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Welcome to psycho-analytical aesthetics, with mythology and philosophy woven in! I bought this book around 3 years ago, drawn in by the counter-intuitive title but very curious. And it certainly didn't dissapoint. My first attempts at reading it made clear just how challenging a read it would be (written in a somewhat circular style, with complex connections and layers), and I only made it a third of the way through. But at last, I've got to the end, and so much resonated, even though the language is steeped in expert psycho-analytics. I feel my life's journey has been in a recovery from a very analytical orientated subject education (I was naturally strongest in maths and the sciences, but I like to think that doesn't mean to say I wasn't interested in the arts)... and the language that the book provides, illuminates the fundamentals of our faculties of perception in the creative experience. In particular, the notion of "syncretic" thinking as the opposite of analytical thinking is very compelling (and is a more comprehensive concept than just 'intuition'). A few points that I'll develop further in later edits: - It takes stock of the failures in the past in achieving conscensus for a theoretical framework of creativity - The imposibility to hold simulataneous focus on our contrasting perceptive systems, is evoked, that resonates with my appreciation of the philosophical realms of contrasting validity (by philosophers from Wilber the Kant; the arts, morals and sciences). - Triads such as that of ego, id and superego; or differentiation, integration, re-introjection are described, that also resonate with my work in narrative interpretation through triads. This book is an incredible landmark in the "consilience" (unification of knowledge) in the understanding of human creativity...with connections I could see to Scharmer's Theory U, Campbell's Hero's Journey, but based on compelling psycho-analytic interpretation. A call to the importance of the imagination, even for subjects such as mathmatics, are super relevant to my personal life, and my hopes in the education of our children. More comments to come to this post! *An interesting Integral Theory related blog post and comments on looking at Theory U and the Hero's Journey can be found here .

Herb Alpert (founder of A&M Records, sold for $500m in 1989): "There's something about being an artist, a painter, a musician, a sculptor, when you're doing it, you are in the exact moment of your life...and that's rare. When you're not in that mode, you're thinking about yesterday, tomorrow. When you're doing it, it feels right on the moment. When I started painting, I painted like a monkey, I squeezed some paint on a canvas and moved it around, with no training. I didn't know what I was doing, but I think there is an advantage to that. When you are an amateur, and just fooling around, you have infinite possibility". https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/heresthething/episodes/193354-herb-alpert Photo - Herb Alpert receiving the Medal of Honor for the Arts from President Obama July 10, 2013 at the White House (credit : Official White House photo by Pete Souza with reuse rights).

Since working from 2017 in the organisational development area called "Sensemaking", I've been diving deep with regards narratives in complex social systems. These narratives can be analysed in interesting ways thanks to having the narrators interpret their narratives with signifiers. In parallel, over this past year, I've been committing more to the video narratives filming, following my inspirational artist figures such as Theater Gates and Jonathan Harris who by coincidence I found also talk directly about narratives and signifiers.... This is probably nothing new at all to people in, or close to the art world, but it was fun to make the connection across such different fields, yet a common point is in how we are "making sense" of our complex social realities. And today, here in Bordeaux, I come across Turner Prize artist Lubaina Himid, commenting on her latest exhibition in a video, talking about narratives and signifiers. Needless to say, this doubly reinforces my attraction and commitment to transitioning to being involved as closely as possible in the creative arts, and even my own sculpture ideas that have been simmering for a good while!

Fabulous blog post here from Nic Askew on his recent experiences of where sharing our "truths" (what people are really thinking and feeling) can meet such resistance in the world: https://nicaskew.com/blog/truth-friction-and-the-grand-human-predicament/?fbclid=IwAR1-afJDQBmIrm7xa17KcMqg3vmgBLLpqbujKD2kwgBnOiwu4rJjEB_MU6M I have come across very similar experiences in Sensemaking and narratives projects for corporates, where unstructured and spontaneous expression of experiences are gathered. Two household brand name / multi-national clients of collaboration partners of mine have actually cancelled or blocked Sensemaking projects, due to fears as to what employees might actually say.

The most amazing opening quote from David Bowie in this BBC Radio 4 Verbatim show, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b06z5pts same "There is an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unseeable, the unspeakable...all of those come into being when writing music" Photo: Roger Woolman, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I'm on a huge learning curve in terms of the video editing process, but one thing that strikes me profoundly is the art of distilling the essential, the journey to simplicity. I'm living something so tangble in the crafting of the editing. In my organisational development work a huge risk was always in over complicating the offer, the service, content and processes. We needed to get to the simple as directly and quickly as possible. But I had in the back of my mind that getting to the 'simple' is a journey, and just a destination one can skip to. Taking 1h30 of filming and distilling it, brings you to moments of magic, where the briefest of phrases, when isolated, cut, and framed in some way, can provide a spark. The profoundness of that simple sentence hits harder, the shorter it is. Once the video is distilled/simplified, then there is the direct felt impact, so can you in fact "skip" to the impact of the elegantly simple in more complex contexts such as in the world of organisational and social development? I'm conscious of the delicate balance of jumping to simplicity in these more complex relations and interventions, where simplicity might be banal or meaningless. Further reflections to follow!

Xiamen Dada founder, who believed art should not be detached from real life, and should take a stand on everything, passed away last month at the age of 65 in France. Powerful obituary in The Economist November 9th edition.

Wonderful series of movies by Yann Arthus Bertrand, http://www.human-themovie.org/, with a lot in common with the narratives approach of InteriorTruth.com / Nic Askew's Inner View Method (although there are some distinctions, with regards just how directly one can tap into subtle energies). ... With this extract here from ex-Ecuadorian président José Mujica

How to counter the tyranny of the monoform? ... So pervasive, you don't know you're being manipulated...see the visionary filmmaker Peter Watkins give us the wake up call... From over 15yrs ago; https://youtu.be/LZ1S18jsyyw My personal inquiry in learning about the editing process from scratch, is how might the inner view method from Nic Askew be an antidote to this?

Just try....check out this wonderful, humerous but touching series of takes from Nic Askew. https://vimeo.com/119284008

Sharing I feel the same core process as "The Artist Is Present" 2010 performance art of Marina Abramović, the NY Moma. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/marina-abramovic-marina-abramovic-the-artist-is-present-2010/ Photo: Andrew Russeth, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons And here is the video of her meeting her ex-lover and creative partner.

Acts That Amplify: Ann Hamilton on Art, the Creative Value of Unproductive Time, and the Power f Not Knowing.... “But not knowing, waiting and finding — though they may happen accidentally, aren’t accidents. They involve work and research. Not knowing isn’t ignorance. (Fear springs from ignorance.) Not knowing is a permissive and rigorous willingness to trust, leaving knowing in suspension, trusting in possibility without result, regarding as possible all manner of response. The responsibility of the artist … is the practice of recognizing.” https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/12/making-not-knowing-ann-hamilton/?fbclid=IwAR2BJlZi9KDxYqojNSbQkQx8wH79hamsf59I3ws8tqa163qfFVMVxPCPmUo Other important references for principles of the creative process are described here: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/11/30/marina-abramovic-artist-manifesto/