"Let life enchant you again." - Fernando Gros
0 items in your cart
$0
Blog // Thoughts
June 14, 2010

Planting New Flags

For a long time, the “about me” section of this blog didn’t change much. Partly that was because my self-definition was fairly static. I started this blog after some dramatic changes in 2003-04, so my interests, projects and networks remained fairly static for quite some time. Our self-definition (the real us, rather than the fantasy […]

For a long time, the “about me” section of this blog didn’t change much. Partly that was because my self-definition was fairly static. I started this blog after some dramatic changes in 2003-04, so my interests, projects and networks remained fairly static for quite some time.

Our self-definition (the real us, rather than the fantasy we wish we were) flows from what we do and the people we are in relationships with. When that doesn’t change much, there’s little reason to revisit the definition. However, last year I made some decisions to change my work and networks and that has brought a lot of change. So, now I’m having to revisit quite regularly the question of who is asking to work with me and why people are coming to this blog.

So, I’ve pared back the about me page and re-edited the pages about my music and photography. I’ve added a small gallery of photos to both, as well as a SoundCloud player to the music page. Please take a look.

I’ve also added a new page, focussed on my writing. When I started blogging, back in 2001 I was primarily a writer (as an academic and researcher). These days I describe myself as an essayist and increasingly I see writing as an adjunct to music and photography – secondary but still important. The following is from the writing page and summarises some of how I approach writing these days.

“I’ve been blogging, on and off, since June 2001 and consistently on this site since October 2004. The inspiration to get into blogging came from reading academics and religious thinkers who were using the platform to spread new idea to readers in a faster and less mediated form than what print journals and magazines could allow.

Although a lot of blogging was (and to some extent continues to be) of the dear-diary type, it was pretty clear, even ten years ago, that serious and professional writers were using this platform in a revolutionary way. Everything that has come since those days, from Web2.0 to Web3.0, with social media, mobile and tablet computing thrown in represents a radical change to the publishing landscape for writers of all types.

My chosen form is the essay. With my background in philosophy, religious and cultural studies, the essay became a natural way to express my ideas. While essay writing transfers well to the blog format, it is also telling that many of the magazines that remain as standard-bearers for the print-format, such The Atlantic, The Economist, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Monocle and Vanity Fair are bastions of the essay, in both short and long form.”

So there you have it – music, photography and writing. That’s my answer to the big ugly question – so, what do you do?

Tagged ,
3
Responses
new director 14 years ago

Hi,

I’m a Brit and I am currently looking for someone in Hong Kong to help me do a lot of creative stuff. I aim to help the university professors remove the barriers between highly important academic knowledge and the ordinary people out there in their millions and millions. There are loads of access issues. They have strived but haven’t succeed much in 30 years on that particular one. Their work is very impressive but a lot of people who need to know things just end up reading on their research topics at the wrong time. I need a musician or someone with a musical disposition who will be my buddy while I commission semi-popular music about neuroscience. And the doctors love what I intend to do. Do you know of anyone who would be interested in this?

https://hongkong.gumtree.com.hk/c-Jobs-other-Business-partner-Company-Co-director-creative-musician-sought-W0QQAdIdZ212285393

