PEOPLE, PLACES THINGS...

Hey Ziggy, listen to this, it's music by Dr. L. Subramaniam  I'll play it for you off my phone.  Isn't it chill and amazing what a musician can do with a violin?  Ziggy, is my friend's dog, he's staying with me for a few days and this is how he responds to Subramaniam.

This weeks post is going to be about THINGS; ones and zeros.  1's and 0's meant something very different when I was growing up.  They were just numbers.   Project 851 has opened my eyes to see how these things have changed and oh Mamma Mia have they ever!

Is it safe to say anyone 20 years old and younger are unaware of life before the shift?  These humans have been exposed to personal computers their entire life. Life without a computer is to them what life without a car was for me. 

It was grade 4 when our family took a trip, to then Yugoslavia, and I was exposed to life in a village; a simpler way of living.  A life before the magical personal computer and it's speedy evolution of 1's and 0's that bounced us forward like a rocket ship heading into a neutrino. It was more relaxing, yet  we were unaware of how charming that existence was.  So where are we heading bouncing forward?

Check this out, there's even songs about the journey of these things!!    I'm interested in celebrating that, as well as, celebrating the time before it's central relevance in society was directly connected to an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

Lovin' the combination of 1's and 0's that make it possible for posts like this, the  pixelated images to be taken and shared, video posting etc... basically the excitement of sharing in this way!!  Is it all thoughtful, this exciting new way of doing things?  

The restrictions of programming, which are created by people by the way, can be a negative.  For instance, it's disturbing when you talk to a person regarding something everyday, such as an account, and they can't implement a basic customer service request because the system restricts them from doing that;  hmmm, so we adapt to this type of change and getting used to hearing "no, we can't do that" a lot more.  One may want to ask what does that do to the human condition?

These "negatives" are very alive in our societies.   A positive way to  we move forward in our world is to take along those amazing 1's and 0's of today and align them to their less complex  meaning of the past; a bit of back to basics dance with a progressive future.

Recently I read an article on Brad Pitt by Marlon James "5 or 6 things I didn't know about Brad Pitt" . (by the way, the magazine vs. online has the most beautiful visuals -- the photographer Craig McDean does an amazing job that's worth seeing on paper).  It's the number 5. point that speaks to me when I write  about simple 1's and 0's.   This is the example of the basics I'm referring to:  

“When I was making a World War II movie called ‘Fury,’ we did this boot camp for a week, and Logan Lerman, who was the youngest actor of the bunch — I think he was 21 — was given grunt detail. We gave him a watch and he had to keep track of how long it took us to eat and get in and out of our gear. One day he came to me and said the watch has stopped, and I said, ‘You’ve just got to wind it.’ He came back literally 15 minutes later and said, ‘Wait, how do you wind it?’ ”

So how to achieve balance becomes a fun question?  The balance of celebrating what we can share with technology and which is the best way to use it, ie. print vs. online vs. verbal storytelling by a human or a vibrational audio recording through a machine is still evolving.  Hope you see the balance below as I play with binary elements  involved in capturing moment through images looking at the obvious and not so obvious abstractions (imagination) of 1's and 0's. 

 At this point in time the pendulum has swung waaaaaaaay over to the side of mass inundation of "stuff"  leaving people only too often confused, overwhelmed, shutting down and narrowing his/her focus rather than expanding it: I call it getting stuck in "no" land.  My outlook on these things is to question the tools we have and really think about how we use the new meaning of 1's and 0's to find the most effective personal way t to deliver the voice that is yours.  

Come on Ziggy we're off for a walk to see, smell, taste and touch the things that are 1's and 0's in our world.

COMMUNITY -- oh Mamma Mia...

Mamma Mia is a good way to describe Project 851.  It refers to the love one has for a Mamma as in "my mother", which is the literal Italian translation.  However, l hope you agree to take that saying to the level "Mamma Mia!  That's a spicy meatball!!" which adds a whole different flavour to its meaning.  Gotta love those expressions that denote such joyous, fearful, and surprising emotions.   Ah, the magic of two words.

... how apt Mamma Mia is for the Big House and Octopus, not only because of the connection to my Mom, but the the entire adventure it's become (and I'm sure will continue to be).  Pick the intonation of your choice when thinking Mamma Mia, and run with it. 

Whether your imagination takes you to images of love and affection or running for the hills with your hair on fire,  try applying that visual to the idea of aging in place.

When I look around  Strathcona I see  a good community in which to be born, learn the basics, grow, transform and age.  Aging in place is supposed to be somewhere you have the ability to live in one's own home and community safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of age, income or ability level.  Achieving  this, realistically,  needs to be planned for, independently, as a community, through organizations and with the help of city and political powers. Living in a rich diverse community is what I want in my life.

Growing up and/or old, along with art, wrapped in a bow of extended love for family and friends is at the root of how this project began and is evolving.  

I knew, after living in Strathcona for many years, that this was the community where I wanted to stay and my mother was getting older -- she was still under 80 when we bought the Big House in 2014.  We had been business partners, friends and obviously family (mother/daughter team) for many years, like 30 some, so to buy 851 Union St when it came up for sale was, for us,  kind of a no brainer.

