Ik droomde dat ik een boek over dromen las,
en niet meer wist waar en waarom ik was
rough translation
I dreamt I was reading a book of dreams,
and forgot where and why I was
Book of dreams (very short poem)
2
Category Archives: Petervan Poem
Cockpit (poem)
Verstillen in het zachte licht,
kijken naar dingen die niet bewegen,
luisteren naar muisstille muizen
Tasten waar geen houvast is
Smaken waar geen papillen zijn
Ruiken met de neus in de wind
Op een tractor voren trekken in klei
Een van Tesla, op elektriciteit
Van stilte en kracht
Het is zacht
De wind waait hard
En ik hunker me in de straalwarmte van de cockpit
Rough translation
Becoming silent in the gentle light
Watching motionless scapes
Listening to mouse-still mousses
Touching without holding
Tasting with no budies
Smelling with one’s nose in the air
On the tractor drawing furrows of clay
One from Tesla, electrical
From silence and power
All is soft
The wind blows hard
And I long for the radiant heat of the cockpit
Vlinder/Butterfly (poem)
Vlinder
De vlinder rust uit op mijn hand
Kwetsbaar in de late zomer
Ik voel de sprieten die haar verkennen
De aarde ademt nu al mistig vocht
Kleumend strompelen we de herfst binnen
Humus en blaren kunnen niet verbergen
Dat het blad is omgeslaan
Mijn botten kreunen in protest
In heimwee naar zon, bijen en geroosterd vlees
Deze bocht zullen we ook weer nemen
En blij zijn er nog te zijn
Als de winter zich straks van haar witte vacht ontdoet
Zijde en rupsen in overvloed
Butterfly (rough translation)
The butterfly rests on my hand
Vulnerable in the late summer
I feel the feelers exploring her
The earth breathing fog and damp
Shivers stumble into autumn
Humus and leaves cannot gloss over
The page that has been turned
My bones moan in protest
Homesick longing for sun, bees, and roasted meat
We’ll take this turn too
Happy to be still around
When winter peels her white fur
Silk worms and caterpillars abound
Petervan Productions – Oct 2017 update
Bicycle ride Sep 2017 - South of Aalst - Flanders
Summer is over, autumn settles in, leaves are falling but here and there some late sunflowers reminding us of the bright sun and the fertile soils. I am now my last 3 months of my long-term sabbatical as Petervan Productions. If you are interested in my developing journey, my Jan 2017, March 2017 , May 2017 and Aug 2017 updates are still available.
The House project
Our house move is now done and we are fully settled. As planned, the art studio is complete now. The easel has landed:
Spotless easel in Petervan Productions studio
The Artschool project
Initially the plan was to join the art academy of Aalst, only 2 miles away from where I live. But after the first session, it felt like a mismatch: very limited space to work, a quite older population than what I am used to, and I did not feel a click with the coach.
Upon recommendation of my coach of the last two years (Ann Grillet), I decided to do some better homework and I checked out about five other academies. In the end I decided to join the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, one of the oldest academies of the Low Countries (South Netherlands and Flanders). The academy was founded in 1741.
On my first day I felt a bit like a Flemish Primitive: I learned BTW that the term Flemish “Primitive” has nothing to do with “basic” or “archaic” but is related to “first” or “early”, because the Flemish Primitives were innovators in finding the right compounds for paint to use on panels and canvas. In other words: how to make innovation stick!
Royal Academy Ghent painting studio and my blank personal corner
I restarted painting, and upon suggestion of Ioana Guiman from Allevo (thank you, Ioana!), I started experimenting with timelapses of some of my paintings. It is an interesting format: you can pause the video where you like it most and then make a sort of personal still and print-out.
Here is one of the painting “Girl Dancing in Flemish Fields”. I did a quick soundscape for it as well, so volume “on” is recommended.
The falling of the leaves and the autumn humidity of the soil inspired me for a poem:
Herfst
Vervaagd
Het beeld van zondag
Een boomgaard vol fruit
Warmte onderhuids
De zoete hap vergeet de kleur van zon
Vliegensvlugge paardebloemen
Verstrooien nog snel het land met hun laatste zaad
Te laat
We moeten zoeken nu
naar een warm nest
in die berm van oneindige mildheid
Trees with red apples in an orchard
Autumn
Blurred
The bust of Sunday
An orchard full of fruit
Warmth under my skin
The sweet mouthful forgets the color sun
Speedy dandelions
Spawn brisk the land with their last seeds
Too late
We have to find a warm nest now
In that soft shoulder of endless indulgence
And here is another new poem “Horse Riding without Bridles” . In essence, the poem is about personal freedom.
