“If only you could see what I have seen with your eyes”.

The value and strength behind this statement has many reflections in the contemporary world. Although the film is a futuristic detective story it is also a symbiotic setting between the here and now, and the prediction of life in the future. What is remarkable about that statement is the fact that we are all constructs of a greater building machine; that we call society. I hope that my good friend wont mind me touching on something she said to me in an email the other day, I hope our friendship is good enough to withstand what I wish to say. However, I was a little hurt by a few comments made. Still trying, and still waiting to know the greater discussion on this, but at the end has placed me in an awkward situation to which I don’t like to sit.

I love blogging. Don’t know if I am good. By the rate of comments I get I can only assume that either I say too much, or not the right thing, or even am lacking that writing skill to get that type of following. However, I do it and I persist. Some days back I wrote a poem and posted it, also reflecting it on my Myspace blog. My friend saw this, and more over, showed it to a young lady of sixteen. Now, there was nothing much harmful in the poem, I am guessing. Nor, I thought, in the image that I attached to the poem. That of an artistic repose of a naked female form. However, there was an indication from my readers that there was a shock element to this post. To the extent that I was ‘almost’ accused of being a fan of pornography. Now this aside, and not having wanting to comment on any part of that for this post, it did trip a notion of how people see each other. I tend to spend my days promoting honesty and truth. From this, I see, comes a great air of mistrust. This is never aired openly, but gives a sense that there is a degree of doubt in people’s minds.

There is a great expression, “better the devil you know”. Now, what has happened in many aspects of today’s society is that people are more willing to accept negative aspects of the basic running of many aspects of life, that truth itself has become a mistrust. Nobody believes the news, with the advent of technology the faking of many aspects of recorded forms have also become mistrusted. And so to, the human nature has protected itself to become cautious of life. We as cognitive animals have actually done ourselves an injustice. Basically, as our minds have developed we have invariably learnt how to analyze things. However, what we are doing now is analyzing on a conscious level rather than the more appropriate instinctual level. Take for example dogs. When they approach each other, they invariably come face to face, smell each other’s rears and then determine their actions based on the natural elements that have been provided to them. This is how connections are made; most naturally. I have just finished reading a chapter of the book ‘Blink’ in which it actually takes of events where people have made bad judgments simply because of how they consciously evaluate the evidence around them. They are making judgments, not on truth, but instead via environmental conclusion based on what they believe to be true. I was quite fascinating to read this part of the book. As one element of it talked of a how people can, or should subconsciously, be able to read people’s faces. That there are very tell tale signs imprinted on human faces that define natural traits in the person. The slightest of things, such as a rise on the brow, or a turn in the corner of an eye can actually indicate a nature of a person. The expert found it was so definite that he could tell the nature of two different tribes, never seen before, simply by the facial aspects. He was so good at this that he shocked observers by his 100% accuracy.

The point I wanted to make about the start point of this thread, was the fact that it is an obvious truth that we all live inside our own bodies. Our barrier or wall is the physical connection that is held in our bodies. Nobody can judge for certain the way that an individual’s mind works or whether what is thought and then translated out into the world as speech, action or emotion is in fact what is the physical translation of what is going on in the mind and body. What is disturbing though, is that there is a judgment being made in assumption rather than real translation of elements provided. This is not such a bad thing. I say that simply because society is becoming more and more violent and out of balance in a natural way, that it is really hard to know how to judge people. There is an old lady I know. She has lived her life through many generations, in such a way that she perpetuates her understanding of people from a time when people were more honest and righteous. However, her problem is, is that she still believes that people are really like that. She was nearly ripped off the other day, by two gypsies posing as church representatives. Now, I am not getting into a religious argument about how the Christian value of seeing good in all people is in fact turning some people into victims, but at the end of the day, it has a ring of truth to it. She believed them.

