i come to the end of the week feeling the affects of my current cold. fortunately i was able to attend the prototyping conversation at derby silk mill.
four diverse aspects of prototyping had been assembled and it led to a really informative and insightful event.
i say topics as one of them had two speakers from rolls royce speaking about the digital transition within the company. put simply they are evolving their digital prototyping culture to be able to work with very small prototypes very quickly. in a company where safety is an absolute they eluded to how in the digital world being able to fail fast is proving benefical in arriving at simple solutions to the complex problems they face with visualising big data.
the speaker who i felt lit up by was martin smith. i even got to demonstrate one of his kinetic sculptures. he spoke of how he likes to solve problems and joked with the engineer that for him there is “no such thing as a design freeze.”
smith’s work resonated with the main thread of thought, that of how prototypes generate conversations.
seeing smith’s works made me start to think about a kind of decision i made back near the beginning of my practice, that of avoiding making objects. i think this was in response to my personal situation of editing my belongings and the emerging new cultural consciousness towards the planet and use of fossil fuel.
the engineer from rolls royce, working digitally, spoke of how it’s easy to bin code that doesn’t work and move on to something new in an attempt to make it work.
so why did i reject object ?
reflecting about what was happening around me i saw objects being made, expressing the idea and more often than not remaining unsold. so my consideration here seems to be financial.
there is something else going on here. a confidence in expressing ideas as objects.
from my maker residency i showed that i have the dexterity skills to create objects when the belief and drive is high when thinking about the idea.
so is it that i’m questioning how an idea can be expressed, or is it to do with the nature of the idea that i’m wanting to express?
the way in which i feel is very important to me. this is informed by my previous career experiences where i was involved in producing works that were shown to audiences, either as one offs or for a limited run. the nature of linear narrative influencing how the production sort to manipulate emotional reaction to produce the desired effect of the narrative. hence why the hi hat and snare resonated with me last year…. a place in which to develop from.
for my visual practice to progress to a place where true emergence can take place, i feel i …… ……………………………..
i take a moment to listen to some gregorian chants…. consider the receding mist around the trees as seen through the window and contemplate a cup of tea.
put simply ……..
my thoughts collide and become foggy. business cliches abound and i bump my nose on a cul de sac of thought.
and that cul de sac only exists as a thought.
so i can redefine my cul de sac as an area where i have options to go towards things that make me feel good about myself and about the world …. about my world.
and while in this cul de sac with options i can test what makes me feel good.
i need a name for my cul de sac with options. bert is the obvious one.