Quote by Kurt Vonnegut - Found in Royal Academy studio on kitchen wall
The Performance project
As mentioned in my August update, I was invited for a gig at FinnoSummit in September in Mexico . Some sort of keynote, including some elements of my performance “Tin Drum is Back”. The talk is about structural change and archetypes of change agents. It is very much related to my research about Good Change – Bad Change (more about that later).
FinnoSummit was scheduled as a two-day event on 19-20 Sep 2017, but at 13:14pm on day one, the 7,1 magnitude earthquake hit, and in the end the whole event was cancelled as the venue could not get clearance from the authorities to re-open before the appropriate stability checks of the meeting location.
Although experiencing a 7,1 quake is quite an experience in itself – I was sitting in the top of the 1000 PAX concert hall shaking at least 50cm from left to right – I was most struck by the huge wave of solidarity throughout the city by all layers of the population, helping the rescuers and the victims with food, water, blankets, etc…
It made me think of “The Intensity to action of the Positive Archetype” in the nice post about systems thinking by @LeylaAcaroglu
This occurs when agents are motivated to take action for the collective benefits due to an intensely focused experience, as was the case in Mexico City after the earthquake last week. The focused intensity of the need to act and the physical actions of many agents create a reinforcing feedback loop of contribution, all dedicated to the collective whole.
The talk also went into the topic of patrimony and spaces of memory, and I will update the talk with the earthquake experience of damaged patrimony, the emergence of commons, self formed solidarity brigades, and “moles” (the name of the special rescue forces that start digging into the rubble of the quake.
The organisers of FinnoSummit have kindly re-invited me to do the premiere of this performance at their Miami event on 9 Oct 2017. The venue is again stunning: they selected a place called “The Sacred Space”.
The Sacred Space in Miami
The Deep Change project
Patrimony is one of the components of a research I started some months ago on “deep” change. Check out the previous posts here, here and this one where I highlighted the importance of patrimony and its combination with contemporary. Or the respect of the memory of an organisation and its combination with the DNA of innovation.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, by Thomas Heatherwick Studio
Although the term “deep” is a somewhat glorifying term – as glorifying as “meaningful” or “authentic” – it has some meaning as the change I am trying to describe probably has its source in the more deeply wired connections in our brains and being fully conscious.
The plan is to come up with a body of work, describing what is deep change, to articulate the levers to accelerate deep change, and a more tactical set of recommendations on how to get started and keep going. The format of that body of work is not decided yet, but it could go from anything like a publication up to a performance and/or experience expedition, as I believe learning happens best through experience and not through teaching.
For this project – funding permitted – I intend to do 10 “in residence” immersions, complemented with additional interviews with a collective of leaders, visionaries, artists, craftsmen, designers and producers.
In essence this is a sensemaking expedition on the what and the how of high quality connections and long lasting cross-generational structural change that goes beyond innovation tactics such as bootcamps, start-up competitions, accelerators, incubators or whatever these concepts are called these days.
I have by now a quite solid outline in place and feel ready to get this one going.
Sponsorships
There are different kinds of sponsorship available for the Deep Change project. Please contact me in private if interested.
On a separate note, I would love to combine my FinnoSummit Miami trip in November with one of the best conferences in the world: Techonomy. I believe many of the topics on this year’s agenda could be solid anchor points for the Deep Change project as well. It would be great if somebody would be willing to sponsor my attendance. Let’s discuss what sort of deliverable you’d like in return. Please contact me in private if interested.
What’s next?
During Oct – Dec 2017, the plan is to work on:
- FinnoSummit Miami keynote/performance on 9 Nov 2017
- Covering Techonomy (pending sponsorship)
- Continue the research on deep change
- Get some blogs and reflections published
- More disciplined agenda again
Permeke – De Vespers – 1927 - Oil on Canvas – 128x149cm
That’s about it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, next update is for Dec 2017. Looking forward to hearing from your latest adventures as well.
As I have increased my social media activity, some folks think I am back at work. I am not. I enjoy the silence, and try to focus on my 4 priorities: Deep change research project, performance, artwork, and experience expeditions (events). If you have anything interesting or related to one of these domains, please contact me.
