bret vs rod: the punch dance

VS



VS (the original)

Pledges

I'm raising capital for an exhibition project I'm working on at the moment. I'll be exhibiting a large piece (consisting of 23 individually framed images) at draw inc in Hamilton, NZ.

Good times! The pledge target is NZ$350 - which sort of covers the cost of framing.

So, if you'd like to be part of it, you can pledge. Pledgers get sweet Safe Little World items as a thank you.

Get amongst. Click the link below to check out the project and / or make a pledge:

www.pledgeme.co.nz/Crowd/Details/31

unpacking terms

I find the meanings and implications of words and phrases fascinating. All words and phrases have a history and a web of connotations. It can be interesting (I think) to unpack some of the terms we use almost without thinking… yesterday I used the term ‘religious experience’ on my tumblr page to describe something that isn’t easily describable that happened to me one time when I encountered a Culbert - Hotere artwork.

After that, I got into a bit of a discussion about the word ‘religious’ with a friend on Facebook. The word ‘religious’ has become a bit dirty in the last 50 years. Generally speaking, contemporary people aren’t big fans of religion. Even in Christian circles the term is avoided because of its associations with a tired, old-fashioned, legalistic, formulaic, nominal form of belief.

In thinking through my use of the term ‘religious experience’ I found a rather nice definition of the phrase on Wikipedia, and realised that the term was more appropriate to what had happened to me when I saw that artwork than I had hoped or dreamed when I somewhat casually used the term in yesterday’s post:

“Religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience in which an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine. A religious experience is most commonly known as an occurrence that is uncommon in the sense that it doesn’t fit in with the norm of everyday activities and life experiences, and its connection is with the individual’s perception of the divine.”

The article also carries William James’s description of the characteristics of a religious experience, which I also found fascinating:

Transient - the experience is temporary; the individual soon returns to a “normal” frame of mind.

Ineffable - the experience cannot be adequately put into words.

Noetic - the individual feels that he or she has learned something valuable from the experience.

Passive - the experience happens to the individual, largely without conscious control

mount ruapehu

a few shots from a cloud-covered dusk expedition up mount ruapehu (turoa)... (click on 'em to see 'em a little larger - and a little less noisy)

dillard quotes

more quotes, hijacked to be subsumed into the 'safe little world' concept that obsessively captivates my mind... (this time annie dillard is the source - 'a pilgrim at tinker creek')

"We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumours of death, beauty, violence..."

"We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise."

"Everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames."

the little things 1

it's the little things.

i find clothing tags make very pleasing book marks. look at this one marking rob bell's book 'drops like stars'. it's matt black, it has a brass eyelet, a black ribbon, a tiny black safetypin. you better believe this is where it's at!

how about this one? it's doing its thing between pages of jack kerouac's 'the subterraneans'. it fulfilled its first job hanging off a huffer tshirt. now look at it! it's shiny black, with a shiny silver ball chain, a little silver huffer charmy-thing, and a weird little safety pin with a bulbous end! it marks my book with style and panache.

Sex God!

a little something to add to the noise around rob bell. my review (ostensibly) of one of his old books. this review also appears on Goodreads.

Before that book, the one about love winning, Rob Bell was already famous. He was famous because he'd written a book about the Christian faith called Velvet Elvis. Who'd ever heard of a book about Christianity having a title like Velvet Elvis? Extraordinary. His second book was called Sex God.

In both Velvet Elvis and Sex God, Rob Bell established a method of writing that revolves around a 'chatty' writing style, story-telling, the sound-bite, beautiful design, and of making statements and asking questions that are intended to spark thought and discussion more than present a dogmatic fixed position. It was a style that presented truths but trusted that the reader would be smart enough / thoughtful enough / be prompted by God Himself enough to be able to consider concepts (perhaps outside the strictness of 20th century evangelicalism) without risking their soul to eternal peril. It was, in short, a style designed to speak to a postmodern (substitute "21st century" if you like) audience.

