Category Archives: Petervan’s Artwork

That’s it, I am leaving the real world

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I always felt restricted by the real world. But now, I’ve found my true calling in the virtual world of New New Babylon.

As I explore this world, I’m constantly amazed by the endless possibilities it offers. The colors are vibrant, the sounds are unique, and the technology is incredible. It’s a place where artists and experimentalists like myself can pursue our passions without any restrictions.

I made the life-changing decision to leave the real world behind and make a living as an artist and experimentalist in New New Babylon. I sold everything I had, bought the necessary equipment, and dived headfirst into this new world.

At first, it wasn’t easy. I struggled to make ends meet and had to work long hours to create my art and experiment with new techniques. But I’m determined to make it work, and I collaborate with other artists to create some of the most stunning works of art that New New Babylon has ever seen.

As my reputation grows, so does my income. I’m able to live a comfortable life in the virtual world, and I feel more fulfilled than I ever have in the real world. I know that this is where I truly belong.

But even with my success, I never forget my roots. I miss my family and friends, but I know that I could never go back to the real world. New New Babylon is my home now, and I’m content creating and experimenting in this vibrant world.

Years will pass, and I hope that my art will become more and more famous. I want to become a household name in New New Babylon and inspire a new generation of artists and experimentalists. I’m happy and content, knowing that I’ve made the right decision.

In the end, I realize that sometimes, the things we need the most are not in the world around us, but within us. I’ve found my true calling in the virtual world, and I know that I’ll spend the rest of my life creating and experimenting, surrounded by the vibrant colors and unique sounds of New New Babylon.

Warmest

Created by ChatGPT on 1 April 2023

Petervan Studios – Update March 2023

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Petervan Artworks © 2023 – New New Babylon – Generated with MidJourney

Here is the latest update on Petervan Studios. The previous update already goes back to September 2022

As most of you know, Petervan Studios is the melting pot of three studios: The Art Studio, The Interventions Studio, and The Scaffold Studio

The Art Studio

My latest artworks are on the artworks section of the Petervan Studios site. Here is my cousin Joost standing in front of one of
my recent paintings: 4 panels together measuring 240cm x 200cm.

IMG_6629 cropped

I am also working on a VR implementation of the New New Babylon (NNB) Project: a network of urban youth city districts that are connected through standard interfaces. 

02_Places

We are working with Spectracities to launch a design challenge by April 2023. I am doing an intro talk on this project during the Spectracities meet-up on 9 March 2023.

petervan event poster NNB

And here is the recording: starts at minute 7:32

NNB will also have a number of virtual Art White Rooms that will host my latest artworks.

NNB will also host a New New Babylon TOWER, and I plan to make a physical model of that tower as an example of materializing my metaphors.

A new “Performance Lecture” will consolidate all of the above in a compelling multimedia narrative and performance.

Target date for the performance and the supporting NBB material is 1 Nov 2023

The Interventions Studio

Two interesting experiences with the Zen Bricks Project

One client asked me to run a 30 min online session, where all the participants are drawing little bricks in complete silence. I was very surprised to learn how this zen moment unleashed quite emotional reactions among the participants.

Another client invited me to do something similar in real life, as part of their corporate event that was organized around the theme of mental wellness and the importance of calm moments.

The Scaffold Studio

The Scaffold is a transdisciplinary learning studio for the never-normal.

1966890944_oil_painting_in_magritte_style_of_a_group_of_artists_and_engineers_on_a_scaffold_looking_into_space

We are working on two interesting leads.

Lead #1 is a services company that owns a beautiful physical building/campus with meeting rooms, study rooms, a library, auditoria, lush gardens, etc. They run it as a private infrastructure for the public good. We look at it as an imagination infrastructure. The hardware. What The Scaffold offers is the software: the expertise, network, and practice to curate and design a series of learning studios and expeditions. The study topics are non-hierarchical organizations and new democracies.

Lead #2 is a globally operating organization trying to get its head around the topic of corporate governance. Like the first lead, they own world-class real estate, including an auditorium and a museum. We are also looking to design a physical journey between cities leading toward a major event in 2024.

We have a great coalition of advisors. Last month, Lene Rachel Andersen joined our advisor’s group as the twelfth apostle. She specialises in Bildung, Metamodernity, and Libertism. Give Lene a warm welcome.

So, that’s it for this edition.  If there is something worth reporting, the next update is for Sep 2023.

Warmest,

petervan-signature-version-23-oct-2021-transparent

Petervan Studios – Update Sep 2022 – Other news

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© 2022 Petervan Artworks – Artist and Engineer – created with MidJourney

Here is the latest update on Petervan Studios. The previous update already goes back to February 2022

Professionalization of Petervan Studios Practice

Some days ago, I published a post about this and the launch of my new website and The Scaffold.

