Aesthetics

I stumbled across this wonderful collection of images today and the experience of viewing them reminded me of the distinction Sir Ken Robinson draws between the often anaesthetic process of education and the emotion of being truly alive through the  engagement in some form of art.  The collection of photographs illustrates the breathtaking range of humanity from the touching interaction  of a group of children to the illustration of man's ability to shape the world on a vast scale; for good and for bad.



Thank you to all the image makers for giving me a moment in my element and giving me the determination to rekindle my own love of taking photographs.

Curate without control

I've been spending time looking for the ultimate business model to take Praise Pod forward and in doing so begun the steep learning curve that is the world of open source software.  It strikes me how loaded many of our commonly used words have become; the word 'business' feels different today to the way it did even a few years ago.  Perhaps the connection with business banking and the growing suspicion of institutions driven by selfish motives?  Similarly 'open' and 'free' are perhaps more synonymous with the arts and volunteering than serious concerns.  Oooops, this is of course heresy as the arts / creation through playfulness is arguably the highest expression of humanity, and thus very 'serious' indeed.

I stumbled upon this thought-provoking article and began the think that the challenge we face in the pre-'proper' internet society is to find solutions to distribute not just the wealth more evenly, but ways to distribute happiness, playfulness, intrinsic motivation, meaningful work (i.e. work that you would be more likely to do for the love of it rather than purely to pick up a pay packet) and ways to help more people create stuff rather than be employed to protect and control other people's property.

Perhaps the breakup and hollowing-out of middle wage roles within public sector organisations will actually help force some people out of unfulfilling roles and find meaning doing things they always wanted to do in their hearts.  This is easy said, but the benefits of sticking in a safe, slow-moving, hierarchical organisation are significant and long-term.  Nothing to do with happiness, but more about safety and security in old age.  Almost like deferring gratification for the whole of your working life in order to (sadly in my opinion) do something that makes you feel truly alive in the final phase of life.

As with many dilemmas it's important not to get too caught up in polarised positions.  Surely we can find some middle ground that helps individuals find their creative selves and infect the host organisation with some new values.

My hope for those charged with monitoring outcomes and being 'in charge' is that they can be helped to exercise their duty more as curators and less as controllers.  Maybe then more of our time can be spent finding meaning and connecting with others to share and collaborate rather than in a state of anxious protectionism.