Awareness in the People's Republic of Bristol

Bristol: Photography and Awareness

I'd written off my car in Italy the day before I had to fly to the UK for our workshop at Hamilton House and arrived in a nervous state knowing full well I should have cancelled the trip (bruises, wounds and all). Glad I didn't though because the experience proved to be a fascinating one both for us photographer/leaders and for the participants I'm sure. This was our first workshop together, Steve, Colin and I, although we knew each other from our collective past and had a show in Turkey last year together with the same title 'Photography and Awareness'

So that was exactly a month ago and during this time we all us had pledged just one photo each by the end of July; the theme 'A heartfelt image'

'The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable'....Robert Henri

This is my fall-back message to self whenever I am working on a retreat or workshop (in fact I must get the T shirts printed) and in Bristol this popped up and swam around my head from start to finish.

Let me explain more clearly by going back and forth in time, starting from yesterday on the beach at Porto Potenza.

The image below; Man the photographer/hunter (may he forgive me, whoever he was)

  

When Tony Maestri and I started to work together at the then School of Photography and the now Arts University Bournemouth, we'd been out in Mexico and California and were fired up on all that stuff out there, stories about all those West Coast Boys (and girls), those photographers who had elevated photography into an art form, Weston and Adams, and then  Imogen Cunningham and the f64 group. I'd met Ansel Adams a few times and remember someone asking him the technicalities of his famous 'Moon over the Sierras photo' He answered 'Heck I don't remember. We were rambling down to New Mexico, all drunk as hell in a dodgy station wagon and happy and laughing. Saw this huge moon and we stopped to breath it in. And I stuck my tripod on the car's roof and just opened the shutter for I've no idea how long...and that's what I got. Luck? No of course not! The photo wanted to be taken and that's all there was to it'

Love that memory.

So, you are getting the drift of this, huh?

In my mind there are two types of photographers, The hunter (image above) who searches outside of the lens and then the poet, dreamer, who operates this (the mind) side of the lens. For the former, the camera is a metaphor for a rifle, stalk your prey, make a killing. For the latter, a mystical machine which interprets his unique inner vision. And there are those, of course, who float in between, searching for that space (gap) where the light gets in.

So, these were the  conceptual seeds we sowed during our great weekend in Bristol. 
And the heartfelt image task?

Looks easy eh?

Not at all! It was our cheeky ruse to throw our kind participants into a quagmire of turmoil, one where they would find themselves lost and drifting between those two worlds.

And why would we be so unkind?

Well, to prepare the theme for the next onslaught of course in Assisi this coming October.

Interested?
For all details of our Autumn programme click here

Michael

The Creative Mind: The Power of Consciousness

THE CREATIVE MIND: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUSNESS

We are not awake

We are mere passengers watching life flash by on a fast train.

Is this what you really want?

To be fully conscious is to live creatively, but how to achieve this? How can we wake up, be fully aware of the preciousness of each day and the opportunity it provides to create beyond ourselves?

Michael Eldridge and Anthony Rogers take you through the labrynths and unchartered waters of the creative mind and land you safely on the shores of the realm of creativity, where past and future dissolve in the timelessness of presence.
Here we paint, write Haiku, tell stories; make the whole arena a living sculpture, an expression of our energy and witness the wonderful flowering of our imagination

                   
                            
Painting by Duncan Campbell who writes this about his experience of The Creative Mind Retreat...

                                      The pines of Casa Faustina

Our venue in the beautiful mountains of Saint Francis is the perfect place for our adventures. It provides us with the calm and energy we need to dive head first into that parallel world which has always been there waiting for us: one of clarity, wellbeing and purpose. And to wake up in the morning on this cool, pined covered hillside at Casa Faustina is like waking to a new day dawning in your life.

                                     Delicious food by Chef Sara

Painting, Poetry, Tai Chi, Longevity and many other things yet to discover about ourselves. And of course exquisite Italian food in the friendly and tranquil atmosphere of Casa Faustina, Assisi, July 29 to Aug 2. 

Michael at Starstone

To write to Michael, click here

I love this photo

I love this photo, because....

 

It was taken at a moment which was not a moment. We had spoken about time and how to freeze it; drive a wedge in it..of timelessness

We are learning so much now about the human mind and body and are overwhelmed with information about what to eat, how to exercise, how to behave.

But you know, when we are brought together in a beautiful space and create words and images together, then the cares of the world dissolve and we taste again what it means to be alive and it is as if we are children once more.

Here's a haiku from retreat

If I wake up to 

Your sun-drenched smile tomorrow

I will be complete

And a collaborative painting by Nicki and Michael

Our next retreat is July 29 at Casa Faustina, click here for info

Letters to a friend part 5

Hi Michael
Interesting.
Yes, I would say more than just a 'subliminal presence' in the painting video; seemed well orchestrated (and not just the music... boom boom!)
Your 80s dream school sounds similar to those based on Steiner principles?
Love the unschooling & Lehla's blog. What a wonderful way to teach & learn about The World. Learning is doing & all the more meaningful & relevant because of it.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Melanie

Michael's reply
Hi Melanie,
Similar yes in a practical way, but our dream was that the Education System would replicate our model and make it a universal learning concept. How naive we were.
And now, as a result of sheer power of the information flow, it seems that the old ways can only crumble in the medium to long term. Parents and their children will just vote with their ipads.
And unschooling will be the driving concept, because their will be a need for centralised organisation.
It is happening slowly through the sheer energy and commitment of a minority.
I have witnessed unschooling projects where children share research topics with kids of other nations;
and sometimes in real time too. It is not linear or chronological and I know that some teachers find it frightening to behold. Kids love it and develop a love for learning.
Which is what it's all about, don't you think? The fostering of a love and passion for learning, for life.