We had had many conversations about getting older and where Mom wanted to live and near whom and what that looked like etc.. She was pretty clear that an Old Age Home was not something she wanted to experience.  Admittedly, not quite a spring chicken myself, these conversations made me think about how I wanted to live as I aged.  My friends and I have laughed and chatted about planning to share services we'd require like a driver, chef, bartender and the like.  

Never having children didn't rule them out of the picture for my future as I've always liked them. Those little and younger beings, have always intrigued me so being surrounded by them was a good thing.  It's delightful spending time with younger people not because they're well behaved, although that is a nice bonus, but for their minds .  Conversations about how they see the world has always been of interest to me.  

So with all these ideas in the air the plans unfolded for Project 851...

Our solution to creating such a village on a double lot in the city was to go with renovating and building homes that made aging in place easy to obtain.  This would be a different kind of Felini-ville.  The Big House will have a garden suite  accessible from the street level and full upstairs suite where "Spicy Meatballs" will be central to my lifestyle.  The Octopus will be a contemporary structure with a 3 bedroom unit and a 2 bedroom unit and a artist studio where, fingers crossed, creativity will flow.  Ideas became more grounded, one could say, on the road to rock solid.

So where do we stand at this moment?  We've broken ground and on the road to creating a special place for and about Mamma Mia.  Until, ideas and dreams become reality the "to be" garden suite is now a kind of new/old indoor/outdoor studio space for drawing studies of shadow, shape and space...

PROGRESS...

We saw the house go up on the last progress post and this time the focus is on footings, foundation and a lot of zipping about.  

ART -- random acts of creativity

Is art an object or a way of life?  The definition of art has been posted in the past, (May 22nd) so here's the question; does it applies to the way you live?  Is living a "pure" life  important? ...and what does that mean?  If art is defined by intent then it's fair to apply "pure artistic intent" to how one lives, no?

It's a challenge to all people  to live his or her life this way (with  artistic intent); be creative, take risks and above all do it with love.  That is living purely.  Not all of us can be artists, nor should we,  but there is nothing stopping each and everyone of us from channelling the path of the "pure" artist.  Doing our best to be open (creative), push ourselves that extra 25% (taking risks) and to be honest and respectful (love).

If art is about  being creative and pushing boundaries of technique and questioning what makes it good art?  Good art masters those elements and you feel it intuitively.  Unsuccessful or weak art falls short for whatever the reason; unsuccessful technique or empty questioning/ execution etc.  Bad art doesn't even try to explore these basic elements.  As the song says "it's all about the bass" -- Meghan Trainor go girl!  

Valuing art in a society is pretty much a given (just google value of art and culture in society to see what's out there); ask people an carefully listen to what they tell you.  What is really interesting is that although art is recognized as valuable we are not easily prepared to boldly allocate funds in that direction: allocate to what is the heart and soul of our society.  

Think about that for a moment.  When is the last time, or ever, that you've heard anyone say "oh let's pour our money into the creative sector of our society, it will generate a healthy society"? Perhaps this sounds more familiar "oh poor starving artists, I guess it's the suffering that makes his/her work so great" or "oh we're doing a fundraiser, let's get artists to DONATE, it will be good exposure for them".  Hahaha, laughable and kind of sad at the same time.

Personally, as an individual trying to live with artistic intent, I don't see how a society can move forward otherwise;  we'd just be living history or standing still not progressing forward.  Kind of like, cattle or sheep all running off a cliff.  Einstein has some great quotes about insanity, intelligence, problem solving, curiosity, joy, education, nature, humility and value. Interesting basics to think about.

I have often said I can tell a lot about a person from his or her art collection and self reflection works the same way.  The best part about this intellectual and intuitive game is the dialogue;  a story(s)  that develop through the arts.  On a purely intuitive level one is attracted to certain visual works, dance styles, music, writings etc.  It is what makes us unique and also connects us.  

Why do certain Architects like minimalism over surrealism or abstract expressionism?  All Architects are connected through the "line", at a basic level, and what he or she does with it is sometimes the unique part:  I say sometimes, because as mentioned above as with art there's good, weak/unsuccessful and bad architecture.

Can you guess what type of art your favourite Architect might be attracted to by looking at his or her building design work?  Maybe.  You can certainly tell the difference between abstract expressionist architecture and minimalist architecture.  The discussion then begins with, why would you design a building that looks like that?  By engaging more fully one can understand so many things, but it's only revealed by looking into the layers.

 For instance, the design could have come from a copycat style that is sellable, a movement of popular work and design at the time, a true collaboration with the client, an intuitive form of self expression.  The next layer of enquiry could reveal the design it limited by parameters of present reality, like money, bi-laws, the number of art works on the walls and so forth.  Does that restrict creativity?  

Here's where we go back to choice and the individual.  If you choose to live a pure lifestyle it becomes the challenge of who you choose to work with,  how you work with what you have and want.  Being creative is not often the easy route.  Trying to live that life of artistic intent may not always be successful but worth every effort of the attempt -- it becomes the soul of your existence.  How could that be wrong?

Big House (or hit the heading) , this week shows some photos of visual interest through the eye of attempting to live life moment to moment applying artistic intent.

Note;  Apologies to all pure photographers: I possess  heartfelt admiration for your knowledge and understanding of light --these images are a digital phone capture of moments.

Let me leave you with one last thought.  If you get a chance to see the movie of Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s  ENDLESS POETRY you'll understand.