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Your moment of Zen

Life as art practice (a glimpse of urban life in Kyoto)

Kyoto_train_1 Being fully engaged in the moment seems increasingly hard for people to do these days. Our lives are not just filled with business but with "busyness." We spend much of the day "living in our cluttered heads" and fail to see, I mean really see. We miss so many moments each day, moments which may have been teeming with inspiration, stimulation, beauty, art, emotion, perhaps even answers to our questions if we had only noticed. But we were not aware, and we did not observe. In Buddhism Plain and Simple, Zen priest Steve Hagen reminds us that "We tune out much of the world — and much of ourselves as well. And we don't even realize how removed we are from what is going on." Hagen says that most of us fail to live life to its fullest because we freeze our lives into a certain view.

When you think about it, the really great creatives — designers, musicians, even entrepreneurs, programmers, etc. — are the ones who see things differently and who have unique insights, perspectives and questions. (Answers are important, of course. But first comes questions.) This special insight and knowledge, as well as plain ol' gut feel and intuition, can only come about for many of us when slowing down, stopping and seeing the world for what it is in all it's complications, in all its simplicity, and in all its reality there before us.

Life as Art Practice
Markuz This may sound like new-age gobley gook, but it really is just a matter of slowing down. Yet, this is easier said than done. What got me thinking about this is a new website by a buddy of mine, Kyoto-based Swiss designer and artist Markuz Wernli Saitô. Markuz is in the middle of a very cool relational art (what's that?) project which is related to this idea of slowing down, taking time and "being in the moment" — and he's sharing it with the world. Go to the Momentarium website set up by Markuz for this project to read his idea behind the project. Says Markuz: "Each moment of the everyday, every action of living, poses the question: how it might be lived differently, more truthfully and respectfully." With this in mind Markuz offers up his services, one hour a day, every day, for about twelve weeks in various Kyoto locations. This is being done, says Markuz,  "...in an effort to ignite our streamlined, hyper-functional lives with meaningful encounters and fresh discoveries...."

Tea_graphic Each day of the week brings a new "creative treatment in urban environments" and you are all invited to join Markuz or watch the episodes unfold from where ever you are around the world in QuickTime. I love the simple way Markuz has presented his ideas on the website including the video recordings which have been edited (no audio needed) to give us the essence of the daily happening. I really like his simple use of graphics for the calendar. You may download the calendar in PDF as well. Bookmark this page to follow the daily video updates of the Kyoto encounters.

Markuz's seven "meaningful encounters and fresh discoveries" in many ways are simple things we can remind ourselves to do ("practice") at least once every week. I rephrased them a bit to fit my own individual circumstance below. By remembering these (among others), I feel I can remain more aware, more connected, and perhaps more creative.

Take a break, enjoy a simple cup of tea in a different setting than ever before.
Express your gratitude to someone whose important contributions go unsung.
Take a walk off the beaten path.
As you walk in your city, ask yourself how the contributions of many might make a difference on a sterile infrastructure.
Gain an even greater appreciation of trees. These Oxygen producing, Carbon Dioxide absorbing trees are, as Markuz says, living chronists of urban development and human activity."
Take time to sit down outside and take in the scenery. No book. No laptop. Just sit and take it all in.
Tell your story. And listen to the stories of others.

Markuz is an extremely talented and interesting guy. He presented for our design group, Design Matters, over a year ago (on his new book on Japanese gardens) and he was a fantastic presenter and engaging storyteller (of course his slides where stunning and made sans-PowerPoint). Markuz is one cool Kyoto artist,

Still another cool Kyoto artist
Karl Last week at the Apple Store, another Kyoto-based artist, Karl Escritt from the UK, gave a wonderful and highly visual talk for the September Design Matters meeting. What I found interesting is that although much of the final output of Karl's work may be in, say, Adobe Illustrator, his process is very much organic in the sense that he uses a great deal of material from the "real world" — such as duct tape, clips from 1970s fashion catalogs, old photos, photocopies, yarn, etc. to create much of his work. Karl said that he usually starts projects with the Mac off. For him it is best to leave the computer off while trying to come up with ideas and forming concepts and treatments for communicating an idea. This was refreshing to hear, especially from a young designer/artist who grew up with technology. I also work this way and advise others to think about "going analog" in the initial stages of designing a visual story for example. "Going analog" is one way to sort of step off the grid and slow down. With this comes greater clarity I believe.

Speaking of inspiration
Graphic designers know that a great source of inspiration and ideas can be obtained by keeping an on-going scrapbook of great (or really bad) examples of design that they find. Many of you may have such a scrapbook. Well, here is a great young blog featured on Typepad that acts as one big scrapbook for you.

Links
Introduction to relational art
Nicolas Bourriaud
Interview with Nicolas Bourriaud
Relational Aesthetics (the book)

Comments

Lauren Muney

Loved the Momentarium site and function (excuse me, 'living'). To watch someone practice mindfulness and invite others to do the same... how beautiful. How needed.

Valeria Maltoni

The "living in our cluttered heads" phenomenon piece is what every communicator grapples with when crafting a message. As you point out, we do put up all sorts of filters and barriers -- this conjures up the defensive image of someone allegedly accused of some misgiving protecting themselves from the stares and interactions of the crowd.

At the same time, a balance needs to be striken not to go too much the other way and be carried away by all sorts of stimulations and pauses -- image of floating aimlessly here.

Keep up the great work, Garr.

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