What’s going on in your head?

“I just learned that silent reading isn’t silent for everyone. Some people hear the words in their heads as they read.” Image: Roland Barthes No 159, 15 Dec 1971 This statement, quoted by one of my contacts, Lynda Thompson, in a LinkedIn post sparked a deluge of “how did we not know this?” juxtaposed with […]

Art is truth

This seems like a very controversial statement in the days when it is increasingly difficult to know what’s real and what’s fake. “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a […]

Creativity is Our Real Capital

“Creativity is Our Real Capital.” German artist Joseph Beuys 1921–1986 Plurality — a collaborative production of ideas on GitHub https://docs.plurality.net/ Do you see art as separate from the rest of life? A sort of optional add-on that governments alternately ignore and pay lip service to? Something that is dropped from education programmes in favour of […]

Art as a political act

“What is art for? To make us feel something” Brian Eno Iris Murdoch observed that “tyrants always fear art because tyrants want to mystify while art tends to clarify” and Auden insisted that “the mere making of a work of art is itself a political act.” Art critic, novelist, painter and poet John Berger adds: […]

No-effort creativity

If you create when under the influence of a muse does that mean the work requires less effort? Aeolian harp at South Carolina, by Prof Henry Gurr The recent post in this series about how some people struggle to call themselves creative while others are very happy to say they are artists sparked a few interesting […]