Based on my notes, on 15jul20 I will have completed one year since I started researching and designing a project for work that set me off on my crazy maker ride. Thinking of my next year of making, I’ve been pondering a challenge for myself.
What I came up with is a challenge to do 12 different projects over the course of the year, one for each month. I thought of other frequencies, such as something daily or weekly, but monthly fits in well with what I can do and the nature of the projects I’ve been pondering for the challenge. Also, “12 projects” reminds me of the “12 labors of Hercules”. Haha.
Topic, style, theme
I really don’t have a general topic or style that would tie the 12 projects together other than they have to have a physical component (though not necessarily only chips and hardware). I am, though, challenging myself to have a common thread across all the project: I want to make things that have meaning.
I love the ingenious and whimsical things I see others make. But, I want to do things that make folks think, or better, reveal things that were not visible before. I think this ties to my efforts at building ‘tangible experiences’, experiences that make the invisible manifest, to make physical representations of concepts.
Awakening a sense of fearsome wonder in the ordinary
When I say ‘meaning,’ I don’t mean beauty. There are plenty of artistic makers creating beautiful things with circuits and chips. I want to do more than beauty. I want to reach for the sublime.
I’ve done some reading over the past years about the sublime and the feelings one has when confronting the sublime. Historically, the sublime is attached to religious connotations, the feeling of awe and fear when encountering God. Indeed, I read an interesting article on 17th century religious fairs that had interactive displays to help folks connect to the sublime and feel the fear and awe of the sacred.
As a scientist, though, I have always been interested in the sublime in Nature, feeling awe and fear at the immensity of the cosmos, the interconnectedness of life, the processes of chemistry, and all sorts of changes that have happened in the past 13.5 billions years of reality.
Why the sublime? Already before the pandemic and the protests, I felt that at so many levels, not that we lost our way (that’s too cliche, and I can go on why that’s a lame cliche at that), but that we could use a reaffirmation of the meaning of being human, in the world, with other humans and organisms. Also, this interest in the sublime ties into my current philosophy of “wanting to spread the love I can give, do the good I can do, focus on me and mine, and grow from there.”
The past few weeks of protest, at the end of a few pandemical months, have really thrown me for a loop and suggest that now is a good time for such an exploration that this challenge affords. Connecting with the sublime, seeing that unseen that sits behind the curtain and in the interstices of our everyday reality could perhaps help us squabble lesss, find meaning in what we do, and become better beings.
Back to the projects
I do not think I’ll be able to connect the sublime with each project. Or the connection to the sublime might be forced. But attempting to connect to the sublime will be in the back of my mind as I choose and make these projects.
Interestingly, sometimes I have a hard time articulating in words something I inuit. Challenging myself to make things that help someone tangibly connect to the sublime and experience awe mighty be a way for me to articulate what I mean.
Let’s see.
image from GreekMythology.com
