mind was elsewhere.

It was over the next two weeks that after re-assessing my life, past, present , and potential future that I made this mind map, spending a few minutes each evening after writing upon an old board painted white, whatever random thoughts, ideas, or feelings came into my mind with three marker pens that I had bought from the local newsagents, one red, one green, one black.

In order to explain to you fully what happened would take a while, and to explain what has happened to me over the subsequent ten years, would take a book,  extended performance, or film, which is what my family and friends believe I should be working on or towards at the very least.  I must confess, if I was following the conventional procedures of the creative industries. or the art world I would, but I'm not, I'm exploring a multi-dimensional creative process of my own.

I have however, incorporated numerous conventional creative experiences as I have gone along; I enrolled upon a course in the Creative and Cultural Industries for example and studied the design process for a while which I enjoyed,  I tried art courses but they didn't suit me at all, I turned to creative writing but felt stifled by the script, and somehow I then ended up spending three years of my life living in an Art Squat with dozens of others creative nomads in an organic art community. It was this radical experience that was to provide the basis of my revolutionary theory of creativity.

Ultimately, I realized that the separation and specialization of creativity wasn't what brought me to the subject of creativity in the first place, nor was it the chaos and uncoventionalty of my outsider bohemian life, it was an inner, intuitive feeling that had somehow lain dormant within me, and been jolted into life by an inner growing urge to express myself fully within the ordinary process of everyday life, which had increasingly come to feel like the restrictions of a cage around my mind and myself. This is what an uncreative role, in an uncreative job will do. It will gradually creep up and enclose you without you realising that you are not fulfilling your complete creative potential; and if you are one of the few to realise this you may find yoursself too old or too scared to do anyhting about it, job change, personal change, life change is difficult, scary, challenging. The rewards are great but the risk is high. So the majority of people remained unfulfilled at work, and therefore in life, but the lucky ones don't even relaise this because they have not become "creatively conscious", they remain contained in thier own little world of repetitiveness and routine.

I've seen it happen with many people. a friend of mine had a good education, a good job and career for ten years, but it was never what she really wanted to do or be. Suddenly she came to realise that rather than taking the easy option of staying in her a job for the next ten years she had a choice to make a change, but by then she felt so tied into her mortgage, work colleagues, friends and £40,000 a year salary that she was unable to see any way of changing her life into something she really wanted it to be. Most of her friends were mirror images of her, same tastes, same parties, same clothes.  Most of her relatively high salary went to paying of her credits debts that she had built up by massive comfort shopping for expensive clothes and shoes to feel good about her job, her life, and herself. After the temporary highs of self-indulgence she still felt stuck, and even tried a life-counsellor.  This dragged on for two years eventually resulting in a break-down, when she entered real counselling. She used the counselling process a comfort blanket for another two years trying to re-train her mind-set into the State (system) that all was well and her job was not so bad after all. 

Eventually, when it was clear she had to do something, she moved out of the City to live in a more relaxed place, but she took a similar job. Now she is doing the same thing, the same routine, but in a different, nicer  place, and she will never know what her future may have been if she had taken the risk to use her own creativity to re-imagine and develop her own life towards what she felt she was, and could be.

Creativity is about the whole person, the multi-dimensional complexity of being human, and being able to express and develop that each and everyday. If your job, or your life is not allowing you to do that, then it is upto you to consider the change and creativity.

The Creativity Manifesto

Palletto Sculpture (Circa 1999-2000)

At the turn of the Century I had a penchant for collecting discarded wooden pallets from the street, carrying them home to make scultpures.  I would them invite people around for drinks and food before conducting ceremonial cathartic burnings. Great way to end a night.