Warmest,
I am in the business of cultivating high quality connections and flows to create immersive learning experiences and structural change. Check out: https://petervanproductions.com/
Herfst/Autumn (poem)
Vervaagd
Het beeld van zondag
Een boomgaard vol fruit
Warmte onderhuids
De zoete hap vergeet de kleur van zon
Vliegensvlugge paardebloemen
Verstrooien nog snel het land met hun laatste zaad
Te laat
We moeten zoeken nu
naar een warm nest
in die berm van oneindige mildheid
rough translation
Autumn
Blurred
The bust of Sunday
An orchard full of fruit
Warmth under my skin
The sweet mouthful forgets the color sun
Speedy dandelions
Spawn brisk the land with their last seeds
Too late
We have to find a warm nest now
In that soft shoulder of endless indulgence
No innovation without the connection with the world of art
In June of this year, Raf Stevens (RS) invited me for an interview as part of his StoryClub Podcast series. The interview was in Dutch but i made this English transcript out if it. For those interested, it’s a good summary of my thinking and mood halfway my sabbatical. The different rhythm of the sabbatical has also softened my voice. And I like how Raf kept the silences in the interview. Emptiness is sometimes the platform for resonating content… Enjoy or start crying ;-).
Part of these reflections will be integrated in my mid-Sep keynote/performance at the Finnovate FinnoSummit in Mexico City.
PV: If there is any form of consistency in my story, that would be in the word “rhythm”.
RS: I spoke with Peter Vander Auwera (PV)
PV: I have to be very careful that I am not creating a story – which also would be ok – but I just want to indicate that I have the sensitivity not to invent a story just to make the whole thing make sense. In English there is a term for this: confabulating a story. To make – with hindsight – sense of and for myself and others.
RS: Peter Vander Auwera is a thinker. He has been thinking a lot about innovation and change. But he is also a creative doer. He makes paintings and writes poems. At first sight a strange combination. But then you don’t know Peter.
PV: I am in a sabbatical right now. Before this, I was enjoying lots, lots of freedom to create – together with others – a community. We called it a “tribe”. An “Innotribe”. A tribe of innovators in the financial industry. And throughout that journey my focus has become more and more on the creation of a sort of events where people come together in a coherent setting around some content themes. In fact, that has become my main expertise. I rolled into it, and it has become the place where I was meant to be.
RS: Peter works with SWIFT. An international financial services organisation. Within this company, Peter co-founded a very inspiring initiative: Innotribe. A community where financial leaders and big thinkers of today gather to explore how they can create a better world. With Innotribe, Peter brought together these people in what he calls “high quality meeting platforms”. To learn from each other, to start conversations, to dare dreaming again.
(Music)
RS: Peter lives and works on the intersection of business transformation and art. Since begin 2017, he is on sabbatical, a period to disconnect, and to take distance from his day-job at Swift and Innotribe.
RS: Welcome at the Story Club Podcast, with Peter Vander Auwera.
PV: Sometimes I think I pushed the bar quite a lot with the work I am doing so far, but in reality I just scratched the surface. I got a lot of freedom, I mean a LOT of freedom at SWIFT. I can say for sure that I got 95% freedom to do what I thought should be done, what content to bring, how the production should feel like etc, etc… But still, I felt I was hitting some cultural ceiling within the organisation. That is not a criticism, it is what it is.
I want a much bigger contribution of artists, of art in the creation of this sort of rhythms, this sort of experiences. What I want, I want to resonate with the audience and the guests at a level “beyond the cognitive”. Not only leave a message between the ears, but also touch the heart, the soul, and the human. I want that what we make that it enter your unconscious. I want to create magic and put a spell on you.
In the events, especially the bigger ones, I use artists in support of the content, so not as entertainment, but as underpinning for the content. In the smaller events, these feel more like a retreat and therefore only target small highly curated groups of twelve people, I use artists not so much in support of the content, but to let them inspire the guests by sharing the intensity of their work.
(Music)
I was trained as an architect. At Saint-Lucas in Brussels and Ghent. So not the engineering architecture, but more the artistic side of it. I usually say with a prank: “We were permissioned to draw buildings that never needed to be built”. And that is an enormous freedom of expression. That started itching again. Three years ago, I went back to art academy. The first year was drawing, especially drawing of life models… with my architecture background of straight lines – in that era – it was a real stretch for me to deal with the organic shapes of the human body. I even felt that in my hands: they never had internalised the drawing of a curved line, it was not natural for me.
But I also learned to observe. So not drawing what you think but drawing what you see. Same for painting: painting the colour you see not the colours you think you see.
After the first year of drawing, I did two years of painting. And now and then I post some work on my Facebook page, and to my surprise there are a number of people asking me if I sell my work. Selling my work? Hmmm… never thought about that.
(Music)
And just like you, I got the chance and opportunity to talk in front of audiences. I do my best to illustrate my “talks” or “stories” with good visual material, and I also already use some soundscapes and even silence….
RS: Yes, I saw your nice TED talk of 2-3 years ago.
PV: Yes, Thank you… I now start playing with the idea to evolve those talks in some sort of “performance”, almost “conférencier” style of keynote.
RS: An “experience” ?
