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.
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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:
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:
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:
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.
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
„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.“
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.
You can find a link to all the books I am reading in my Goodreads
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 – Untitled – 1983 - Arte Povera – SFMOMA Nov 2019
My own exhibition
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:
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
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 😉
Vineyard in Aalst, Belgium - August 2019 - Picture by Petervan
Life of a Sunflower from 26 Aug till 30 Sep 2019 - Montage by Petervan
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.
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.
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
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”
I am still reflecting on some feedback regarding an event that I recently designed and facilitated. One of the comments was that “there was too much ebb and flow”, and that we should create more “pressure” to keep the highs at maximum volume at all times.
But is ebb and flow such a bad thing? I don’t think so. On the contrary, the tension between ebb and flow is a requirement for growth and creativity. Adding more pressure will not keep the flow on, it could create exhaustion and fractures and breakages.
Instead of pressure, I believe we need to design opportunities for expansion, probably in the form of silence or more in general, reflection moments in the absence of inputs and triggers.
Like in Jan Chipchase’s expeditions: “Long trekking days were spent in meditative solitude or long conversations depending on personal preference, as energies ebbed and flowed”
Sometimes, the orchestra metaphor is used in leadership contexts, representing the leader as the conductor, steering/leading the orchestra. I believe the asymmetric relationship of the “leader” with his/her “followers” is a flawed metaphor.
The more interesting and critical question is “Who wrote the score?”. In other words, “Who is the composer?”. I already alluded to this in my good/bad-change-post.
"Heroes" and others by Ozark Henry and National Orchestra of Belgium
Quote by Robert Fritz
“In an orchestra, it is not the conductor or individual musicians who are in control. It is the composer. The composer’s job is to make sure that the parts fit together. Too often, no one is actually composing the organisation, and it leaves one of two bad choices: command and control or organising systems. Much has been made in the last 20 years, glorifying organising systems, but, what happens over time is that these systems self-organise into structural conflicts, which lead to oscillating patterns.”
“That’s why a “composed” system can lead to advancement and forward movement toward building the company but the other alternatives do not live up to their promise.”
The composer creates an immersion. A good example in music is Ozark Henry, who now spends his days creating immersive soundscapes. He got into this 360° sound experience when setting the bar for his immersive album “Paramount”, recorded with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Belgium. The full documentary of the making of this album also shows Ozark Henry in his role as “Composer” working with the Orchestra.
Ozark is NOT the conductor. He hired the conductor. He hired the director. He hired the musicians. He is the composer.
What are the qualities of the composer? Also here, Ian Cheng comes to our help.
Ian Cheng - from the book "Emissary's Guide to Worlding"
As can be seen from the diagrams above, the stretch for most artists is to become “composers” rather than problem solvers or conductors. The composer is an artist/alchemist, trying to create harmony between four internal forces/roles:
The Director at work, focused on “What is the story/narrative?”
The Emissary at work, focused on “A future you can believe in”
The Cartoonist at work, focused on a uniting Cartoon/Mascot metaphor
The Hacker at work, focused on iterating hacks “It might not be science but it works”
All roles need to be present in the composer. In my opinion, this model does not only apply to artistic endeavors but works very well in a business context. Most businesses struggle to get to the right side of the graphic; in seeking surprise and going into unknown territory, and imagining alive worlds that they believe in. That’s where the future innovative opportunities are.
I suggest the composer is the ideal archetype for dealing with ambiguity.
As mentioned in my August 2019 update, I am helping a client with an immersive leadership offsite. I am starting to label this sort of work “Artistic interventions, interruptions, and provocations that lead to higher states of alertness and aliveness.”
Back to meaning and ambiguity. In the design of this off-site, we confront the participants with increasing levels of ambiguity in the BANI world. In their responses, we expect the participants to progress from learning into problem-solving into “Worlding”. See also my post on “The Tyranny of the Problem Solver”.
It is one of those books where one makes annotations on every page, a big eye-opener and page-turner. Highly recommended.
Worlding is about imagining a future world you can believe in.
Some inspirational quotes from Ian Cheng’s book:
A World is a future you can believe in: One that promises to survive its creator, and continue generating drama.
A World is a future you can believe in by promising to become an infinite game
A World evokes a place.
A World has borders.
A World has laws.
A World has values.
A World has a language.
A World can grow.
A World can collapse.
A World has mythic figures.
A World has visitors.
A World has members who live in it.
A World looks arbitrary to a person outside of it.
A World satisfies both the selfish and collective interests of its members.
A World grants magic powers, especially the power to filter what matters to it.
A World gives permission to live differently than the wild outside.
A World creates an agreement about what is relevant.
A World counts certain actions inside it as meaningful.
A World undergoes reformations and disruptions.
A World incentivizes its members to keep it alive.
A World is a container for stories of itself.
A World expresses itself in many forms, but is always something more.
For us humans, life is filled with the familiar contests of finite games: Deadlines. Deals. Rankings. Dating. Elections. Sports. College. War. Poker. Lotteries.
When our finite games are won and done, what is strange is that we don’t exit back into base Reality. We wake up in a field of infinite games that perpetually mediate our contact with base Reality.
We choose to live in these infinite games because they give us leverage, structure, and meaning over a base Reality that is indifferent to our physical or psychological health.
We have many names for these infinite games: Families, Institutions, Religions, Nations, Subcultures, Cultures, Social Realities
Let’s call them WORLDS
When a World can “survive its creator,” that means it has achieved sufficient stability to regulate and safeguard its potentiality without authorial intervention.
This is a World’s requirement for Autonomy.
When a World can “continue generating drama,” a World is sufficiently interesting for people to care about and want to explore.
This is a World’s requirement for Aliveness.
When a World is keeping its promise, it continues to be a future you can believe in
All the credits for the quotes above go of course to Ian Cheng. Great book.
Petervan Studios 