Category Archives: Petervan Productions

Virtual meetings and events: an ambition cube

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I recently had a number of conversations on “Virtual Meetings” or “Virtual Events”. The briefing boils down to the following two questions:

  • How can I create a virtual version of my now canceled physical event, meeting, and interaction with my customers/partners?
  • How can I take the lead in this virtual space?

I am surprised how often the initial briefings immediately jump into the aspects of production and tools. A sort of fear of missing out on the latest coolest online tool or platform. There is a deeper fear of missing the virtual boat, and fear of overnight irrelevance.

A production themed briefing is usually a sign that the client is looking for some quick and dirty quick wins (the lipstick on the pig), is not clear about the different dimensions at play when architecting an on-line (or off-line) event, and has even less clarity on their ambition levels.

In those conversations, I love to do some live (virtual) whiteboarding. By doing so, I stumbled upon a framework that seems to resonate with many people.

During some Zoom meetings, I could literally hear the clicking of the screen pictures while I was drawing.

So I decided to make a bit cleaner version of it and just put it on my blog. I call it Petervan’s Ambition Cube for Virtual Meetings © 2020 ;-).

I have certainly learned one thing in the last couple of weeks: the more I share it, the more feedback I get. The story becomes more coherent, and the network helps me identifying the blind spots.

Screenshot 2020-05-15 at 08.43.22

There are 3 axes:

  • Duration: how long does the event last? From 5 minutes to 2 months for example
  • Interactivity: how much is the audience involved? From 100% passive listening to immersive free play
  • PAX # Participants: from a 1-1 till several thousands of participants

On the Duration/Interactivity pane, one can start plotting different types and formats of events. From simple 5 min one-way pitches and introductions to deep immersive games and workshops.

The PAX dimension is an interesting one. If we maintain our physical event vocabulary, we can plot some meetings styles from Private Groups, over Breakout Rooms to Plenary sessions. But it is a physical vocabulary.

I started wondering what a truly virtual vocabulary would look like:

  • Interactivity would become “participation level/intensity”
  • Duration would become something like “rhythm” or “tempo”
  • PAX would become something like “connectedness”

The Ambition Cube then looks like this:

Cube2

It becomes really interesting when I start mixing The Tribes – Institutions – Markets – Networks (TIMN) framework of David Ronfeldt‘s (TIMN was defined in 1996 already. Link to the PDF here). I started reflecting on how these groups communicated and what they enable:

Screenshot 2020-05-15 at 08.56.59

Now, we are getting somewhere. It becomes clear that the challenge is not to virtualize the existing. I believe the right questions are:

  • How do we create collective memories and narratives?
  • How do we create a participatory culture?
  • How do we raise your game on what goes on in that little window/screen?
  • How can we resonate at another, additional level than the pure cognitive?
  • How can we advance at an aesthetic, spiritual, and moral level?

Screenshot 2020-05-15 at 09.13.43

We can now use the Ambition Cube to define our “virtual” ambitions. Plotting where we are today, and where we want to be in n-number of days, weeks, or months. Once you know this, you can start looking into the many tools that exist to make the magic happen and start looking for architects, curators, and production companies that can help you with the coherence of content and experience.

To close, I also made a “clean” 3D version of the cube in a 3D drawing tool called Blender:

The cube rendered

I am working out loud here: please give feedback, help me identifying the blind spots, share your experience when using this with your clients.

The Ambition Cube is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, as are all materials found on this site.

Enjoy!

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Ik ben – Je suis – I am

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Man on canvas

Petervan Artwork © 2019 – Little man on canvas – Acryl on Canvas – 10x10cm

 

Ik luister, dus ik ben

Ik kijk, dus ik ben

Ik teken, dus ik ben

Ik schrijf, dus ik ben

Ik componeer, dus ik ben

Ik creëer, dus ik ben

Ik loop, dus ik ben

Ik rust, dus ik ben

Ik huil, dus ik ben

Ik dans, dus ik ben

Ik schilder, dus ik ben

Ik peins, dus ik ben

Ik de-peins, dus ik ben

Meen je dat echt?

J’écoute, donc je suis

Je regarde, donc je suis

Je dessine, donc je suis

J’écris, donc je suis

Je compose, donc je suis

Je crée, donc je suis

Je cours, donc je suis

Je me repose donc je suis

Je cris, donc je suis

Je danse, donc je suis

Je peins, donc je suis

Je pense, donc je suis

Je dé-pense, donc je suis

Vraiment?

I listen, therefore I am

I look, therefore I am

I draw, therefore I am

I write, therefore I am

I compose, therefore I am

I create, therefore I am

I run, therefore I am

I chill, therefore I am

I cry, therefore I am

I dance, therefore I am

I paint, therefore I am

I pense, therefore I am

I ex-pense, therefore I am

Really?