PV: Yes, an experience indeed. I want to tell a narrative – at another occasion we can discuss the difference between a story and a narrative – a narrative about maturity levels of change agents in organisations. I defined 3 phases, and each phase is documented by four archetypes of change agents. And for each archetype there is a narrative, a visual, a soundscape, a scene setting, a prop on stage. I have not decided yet whether I will deliver this as one big performance of 12 archetypes, of maybe an episode per phase, or maybe an episode per archetype.
I believe there are a couple of interesting findings in there. Phase 1 for example is about “The Forbidden”, that what was suppressed, the forbidden fruit. And Phase 2 is about protest and rebellion. And Phase 3 about daring to stand fully in your own creativity. And I illustrate all that exclusively with my own artwork, my self-composed soundscapes, my self-written poetry and “bring it live” on stage. And only once.
RS: Heh… only once?
PV: Only once.
RS: Why only once?
PV: Because I am attracted by ephemeral experiences. A good metaphor is drawing or writing on a sandy beach. The waves come and it’s all gone. You were there to witness it, or not. One can of course make a video testimonial of that, but that’s not the same experience as when you were there live. The idea emerged – maybe a strange connection here – when I looked and watched over and over again the reunion concert of Led Zeppelin in the London O2 arena a couple of years ago. That concert only happened once. You can’t repeat that sort of concert ten times in a row. Not possible.
(Music)
Then you encounter yourself. In your own emptiness, your own… the aspects of yourself that you don’t want others to know about. The so-called shadow side. A good way to pinpoint your shadow is to ask yourself what you absolutely would HATE that people say about yourself. What would hurt you badly? That could for example be: you are stupid, or you are a liar, or you are a manipulator, or you are a psychopath.
RS: An interesting word in that list is “manipulator”
PV: Yes. I got in contact with Leading By Being via Andre, Andre Pelgrims who was in one of your previous StoryClub stories. I know Andre already from my Microsoft period (2001-2005): Andre was offering a couple of workshops about people coaching. To make a long story short, one of the workshops was a role-play, and in the play Andre was my counterparty, the guy that needed to be coached by me. After the game, when Andre was back in his role of facilitator, he told me: “My feedback to you Peter is that I never would want to work for you. You are the biggest manipulator I ever met!” BANG! That is something Andre is really good at: he only needs 5 minutes to scan you, laser-sharp, make the diagnose, you are dissected…
RS: Do you think that was part of the game?
PV: I don’t believe Andre is a manipulator at all. That this is part of his game. On the contrary. I really think he is laser-sharp, in the sense of a scalpel, tjack – and be ultra precise in “this is your problem, man. “
I have tried to take that feedback with me very consciously in the rest of my career: make sure that I am not manipulating when I do something. And that is also part of the design and the delivery of the sort of events I am trying to create. You told me before this interview that you were planning to follow a workshop on “the art of facilitating”? I will send you a link – and please remind me when I forget – of a book by Dan Newman “From the front of the room” (Amazon Link), a sort of the Art of Facilitating for advanced etc etc … Dan is founder/director I believe of an organisation called The Value Web http://thevalueweb.org/ and amongst many other engagements they do the facilitation for the WEF in Davos. With big whiteboards, and live scribing, and – it is much more than scribing, it is based on the MG Taylor methodology – with a lot of preparation, a lot of solid framing, very very professional.
But when I was reading Dan’s book, at some moments I felt the facilitator became a manipulator. Using tricks that I would not feel good with and who make me think of what you read and hear about Trump. It was in that election debate with Hillary: at a certain moment Trump stands right behind Hillary, where he basically manipulates with his body energy how she feels. Not that I am worried that Hillary has not yet developed a thick skin against these tricks but anyway… In his book, Dan describes a couple of other subtle and not so subtle ways to facilitate groups and use your physical presence/position to deal with for example saboteurs in the group, by standing very close to them, or by ignoring them, or… The art of facilitating is a fine art. At what moment does it become manipulation and when is it authentic?
Another example: when we – I always say “we” because I never could make these events happen without other professionals, you need a production team for this – when we you work all the time in co-creation mode, I am basically the composer, the architect, like you ask your architect “I need a home”, I try as an architect to get a clue – or rather a pretty sharp understanding – of what you really want of a home.
RS: Also the storyline of an event
PV: And thus, what we do with our facilitators: we cut the content of the “speaker” in chunks, and after each chunk we give an exercise to internalise the content just given. Starters, main course, dessert. Whatever the number of servings you need… And the invitation process to move the audience into active assignment mode can be quite diverse. I will make a caricature of it now, but one way would be by announcing “Guys, we now have some work for you!” I can guarantee that 25% of your audience chickens out, especially an audience of people from the financial industry feeling already uncomfortable as they come into an experience space that does not exactly mimic their bank branch. Another way of moving your guests in action mode is to day “We have a present for you” and the assignment is wrapped in an envelope of a present box, or something they discover themselves, but there the line is very thin…
RS: Yes, is it manipulation or facilitation?
