Creativity and the Fear of Problems: Part 1

[beachofdreams]

I'm often struck by a rift - mostly, an intellectual and political one -  between myself and my other colleagues at the school and indeed, many of my peers all around. You could say that I take a more moderate political view than the completely liberal - one that has a healthy trust (yet not irrational and dogmatic confidence) in the good and

Comments

[jenny_gould]

Thankyou for writing this. i really enjoyed reading it. It struck me for years, the way architects copied SF films for huge glass buildings, but did not install combined heat & power systems, solar panels, systems to automatically shut down lighting, underfloor heating (good for using up base load electricity), passive heating, waste water systems, green roofs, compost toilets, ecologically sound natural gardens etc.... , salvage/reuse of materials and so much more.

Its only military spending that gets a long-term research budget, to bring all these things to the level that we desperately need.

[peristaltor]

Having not hung out with academics studying artsy stuff, I'm surprised that they have the attitude you suggest, but I shouldn't be.

Your comment that artists just want to start a conversation also explains too much "art." Yes, the dreaded conditional quotations. To me, art should always focus on pushing limits not of society but of the artist. "There is no success without the possibility of failure," wrote Raymond Chandler, "no art without the resistance of the medium."

Then again, wrote Henry Miller: "Only an engineer can ruin a bridge." (Of course, Miller was talking about drawings of bridges, not ones that don't fall down suddenly as you're crossing.)

Hmmm. This distinction between art and engineering seems silly. I see no reason whatsoever to do both every day.