We now know that this style can land a man in the depths of the ugliest controversy. A controversy so ugly that it has led some to attempt to push God off His seat, assume the role of judge of mankind, and assign Rob Bell to hellfire.

This all kicks off, in large part, because Rob has a tendency to be controversial. His style invites controversy. Take the title of our book, for example, Sex God. How a title like this avoided the kind of heat that Love Wins attracted, I'll never know. Or what about a chapter titled God Wears Lipstick? This controversial edge has a tendency in two directions (formatted here a la Bell):

To be compelling

or

To be sensationalist

It's a fine line that Rob Bell walks. I love him for being prepared to take the risk, but it is a risky business indeed. In all fairness to him, I believe his intentions are good with regard to controversy. He wants to get people thinking for themselves. He wants them to see things differently at least for a moment. He wants to communicate that there might be more to things than what we often automatically accept. That's the ideal, but have we seen that what happens in reality is that, when confronted with controversy, people often tend to retreat more deeply into their citadels? By now, after everything, will Bell wield the tool of controversy more carefully?

I feel certain that underneath all this, there is a mild mannered man with a profound level of insight. And to get back to the matter at hand, reviewing Sex God, here is a book that will certainly challenge your thinking. It isn't really the controversial book that the title and its chapter titles suggest. Instead, it is simply a book that explores ideas about what sex really is, and about how what it really is plays a part in who God is and what His plan is for humankind.

Which brings us back to talking about Bell's overall output to date. What we have is an author who, though he wraps his work in controversy, is really just a guy who wants us (whoever we might be) to think about God, our relationship with God, and what that means.

Sex God is excellent.

waltex

a little encounter between me, a waltex magnifier, a copy of fashion quarterly, and a 15 cent 1966 action comic book... (click 'em to see 'em a little larger)

a quote

a quote here from t.s. eliot which is dear to my heart as far as the creative process goes:

"A thought to Donne was an experience: it modified his sensibility... the ordinary man... falls in love, or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes."

serendipitous random song list poems

a lot of the time i listen to my music randomised across a pretty big music library. every so often, i'll notice a combination of song titles has formed a rather cunning little poem (henceforth established as a new genre under the designation: 'shuffle poems')... here are some that my music library and media player have created over the last few months:

(1)
Spies Spies Spies
Groovin' with Jesus
Lord Lord Lord
Don't let it pass

[artists: the naked and famous, the violinaires, kanye west, junip]

(2)
I can't sleep
Out here in the cold
I'm Jimmy Carter

[artists: frakkur, gotye, vancouver sound]

(3)
Hold you close
Asleep in perfection
The ghosts you draw on my back
O Death

[artists: stereobus, augie march, múm, ralph stanley]

(4)
How to be a Werewolf

Spooky
Bright little things
I have the moon, you have the internet

[artists: mogwai, starflyer 59, funki porcini, the fields]

bonus material! this random playlist pairing: 'ball of confusion' by the temptations, followed by 'sphere of no form' by biosphere.

church art

this here is a version of a graphic i put together for the website of a new church i'm going to be attending ('new' as in new for me, but also in that the church is holding its first public service this coming sunday). the church is called st lukes. the graphic is for a series of sermons / talks that pastor joseph mcauley will be doing based on the theme of 'stories'. you can see the final version on the st lukes website.

wedding invite design

a month or so ago i completed these wedding invites for my sister-in-law and her fiancé. they wanted a retro/scrabble/lamp/tiffany blue thing, so this is what came out...

the front cover is 2/3 the width of the back cover so that the lamp on the right hand side of the inside is visible from the front.

man on a mountain

i made this this week (click it to see it a little bigger) - perhaps a product of a milieu of existential angst that came about as a result of the christchurch earthquake, a murder 5 minutes from our house, and some on-going spiritual wrestling. but it is also, of course, just a picture of a cartoon character standing in snow!

i don't want to flood a perfectly nice little picture with over-discussion, but i'm probably going to anyway. look away now.