PV: Exactly. To come back to the beginning of this interview, I am very sensitive to this; it has to be “right”.
(Music)
RS: When I hear you talking, Peter, you know what I am thinking about? Maybe it is linked to your sabbatical, but maybe you went deeper then ever, not only in theory but also in art, in poetry – thinking about deep change some moments ago – but has all this created a deep change in yourself, that will maybe enrich you if you ever go back to a corporate world? Or will it rather be an obstruction; because of lot of what you do is a mile away of what happens in most companies? Will it be enrichment or rather a frustration?
PV: Yes, but it also has to do – and I come back to the aspect of maturity, the maturity of a change agent – with moments of powerlessness. The realisation that I have reached an age where I will never be capable anymore to become fully what I could become, and will not be able to realise my dreams to the fullest.
RS: Not anymore? That is quite fatalistic…
PV: Not anymore, or for sure not anymore in a corporate environment because I believe it is – and that is not a matter of laziness of fatalism – I believe it is a big stretch for a corporation to get inspired by these sort of ideas, let alone to do something with them. And it is very easy for me to shout something about architectural metaphors and blah blah blah, but in all these models – and they are just models – what is always missing is the noise inherent to the system. The noise of the human being. The noise of the human as manipulator, the noise of trying to take space from the other, the noise of not willing to make the other win, the career noise of wanting to be the next CEO, etc… all this is noise in the system that makes you live in a big illusion that you have a new skeleton, a new perspective, etc – in that sense most change programs are bullshit. As long as you don’t bring together people together in high quality connections, you have to get on with the old crocodiles that are polluted anyway.
(Music)
RS: May I ask you two things to end? One is a citation, from the editor of WIRED Magazine Kevin Kelly, also found on your blog. And the second thing… that is still a secret, won’t tell you now…. The citation goes: “Your job in life is to discover your job, and it usually takes you a whole life to figure this out”. How far are you with that?
PV: If zero is nowhere and 10 is everything…. I feel I am somewhere around 3
RS: Ouch! That’s sharp!
PV: Yes, but on the other hand, what you get from Leading by Being, at least in my case – it’s different per person – in my case – and I still don’t succeed in doing that – it is to build in mildness for yourself.
RS: So it is ok it is a 3?
PV: You say, “That is sharp”… What I realise more and more the last months – not sure you call this mid-life or late-life or whatever-life – a year or so ago I started realising that if I would like to stay active professionally till the age of 70, I only have 10 years left to do what I want to do. So the clock is ticking. And that is also the main reason for my sabbatical. If I don’t do it now, I will never.
(Music)
RS: Do you need appreciation? – everybody needs appreciation, let’s put that down as a certainty. With your blog posts and a quite different rhythm of life and the things you share with the world, it must be pleasing to get reactions/feedback, or does that not keep you awake?
PV: In honesty, yes, it is very pleasant to get these reactions, but it does not keep me awake.
RS: And not only reactions to your paintings and poetry, but also on your vision of the world?
PV: The really good question is – all your questions are ok – the really critical question is “what’s your intention in doing that?”. Is the intention to get reaction and attention, or is the intention “I have a reflection I want to share, I really want to know how you think about this”. I want reaction. To complement that idea, to challenge it, etc.?
RS: Is that something you question? Do you know the answer?
PV: Well, no. I don’t know the answer yet. But I hope that with my current writings about “being normal, being special” I will find some answers to that, I am asking myself… Sometimes I would like to disappear in anonymity, almost like a monk, without all this twittering, facebooking, blogging: phew … gone. And being normal again.
RS: Is there not some pressure like “I can’t do that because I have to earn a living for the next 10 years”?
PV: No, I don’t feel that pressure
RS: I have to throw my vision into the world, I must share it, I must continue building reputation so I can get back in corporate life late this year?
PV: No. Reputation is not something I worry about. I am in fact sharing and publishing less than before. I only want to publish if I really have to say something. And not when I am looking for attention. When I have a new insight – and that is not that often, but maybe… something of a higher quality? QWAN (the quality without a name)?
RS: But my spouse would say: “But how are you then going to make a living, Raf?”
PV: I am not worried about that. Because I really believe that there is a need for this sort of high quality meeting platforms, and if I keep focussing on what I am focussing on right now, some day something will emerge. I do have confidence in that. I have now somebody from the FinTech network asking me whether I would be willing to do the opening keynote at an event in September in Mexico City… Yes, by all means, but only in the way, in the direction I have set out for myself right now.