Michael

Check out Michael's Starstone retreats in Italy at the beautiful Casa Faustina in Assisi
Next retreat 'The Creative Mind'

I'm not sure what you'll make of this

Stephen Bray, with whom I shared an exhibition in Turkey last year recently shared his five top tips for creative photographers. In fact he addressed the piece to their spouses, but that's another story.

Not everyone will agree with what he writes. Even I am unsure about some of it, but he does provide food for thought, so I thought I would share the document with you.

Here's the link: http://bit.ly/Top5PhotographyTips

Let me know what you think.

Best wishes,

Michael

The fee for our Bristol workshop is £160, with a reduction for early booking. Contact Colin Tracy UK 01305 889476 or, mobile 07874 910877 for full details.

    or email: colintracy66gmail.com

News Flash... Still places available on our Creative Mind retreat in June in Italy
Call Michael +39 3283535358

pitfalls and creativity pt 4

 Melanie Newstead from Adelaide replies to pt 3 blog

'Very true Michael. However, as a teacher of young children, I have to say that television, ipads & computer games have a lot to answer for!
I often struggle to elicit creativity from my students and much of their play, making, art, construction etc is based on ideas or characters from television or computer games. If I see one more picture of whatshername from Disney's 'Frozen', I'm likely to scream!
There's a lot to be said for my childhood (all those aeons ago...;) when we were told to simply 'go play'. What joy in creating, inventing... games, dances, radio plays etc.
Our modern lives are highly structured and organised, both in family & school settings. Where are the opportunities for precious free and unstructured play time? This is when the creative and inventive minds are nurtured and grow.
Thanks for the post :)

Michael replies...

Hi Melanie,
In the late eighties, there were a bunch of us in London, professors, artists and media folk who, sensing change in the education arena, applied for European funding to launch a project on the creation of a more balanced form of learning. It included the creation of a new type of school; half farm really, where children researched subject matter guided by enablers and organisers. The plan was that children spent half their time inside the lab/classroom and half outside getting involved in practical stuff; mud up to their eyebrows sort of thing. Needless to say, it didn't get funding and The Education Dept just snorted at it. And now of course we have Cloud Learning and Unschooling which have been created thanks to the internet, and schooling seems to be unraveling by its own momentum. But still, even here, there are problems of containment and constraint.
I really do like what you say about 'precious free and unstructured play time, that this is when the creative and inventive minds are nurtured and grow'
Maybe you have seen this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPoUrLv4wo. and I know what you are going to say. 'Twenty five kids in my class doing this?' And what about the dry cleaning bills and the materials?
But even here there is a feeling of a subliminal adult presence and direction, don't you think?
Nonetheless, creative play is natural to a child and the skilled teacher knows when to infuse rational learning into unstructured play.
(BTW I can't help but notice that the subject of Education was decidedly absent from this election campaign (UK). This astounds me)
My final thought is that things are stirring and changing almost by default and it is well worth a look at the two areas I mentioned above. Cloud Learning , Unschooling 
Also check out Minecraft, wonderful for kids, a way to connect with others aroud the planet
I would love to hear your thoughts,

Michael

Michael runs retreats on Creativity in Assisi, Italy

Pitfalls and creativity pt 3

Arthur Fox writes in reply to my previous blog, that..........

'Children tend to be creative because everything is new to them and they are not pre-wired to connect things in specific patterns.  This frees them up to connect things in whatever pattern comes to them.  Each child is different with different influences resulting in even more diversity of connections and ideas.  As we grow older, we naturally start becomig wired through school, cultural socialization, by what we read and view on TV, etc.  However, this is not the same thing as saying the creativity is beaten out of us.  When something new enters our experiences, we tend to make new connections and ideas again. '

And my reply....

Thanks Arthur for extending the debate on this issue which lies at the very heart of difficulties festering in our education systems. You are quite right when you talk about each (young) child being different with different influences resulting in even more diversity of connections and ideas.

And here I say HOORAY! Because this is a house of treasure that sadly these young children are about to leave as they make the transition from infant and junior schooling to High School and Secondary School

But these wonderful childhood qualities are exactly what industry, commerce, (and even such august institutions as the RSA) are crying out for, and blabbing on about, i.e.creativity (or should I say the lack of) in the adult workforce

I was speaking with a young lady yesterday at lunch and she happened to give me the usual line about not having an ounce of creativity in her, but that she would love to paint etc etc. So I asked ' So what happened then?'

And she paused and pondered for a while and told me that when she was at school she had painted a picture of a blue house she had stayed at on her family holiday. And her art teacher had scolded her for doing so and told her that blue houses didin't exist and that she should be more sensible. And that was the end of her creative dreaming, daring and imagination. I asked 'Were you aged 7 at the time?' and she looked surprised and asked 'How did you know?'

I could give you dozens of such examples but you get the gist. That good teachers who ecourage the flowering of creativity throughout a child's school life; it is they who mould the adult to be curious and forever inflamed with wonder. We need a balance between rational and poetic learning processes and not the misinformed idea that testing and more testing is in any way a solution (to what I wonder?) Better exam results? Is that what education is all about? I think not.

Michael
at starstone
Michael and Anthony Rogers run Creativity Retreats in Assisi, Italy.
Next retreat 'The Creative Mind' in June