As I was very focused on professionalizing my art practice, I did not produce much artwork during that time. On the website, you can discover some of my existing work by selecting a method, dynamic, and outcome. You can of course also sort per container: canvas, video, audio, etc.

As part of the inventory work, I stumbled upon some older works and played around with DALL-E

© 2022 Petervan Artworks – made with DALL-E

© 2022 Petervan Artworks – Prison cell in ProCreate

IN OTHER NEWS…

Exhibitions

Since the last update, I visited the following art exhibitions:

Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle, April 2022

Berlinde De Bruyckere, Studio visit, Ghent, April 2022

Castle of Laarne, Laarne, May 2022

Storycon, BOZAR Brussels, May 2022

Nick Ervinck, Skins, K.E.R.K., Middelkerke, July 2022

8th Biennial of Painting, Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle, July 2022

8th Biennial of Painting, Mudel, Deinze, July 2022

8th Biennial of Painting, Raveem Museum, Zulte, July 2022

Jonas Gekhiere, MUSEE, Oostende, July 2022

Christian Dotremont, KMSKB, Brussels, August 2022

Tanya Goelen, KMSKB, Brussels, August 2022

(Un)Common Values, National Bank Belgium, Brussels, August 2022

Nick Ervinck, Studio Visit, Lichtervelde, August 2022

Wim Opbrouck Open Hart, Dr. Ghislain Museum, Ghent, August 2022

Splendid Isolation, S.M.A.K., Ghent, August 2022

Outdoors

We had a fantastic spring and summer. We basically had sunny weather from March till August. At least that is how I recall it. 

Spent quite some time outdoors: some gardening, some walking, some bicycling, some doing nothing. Got a nice tan, and people asked me where I spent my holidays. At home, but many don’t seem to believe me 😉

I have not traveled abroad since October 2019. Cannot say I miss it.

Books

Check out my GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3085594-peter-auwera

Some highlights:

Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence by James Bridle

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy by David Chalmers

De Avond is Ongemak by Marieke Lucas Reineveld

And for the artists in this community:

On Being an Artist by Michal Craig-Martin

Art/Work by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber

Making It in the Art World: Strategies for Exhibitions and Funding

Petervan Rides

Since July 2019, I have published every month a Spotify List with new releases combined with some oldies from the 60ies, 70ies, and beyond. Search for “Petervan Ride” and select “playlists”. Selection is driven only by my personal taste (or lack thereof). 

In July 2022, we entered the fourth year of this experiment. Here is the latest Ride from September 2022

I suggest you play it in shuffle mode, it enhances the surprise experience.

Family

The most important news is that Astrid passed and is now starting her last year in high school! Where has the time gone? 

What else?

Horses

Astrid is still enjoying horse riding very much. And so do I!

I have three roles in the horse riding adventure: being her All Bundy, her taxi driver, and her photographer

Astrid with Cienta

So, in summary, what’s next?

The plan for the next mile is to work/play on:

Support Astrid in her last year at high school

Professionalizing my art practice

Pitch and realize my project “The Scaffold”

So, that’s it for this edition. 

If there is something worth reporting, the next update is for Feb 2023. 

Warmest, 

Petervan Studios – New Website – Launch The Scaffold

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© 2022 Petervan Artworks – The Scaffold – created with Stable Diffusion

Since March 2022, I have focused on the professionalization of my art practice. As part of a grant for the innovation of cultural business models, I invited Kurt Vanbelleghem from Amy-Art and Present Future to be my coach in that endeavor.

Kurt is a curator, critic, and publisher specializing in the field of contemporary artistic practices. He received a MA in Psychological Sciences and a MA in Art History from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and a Master in Visual Arts Administration from The Royal College of Art, London, UK. 

Whereas we initially started looking at my artwork only, Kurt was great at pointing out that the output of my artwork was less important than the methods and dynamics applied. And that these methods were also underpinning my other work in the area of interventions, provocations, and interruptions. In other words, all my work was about similar forms of artistic and aesthetic expression and experience. Kurt set me on a path of better articulation of my ambitions and offerings. It also led to a new vocabulary and a new set of aesthetics to describe and share what I do and why I do it.   

I have now consolidated my creative undertakings into Petervan StudioS (plural). 

Petervan Studios is the melting pot of three studios: The Art Studio, The Interventions Studio, and The Scaffold Studio. The Studios have the following methods, dynamics, and outcomes in common:

Methods: Collisions – Layering – Activations – Speculations

Dynamics: Translating – Unsnapping – Reframing

Outcomes: Provocations – Experimentations – Collaborations

The three studios share the motivation and desire for societal, moral, and aesthetic advancement. 

I just launched a brand new website with all details about the three studios: www.petervanstudios.com . 

The Website is designed by WebIt. Thanks, Ruben, Joke, and team for your patience. Thanks also to Peter, Kurt, Janne, and Tijana from Amy-Art for help with the archiving and API integration.