RS: One more. What are “Strillingen” ?
PV: Hah! I wrote a poem about that, a play of words…
RS: Can I read it out?
PV: Yeah, of course
RS: Or do you want to read it out? I will let you do that. I found it very beautiful.
PV: Thank you.
PV: Strillingen https://petervan.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/strillingen-poem/ (poorly translated by myself into English as “Hidrations”
Hidrations
Still vibrations
Cold and chilling
Perditions
Explorations of dangerous awareness, beyond the shame
A dog inspects her dung, rattle, and drivel
Nothing is worth what it seems
The silencing humming of tires on asphalt
Only the heat of tarmac is left
Air vibrations and fata morganas
Warm shivers of pleasance
A hideaway too far
Buried masks and hidden cuddles
Hidrations
RS: What does this mean for you?
PV: All sorts of things of course. This sort of poems emerge – I will give you an answer on what it means – this sort of things emerge, suddenly there is a piece of inspiration, and I start writing, just writing what comes, without thinking what the next sentence is going to be, an then scratching a bit here and there, just a little bit… It means, it stands for… euh… observation? In the following sense: I wrote this very early in the morning, at sunrise, when the house is still silent, and when you hear – just like now – when you hear far away cars on the highway, and you consciously hear it. Like right now, I hear the wind, I also feel the wind, and am willing to pause for a fraction of a second and realise that.
On the other hand this is of course also a reflection of the eternal fight, the eternal search for who I am, and what and when I am hiding and when I dare to stand fully in the fire, and when I will start doing, instead of telling stories of what I am doing or what I am planning to do. All that is buried in “perditions”, and in “buried masks and hidden cuddles”. Hidrations is about by soft side, my suppressed side, and the side I was not allowed to show. There is a post somewhere in the queue – more a poem than a post – that I have titled “The Touch”. Maybe I publish it some day, if I have the courage. So if I would go back to a corporate environment with this state of mind, mind-set, mind-state, I don’t believe I will survive. Of course I will survive physically, but not mentally. I am at a point that when I get into a corporate building, I almost feel a visceral disgust of “what a fake world!”
PV: Not so long ago – I am now 9 months into my sabbatical – in June that was, I travelled for the first time since 8 months. At Swift I was traveling almost every week, or at least once every month. So it was 8 months since I saw a plane from the inside. I can assure you they still look the same… A very big company invited me – I can’t say whom, as I had to sign an NDA – a very big company with a formidable brand new research site in the middle of nature. OMG, what a possibilities they have! My host was global responsible for their research for that organisation, and they have something like 1,500 researchers on that site. Stunning! Everything you can dream of. But the exciting part was that she – because my host was a woman – she had created a very intense collaboration with an art academy and they brought in artists into their research projects. That also where we connected. Where we resonated. They are convinced that artists can offer a different perspective to their researchers who have a more engineering training. In the sense like philosophy and art can offer a different perspective, ask different questions. So they don’t use artists in an “artists in residence” program to let artist do their artwork. No, the artists are integral part of their research projects as “interrupt-stations”, as” other-insight-stations”. And all this is executed at scale and very professionally by an international jury of art curators etc. PS: in the meantime I did a post on this: https://petervan.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/research-is-not-about-search-but-about-finding/
RS: If you could choose, would you prefer to be the artist that gets invited, or would you like to be the organiser?
PV: The organiser. Although I appreciate very much when people like my artwork, I fully realise I am just an enthusiastic amateur.
(Music)
RS: You listened to the StoryClub podcast with Peter Vander Auwera.
I am in the business of cultivating high quality connections and flows to create immersive learning experiences and structural change. Check out: https://petervanproductions.com/
Paardrijden zonder teugels (poem)
Haar lichaam staat strak als dat van een zwetend renpaard
Haar veulens zijn los,
Haar beminnen voelt als paardrijden zonder teugels
Het schuim op de mond
Een steeplechase tot aan de einder
Nog een laatste bocht
De aankomst van een winnaar
Rough translation
Horse riding without bridles
Her body toned like that of a sweating racehorse
Her foals let go
Caressing feels like horse riding without bridles
Foaming at the mouth
A steeplechase till the horizon
Heading for the final turn
The finish line of a winner
Petervan Productions – August 2017 update
Petervan Productions 2017 My own painting “Dancing Girl in Flemish Fields” Through a Pikazo Van Klee filter
The summer slowly comes to an end. It is now almost ten months (!) since the start of my long-term sabbatical as Petervan Productions. It also means only four months to go. If you are interested in my developing story, my Jan 2017, March 2017 and May 2017 updates are still available.