Now returning to the point about how the inner and outer person have to deal with each other. Only the self can judge what is true and what is not. The promotion of this truth is then broadcast into the real world. How it is received, or how it should be received is based on the connection the receiver has to the transmitter. A complete stranger of course would take all elements of the transmission with a degree of mistrust. It only seems natural. However, a trusted encounter should be based on that. A degree of trust. It is difficult to know how to understand people. Even with the most intimate connection do you really know the person. Are they talking in truths or the truth you want to hear? Maybe these are not the questions I am trying to answer here. What I am trying to make a point about is that the transference of a degree of total truth when received and translated as something false is a very damaging thing on the two parties concerned. It almost gives license for the transmitter to in fact be untruthful over honesty, because the honesty seems to hurt more.

There are many things that a person can be judged for. Many things that may not be socially correct, but in the minds of the people carrying out that judgment are correct. I have said that I would feel sorry for the person who would do anything to harm my daughter. The funny truth about that, is firstly, that statement is (if read) actually promoting anti-social and criminal intent. However, secondly, and most importantly, it is being based on a natural instinct to protect one’s offspring. I am sure many a parent would feel the same in any given circumstance by which their child was at risk. What happens though is that conclude that there is a degree of aggressive social behaviour and mistrust in a person who is willing to harm another. Not because it is not just, but because society has determined that there is a wrong doing at hand. Back to the origin of this post. I am not a person to condone pornography. However, one of the things I have come to realise, and I actually use one of Toscani’s Benetton adverts to discuss this point, is that we are all born the same; naked. We have been designed that way. Without (again) the social aspects of defining what is a perfect body, we should see that this is our presence. Nature has made us this way. Society has told us to cover the flesh and be repulsed by the notions of what nudity states. Now, saying that, I don’t think that we should all walk around naked. What I am saying is two things. Firstly, I don’t think that there is anything wrong in the representation of the human form in an artistic way. I do think there is a difference between a beautiful image and a lewd and provocative image suggesting sexual connotations.

What comes from this, and returning back to Roy Batty, is that I, like most, look out through my eyes and I live within. I make judgments based on the sensory inputs I receive. What I transmit is a complex set of signals based on a nurturing process, a social interaction process and a cognitive process. People are not right or wrong on some matters. Mainly because there is no wrong or right. It is a simple matter of judgment based on circumstance. However, there seems to be a greater divide being created via our need to rip ourselves from our natural heritage. We have the capability to know when someone is lying. However, we tend to never evaluate people on the merit of what is being said. Instead we are basing it on what we perceive of it, and not from the individual, but from the definition of society. To conclude. I am also a great believer in the Chinese philosophy of ‘Yin-Yang’. I extend this as much as I can to all aspects of life. One of which is knowing that all individuals have the natural balance of good and evil with them. I do not deny that in myself, as much as some people seem to do, so I am comfortable in knowing that there is bad out there, and that I too (reluctant to say) also have the ability to be bad. We all do. What is reassuring to know, however, is that we do have safeguards and controls to make this balance work effectively. Maybe at the end of the day the monster within is not the evil creature that prays on the weakness of all around, but the complete opposite. The monster is in fact the goodness that is trying to convince us that ‘they’ are bad, that ‘they’ are lying, that they can’t be trusted. But not because it is the truth, but simply because the balance is not allowing us to see what is available to define the truth.

What has become evident through reading this book, and also doing much more research in the process of our decent from the trees, is that in many respects our conscious nature is actually working against us. We believe that by looking at something hard enough an answer will come, even when (as Gladwell notes) our gut could be telling us something else. Is there a right and wrong in this evaluation? Well, the simple truth is that the argument is two ironically large to give a plain answer. It could depend on many things; the subject, the needed outcome, the situation, the time of day, the weather conditions, and even, as some people would like to speculate, whether a butterfly flaps its wings in a distant far off place. The funny thing about that last sentence is that it is actually built from propositional elements to an outcome. Adding things to an equation to get an answer. See it like this. “We didn’t win the race because a butterfly flapped it’s wings in Japan.” Now, the fact is that it could be true. Chaos theories could in fact be right in all their analysis, but the need to think of that as part of an equation to reason why a race was won or not is another thing; “We didn’t win.” Plain and simple.