Below is a quick summary of the three studios

Studio-1 Artworks

This studio is the home of Petervan’s art experiments: a mix of analog and digital artwork and productions, writings, poems, installations, video scapes, soundscapes, recordings, documentaries, and time capsules.

Studio-2 Interventions

These interventions build upon my experience and capability as a translator/interpreter of your specific challenges and designer/architect of intellectual collisions. Most of the interventions involve private or semi-private tailor-made provocations and include: Conversations, keynotes, performances, and curations

Studio-3 The Scaffold

The Scaffold is a brand-new transdisciplinary learning studio for the never normal. This unusual learning studio invites participants into a fresh break from the day-to-day. It allows participants to think, sense, learn, ànd act together with a brilliant, curated non-conformist tribe about a specific collective challenge. Not to solve the challenge, but to identify pivotal insights and a new way to position it.

The Scaffold is made possible through strategic partnerships with nexxworks and Collective Next

We also brought together a coalition of exceptional individuals as advisors for The Scaffold. A unique mix of strategists, futurists, engineers, entrepreneurs, experts in classic and contemporary arts, masters in narrative environments, philosophers, licensed architects, and VR developers.

Please let me know what resonates.

Warmest, 

Traveling without moving – Genres

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This post is the last post of a series of essays bundled under “Traveling without moving”.

The intro of that series can be found here. In hindsight, this whole series was a slow reflection, maturation, and catalyst for something that will emerge in September as “The Scaffold”

The idea of a new “genre” has been hanging around since 2018, actually. But the COVID-related lockdowns have only amplified this dissatisfaction with replicating old analog formats into their digital copy-cats, without considering that the craving for something better has a deeper foundation.

In my Nov 2020 update, I already suggested:

“People are exhausted. Tired of online meetings. Tired of being locked up in their houses. Tired of all the negative news. People crave oxygen. People crave for small safe groups where they can share, critique, ideate, play.”

As John Hagel wrote some time ago: “We all are hungry for hope and excitement”

During and post-COVID, we have seen an acceleration in the use of online meetings and other forms of remote participation. We also witnessed the rise and hype of the metaverse, web3, AI-based image and text generators, and more. 

But we have not catered to the craving for oxygen. On the contrary, we seem to flee and lose ourselves in virtual realities, suffocating ourselves in the coolness of the latest technological gadgets and hypes. 

I feel we have hardly touched the surface of what is possible and more importantly what is desirable. What is our/my ambition in this space? I have written before about this in the “Ambition Cube”

I believe we need to start working on a new “genre” for collective learning and collaboration. 

Photography in Scaffold by Milo-Profi, Begijnhof, Mechelen, BE

Over the last couple of months, I have watched, suggested, and experimented with a number of concepts that go beyond a pimped-up Zoom meeting. The spectrum included proposals like Pirate TV (gracefully hijacked – and well executed – by Mykel Dixon and Co after I mentioned it during a catalyst meeting with Josie Gibson), Beyond TV, or Beyond Netflix.

I started reflecting: is “pirate” or “rebel” really what I want to be? That may sound like heroic and sympathetic, but is that behavior leading to the desired outcome of imagining and orchestrating new narratives? And why would I even use the word “TV” in what I do? TV as a format that leaves little room for imagination?

Maybe it should be something more Newsroom style like Ian Bremmers’ GZERO channel, Ray Wang’s “DisruptTV”, or Gerd Leonhard’s KeynoteTV. Gerd probably nailed it when it comes to repurposing keynotes for the virtual world (and also very well executed).

Somewhere in 2020, I got the wonderful opportunity to collaborate on nexxworks’ “Missions”, and more specifically on the curation of Mission NXT, with Peter Hinssen as the host.

Mission NXT episode with Peter Hinssen and John Hagel

That worked quite well, and the concept was integrated into nexxworks’s Memberships Program.

In all formats above I have witnessed discussions live or pre-recorded, with or without Q&As, edited or unedited, etc.

 But these are delivery-related questions only.  

In the end, these formats are still about passive consumption of knowledge, not about working-out-loud together, or better “learning-out-loud together”, and at best they reach the level of high-quality “teaching” of simple topics.

What we seem to be craving for are formats that are mentoring and/or inquiry-based, tackling complicated and complex subjects and projects. These use in-person and virtual facilitation and immersion technologies, helping us discover new unintended opportunities and new unintended behaviors and skills.

Courtesy Ann Pendleton-Jullian from FOUR (+1) Studios

What does that genre-ambition look like? What do we really want?

 We do NOT want yet another set of virtual equivalents of “meetings”, or “events”, “workshops”, TED Talks, TV shows, etc.

We want a genre with high participation and high connectedness; with a slow tempo, we take the time to digest existing knowledge and create new knowledge. Failing and learning together through “collisions”, provocations, and collaborative and highly participatory engagements. 