A highly creative co-director is sought for this enterprise which is first and foremost a creative enterprise and not such a ‘business’, and thoughts may be cast on how it fits with the models of a community interest company/ social enterprise. It exists to promote awareness of personality disorders, so its goals are in line with the goals of ‘Fraud Do Us Part’ as a to-be-registered charity, even though it remains independent of any other groups.
I am the 27-year-old, British, female founding director of the company (which may possibly change its name to ‘Phantom of the Square’ or something similar). As I was a public sector employee when I processed the registration papers, I was under pressure to do nothing much with the business accounts, but more formality needs to be adopted as time goes on, along with more files and paperwork. I am hoping to take someone on board to help cope with this large project.
The purpose of the company is to commission popular entertainment to use it as a tool to educate teenagers and adults on the issue of personality disorders, specifically, only 2 out of the 10, the narcissistic personality disorder and anti-social personality disorder. A huge knowledge gap has been identified and Professors of Psychology at Harvard and numerous other institutions of higher education have been particularly frustrated with a topic that merits such high degrees of attention being spoken about nowhere near as often as it needs to be.
There are many vicious cycles that have existed for well over a hundred years that need to be broken sooner rather than later as they are perilous. The victims (of someone else’s ASPD) that experts write so many books about often do not detect problems until it is far too late, persons with anti-social personality disorder are most difficult to identify (even for the most well-qualified experts in the field including Dr. Robert Hare) and while they formed this permanent disorder by the age of 15 with no prospect of rehabilitation, they are a terrible burden on the tax system, costing £31,240 per year per ASPD.
Since 4 % of the population are sociopathic with anti-social personality disorder, I cannot necessarily propose having less contact with these people but I can propose improvements in handling this serious problem, which means getting a lot of the key neuro-scientific facts out to the people in forms that they can be absorbed in as a basic introduction, without them having to struggle with obscure shelves of strange libraries, and books that are out of print, when they do not even know the terminology at all. Being well-informed can mean that people do not panic when the worst comes to worst.
This company will be mainly behind efforts to commission popular or semi-popular music about neuroscience, although other forms of popular content will also be encouraged if at a lower priority at first, like commissioning graphic art about elementary neuroscience, commissioning social drama about elementary neuroscience and writing quizzes and crosswords that carry the relevant information. I have already spoken to numerous doctors who are delighted with this. They are the ones who wish more was done before they had to see a patient with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Even though a lot of the ideas are mine, I am looking for a co-director for my company that I can trust to give a lot of input to all aspects of the projects. I can take several people on board but too many cooks spoil the broth so I prefer to have one co-director only, for a very strong focus.
You must be completely fluent in English (no ability in the Chinese language is required whatsoever) and ideally educated up to university degree level due to a lot of the complexities of the subject matter. Please do not expect this to be a 9-5 job (I have a main job too) and initially it will offer insignificant remuneration, but an entrepreneurial person is preferred, to use the content generated wisely – financially and otherwise. You will be responsible for writing your own income plan for this as I will have even more responsibility because I will have to use my own capital viably. While a lot of the music-making is opening books published by Yale University Press and Cambridge University Press and transferring phrases across to lyrics, a lot of work needs to be covered and I need a co-director who is involved at almost each stage.
It is particularly important that you are a very compassionate person with genuine concern for the welfare of other people, so someone who already has an existing portfolio of commitment to charitable activities as an indication of humanitarian dispositions will be favoured. Somebody who hasn’t a kind heart simply will not last a day in this role. You need to be a mature person who is not afraid to read a wealth of case studies and figures on the most sinister problems that the world has ever seen, and apply yourself in a problem-solving, positive role, to see the contribution that you will be making. Creativity is very important and while I am thinking of commissioning contractors to process compositions and provide accompaniment, someone with high abilities in music composition and playing accompanying instruments (guitar, piano) will be preferred. Speaking for myself, I do have a lot of artistic competence, a graphics portfolio and a fine art portfolio but due to the amount of work involved in producing publication about elementary neuroscience, I may just fetch a contractor to make it for me- all of this needs to be managed.
Once you understand the issues relevant to this project, you need to understand that there is not particularly the time for maybes and no time to wonder if you can really make it in this role, since delays mean lives are constantly being destroyed under very cruel circumstances. Even if you are not the most creative person that you can think of, where you may be a bit short of artistic ability you can more than make up for it with your bravery, determination, trustworthiness, benevolence and refusal to make assumptions over things that assumptions should not be made about. Yes, you will save the people out there, not maybe.
In terms of age, being 27, I am looking for someone who is in his/ her thirties, possibly early forties- someone who is old enough to be very wise and understanding of complex and difficult problems but young enough to muck in. However age does not really matter. You will be sent a link to a sample of recorded music upon applying and it would be mandatory to check 2 of your references.

To apply, please send a letter to:
eva.lai@email.com

You will be supplied with more details about this role. Please feel free to ask any questions about the proposed activities

Christopher Steedman 14 years ago

The very first show of the new series, broadcast on Saturday, featured a kissogram, a naked Physician along with a “sexed up” Tardis.During the special 65-minute episode, The Eleventh Hour, in which Physician Who had 20 minutes to save Earth from aliens identified as the Atraxi, his new companion, Amy Pond, was revealed as a kissogram dressed in a skimpy policeman’s outfit, complete with mini-skirt and handcuffs. In one scene, Amy, played by the actress Karen Gillan, told the Doctor that her kissogram repertoire also included nuns and nurses’ outfits. Come across out extra at Sci Fi Fan.

Enter your and your to join the mailing list.