infinity is a cyrcle, I wrote, in a script I invented.

It is not a typographical error, it is my perspective on the notion of "infinity"— as a circle, or a cycle, without beginning and without end.

This simple, efficient, minimal shape, which can be drawn with a single circular stroke, encompasses one of the most incomprehensible ideas expressed in humanity's consciousness.

Do you consider yourself a "visual" person?

The FM 100 Hue Test puts forward a simple way of testing your color vision. Arrange the colored squares according to hue. The instructions are simple enough, but the test is tricky. I spent a good ten minutes working on this one, and got a bit of a headache as well.



My results... I'm a design geek!


How did you do? :)

—- —- —-

Color is such a magical and complicated thing. It's light, it's pigment, it's mood, it's texture. It's illusory and perceptive. It's three-dimensional: hue, value, and saturation.

I've often wondered what lies beyond the visible spectrum— when NASA takes pictures of faraway nebulas using "invisible light", they just assign colors to those pictures, that's not really how they look like. If our eyes could perceive beyond ROYGBIV, what would it look like?

Are we Cultural Creatives? Not to generalize, but I do get that feeling around here. It's a good feeling. Cultural Creative. I like the sound of it!

I first encountered this term when I took one of those online quizzes that my friends were all taking (we are so interested in forming our identities from other people's ideas), What Is Your World View? The quiz told me that I was a "Cultural Creative". Its description goes:

"Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational."

This is one of those rare online quiz results where I felt every sentence to be true about myself, and the term made me curious, I wondered if the quiz maker had just made it up or if there was really such a movement. Google, of course, helped me find these:

Wikipedia
"This growing section of the population is admittedly spiritual and embraces the practice of spiritual values in daily life without formal religion (Anderson and Ray, 2000). Many adherents to the tenets of the cultural creatives tend to become familiar with a variety of religions and seek to identify with principles that are universal amongst religions. The intention is to search for universal, practical spiritual principles that have intrinsic value, and do not depend on ecclesiastical authority."

http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Creatives-Million-People-Changing/dp/0609808451
Cultural Creative is a term coined by Ray and Anderson to describe people whose values embrace a curiosity and concern for the world, its ecosystem, and its peoples; an awareness of and activism for peace and social justice; and an openness to self-actualization through spirituality, psychotherapy, and holistic practices. Cultural Creatives do not just take the money and run; they don't want to defund the National Endowment for the Arts; and they do want women to get a fairer shake—not only in the United States, but around the globe.

http://www.culturalcreatives.org/book.html
The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression. Surprisingly, they are both inner-directed and socially concerned, they're activists, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than other Americans. However, because they've been so invisible in American life, Cultural Creatives themselves are astonished to find out how many share both their values and their way of life. Once they realize their numbers, their impact on American life promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century.

Beautiful. It sounds very John Lennon, very Gandhi, very Khalil Gibran, very Isabel Allende, very Rumi. Positive, gentle, intelligent, and proactive. Sounds just right for our "post-ideological, non-partisan, forward-thinking" perspective here on SpaceCollective.

As scientists, artists, thinkers, feelers, students, and teachers, what are we doing to move humanity forward?

Last month I explored outer space on dark grey, slightly sparkly paper.




temples
The triangle is the strongest shape. Also spiritually charged.










nebulae






wings

“Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'”

The Talmud

—-

GROWTH is every moment.
Even when you don't notice.

We can learn a lot from plants.

BIL is...

an open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic science and technology conference.

Nobody is in charge.

If you want to come, just show up.

If you have an idea to spread, start talking.

If someone is saying something interesting, stop and listen.


—- —- —-

I know most of us here are aware of, and in love with, TED. BIL loves TED, and is kinda like TED, except minus the $6000 membership fee. BIL is free! BIL is still being defined...

Benefficient. Inquisitive. Levity.
Brilliance Illuminating Logic.
Breeding Idea Lemmings
Beauty. Inspiration. Life.
Better Inquisitive Latitude
Brains (of) Intelligent Lifeforms
Building, Inspiring, Learning
Bubbling Intelligence Leaks
Be. Incite. Listen.
Beauty, Innovation, Learning

I love how these free-form intellectual/inspiring collectives are cropping up all over the place. It's viral! It's unstoppable! :) I can't help but think that it has something to do with the Internet revolution. I hope one day BIL happens around my area too!

Venus has always been one of my favourite goddesses.


Peacock moss, doesn't actually look anything like this.


Earth poetry.
“We talk far too much. We should talk less and draw more. I personally should like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic Nature, communicate everything I have to say in sketches. That fig tree, this little snake, the cocoon on my window sill quietly awaiting its future – all these are momentous signatures."
Goethe


LOVE = GROWTH
Growth occurs in spurts.
Growth can be painful.
Growth is essential.
Growth is sustained by care and strengthened by adversity.

We call wildflowers weeds, and we pull them out of our tame tidy gardens.
The butterflies go away too.

Yesterday I saw lots and lots of little butterflies fluttering along a covered walk in my campus. White, with a little black spot on each wing. There must have been two or three dozen in that small patch of grass. They even seemed to be crossing over from the other, bigger patches of grass. I wondered if it was mating season...

Turns out, that just so happened to be the last unmowed spot in the area. A profusion of green and wild pretty blooms. I'm sure by now it's been mowed clear of "weeds" too, and the butterflies have gone.

Here is how it looked like that morning:

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
Frank Lloyd Wright

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
William Shakespeare

Recent commissioned work I've done for RIDES MAGAZINE. Will be used as backgrounds for their car reviews section. (For the Feb 12 2008 issue.)

As always with my abstract works, I tried to invoke a sense of motion and controlled chaos (my own term for it). It usually ends up looking like that, like a picture of a chunk of galaxy (macrocosm) or a picture of something microscopic, like neurons (microcosm). I really enjoy expressing my experience of the world / inner space / outer space in this way.

I had an interview and some artworks published in Luminous Magazine Issue #2 recently, here is the last question and my answer to it:

You have stated that you believe art will save the world. How do you see this occurring in day-to-day life?

This is a complex multi-faceted question and there are so many different ways to answer it. For one thing— you'd have to define "art", and you'd have to define what is it that art will save the world from. However, let's not get bogged down in semantics. :)

Personally, I've encountered and participated in various art-for-a-cause groups and events. These basically revolve around selling art and then giving the proceeds to charity. This is a fairly direct form of help and probably the most obvious answer to this question.

But the other, less obvious answers are worth mentioning. Art is such a powerful form of communication. It moves people. It can move people to act to change things that are wrong in the world. It can influence people's beliefs and ignite paradigm shifts. It is an essential part of what makes us human. Through art, we contemplate, share, and learn.

Those who truly experience art in their lives find it very difficult not to live more holistically, passionately, and meaningfully.

***

Not to say that art is the only essential thing in this world. It's just that I'm an artist myself. :)

It's great to be in a website like this, where everything is brought together, all the fields interconnected. I draw plenty of inspiration from the "Recent Images" page, which always contains really interesting things.