real teaching

Real teaching always happens in the inbetween moments. The rest is just what a video tutorial can provide, plus a book or two.

Think about the implications of that in light of current models of education, schools, universities etc.

cars not sexy

Cars are simply not as sexy as they used to be. Insurance kills the zest young people wanting to zoom around, forcing them into micras and other crap cars. Electric cars are simply uncool, however fast. Formula one is neutered by all the safety precautions (naturally I hate to see anyone die in any sport yet I also know that the real danger of motor racing is one of its attractions). Buying a new car is seen as a mini eco-disaster- all that water used and carbon emitted used to make something essentially pointless- plenty of great used cars already out there. Old cars from the sexy cars era will always be in demand, but the car boom which started with Henry Ford is levelling right off. The car becomes like the carriage of yore, with computer assist replacing the driver, just a way to get from a to b. Status value: diminished. Motorcycles however are different. Look for where freedom is opening, vitality more easily expressed or encouraged.

big data con

Big data is a con.

That's all you need to remember when someone uses the words 'big data' in preference to the research findings under discussion.

Unfortunately we are living through strange times when those who make important decisions know very little about computers and what they are capable of. If they even kept this thought in mind they would be better off. But organisations reward the appearance of competence over actual competence so the problem persists.

Eventually, in a century or so, people will be as wise about computer 'experts' as they are about plumbers.

So, not an entirely trouble free vista ahead.

outsider art handbook #3

Outsider artists need just as much help as anyone else. Often this takes the form of telling them not to worry about any of the preconceived ideas about art that others try to foist upon them. What may be a cliche to a highly educated mainstream artist may be a revelation to an outsider artist. It all depends on the use made of that thing. Blondie used classical music to get ideas for their pop songs- and unless you know the classical music involved it is very hard to notice. Other pop musicians borrow unconsciously from the classical cannon and it may take a critic to tell them such a thing. All that matters is that you keep on making things. No one said it better than Andy Warhol when he commented that the job of the artist is make things, the job of the critic is to say whether they like them or not. The artist must keep churning stuff out, (as Warhol said, "the answer to the critic is always the same- make more work") and whether it finds a home or not is no business of the artist. He is in the production game not the liking or disliking game. Whether people like your work or not is of no matter- your answer must always be: make more art. 

That said, here are ten more outsider art ideas.

21. Art is not pure. Speak of something real. Use it to say something important.

22. Think about straight lines, subtle lines, outlining.

23. Is black a colour...sometimes.

24. Think about vitality rather than 'how good is it'. Does this picture have vitality?

25. People are scared of the heroic and drawn to buffoonery, irony, undermining. Find a place for the heroic, even a small place.

26. Primitive art parallels the rediscovery of the bass note, the bass line, the heavy bass. Repeating a bass note may be all that is needed. Find where the bass note is in your picture or art.

27. Beauty is like a pure note.

28. Art can be seen as two things: talent and vitality. Don't let your talent cripple your vitality.

29. Beauty is like harmony, a focusing, a bringing together. Some untrained folk singers warble around a note which they can't hold but can hit on and off. The effect is like wobbling around the beautiful, if you hit it by chance a few times that is enough.

30. Art is a minority interest. Always has been, always will be. If you can give your art away you're ahead of the game.

outsider art handbook #2

Outsider is a convenient catch-all term for art that unprofessional, uncool, unhip and lax on things like perspective and graphic accuracy. It resembles children's art, or can do; it resembles the art of the insane, or can do. It includes so-called naive art as well as clever experiments by formerly or otherwise mainstream artists. Like the term 'street photography' it is more use as a description of how the artist feels and how it can motivate the artist; it is what you might call 'a permission description'. And that is a jolly good thing as many people feel as they formerly did about writing pre-internet (the internet made writing democratic) which was that it was the preserve of the skilled and devoted and sunday painters beware....

So, having justified its own existence here are 10 more bon mot for would-be outsider artists:

11.  Installations are fun. All they need is a clean white space as a frame. Anything goes after that. The key is to create a fun or interesting experience for the viewer.

12. A wall makes graffiti.

13. A frame makes a picture.

14. Almost all of art is a reconciling of positive and negative space. The main thing and the space around the main thing. The flatter something is, the more the space can count.

15. Beauty can be in the decor, the negative space rather in the thing depicted, the positive space.

16. Think more about lines, shapes and colours and less about what the thing looks like.

17. Ugliness can be a lot more VITAL than beauty, the downside is...it's ugly.

18. Straightlines are to curves what black and white is to colour. A useful thing to master, good enough on their own. Limiting yourself to only straightlines (lots of artists have done this, turning a curve into lots of little straight lines) is one example of a limiting frame that gives pictures verve.

19. Perspective just means things further away are smaller, things nearer are bigger. Always mess with it is a good watchword.

20. Dots, lines, squares and circles form the basis of all caligraphy. Just using these four things you can go a long way.

outsider art handbook

Outsider is a convenient catch-all term for art that unprofessional, uncool, unhip and lax on things like perspective and graphic accuracy. It resembles children's art, or can do; it resembles the art of the insane, or can do. It includes so-called naive art as well as clever experiments by formerly or otherwise mainstream artists. Like the term 'street photography' it is more use as a description of how the artist feels and how it can motivate the artist; it is what you might call 'a permission description'. And that is a jolly good thing as many people feel as they formerly did about writing pre-internet (the internet made writing democratic) which was that it was the preserve of the skilled and devoted and sunday painters beware....

So, having justified its own existence here are a few bon mot for would-be outsider artists:

1. Academic art training is like opera training. Do you like opera or do you prefer jazz, pop or world music?

2. Be untrained and proud of it. Art is about doing something with conscious limitation: a frame is the most basic and most powerful limiter. Use your inability as a frame; or at least be conscious of it as something useful rather than a negative thing.

3. If you run out of things to paint imagine looking through an electron microscope at something.

4. Don't over associate with the mental health issues surrounding outsider art. the moment you use some disability as a 'badge of authenticity' the art is using YOU not the other way round.

5. The quest for authenticity never ends.

6. Mainstream art is scared of religion, happiness, joy, spirituality (apart from death soacked versions of the aforementioned). Go anywhere mainstream art is scared to go...

7. Mainstream art is scared of smiles and eyes (look at the blank unseeing eyes on so many "20th century masterpieces"). Go there.

8. Be anecdotal. Tell stories. 

9. If you can master grey and pink you are ahead of the game.

10. Lines are nice to look at. There is a reason ancient art often involves two or three outlines.

Becoming not Being #3

Trying to 'maintain a position', looking back to more favourable days, repetition for the sake of it (which is the basis of much art) is when you know that becoming has shifted to being. However you may fairly ask: if becoming is the whole game how do I 'achieve' anything? You need to align your attempts at becoming with the static markers offered by the WEIRD world. Tests, exams, sales, books published, art works completed- all these are crude markers of success in the WEIRD world. They have value in as much as you cannpt escape your environment completely, yet, at the same time, if they oppress one and cause strain and anguish they must be relinquished immediately. All these markers are simply there to spur one on. The moment they do the reverse- ditch 'em. In aikido Takeno Sensei stated that one demonstration is worth a month of practice. And you can get ready for a demo in a few days of focused training. In writing, if you publish a book you learn 10 times what you can learn if you simply write a manuscript and leave it on your hard drive. Publishing immature or crap work may harm your static world 'rep' but you will learn from it...and that is worth far more. Having an art exhibition will teach you more about your work than simply beavering away alone (if you take it as a positive learning experience judged before what others say rather than a thumbs up or thumbs down from arbitrary critics).