 

Je depense

 

This post is the start of a short series of posts on who and where I am/you are, and a set of new interventions and provocations to renew aliveness and alertness in what we observe and what we hope for. Looking forward to creating spiritual, moral and aesthetical advancement together.

You can subscribe via email to these posts via the “Follow blog via email” in the upper right corner of this page. Enjoy!

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Petervan Studios – Dec 2019 Update – A Labyrinth of Choice

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Labyrinth Geert

An irregular update on what happened since my previous August 2019 post and some updated plans. With lots (!) of images and videos 😉 Looks like I have been busy, but it did not feel that way.

The Artschool Project

The Artschool academy year started again in Sep 2019, and I decided to do a cross-over year combining Painting and Digital Visual Arts. Progress has been a bit slow as I need to find a good rhythm to combine these two areas, and the abundance in creative apps has overwhelmed me a bit, to be honest. Some examples:

Canvas work

Dancers

Petervan Artwork © 2019 – Dancers – Acryl on canvas – 50x50cm

 

Abstact-1 Cropped

Petervan Artwork © 2019 - Abstract#1 – Acryl on Canvas – 120x100cm

 

Combined Canvas-Digital work

Boxer

Petervan Artwork © 2019 – The Boxer – Canvas and Digital – 50x50cm

 

Videoscapes

 

 

Some other videoscapes here (playlist):

With thanks to my Academy coaches Chris, Inge, and Patrick

Time Capsules Project

 The Time Capsules Project (see my previous update) is still on hold. The plan is still to have at least a prototype of our Beyoncé project, before further engaging with other commissions

Delicacies

Delicacies is an irregular, unpredictable, incoherent, unfocused publication of mind-sparks that got me thinking. There have been three issues of Delicacies since Aug 2019. Check-out them out here:

https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan/issues/petervan-s-delicacies-issue-124-188170

https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan/issues/petervan-s-delicacies-issue-125-193906

https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan/issues/petervan-s-delicacies-issue-126-205279

Blogs

I published a number of reflections related to ambiguity, worlding, and hierarchies:

https://petervan.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/on-the-ambiguity-of-kayakers/

https://petervan.wordpress.com/2019/08/17/imagining-worlds-you-believe-in/

https://petervan.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/who-is-the-composer-who-wrote-the-score/

https://petervan.wordpress.com/2019/08/30/breaking-hierarchies/

https://petervan.wordpress.com/2019/10/30/ebb-and-flow/

I also queued up a huge list of reflections, and there are some juicy pieces in preparation for identity and – what is he now thinking – about “foam”. I will try to post them at a rhythm of 1-2 per month.

Petervan Rides

Lots of fun putting together some monthly Spotify Lists. Most fun when you choose shuffle play:

Petervan Ride July 2019

Petervan Ride August 2019

Petervan Ride September 2019

Petervan Ride October 2019

Petervan Ride November 2019

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0I3BQot79HxMHF0gHd0VmE?si=l0FFPNl8R9Sbs9YL6YsCPQ

 

Petervan Mixes

DJ PRO Mixer

https://soundcloud.com/peter-vander-auwera/petervan-mix-james-brown-david-bowie-25-nov-2019

Mix by Petervan Scapes © 2019 – With algoriddim DJ Pro Version 1.4.5

More music

Check out Neil Young’s book “To Feel Music”: the book is related to his efforts to let you re-discover high-res sound, as most existing streaming services only offer low quality sound. These days, young people who never heard vinyl analog sound through a decent HiFi kit, have no idea what really good sound sounds like. Neil Young wants to fix that.

With his book and the Neil Young Archives, you can enjoy again his full collection and much more in high-res. There is also a dedicated App for iPhone, iPad, and Android, but the best listening experience is on your PC/Mac connected to a good amplifier and speakers. Highly recommended.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 09.30.32

Visual Collisions

I started collecting a number of “visual collisions”. Most of these are videos, a minority are pictures. These visual collisions are intended to de-frame an audience before introducing something new.

Check out this YouTube Channel:

New toys

I added some new toys to my studio, most of it is software (and most of it free of charge, at least for art students):

  • 3D animation: Blender
  • Photo & Video: VideoLeap, Insta360 ONE, Arloopa, Leo AR Camera
  • Drawing: Procreate, Adobe Sketch, AutoDesk 3D Brush, Maya, Mudbox, Fusion 360°, Sketchbook Motion
  • Music: SoundPrism, Synth, Keezy, Mellowsound, Beatwave, Synth One, CymaScope, EON App by Jean-Michel Jarre, Trope App by Brian Eno & Peter Schilvers

Books

I have been reading quite a lot. Noteworthy are “The Aesthetic Imperative” by Peter Sloterdijk, and “How to Speak Machine” by John Maeda.

