Archive for the ‘Muse’ tag

Re-Creativity

I’ve been in a pretty pensive state lately about creativity and its applications, namely in the realm of communicating abstracts, like faith. Without tactile sensations, nor proof of existence – the creative outlet is underrated and under-understood, especially when called upon to bridge that gap. Here’s a compilation of thoughts that resonates with me. I think I’ve found a natural frequency to my raison d’etre… Enough to know how to propel. Enough to doubt (maybe even despise?) convention. Enough to hope.

When it comes to creating things (and things of art). It’s usually manageable when it’s purely a functional object. We cannot not care about being eco-friendly. We need pieces of innovation to represent the character and creeds of its creator. When that happens, one has to stop and rethink ye old method of production. Economics is secondary. Risk follows change. Yet, it is needed. For “when you see an object, you make so many assumptions about that object in seconds.” If perception is intrinsic, then explanations become plan B. The creative work itself, needs to be persuasive. We need to meta-design. Watch this.

I’ve stumbled upon a film about the change in production, distribution and consumption of creative works. “A new generation of global creators and artists is emerging, equipped with other points of reference and other tools. The teachers arenʼt certified schools anymore – itʼs web sites, discussion forums and a “learn by doing”-mentality. We see the children of a digital age, unspoiled or uneducated depending on who you ask. Collaboration over hierarchy, digital over analog – a change in the way we produce, distribute and consume creative works.” More about the film here Press Pause Play. Meanwhile, here’s the teaser…

(Appended on 8 July)
And then, here’s proof… Natalie of Community Channel speaking at Ideacity…

And some time ago, I found Elizabeth Gilbert on TED. She “muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses – and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person ‘being’ a genius, all of us ‘have’ a genius.”

Sometimes, we need to defy physics. Don’t we? Some time ago, ‘fact’ was that the earth was flat. Till they discovered otherwise. Curiosity. Doubt, a precursor of faith. I think we need to be child-like (as opposed to being childish). We could all use some Peter Pan moments, flying into the open sky. (Where’s Tinkerbell?) Away we go into Never-Never-Land. Here… watch Sigur Rós’ depiction of the said concept:

Creativity could also take strides in making a difference in society. And this, we need more and more and more…

Check out Favela Paintings…

We could all use some peace don’t we. I’m so gonna make some Peace-In-a-Boxes too. The idea is to give it away.

And there are times when creation meets creator, in perfect creativity… it’s like, “my hands they float up above me, and you whisper you love me. And I begin to fade into our secret place. The music makes me sway. The angels singing say we are alone with you. I am alone and they are too with you. I’m still alive…”

Do you not see the beauty that is? It’s everywhere. May we not be stuck in yesterday’s Flatland. Transcend. Avant. Like, “when we’re still holding on to how things were, our arms aren’t free to embrace today,” -Rob Bell.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” -Albert Einstein.

I suppose I’m just recording fleeting moments of creative. Creativity, like faith, is intangible, but attainable. I experience, I art, I believe, I live – in no specific order.

Masel tov.

Why I like nights: Driving

All in a night’s drive

It’s about 12.30 in the morning. While I was driving, I read this… “Welcome Tony Blair!” under it, in half the size “We hate you!”. This was a banner maybe about 4ft wide, 3ft tall. Hung from a pedestrian bridge across the bypass linking Jalan Bukit Bintang and the Kampung Pandan Roundabout. It’ll be gone by morning I’m sure. Should have stopped and taken a picture Always wondered when and what time people do these sorta things. Would be nice to have a journalistic observatory experience of such some time, within this lifetime.

On the way to the bank for some refilling, I thought it would be nice to have a cuppa. Drove past Starbucks at PBD and it was closed. No matter. Got the cash, and was on my way to drop off some items at a friend’s. On my way back… perhaps McD.

McD’s drivethrough had two cars in front of me, and a truck that was blocking the through-road alongside. Noticed however, that the Starbucks at Centrepoint (which is directly across the McD drivethrough) was open. Backed up, got down and got myself an espresso&cream. I thought the register’s counter; LED display showing the name of your attending barista is a nice thing to have. So Hazel made the order. Thank you.

While waiting, noticed an unfamiliar pamphlet placed in the serving (erm) receptacle. AYA Awards’ 2010. Grabbed one. Nice booklet. It’s cool seeing where they are today. Visionaries. It is inspiring!

So the drive continues, sans the jams – of course. I like these free roads. It lets you enjoy things you won’t normally get to during rush hours or for that matter, any other times in the day. You get to actually observe with greater appreciation the things you just pass-by everyday. And that’s something I want to do – more. It’s quite something – these sights and scenes.

I also like my drives because there are occasions when whatever’s playing on the CD in the car – makes alot of sense. Tonight’s one of those occasions. So, up goes the volume and you’re almost lost in a world of rhythm, rhyme and reason – or at least the attempt at finding reason.

