In Search of Imagination

My boy is at home sick, the weather is dismal and the crisis is hitting everyone around. No matter the brave faces everyone is affected. It is a hard climate on the job market or free lance market or business market, everyone is holding on to what they have and any treasures are not shared but are hidden deep in the mattresses. I know,  I do the same.  And in such a hard environment, the impact of the reality around you is hard, unforgiving and brutal and dreams are hard to come by.

And it is exactly in this moment when imagination is of utmost importance. We need to dream, invent, fantasize and be inspired (can one be inspired without imagination?).  But why are good, visionary ideas so scarce (are they)?  According to Richard Kearney in his book “The wake of Imagination” (ok an old book, but with a lot of wisdom) we live in a society where the image has taken over from the book as a artistic authentic impression. The image is so closely linked to a consumerist view of reality that “the image precedes the reality it is supposed to represent – reality has become a pale reflection of the image””And so we observe that “art images” increasingly serve as parodies of “commercial images” while commercial images serve as parodies of “art images” “art has become anti art”. This confusion threatens to hollow out the culture heritage that has been growing since the beginning of civilisation. Of course, this has always happened, civilisation is nothing static but is a living evolving being that will be affected by different influences. But one should be careful of what impressions we are submitting upon our fragile imagination. Since the world rejects vacuum so the void after a rejected impression, will be filled with something, the commercial imaginary that is, but it is a artificial imaginary since it is primarily commercial and not creative and it threatens to affect more areas of our mind than only the imagination, or as Kearney writes “our inner unconscious has not been spared”. It affects also our expectations of life (the notion that one has to be ecstatically happy every second of the day and if not then something is wrong, is something new and something we have been fed recently) or views of relationships (now the family is not a permanent fundament and marriages are expected to last only a few years) and even how we view ourselves and our role in society (men should be metrosexual and women “emancipated”). Proudly did we get rid of taboos, got rid of tradition and in the name of liberation we agreed that anything is possible. But haven’t we “thrown the baby out with the bathwater” so to speak? I believe so. I believe we have lost more than we have gained and therefore I want to use my humble blog to get back to basics. No, I will not revert my household to the 1700 nor will I throw every bit of modern technology out the window. No, I want to remind you, whoever you are, and myself about the meaning of imagination since it is important to know what we as a society have lost and if some lucky loner still posses it, know what he/she should be careful not to lose.

Kearney have identified “4 main meanings of the term imagination:

1)      The ability to evolve absent objects which exists elsewhere, without confusing these absent objects with things present here and now.

2)      The construction and/or use of material forms and figures such as paintings. Statues, photographs etc. To represent real things in some “unreal” way

3)      The fictional projection of non-existent things as in dreams or literary narratives

4)      The capacity of human consciousness to become fascinated by illusions, confusing what is real with what is unreal”

Our mind, fantasy is a fantastic treasure but a treasure that will be lost if we do not exercise it. So my suggestion is, sit back, close your eyes and let your mind wander . . . .

Happy day dreaming!

Thinking is painless . . . for most!

Many years ago, a friend of mine asked me, How do you do to have ideas? I tried to answer her, embarrassed as I was, almost as much as her, as truthfully as I could while I tried to think of what it was she actually meant? She was an intelligent girl, surely she had some clue of how to actually conceive ideas? I lost contact with her, for different unpleasant reasons, but I have through the years often thought back to this question. It is a question that to me sounds so odd (like how do you breath) that maybe there is something in it. Can it really be so that there are people, without ideas? Aren’t ideas something fundamentally human, like speech?

Ideas by itself is nothing, you cannot have ideas in a vaccum, there has to be something triggering them. For me, ideas are intrinsically linked to interest and to the question “what if? Artists tend to have an interest in things humane, how people live, thought processes and destinies etc.  Engineers in machines and construction. Economists in how companies find their ways in markets. But the process for the idea to take shape is the same. You look at an issue, something of substance to you and then you start playing with it, like a small child asking 56 questions a second, until something grabs you as an alive entity, strong enough to stand on its own. Suddenly you have before you something, a model of something that is universal and true. Simple.

But there are crucial moments in this with the most dangerous part being the part of playing. You have to let the idea spiral, or as my professor used to say, one has to keep knocking on the door of imagination, you have to let it go, work on it, do not let it stop. It means you have to stand your ground, looking for the truthful moment and not be affected by fashions and how “other peole do it”. Stay clear of quick fixes and look for the genuine. But that in turn means that you have to know what you want, you have to know what your “story” is and stick to it.

Today I find to my amazement, a world around me full of artists. People who never in their life showed any interest in the arts, never even been to the museums, never read a proper piece of literature, suddenly finds the need to express themselves through an artistic medium. Just look at all the talent shows where thousands line up, all claiming to have a need to express themselves. How come, what has happened?

My explanation to this, could be consider slightly radical, so please be ware, is that there is too much shit around. Everywhere you turn, you find quick fixes, where ever you go you find clichés, already conceived ideas (by someone else) who are being put together with other stolen ideas to create something that resemble a piece of art. But it doesn’t have anything alive in them, just aesthetics, if you are lucky. We need to clean it out and put it in the right place because what it does, is it desensitise us from seeing the true expressions. We need to start asking for more and not settle for a fast food concept of thinking. We need to think more, not meditate, not humhum sitting with your legs crossed, just purely think and see where it will take you.  It could be on a fantastic adventure or romantic situation. It could be a hilarious concept or a fantastic piece of art. And it will be only yours

So try, let’s have some ideas, trust me it doesn’t even hurt !