A quick update:
Last months I have not been productive at all, at least not from a “work” point of view: begin May, I loosened up a bit my strict work schedule and decided to let my day agenda dictate by the weather – if good weather go out, if rainy do focused work – and since then we mostly only had sunny days 😉 So indeed, I did a reasonable amount of cycling (nothing excessive, short trips, 1-2 per week), and a lot of BBQ and wine in my garden to keep the balance right.
Bike ride: Corn fields south of Brussels – June 2017
The biggest distraction from “work” was our house move on 7 August, with significant prep work, and still now a number of boxes to be unpacked. So don’t expect too much from me for the remainder of the summer either. I did very little on the performance, but I have composed the music for the opening part of it.
Artschool
For the end of the academic year, I created an installation called “TOKOMA”. Here is the video and a link to the poem that goes with it. Everything is self-made, including the music and the poem.
Art school is now closed for the summer holidays. As we moved places, I have subscribed for next year in the academy of Aalst. But I will miss my friends at the academy in Overijse and especially my teacher Ann Grillet.
Some recent Petervan Productions: Globe3, Yellow Ball, Dancing Girl
I also created another poem “Strillingen”, very clumsy translated (by myself) into “Hidrations”.
Performance
I accepted a gig for FinnoSummit in September in Mexico to do their opening keynote, which should include some elements of my performance “Tin Drum is Back”. The working title for the keynote is “Deep Change in Organizations”, and is currently scheduled at the start of day-2 of the summit. We’ll probably change the word “deep” into “structural”: see my post on Good Change – Bad Change.
The event will take place in Centro Cultural Roberto Cantoral, a fantastic building designed by architect Gerardo Broissin.
Centro Cultural Roberto Cantoral in Mexico City
The venue comes with a concert hall with all possible A/V whistles and bells, so if everything goes to plan, I will bring with me this awesome Ableton Push device and illustrate the story with own artwork and soundscapes.
Ableton Push Device
The House Project
As mentioned above, we moved houses. We moved to a place close to Aalst. It’s a quite recent house (20 years old) and used to be a practice of a physiotherapist, so I am in full progress to transform the practice into some sort of atelier/studio, my sacred secret temple 😉
The house also comes with a huge garden (25 acres) so I am afraid that will need some of my attention too. And my daughter wants chickens, and my wife wants a kitchen garden. I have also noticed spectacular changes in light intensity in the garden, and I can’t wait to capture some of that in one of my upcoming paintings.
Astrid
Some great milestones for my almost 12-year old daughter Astrid:
Mid May, she did her solemn communion, and she was ravishing. A proud father and mother indeed 😉
Ravishing Astrid – May 2017
End June she ended primary school and now moves to secondary school. A new school, a new city, saying good-bye to her dear friends in Overijse, and making plenty of new friends in this brand new environment. A lot of change for my big girl! She will need my and mom’s attention 😉
Other
I have written and reflected a lot, read some really good books and got some new insights.
I also got invited to a huge research centre of a very big company (can’t say who, I am under a very strict NDA – no pics etc that sort of thing, but it’s not in Fintech or anything). I was blown away how they integrate artists in their work.
And there was this wonderful visit to the Gaasbeek Castle, with a very well curated expo named “Kairos Castle. The Art of the Moment”. I was however most impressed with the botanic garden of the castle, and took this nice picture of an orange tree in open air.
Orange tree in open air in the Orangerie of the Gaasbeek Castle
And somewhere end May, I decided to put myself on a Twitter, FB and LinkedIn diet. I wanted to know what happens if I don’t tweet etc for at least a month (spoiler: not much, but some followers kindly asking if everything was ok, thanks for that). The social media just felt very distracting and most of the time full of emptiness (“full-of-emptiness”).
I have BTW a blog post in the queue about that emptiness, about being normal/special and about titles, roles, attention, the call for anonymity etc. You see, I did not change that much ;-). Now that the move is over, a will increase again my stream rhythm and publishing sequence
So, what’s next?
During Aug –Sep 2017, the plan is to work on:
- The house project. I want to have the studio fully ready and operational by end September
- Produce the opening keynote for the FinnoSummit
- Continue the research on structural change (previously “deep” change)
- Get some blogs and reflections published
Kenny Scharf Art Studio
That’s about it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, next update is for Oct 2017. Looking forward to hearing from your latest adventures as well.
