Weeknote 44/2023
“You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO . . . Try to do some BAD work—the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell—you are not responsible for the world—you are only responsible for your work—so DO IT.”
Verbs
Watching: Planet Eart III, BBC
I think it is probably universally known at this point that the Planet Earth series is some of the greatest TV ever produced. It seems to be nature documentary film-making at its absolute peak and the colossal achievement of the producers, videographers, and film-makers behind it is always jaw-dropping. Only two episodes have aired so far and it’s the second episode, Ocean, that really blew my mind clear out the back of my head. The section that looks at the deep sea and all the utterly alien and extraordinary creatures that inhabit the darkest and deepest regions of the ocean was bewildering and exhilarating and captured in stunning vividness. What really threw me for a loop, though, was the story of the pearl octopus and its 2-year incubatory vigil over its eggs, laid in the periphery of hydrothermal vents. This, to me, was storytelling of the absolute highest level and had us more tremulously, breathlessly engaged than the vast swatches of film and TV we’ve otherwise consumed so far this year.
Anticipating: Natural History Museum, LEGO
One of my deep pleasures is building large-scale LEGO sets and a series that I’ve long been a huge fan of is the LEGO Modular Buildings that are part of the ICONS series. I’ve got a number of these buildings, now, and they form a really lovely, bustling street on the shelves above our TV. LEGO only releases one of these sets a year so I am always looking forward to the announcement, usually in the autumn, of what the new set will be. This year it is a Natural History Museum and the set looks particularly brilliant. It’s a big set, which always makes me happy, and it’s been really thoughtfully and creatively designed. I’ve got just enough space for this set in my current setup so next year might begin to be a little bit of a challenge, but that’s a problem for another time.
Reading: States of Mind, Mark Haddon ed.
This anthology was put together for the Wellcome Collection exhibition States of Mind: Tracing the Edges of Consciousness which ran in 2016. I remember taking a group of students there and enjoying it so much that I then took my family as well some weeks later. Ann Veronica Janssens’ installation yellowbluepink, which counter-pointed the exhibition has very powerfully stayed with me ever since, and I think is still one of the most remarkable art experiences I’ve ever had. The exhibition itself was a riveting exploration of consciousness and the mind from the broad, interdisciplinary perspectives of science and neurology, poetry, literature, psychology, the arts, and philosophy. Right up my alley, as you might imagine. I’ve had this anthology, which is similarly interdisciplinary, floating around my shelves since I went to the exhibition but only gave it a read for the first time this week. I really love a work that brings a whole range of sources, texts, artwork, and perspectives to bear on a single subject. That multifaceted, almost non-disciplinary approach, really appeals to my own sensibilities. I do wish that the book drew a little more from non-Western perspectives and not quite so heavily from just the 18th to 20th centuries, but there’s still a lot of really well-chosen material that helps explore and illuminate the central theme in often unexpected ways.
Subscribing: Emily Hopkins’ YouTube Channel
Emily Hopkins is a harpist and musician who does utterly bizarre and extraordinary things using an arsenal of effects pedals, synthesizers, and an enormous harp. As well as being an accomplished performer and composer she has a YouTube Channel where she really pushes the creative envelope. I came across Emily’s work through a video in which she created a score for a videogame she’d never seen or played before, based only on a short video clip. Just to make it more interesting, she has to use a musical ‘instrument’ or tool that she’s never used before in the creation of the score. Her compositions are stunning and inventive and watching the whole process is hugely enjoyable, even though I have less than no idea how she’s doing it all. It’s riveting stuff from start to finish and the whole thing is carried off by her deadpan humour, deep wells of creativity, and love for the challenge.
Words
I’ve been running on all cylinders this week with a lot of big challenges, in-depth work, and new opportunities. I’ve finished off the run of five one-day workshops I have been doing for teachers and educators in Romanian. This week we held a workshop on change agency in education as well as another focusing on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. It was great to see some participants I’ve crossed paths with before, through Erasmus+ projects and through the conference I spoke at last week, and in total, we worked with around 100 teachers, school counselors, education managers, school inspectors, and educators from all across Romania. There was such a desire to improve the learning experience for students and to address many of the challenges faced by teachers in Romania (and everywhere!) with creativity, innovation, and perseverance.
Along with this, there have been some interesting and exciting developments, discussions, and meetings for a whole range of possible projects and partnerships. Lined up in the coming months I’m excited to have some trips out to Berlin, Riga, and Abu Dhabi for workshops for IB teachers of Philosophy and Theory of Knowledge. I also had a brilliant, inspiring, and encouraging conversation with an old friend and former colleague about all things education, facilitation, and freelance. Sometimes the thing you need most is to chat to an old war buddy and it really helped me to see some new avenues to explore as well as to build confidence in some of what I’m already doing.
With all of that and a few other things that I can’t say a great deal about just yet, it’s been one hell of a week. The warm weather seems to have finally crashed here in Novi Sad, and autumn and winter and firmly establishing themselves. No blogging this week, as it’s been much too busy with everything else but I’m hoping to use the recovery time from my /urgh/ wisdom teeth extraction that’s happening on Monday to do some blogging and other bits and pieces that I’ve had to put to one side. In the meantime, I’m going to be making the most of the weekend to recover, recuperate, and renew myself and I think everyone else should probably do the same, too.