Reading “Blink” and the astounding stories told in there of how people have or have not reacted to their initial feeling is a great insight into the power of nature and it’s creation in the human, and other operational systems. As part of my recent engagement into this fascinating subject, I have also been looking at autism and mental illness. It is actually mentioned in “Blink” as one of the controlling process that the mind does in order to evaluate or protect. Gladwell uses the term; ‘momentary autism’ to indicate the tunneling that the brain does in order to isolate unnecessary information. What the difference is, and quite an important one to me as a creative, is the fact that the conscious mind is believed to be right on all matters. Maybe because we are living in the here and now. Maybe because we rely on hard evidence over feeling. This is astonishingly ironic as one of the biggest controlling processes on the planet is religion, which is all based on ‘faith’ or ‘gut-feeling’. Anyway, how autism is a concern to me in art terms is the amazing abilities that some autistic people have, like Steven Wiltshire, seen here, having the autistic ability to create amazing pieces or replicated landscape. Autism is not a disease, it is a lack of cognitive process in many aspects of what people would consider a normal life. Basically we all have this potential locked in, its just that our brain uses process to give reason.

Where does this all take us. Well, the simple answer is to rely on our initial feeling. Don’t pick your birthdate as a lottery ticket number is something is telling you that it should be seven today. Don’t catch that plane if you feel uneasy about it. Do react to how you feel and from the given data that is presented to you. However, don’t take to long in doing it. Society and our modern lifestyle makes us think to much about things in a way that ultimately makes bad choices, but safe choices. After concluding this book, I am happy to start looking at things in a more responsive and instant way. I feel I do have this ability with images and art. I look upon a piece and can see faults in them, see possible areas of correction and so forth. One thing I do feel clouds me in many aspects of this instant ability to see the faults is that I analyse it to try and give it a meaning. Ultimately, it either is right or wrong. I fully recommend that if you are interested in this type of book, that you read it. I have added it to my list of books on the school book list. If only to counter the brilliant “Lateral Thinking” book. I have been told many times that thinking is a little dangerous for me. Well, thinking too much! So, maybe in future it is time ‘not’ to step back and to go with that millisecond of clarity that many of us miss, because we are looking for something.

K.Π. Kαβάφης

I was, just this morning, standing in the local supermarket. As I was waiting my turn at the till, it struck me, looking around, that there was a great deal of products that were made possible by two simple attributing qualities. The first is that it has part of its key element made out of a petroleum spin-off; plastic, polyurethane, nylon, etc. The second contributing factor is the simple fact that as humans we are starting to accept the ‘throw away culture’ to which we have aspired. It came across to me as I stood there, that there are so many products that are cheaply made (one of the original selling points of plastic) and sitting available to replace previously purchased items, that also were made for ease and limited life expectancy. These items had no quality to them, no aesthetics, no cultural value. They were simply an item to do a job, but in a cheap and nasty fashion. What was more evident to me was the fact that they were taking up valuable natural resources, that they were polluting the planet, and that they were creating a culture that evidently doesn’t care to the affect that all this has. I was thinking, as I looked at a shelf of simple coat hangers, how many of these are there being produced, being sold, bought, being used and ultimately being discarded with this ‘throw away culture’. It was an enormous amount I guessed.

In a previous conversation with a friend we talked about how things were when there was the process of craftsmanship. That things were made with some quality and care. And its true. I have objects in my house, made from years ago, that are still good, are still functional, and are still of quality. They are outlasting the cheaper, more modern ones that are in all tense and purpose supposed to make life easier and simpler. What we have done though is changed our culture without any regard to the affects of the future. We have developed, through technology, a society that is isolating itself in a need for trying to create a way of life that delivers something that is forever out of our reach. All this development, innovation and recreation is trying to define a utopian state by which we can live a perfect lifestyle. However, we cannot live this life from a plastic bag or a 10c disposable phone. What we are in fact doing is creating a society that believes that this is the way things should be, but don’t know how to make it better. There was a really funny advert on television here in Greece for a company called ‘Jumbo’. It is a toy store. The advert showed how people had managed to find a reuse for plastic bags. This was like seat covers, umbrellas, for filling gaps in windows, etc. Although the advert was clever and effective it also was a strange statement. To me the proliferation of plastic toys in the youth culture is one of the greatest contributors to this whole ‘throw away society’, and for the company to then exploit this via the simple, plastic device by which people take these items.

