I created this piece as a wedding present for two of my friends, Lotte and Bjarne. All made in Photoshop. The image has not been printed yet. Click on the image or here to see more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is quite hard these days to find seclusion. Always online, wired up, connected, networking, twitting, blogging, facebooking, surrounded by family, friends, co-workers, available on the phone, on the computer, at work, at home, even on vacation. Even at home, resting, Xbox Live keeps you connected.

Most people can handle this. It’s no problem. Some turn themselves ‘off’ at times, keeping a balance between being on- and offline. Some indulge themselves in the ever-omni-presence, bathing in the limelight of being a hotshot on Twitter or YouTube. But something is missing.

And I’m not talking about the chance of not becoming truly stressed, when constantly being available to anybody at any time of the day. Believe me, this is stress-fuel in it’s purest form, if not handled with care. It’s something else that is missing, namely immersion, or even contemplation.

I mean, let’s face it. In our Western society, refinement and quality is dead, replaced by short-term [insert anything here]. Everything is fast-paced, the attention span of most people is equal to nil, hence the absence of ambitions regarding delivering something thought-through and error-free. Example: I’ve seen a mass-produced T-shirt from one of the largest sports manufacturers on the planet, where there were a misspelling in its slogan (and yes, I double-checked).

Contemplation is amiss. And I miss it. And I do believe that I’m not the only one. I miss getting bored, the moments where you are nowhere else but right here, right now. Yes, perhaps we should all meditate, I don’t know, but the quiet moments where time does not exist are almost extinct. It’s a luxury only the richest can afford, and my belief is that they won’t come up with the next big thing all by themselves. I’m not going into some conspiracy issue here, nor politics (hey, money is just what makes the World go around until we find another way to make it spin), I’m just saying, that we all need some ‘mental air’ now and then.

What could possibly go bad, if we just stopped for a moment and allowed ourselves a break? And I’m not talking about solitude; collective efforts in this matter also do work. And forget about procrastination, which is just another symptom of not being where you want to be, in the moment you set aside your chores and replace them with some other (often) totally unfulfilling act. I know it is extremely hard to do this, but deep down, I think it is what we all need and the effects hereof will be widespread.

We have already established the fact that we can’t consume or produce more than we do. Our planet will be killed if we try. And in this mass-hysteria of fast profit gain, we all forgot the some aspects of the good old fashioned way of life, that actually got us here where we are today, especially the balance between mind and matter. I’m getting slightly back to my point about refinement and quality from earlier here. Back somewhere around the Renaissance of the 12th century, all areas of political, scientific, philosophical, cultural and economic thinking got a boost and developed into becoming a great new era. Let me just repeat this list: politics, science, philosophy, culture and economics. How often do you hear about cultural or philosophical advancements today? Turn on your TV: Do you see much about the cultural state of you country (and I’m not talking about fashion shows here)? Seen any programmes regarding Jazz or experimental theatre lately? Anything else but sports, soaps, reality-shows and local news coverage on the telly tonight? When was the last time you discussed climate changes, philosophies or the state of Africa, together with your colleagues during lunch? With your friends at your previous gathering? With your spouse? Your children?

Do you see where I’m getting? Now, I am aware that we all can’t run around, talking about Aristotle or Spinoza all the time, but perhaps, if we didn’t cram that much pointless information into our heads all the time, constantly twittering of our whereabouts, stuffing the calendar with things we think we need to do before we’re getting too old to do it, constantly pressing our workforce to cram yet another hour into the already overburdened schedule, we would actually be able to stop up for a moment and draw a line, connecting the dots: getting some perspective on things.

This might lead to nowhere, but at least it could help ease the enormous burdens of everyday life, if we just gave ourselves the opportunity to relax. Be calm. And then we would have more time and energy to contemplate. We could turn our attention to other things, see other ways of living or begin to be interested in something regarding more long-term results, perhaps demand some more quality from the media, because we actually would begin to care about other things than what’s up with [insert any celebrity here]. Heck, we might even begin to feel more connected; not only between ourselves but also with ourselves.

What could possibly go wrong? This could be widespread. Society might even begin to accept cultural diversity as a force, giving us all some art and music we could believe in, see ourselves in, giving us even more perspective. We might be smarter, or we might be dumber, but I believe we would become much more smarter and smarter dumber. Arts, philosophy, science is all R&D for culture. It’s long-termed, it’s important. Hugely important. Why do you think that Novo Nordisk spends $1.6bn a year on R&D? Because they know in the long term they can get 7 back. We should think about arts and crafts in the same way. Question: Why should it be much more beneficial, both economically and image-wise to be a lawyer than to be a musician? Let me quote John F Kennedy here:

“I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilisation as well.”

Anyway, I digress.

Mental solace = contemplation = perspective = creativity = personal/cultural progress.

Utopia? Perhaps. Wishful thinking? Highly! Thought through? Absolutely not. All I do know, is that we’ve already begun to think differently about our climate and the way things have to be in the future, and hey, if they could do it in the 12th century, why shouldn’t we be able to in the 21st? Let the new renaissance begin!

I think I need a break…

I created this piece as a wedding present for two of my friends, Jan and Sabine. All made in Photoshop and afterwards printed as a type-C (or “Lambda”) print (70 x 50 cm). Click on the image or here to see more.

I’ve just returned from a lovely prolonged weekend in Berlin. As I remembered it from my previous visit, ten years ago, it’s a city that has a certain aura of infinite possibilities and bohemian attitude. Although not as ‘underground’ as a lot of stuff you can experience in Berlin (such as a night club in a Tram or a Trabant suspanded in mid-air in a small courtyard), one of the gems from this visit was when I took one step into a minuscule gallery and became mesmerised by the works of Chiharu Shiota.

The Japan-born, Berlin-based artist uses thread to entangle items in a kind of cocoon of ‘black smoke’, sometimes making the items float in mid-air. The result is a compelling tension of sublime intimacy and haunting imprisonment, almost making items seem more three-dimensional than they are. She also creates towering structures of windows, which stands like the remnant if a construction that has been left behind.

This is not to be missed if you should pass by one of her exhibitions.

This is absolutely brilliant. Artist Yendoo Jung takes the imagery from children’s drawings and creates photo art out of them. Genious.

This is brilliant! Mark Khaisman layers several pieces of tape on Plexiglas panels to create unique image compositions. Only tape is used. Respect. [Via]

And while we’re at it. Check out this typography paper cut… Amazing!

For quite a while, I’ve been contemplating a story involving these two guys… I think they need to go on an adventure of some sorts…