Yesterday we had a very inspiring class. We focused on IDEAS.
The first thing that came to mind in the discussion about the origin of ideas was David Lynch's book "Catching the Big Fish".Lynch sees ideas as fish swimming in a deep sea. The ones on the surface are nice but small. You have to dive deep to catch the most beautiful, abstract and powerful fish.
I have admired Lynch's work for a long time. His films of course, but also his paintings and writings. I feel connected to his spiritual views on art. Meditation plays a big role in his practice, as it does in mine.
I agree with Lynch that ideas are not just generated inside a person's brain. It's more like a hunt or an encounter. Ideas are not individual, they are collective. They are not of one person and they cannot be truly owned. Ideas live in the liminal space between our interiority (sensitivity, talent, perception, curiosity) and our exteriority (the others, the world, the so-called reality, stimuli in general).
An artist's (or simply said, a person's) role is to be able to see those ideas, catch them, nourish them, care for them, raise them, realise them and finally let them free in a new form. I think ideas are living entities, and we are a sort of vessel.
Before reading Lynch's book I had a similar image of ideas. But instead of fish, I imagined them as butterflies. They flutter all around us, fleeting and fragile, sometimes with a short life span, sometimes in becoming like a cocoon.
A big part to catching ideas to me is about mindset and synchronicity. I think catching the big fish, or the big butterfly, can happen in all kinds of situation. It can be just a glimpse or a year-long contemplation.
Our mindset is what sets the depth of our perception of ideas. Synchronicity places us in the right place at the right moment. Maybe there is a great idea growing in a cocoon right next to you, but it's harder to see it because it is hidden...or maybe there is a brilliant and wonderfully blue idea fluttering just beside you, but if your mind is focused on only seeing yellow, you will miss it. But if we are open to possibilities in this liminal space, a rare creature might just decide to land on the tip of our fingers.
If I am stuck and can't find ideas, one of the best things for me to do is to step away, get out, go for a walk, do something completely different. If I lock myself in a room and obsess about it (which happens more that I’d like to admit), it’s highly unlikely that something good will come out of it.
Ideas for me come from the outside, and the mirrors inside me simply reflect those that vibrate at the same frequency as me in a given moment. I found this diagram absolutely brilliant. Thanks Jonathan for sharing it!
The second part of class we discussed UBI, Universal Basic Income. Brian Eno, another great inspiration for me, talks about the idea of "Scenius", the communal genius.
This concept strongly resonates with my ongoing research on art as a ritual and the collective unconscious.
For most of human history we have relied on tribe societies and collective rituals to deal with our shared fears and our need for meaning and deeper connection. In modern Western society, and the art world is no exception, there is a strong tendency to glorify the individual over the recognition of the communities, influences, and teams that contribute to creative work. No individual artist exists in a vacuum, whatever they think, feel, create is a product of the context they live in.
Art, in particular, has the potential to bring people together. It’s a modern form of ritual, a shared space where we can connect, reflect, and transform. This connection, I believe, is something we desperately need to rediscover—not just in the art world, but in how we live and work as a society.
Looking at the state of the world today, more than ever we need to rediscover our collective nature.
Whether it’s art, culture, or solving global problems, collaboration and connection is the only way to salvation. We are exponentially more powerful as a collective, both in our ability to create and in our capacity to destroy...
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