This kind of indicates the nature by which we now live. People want instant, easy and convenient process. They get this not by asking for it, but by accepting the crass and rushed designs that are thrown at them. Not by a society that is concerned for the culture, or by the effect this cheapness has on the culture, but by that statement made at the start. The fact that this fossil element has in fact made a ‘greed society’. People wanting to replicate anything that makes a buck. Replicating in a trashy and cheaper fashion in order to get a noticeable gaze from money-thrift customers. Customers that have to survive by actually replacing all this ‘throw-away’ rubbish. If things were made with any quality then they would last longer, but unfortunately many companies would go out of business in that case. I once read that modern electronic companies actually purposely make components last for a short life span so that you need to replace them, or buy new machines. This, if true, then defines a culture that is more concerned about the here-and-now rather than the future of the planet and the usage of the natural resources. This is very disconcerting, and at the end of the day, shows that the present zeitgeist is one of selfishness and greed and that the future generation will unfortunately have to pay the greater price for this lack of concern. What is seemingly happening is that, because of the invention of money, we are making a ‘throw-away’ future. It is a price we must consider paying if we are not willing to do something about it.

For some of use, myself included, have painstakingly taken years to develop their skills and put themselves through college and even higher levels of education to try and hold a stack in the ever demanding world of art. Now, maybe you are thinking to yourself what will the painful argument be in this text? Well, I was recently presented myself with a bill for a plumbing job done on the house. It was a steep figure, and the work lasted, must and been short of one hour. So, the fact and a comment I have made much in the past, is the truth that a plumber (regardless of his skill, education and background) is on a better thing than I. Basically he is doing a job, that if I could have been bothered, could have done. Now looking at the creative side of things. People use this silly term “talent” and band it around thinking that it is a license to create something. However, it is quite a flippant remark when you consider the simple fact that as a “talented” person I make less per hour that the plumber and probably other individuals. If, by a talent, it is something that one can do that nobody else can, due to a special gift, then surely that is worth something. No? Anyway, not want to go too far down that avenue. The point of this blog is the connection that a highly skilled job has next to another. This came into my mind when I posted a status change on Facebook, which was a quote from a good film called ‘Parenthood’. This is the quote:

You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car – hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they’ll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father.

Now,what I was thinking is that there are many other professions out there that require some sort of ‘registered’ qualification. I would not see it as a license, but in all-tense-and-purpose is a license to work. For example, you cannot be a doctor (legally) if you do not have a medical license. Nor can you practice law without taking the ‘Bar’. You need to take the oath for many other things such as police officers, etc. Also many of the professions also require the person to go to college, or go through an academy training process in order to get recognised. Being a creative it seems like you can walk in off the streets and do a skilled job, simply by stating to know how to draw, or worse, know how to use a computer application. Now, to me, this seems like not necessarily an insult to trained creatives, but more of a degradation to the working environment. What it is in fact doing, is forcing costs to go down simply by the fact that anyone can say they can do this and so substandard artists are setting the pay scale.

