Inevitable Impossibilities

Today someone told me the 'true' story of how they accidentally killed a robin which flew under their foot as they were walking in London, and it was squashed flat by their boot! I joked about how the probability of this happening was near zero, that it falls into the category of 'impossible', but it happened.

This reminds me of some of artist Keith Tyson’s playful works which explore the intuitive difficulties encountered when thinking about the worlds of chance, probability, fate and freewill. Some of his very unlikely ('impossible') exhibits point to the fact that every moment involves a completely unique arrangement of atoms in space and time (leaving Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle aside) with a probability of occurrence of near zero, and yet they're happening all the time. A nice idea perhaps to compile a list of both true and made up 'impossible' events.

Miniature Masterpieces

I heard Webern's Six Bagatelles for the first time today, extraordinary!

Concentrated, delicate, precise, intense and full of energy.

Simultaneously alien and natural.

The very epitome of finding beauty in the detail.

My lesson - even small, short, or simple creations can be powerful and beautiful.



Webern's Six Bagatelles distilled

In the footsteps of Queneau

'Opening the Cage' - 14 variations on 14 words

I have to say poetry and that is nothing and I am saying it
I am and I have poetry to say and that is nothing saying it
I am nothing and I have poetry to say and that is saying it
I that am saying poetry have nothing and it is I and to say
And I say that I am to have poetry and saying it is nothing
I am poetry and nothing and saying it is to say that I have
To have nothing is poetry and I am saying that and I say it
Poetry is saying I have nothing and I am to say that and it
Saying nothing I am poetry and I have to say that and it is
It is and I am and I have poetry saying say that to nothing
It is saying poetry to nothing and I say I have and am that
Poetry is saying I have it and I am nothing and to say that
And that poetry is nothing I am saying and I have to say it
Saying poetry is nothing and to that I say I am and have it

Edwin Morgan


In order to find gold, an artist sometimes needs to dig at the end of a rainbow.

I discovered this provocative, playful poem whilst checking the partial Cage quote used as a subtitle to my blog (the full quote reads 'I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I needed it.')

Whilst the poem's not to do with different styles of expression, it does remind me of Raymond Queneau's 99 brilliant variations on telling a simple story (Exercices de style - 1947).

Morgan selects 14 from millions of possible word orders! Each variation of these words triggers different thoughts, about being, having, saying, poetry, nothing and more.

Look. There are infinite colours.

Grey

Grey skies in Aldeburgh, no wind, no movement, nothing. Seeing but not feeling grey, I go in search of other colours and call a friend to check the world hasn't ended. "I want to cut the sky with a knife and make it bleed" I say. "That's poetry" she says.

In the spirit of Rauschenberg's 'White Paintings', perhaps I just need to open my eyes, to look a little more closely at this grey canvas, and it will reveal glorious, infinite variations to me.

I imagine myself after a very serious but non-fatal car accident and feel much better. This may inspire an uplifting new section on my website.

Appetite

Elliott Carter decomposing



Elliott Carter composing


I for one would have happily turned up simply to applaud any 97 year old who could make it onto the Barbican stage. Elliott Carter the composer who freed music from bars, was however so much more than just a very old man, full of life, insight, humour and mischief.

In a film about his life, Carter mentions liking Proust. At lunch at St.John, I order 6 madelaines, and offer one (still warm) to EC, which he accepts with openness and curiosity.
In the same film, John Cage playfully comments that 'Any idea is better out of the head than in the head'. Ouch that resonates, he's spot on! I must start realising the ideas swarming around in my head or I'll explode!

Carter says that he always wants to do something he has never done before with each piece of work. He loves the excitement of trying something new, where he doesn't know how it might turn out, fearless old bugger!

Apparently, on trying to put him up in a 5 star hotel right next to the Barbican, Carter objected, saying he'd just read about the hippest place in London, a new hotel called 'The Trafalgar' and that he wanted to try it. So he did! What appetite!