Education for Artists
“If thou of fortune be bereft,
And in thy store there be but left
Two loaves – sell one,
and with the dole*
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”
*dole: a small portion. The poem is an adaptation of an ancient Persian saying by an unknown author: "When you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a white hyacinth for thy soul's sake."
Meditation IV
Creatives on creativity
“Smartphone kills creativity, because it kills time. You stop observing, you don’t see those seemingly insignificant things any more and most important, you never get bored. Because we are petrified of getting bored. Your role is to be present. It’s fascinating, we are not present because we see pictures more and more. We became a visual generation. That means that we are much more stimulated by what we see, than what we hear. The consequence is that we don’t open our eyes any more. Because we see things which have been premanufactured.
We see things which have been pre-manufactured. Think about it, if you have been to New York City, a lot of people will say it’s the most beautiful, most amazing city in the world, but if you take those glasses off for a second, you’ll notice not a very pretty city at all... The reason why you are fascinated is because you see the steam coming out of the road, you hear that ambulance, you hear those sirens, you see those tall buildings and they to a subconscious mind remind you about the movies. You are, when visiting the New York City, watching one big movie. You are not there, you are not present, you are actually looking at premanufactured content.
Your role, in order to be creative, is to remove that aspect out of your sight and make sure that you actually start to be present. So how do you do that? You find the zone where you can only be present, and that’s where you start your creativity. ”
“Creativity is not something that can disappear. The creative impulse is simply the strategy used to catch ideas. Ideas are everywhere and forever available, provided you are prepared to accept them. This takes a certain responsibility to the artistic process. There is discipline and rigour and preparation involved. You must prove yourself worthy of the idea.”
“I’ve long been interested in what culture can bring to society, and I’m totally convinced that art has a significant role to play. Even though culture is often marginalized, pushed to the periphery, it is up to us – artists and cultural institutions – to claim space at the heart of society. Culture is where identity, history and belonging are evaluated and formed, although this is not necessarily done in an advocacy type of way, but on a contemplative, spiritual, deeply emotional societal level – both individually and collectively.”
“No criticism is valuable for a filmmaker or a poet or a musician. Practically, OK, if you are doing something wrong then you will never learn. You have to know the possibilities of what the camera can do. But criticism is never of any value, because whoever criticizes has his or her ideas, and who needs the ideas of others? I’m making my thing. I create my own kind of autobiography. You see the detail, you see the period, you see the people, but it’s through my eyes.”
“When I’m writing, I always sit on this 15th-century Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar’s chair. It’s important to not always be too comfortable. I think there are different kinds of attention, and sitting in a huge, comfortable armchair doesn’t make you work harder.”
“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.”
“Art moves. Hence, its civilizing power. ”
British writer and philosopher Alan Watts on art and artists role in society. Full lecture: For when you are stressed (credits: T&H).