It’s almost one year (!) since my previous Dec 2019 update. And what a year it was/still is! I basically stayed home for the whole period and had zero travel since Oct 2019.

I am publishing this on the day Belgium is entering its second Covid-19 lockdown. A forced pause-marathon starting on my 63th birthday on 1 Nov till at least mid-Dec 2020. But I am afraid the effort will have to run until deep into 2021 and I am preparing for it as an “interval of possibility”.

An interval of possibility is a temporal framing to see better what is and what can emerge. There is indeed still so much to read, to learn, to experiment, to play with. So many contexts to be architected. So many interesting people to (re)connect with (at least virtually). So much opportunity for spiritual, moral, and aesthetical advancement! Expect me to be quite generative in the coming weeks and months.

The Artschool Project

The Artschool academy year started again in Sep 2020, and I subscribed for a two-year curriculum labeled “specialization”.

“Professionalization” is probably a better title for what it is: a focus on getting the (art)work done, commitment, and ambition. We’ll learn to discover our own visual language starting from our personal frames and themes with the ambition to develop our own artistic maturity and identity. This is about personal reflection, self- and group-critique, evaluation, and research. About creative identity and creative disposition. And about how to create a portfolio, develop contacts with galleries, presenting your own work, setting up your own expo, etc.

From an artistic medium point of view, my main focus will remain painting on canvas, but I will keep experimenting with other (mainly digital) media.

I shared most of my recent work via my Facebook page, or on this blog under the heading “Sine Parole”. I also started selecting more straightforward subjects, such as vases, landscapes, cows, fruit, and everyday objects. In many cases the obvious and what is in front of you is interesting enough. Here is an example of some apples from our mini orchard:

The upcoming Cow project

I have something with cows (pun intended). I met many during my summer bike tours. It feels it is going to become yet another a thematic series, like the prison windows, or the birds, or the boxers.

One option is to create a cow-sign-language and typography, or maybe see how I can get them generated through in-the-cloud AI neural networks.

Exhibitions

Last year, I visited some art exhibitions, including:

• There is no Planet B – S.M.A.K., Ghent, Dec 2019
• Inge Decuypere – Ronse, Feb 2020
• Dali-Magritte – Museum Fine Arts, Brussels, Feb 2020
• Love-Hate – ING Gallery, Brussels, Feb 2020
• Keith Haring – BOZAR, Brussels, Feb 2020
• Van Eyck – Museum Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Feb 2020
• Stephan VanFleteren – FOMU, Antwerp, July 2020
• Writing Beyong – Axel Vervoordt, Wijnegem, July 2020
• Dechamps, Panamarenko and Co – Deweer Gallery, Zwevegem, Oct 2020

There were many more, but due to Covid-19, many musea were closed or had restrictions.

My own exhibition

I ran my first solo (100% virtual) exhibition during summer. Some unexpected fans actually bought some of my works. Thank you: this is very encouraging. For those who don’t know: I also do commissioned work. If interested – in buying or commissions – please send me a private message.

Some vernissage impressions here.

Outdoors

We had a great summer in Flanders. Since the start of the first lockdown on 13 March 2020 we had good to excellent weather till mid-September 2020. Plenty of opportunity for being outdoors, with the occasional bike tour or walk.

Freelance

Covid-19 is not kind to freelancers, especially if you target what some people call the “event industry”. With the exception of a small gig in 2020, I basically got no work since October 2019. Contact me in private if you’d like to hire me for “interesting” work.

BANI

Already in 2018, Jamais Cascio coined the term BANI. See my post from Aug 2019 and Jamais’ update from April 2020. As mentioned before, I am working with some partners on a virtual multimedia workshop based on this framework, with a specific focus on possible responses. We have an amazing cast on-board, and it looks that we’ll be able to make some announcements soon.

Design Unbound

I am blown away and intrigued by the insights in Design Unbound: Designing for Emergence in a White Water World. This is about having agency in a world that is constantly shifting under you. It is so refreshing after all those business-, management-, leadership-, and self-help-books. It has become a healthy addiction: I am basically reading and re-reading and deeply internalizing everything that Ann Pendleton has written in the last couple of years.

We are building a team to design and deliver a corporate curriculum on this topic. Stay tuned on the “we” and the “curriculum”.

Pirate TV

Most online events and conferences suck. I have some ideas on how to be more ambitious. See my earlier post on the ambition cube for virtual events.

I got the chance to do a commission for a client on this concept and we – the client, the team, myself – learned a lot on what works and what not.

There are now two Pirate TV channels in the pipeline: one more business focused and one more “artsy”.

New toys

For Pirate TV, I wanted to become more fluent in video and sound creation. As there was nothing else to do due to Covid-19, I followed some online courses on Ableton Live, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro X.

These are such rich software environments. Also, their user interfaces make me think differently: thinking in layers, connections, patterns, and harmonies.

Studio Oxygen project

An idea that has been hanging around since 2018, actually.

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

With a small on-line collective, we plan to come together regularly online to have slow-paced conversations on a topic/seed that I plant.  The seed can be the chapter of a book, an object, a poem, a job well done, or a failing forward.

With a no-frills focus on quality content, we hope these sparks of inspiration will give you “oxygen for the mind”.

Traveling Without Moving project

This will be a series of posts documenting my mental and philosophical journey in 2020.

Some spoiler keywords: silence, pause, play, anxiety, unbound, truth, inappropriateness, genre, and yellow.

Traveling Without Moving (TMW) is also somewhat related to Studio Oxygen and Pirate TV

Books

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

Some highlights:

• Design Unbound, by Ann Pendleton-Jullian and John Seely Brown
• Junkspace, by Rem Koolhaas
• Down to Earth, by Bruno Latour
• The Order of Time, by Carlo Rovelli

Also don’t forget Robert Poynton’s “Do Pause”. Together with Josie Gibson we made 8 podcast episodes, one for each chapter in this book. The last episode is here.

Petervan Rides

Since July 2019, I publish 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”. Subjective selection of course, as driven only by my personal taste (or lack thereof).

So, what’s next?

I will officially retire from corporate life as from 1 Dec 2020. Not that I plan to stay idle, on the contrary. Within limits, I will stay available for interesting freelance work – I call it “paid play” –  and plan to stay very focused on my artwork.

The plan for the coming months is to work/play on (random order):

• “Interesting” freelance work
• Artwork
• Studio Oxygen
• Traveling Without Moving
• Pickup Time Capsules again

So, that’s it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, next update is for Apr 2021.

#STAYSAFE

#STAYCONNECTED

Warmest,