I am fascinated by Sloterdijk’s “Foams” (more about that later)

„Foams „completes Peter Sloterdijk’s celebrated „Spheres“ trilogy: his 2,500-page „grand narrative“ retelling of the history of humanity, as related through the anthropological concept of the „Sphere.“ For Sloterdijk, life is a matter of form, and in life, sphere formation and thought are two different labels for the same thing. The trilogy also together offers his corrective answer to Martin Heidegger’s „Being and Time,“ reformulating it into a lengthy meditation of Being and Space — a shifting of the question of „who we are „to a more fundamental question of „where we are.“

Foams good res

The absolute #1 recommendation is Sad by Design by Geert Lovink. If you want to go beyond the worn-out opinions of Silicon Valley libertarians vs. Humanity, this is your book.

Sad by Design cover

You can find a link to all the books I am reading in my Goodreads

Exhibitions

I visited a couple of art exhibitions:

  • Sentiments – Dhondt Dhaese Museum, Deurle, Belgium
  • PiKANT – Exhibition about Lace, Aalst, Belgium
  • SFMOMA – San Francisco, CA, USA

Bill May cropped2

Sarah Baker – Portrait of Bill May – Museum Dhondt Dhaenens
End Aug 2019 – Picture by Petervan

 

Lace is more – PiKANT exhibition about Lace in Aalst. 
Video and soundscape by Petervan

 

Jannis-Kounellis-banner

Jannis Kounellis – Untitled – 1983 - Arte Povera – SFMOMA Nov 2019

 

My own exhibition

Angel in Chapel

Angel in Chapel of Mater
Location of my upcoming exhibition end May 2020

Since I started academy some years ago, I produced something like 500 drawings, paintings, sketches, soundscapes, and video experiments. Many have asked whether I even thought of setting up an exhibition of my own work. That’s going to happen end  May – beginning June 2020:

Map Mater

Location: Chapel of Mater (a small village in the Flemish Ardennes, Tour de Flanders territory)

  • Dates: 29 May 2020 4pm – 2 June 2020 1pm
  • Vernissage & reception: 29 May 2020 from 4pm – 9pm
  • 30-31 May, 1 June 2020 from 10am – 6pm
  • 2 June 2020, from 10am – 1pm

For regular updates on this exhibition via a mailing list, you can subscribe here.

Outdoors

Great summer morphing into rainy Sep-Oct-November. Not too bad. We visited a vineyard close to Aalst (Belgium) and biking tours continued at irregular intervals; small distances (20-40 km) at a very low speed. Maintenance of the garden also kept me busy. I have about 150 meters of hedges (x2 both sides), so by the time you get to the end, you can start again 😉

Wineyard

Vineyard in Aalst, Belgium - August 2019 - Picture by Petervan
Life of a Sunflower from 26 Aug till 30 Sep 2019 - Montage by Petervan

Green Dender

Bike tour along a very green Dender (river crossing Aalst)

 

Freelance

Main project was a leadership immersion for a client that took us to Shenzhen and Hong Kong the first week of October 2019. Think of an Innotribe @ Sibos but then in a intimate retreat format for small private audiences; with artists of course. A good example of Imagining Worlds That You Believe In – aka “Worlding”, a term coined by Ian Cheng in his book.

HK Peak Tram

Hong Kong Peak Tram Oct 2019 – Picture by Petervan

 

Reflections

Retirement is coming closer. I will be officially retired as from 1 May 2020. Not that I plan to stay idle, on the contrary. Within limits, I will stay available for interesting freelance work and plan to stay very focused on my artwork.

In other words, no time for too much social media engagement (I put some blockers on most of my devices) or making selfies.

Make art not selfies

Graffiti in Ghent Citadel Park 16 Sep 2019 – Picture by Petervan

All the above helped me getting sharper on what I am and what I do: create artistic interventions, interruptions, and provocations that lead to higher states of alertness and aliveness. Formats can be analog and digital artwork, performances, writings, poems, blogs, installations, exhibitions, immersions, soundscapes, recordings, documentaries, and time capsules.

So, what’s next?

The plan for Jan – Mar 2020 is to work on:

  • “Interesting” freelance work
  • Artwork
  • Pick-up “Time Capsules” again
  • Studio renovation

labyrinth solved clean

As you can see, a labyrinth of choices. The red thread may be the solution: stay hungry, stay foolish, stay focused.

So, that’s it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, the next update is for Apr 2020.

Merry Christmas and Happy New-Year!

Video play with Videoleap by Petervan – Music James Brown “I feel good”

Warmest,

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