Rebelliously yours,
I am in the business of cultivating high quality connections and flows to create immersive learning experiences and structural change. Check out: https://petervanproductions.com/
Strillingen (poem)
Globe3 - Petervan Productions 2017 - Acryl on canvas - 70x70cm
Strillingen
Stille trillingen
Koude rillingen
Van verderf
Bewust gevaar verkennen, de schaamte voorbij
Een hond bekijkt haar keutel, reutel, geleuter
Niets is waard wat het is
De zon gaat op en laat me alleen
Het gezoem van de banden op asphalt verstilt
Ik hoor alleen nog de hitte van het tarmac
Lucht trillingen en fata morganas
Warmte rillingen van genot
Een vluchtheuvel te ver
Begraven maskers en strelingen
Strillingen
(very) rough translation
Hidrations
Still vibrations
Cold and chilling
Perditions
Explorations of dangerous awareness, beyond the shame
A dog inspects her dung, rattle, and drivel
Nothing is worth what it seems
The silencing humming of tires on asphalt
Only the heat of tarmac is left
Air vibrations and fata morganas
Warm shivers of pleasance
A hideaway too far
Buried masks and hidden cuddles
Hidrations
Petervan Productions – May 2017 update
3D Art room by 12 years old at BKO Academy – Feb 2017
I recently realised that it’s almost seven months since I saw an airplane from the inside. That’s indeed the time I am into my long-term sabbatical as Petervan Productions. It also means I am about halfway: another seven months indeed between now and end 2017. If you are interested in my developing story, my Jan 2017 and March 2017 updates are still available.
A quick update:
March-April felt like a period of soul-searching and reflection. I constantly had the impression I was not doing much and progressing very little, but writing this update gave me some comfort: there still is some advancement towards my goal and that of Petervan Productions.
I feel less restless than in the first couple of months, and can accept that a day goes by without any concrete deliverable. I also made some minor changes to my daily schedule, which is now more in synch with nature. For example, when the weather is great, I go outside for a bike ride or some gardening, and that’s why I already got a nice pre-summer tan 😉 And when it rains, it’s time for desk work. As there is enough rain in Belgium, there is enough time for desk work.
Artschool
Artschool continued at +/- 9 hours per week practice in the art studio of the art academy. Got a challenging color-study from my coach, which also led into a remake of “The Drama”. I also started liking the use of many very transparent layers.
Two completely different works Both acryl on cotton canvas stitched on wooden board 122 x 82 cm
Performance
- I had many 1-1 conversations with friends and relatives to collect feedback on the performance “Tin Drum Is Back”. Thank you so much for the very valuable feedback!
- Did some site visits to find the ideal location for the performance. Nothing came really close for the final show: some spaces were great, but the acoustics awful. And for some good news I got commitment from two sponsors to use their space for the dry run and Avant-premiere.
- I also received some first proposals for the visual identity of the show there is much more, but this would be the main theme:
First mood board for “Tin Drum” performance
Events
Nothing special here. As you know from previous updates, I am not in active prospection mode, and every request is measured against my existing priorities:
- There are 1-2 interesting speaking engagements that allow me to test some of the performance and/or structural change concepts.
- One promising lead for an immersive learning expedition with artistic performances.
- Little progress on the retreat-style event.
Other
I visited some great art exhibitions and had some very pleasant conversations with art curators.
Inspiring also were the visits to the new site of Axel Vervoordt along the canal in Wijnegem (Antwerp) and the visit to ceramist Piet Stockmans in Genk, and the premiere of the film about Dries Van Noten in Bozar.
Piet Stockmans – Blue plate
Extract from film Dries Van Noten
And I also started experimenting with some poems, some out of the blue, others in relation to some of my artwork. A first collection via this link.
So, what’s next?
During May – June 2017, the plan is to work on:
- My daughter’s communion is on 14 May 2017. We plan to keep things simple, invite some close family in our garden with a back-up tent in case of rain, and some quality food and drinks brought in by a local caterer.
- Creating an installation for the June 2017 year end exposition of my art school; the installation will be called “TOKOMA”
- A visit to a research facility in Germany that integrates artists in industrial research project work
- The production aspects of the performance
- Continue the research on structural Deep change – Good Change – Bad Change with some excellent feedback from my social media community.
This year’s summer promises to be different as well. We decided to move houses to be closer to the Flemish Primitives. Emptying the old house, refurbishing the new one, boxing and un-boxing will keep us busy most of the summer. The new house was previously a doctor’s practice, and the plan is to organise one space as an artist’s atelier/production studio where I plan to study, paint, write poems, compose music, and produce experiences.
Detail from Atelier Michael Landy
That’s about it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, next update is for July 2017. Looking forward to hearing from your latest adventures as well.
Rebelliously yours,
I am in the business of cultivating high quality connections and flows to create immersive learning experiences and structural change. Check out: https://petervanproductions.com/
Petervan Studios 