“You’re on the road, but you’ve got no destination. You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination. You love this town, even if that doesn’t ring true. You’ve been all over, and it’s been all over you.”

“It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away. It’s a beautiful day.”

There’s more…

You always know there are those potholes to avoid. I have no problems remembering that I need to avoid that pothole when I enter the car, but when it comes to the actual bend where the pothole meets the car, it’s usually too late to avoid. maybe it’s a night thing. Maybe it’s coz there’s a bend and it’s not like I can see it from far away. Oh well Such is life. We prepare, we forget, we lose, we try again. You’re at the mercy of those maintaining the road. In life, you’re at the mercy of that which sustains life. And His mercy is enough.

A drive at night also reveals other things you won’t normally see in the day. Beggars, lonely men (and sometimes women) scurrying the streets. Tonight, one sits on the curb watching passers by sipping brewed herbal bitter tea across from him. Helpless, hopeless. I sympathize. In their plight, I think they are strong – they must have such unwithering perseverance, just to get by the day. Just to stay alive. But what for. And what else can they do.

Necessity is the mother of all invention, we say. I pass by a street with sex for sale. To me, it’s more sad than it is disturbing that women sell themselves like so. If we only knew how it begun. What did life throw at you that made you you? While I am busy trying to contruct possible scenarios of their history, I see car after car stopping by the road unperturbed. Some inquiring, some just looking.

She takes another puff. Exhaling what could be life’s ubiquitous sigh.

I drive home with a greater appreciation of being. But with a greater need to pursue that which transcends life.

“I don’t know where, confused about how as well. Just know that these things, will never change for us at all.”

“Those three words, I say too much, but not enough.”

Idealists… Freedom Beckons

I just read something I typed on November 18, 2008 – but never published. Wow. It goes like this…

Today I deliberate on the meaning of freedom. Human rights. Basic needs. And the cost of freedom.

I quote from Micheal Moore’s 5 Nov Letter on President-Elect Obama’s win:

“We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.”

Failure, Empathy & the Imagination

J.K. Rowling speaks. Listen to eloquence, rhyme and profundity.

You’re Not Alone

Another Heart Calls

There’s just something to it. Probably the only The All-American Rejects song I don’t mind playing over and over and over again.

Cool Ideas

Creativity is the verve of the universe. It is divine, thriving, undying.

The account of Genesis 1:16-18 records, “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good…”

May I seek Thee. Fix my gaze, lest I fall prey to mundanity. Inspire me, revoke me, muse me, lead me. In my designs, may I draw closely to You who IS creativity, my ethereality.

(Post writing… I sound so evanescence now. Hmm.)

Returning to Sand

Maybe it’s Tamar’s voice. Maybe it’s the lyrics. Maybe both.

Virtuality

This is so surreal, yet not lacking in any visceral sentiment. It is deeply felt.

O how I wish I could create, correct, colour, rehabilitate certain aspects of my life – past and present and future. I wonder about choice and the arbitrary decisions we make daily. I think of the realm I am living in, and however it may seem – bleak or vivid, surely serves a greater purpose of rehabilitation – to an ideal state of conscience and being. May I choose that which brings me closer to that Ideal.

I see myself being attracted to both characters – their desires and their needs. I relate as much to him – creating, in the hope and need to save; as much as I relate to her, in the helplessness and reliance of some being, that is greater than this limiting dimension of which I happen to be living in. I think I tarry being in a coma more than I am being a creator. I am crawling in a dimension, navigating my way through paths in hopes to actualize and be mesmerized by the creator of the flower, than the flower in itself. But thank you for flowers nonetheless.

In the lives of others, I wish to be like the creator, or at the very least – a semblance of colour. In the lives of others, I hope I spill colours – colours of one refined palate that is so vivid, you cannot not find life in that which is coloured. I hope the things that I touch, model and make take on colours that carry a saturation and vigor that is enough to rouse the living dead. Yet, to rouse is not my doing. I should only colour and colour well. Or maybe, I should colour myself enough, so that the very things that I touch, be coloured by touch, rather than a brush.

O how I rhyme Selah.

This I sign, May I, may You – have I to colour and be alive.

I like my Saturday afts.

The transient rays of the late afternoon sun playing whirlwinds with the breeze of the car’s air conditioning, while I drive under a canopy of acacia/fir trees. Ahh, bliss. Kinda transcendental. That, couple with the knowledge of leaving things and taking a break for that very short period in time, and enjoying instead – the artistry in light, shadow, colours of afternoons, halos and the silhouettes the sun casts. Not forgetting the muse-worthy musique. Makes for a nice smoothy of emotions. I was going to top it off with a slurpee, but 7-eleven spoilt the fun with a ‘don’t use this if they light is blinking’ sign at the slurpee machine. Boohoo. I got a Cadbury Black-forest though, that with a Vanilla Coke. I can live with that today

But now, transience takes effect. I’m back to work. For now.