This new genre adheres to a different style: away from the spectacle, and breathing a mood of silence and introspection. Not trying to impress but to take care. Away from the quick bites, quick-wins, and snackable fast-food content, but surfing on the slow waves of the long quality content format. 

Witnessing, questioning, interrogating, inquiring, iterating, all beyond the cognitive knowledge consumption.

With tools like scaffolds, collages, visual and multi-sensory collisions, assemblages, narrative environments, multiple narratives, and plurality in points of view and participants. 

It should feel like a cesarean, assisting birth to something completely new. 

It is about scaffolding narrative immersive spaces for collective learning.

Detail “Mechanisms I” by © Tanya Goel – 2019 – Picture by Petervan

For a couple of months now, I have been working in stealth mode on a new project called “The Scaffold”, which is exactly doing that. 

The Scaffold will come out of stealth next month, together with a brand new website and offering for Petervan Studios

Hope you stay on board

With warm regards,

Parallel Grooves

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Picture generated by DALL-E

It all started with Vankatesh Rao’s “Future Tables” post last week, with the subtitle “We don’t want future visions, we want future tables”. Venkat introduced the concept of “temporal potential groove”.

I added the following comment to his post:

“I enjoyed this one very much. You have written so much about time that my feedback may sound trivial. Anyway. I felt attracted to “temporal potential groove”. It made me think about grooves in vinyl records. About remastering to improve the dynamics of output. Music in general as a scheme of bars, tempo, etc. About the grid and snapping to the grid in music and other software. Also about furrows on land, and riverbeds. And how we could learn to unsnap from the grid, groove, riverbed, etc to find new paths that are not defined by the “table”.”

I wrote about unsnapping from grids before. 

Image credits: Microscopic Things/Youtube

Just a couple of days later, I had my monthly catch-up call with Josie Gibson, and we started a lovely conversation about vinyl records. 

Yes, for those who remember, vinyl records “sound” different. It is an analog sound. It has a warmer, more human touch to it. We are so used to listening to compressed, streamed, digital music that listening to really high quality sound/music is an experience that many of us don’t have any real experience with. Neil Young wrote a whole book about it and the lack of HD sound was the reason for him starting the Neil Young Archives. 

But besides the sound quality, there is also quite a difference in the experience of consuming music.

Sometimes, the pickup stylus jumped out of the groove, jumping to an unexpected part of the song or even the album. There was some sort of enjoyable unpredictability. 

You were also supposed to listen to the whole album (or at least one “side” of the vinyl disc) in one non-interrupted session. 

Also, we lost the patience to wait, to be comfortable with the in-betweens, the no-groove areas between the songs.

There was at some time the notion of a “concept album”, where all the songs of the album belong to a coherent concept/narrative, instead of a compilation or sequence of greatest hits or unrelated “singles” 

As we discussed, we made parallels to the way I curate learning experiences, where the value is in the coherence of the narrative and associated speakers, and not just a list of individuals taking the stage for their standard pre-canned talk. My ambition is to take people out of the groove, to discover parallel worlds and options. 

Josie coined the term “Parallel Grooves”, obviously T-shirt material! I should seriously consider hiring Josie as my copywriter 😉

Mock-up T-Shirt with image from DALL-E

The vinyl groove is one metaphor. 

We could also consider the riverbed: by putting obstacles in the riverbed, we can change the flow of the water, we can divert the flow.

Or waterfalls. Josie spoke about “the language of waterfalls” and what happens when you put a big rock at the top of the waterfall and how the language of the waterfall changes.

Image generated by DALL-E

Serendipity is my companion these days, and as I was writing this post, I bumped into this image of Cameron Falls in Alberta, Canada:

Cameron Falls in Alberta, Canada has crystal clear water on normal days, but when abnormally heavy rainfall hits the region, a phenomenon happens. Sediments called agrolites are released into the water and make the river look pink or red when light hits it. Seen on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/auckee 

Or the metaphor of furrows in a field. 

Here is my uncle Hubert plowing a fresh field with his tractor. Ask him how difficult it is to steer the tractor out of the furrow.

But what if he could plow not only the land but also a river or a waterfall or all of them? You would get a very nice metaphorical representation of my idea of curation.

Image generated by DALL-E

People think they are in the groove, but they aren’t. Or they don’t know what else exists out of the groove.

“They don’t know what they need, but they know what they yearn for”

(another copy by Josie)

What seems more interesting to me is to surf that yearning and go to a place in a different dimension you don’t even know existed.

“You were looking for “X” and but I let you discover “Y”

(Josie)

Parallel Grooves in other words.

Guess what? 

Parallel Grooves will be part of “Studio Interventions”, one of the three studios I am launching after the summer together with a brand new Petervan Studios website

Stay tuned

Warmest,