There once used to be a time. Funnily, a time before computers, where people actually were paid well for their skill and were recognised as being a professional. These days however, with clipart this and do it in Photoshop that, there is no great recognition for the qualities and craftsmanship or real ability. Neither is there any kind of scale or wage banding for this type of work. People are being able to demand high quality at low prices. Simply because there is some other person out there who had their kitchen fridge art praised once too many times and thought they could make some pocket money (not saying that some people do not have ability from this form) and can influence the market. Could you imagine, for example, that I had watched all the series of ER, House MD and St. Elsewhere and the announced that I thought it was a great idea to become a doctor. It wouldn’t really fly now would it. The art world would really be a hard place to license, simply because it is not merely a knowledge based career. It does have this requirement for aptitude, that doesn’t come on an art course. But wouldn’t it be nice to think if there were a council somewhere that accredited your standard of skill and ability and then ‘gave you license’ to work in the field. You could then skip out into the poppy fields with canvas in hand and brush in the other and know that your day painting could amount to financial as well as ‘pat-on-the-back’ respect. Maybe, in the old plumber school of “Oh, you should listen to me. I know what I’m talking about.” type attitude you could confidently swoosh an ID declaring you as a certified creative and then know when you toss over the bill for a piece of work the client wouldn’t laugh and then reject it due to the fact they can get a similar image on some money-grabbing stock site at a 100th of the price. Ah, utopia! Anyway, it was just a thought that crossed my mind. Luckily for my friend, her art has creative quality as much as mine, and therefore hold up the skill that her career has developed. As for the poor person who had designed the weak attempt that we ‘sort of’ mocked, then maybe they should go back to the old drawing board and rediscover a new career option.

- Cavafy

This is a complex path. Recently I have been given some praise from many sources. Not that there isn’t a great deal of gratitude for this source of encouragement, however, it seems that as my friend Amy said the other day, it always takes 3 counts of kindness to equate one of negativity. The hard part of that statement is that as the old adage goes; we are our own worst enemies. The self criticism process is a strong and alive in myself, and learning the trade of this process during my foundation course, I do realise the essential part it plays. However, there is a struggle. Not a struggle for ideas, or even the creative process. One thing I have come to experience as I have grown older, is the amazing way I can diversify or even develop new styles and techniques. This is a great and important aspect of artistic development. But! There is something about that ‘feeling’ inside that holds from the internal to the external process of creativity. Whether, as Elizabeth states, this builds this angst that defines the typical artist character. That drives then to stare for hours at a half finished bottle of whisky or torturously walk around for hours in the rain, I don’t really know. One thing I have realised though, which holds me together, is that I could not find anything greater than the feeling and force that comes from this indescribable connection I have to my art. There is not drug, amount of alcohol or even earth activity that compares to what I feel when I get lost with the pencil in my hand.

Although Elizabeth’s speech is ment to bring a light-hearted view to this aspect of creativity, and not lowering or rising artists to a station other than their mortal self, I do feel that there is a little more into this. The self definition of creative individual is a struggle. Not only because of the external aspects of viewer’s comments but that torment that Elizabeth goes on about. It is, even when viewing other people’s creativity, a chill that moves through the body. Its really hard to explain to people. One great thing that it does do for me at present, is gives me courage. whether, as Elizabeth states, there will be a defining moment that is your pinnacle that then will send you spiraling downward I really don’t know. I do know I haven’t reached it yet, if at all it exists, but I do also know that any decline is as equatable to incline of the creative process. Struggling with achievement in any walk of life is a challenge, but as I have discussed with many of my friends and students, the artistic value in life is a stronger emotional attachment, more so than I would say to a mathematician. I might guess. This doesn’t mean we have a license to be melancholic over our work or even arrogant or egotistic with this value. What it should do is to drive us in a way that expresses a need to have this connection between inside and out. Maybe those creative geniuses who failed at this have described what creative genius is: the inability to transfer the creative to the rational. Looking at the starting point, of young kids pushing water colour around paper, it is hard to think that this ability (if in fact it rises) is a thing that will change not only the existence of that person, but their own mental connection to a drive that is as much indescribable as the love it caries itself. Power to the pencil.

Σε δημιούργησα μες σε χαρά και μες σε λύπες:
με τόσα περιστατικά, με τόσα πράγματα.

Κ’ αισθηματοποιήθηκες ολόκληρο, για μένα.

-Cavafy

There was a brief moment when our skins did touch,
not a perfect moment, not by any means
but it was a moment that we touched skin, and some more
it was a moment that now begs for more
for her softness of breast brings forth a distant dream
for her pale flesh does light the darkened hall of desire
that, that one moment was not enough to end my days
and that love owes me that touch once more

copyright © Rob Snow 2009