the thing i like about the process for the creation of this picture, is that it took ages to come together, and then came together very quickly. the elements for the picture have been sitting around for years (literally) waiting to be used for something...

the photograph was taken on slide film at the top of fox glacier over five years ago. in the time between having the slide developed and scanning it into the computer it grew mould on it. this is very bad from a preservation perspective, and i always intended to clean it off the scan with photoshop. in this composition it looks best left there.

the little man came about after i read a book on graffiti street logos a few years ago. i decided i needed one for myself - even though i don't think i'll use it unauthorised on any walls. i loved the aesthetic, and designed this guy. he looks a bit glum.

i collect pictograms (wingdings / icons / picture fonts) and had always been fascinated by a set i had of cellphone related symbols. i thought the half-charge icon would be perfect for this guy. (his battery is half full or half empty depending on your perspective [cliché acknowledged].)

the last step was to paint him up with a rough sort of white paint look. put a little shadow at his feet too, but you can't probably notice that - just cements him on the landscape a bit better.

music 2010

So here's a summary of my listening in 2010. First up, my most-listened-to artists for the year. Because 7 out of 8 of these artists released new albums this year, this list also kind of serves as my best albums of 2010 list as well (though there were other great albums too - 2010 was actually an extremely good year for music)...

1. Massive Attack (unsurprising as they're my favourite every year - 2010 saw the release of their new album 'Heligoland' and a live appearance in NZ), 2. Gorillaz (in 2010 released 'Plastic Beach' and toured NZ), 3. Mux Mool (quirky mashed up electronic, in 2010 released 'Skulltaste'), 4. Radiohead (nothing new from them in 2010), 5. Bonobo (downbeat electronic, always a favourite of mine, this year released 'Black Sands'), 6. Arcade Fire (this year released 'The Suburbs'), 7. Caribou (canadian electronic, this year released 'Swim'), 8. Paul White (mashed-up, sample based electronic, this year released 'Paul White and the Purple Brain').

and now, my most-played-tracks:

1. Gorillaz – Rhinestone Eyes
2. The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
2. Glass Vaults – New Space
4. The xx – Intro
4. Massive Attack – Atlas Air
4. Gorillaz – Stylo (Feat. Mos Def And Bobby Womack)
7. Musical Youth – Pass The Dutchie
7. Massive Attack – Girl I Love You
7. Glass Vaults – Forget Me Not
10. Mumford & Sons – Awake My Soul

Gorillaz, twice, 'Rhinestone Eyes' is awesome and 'Stylo' was the lead-single featuring Mos Def - yeah! The Naked and Famous - NZ music done extremely well. Glass Vaults, twice, released an EP that is outstanding - more NZ music. The whole XX album is great, the intro track is super moody. Massive Attack - are geniuses - two tracks from them on the list, both from their new album. Musical Youth, 'Pass the Dutchie' - what can I say - this year I rediscovered one of my favourite songs from when I was 5 - thanks to the superb NZ film 'Boy'. And Mumford & Sons - these guys are stormin'.

Happy new year!

sometimes...

you see an image that you desperately wish you'd created. the one below is utterly wonderful. i dig everything about it. conceptually it's the kind of thing i love - that couple! that typewriter! aesthetically it's close to my 'own style' and the style i aspire to, but more skilfully done.

so those are my lovelorn ravings... information about where the image comes from: it's the cover illustration for a book by matthew allard - the illustrator is ian dingman. allard wrote stories based on the illustrations, rather than the other way around.

immanence

one area of the Christian faith that i'm really interested in is the presence of God - ie the ways in which God is present in the created world, the ways His presence is experienced, and how people throughout the Christian tradition have experienced it. 'immanence' is a term used in theology when people talk about how a transcendent God is present in the created world.

i might put a few of my thoughts about the subject down here on the blog from time to time... this might include some of my own personal experience, but i thought i'd note some conceptual ideas about how God is present first of all.

one of the upshots of immanence is that God is close to us, understands us and identifies with us. He knows us.

in the Christian tradition, God is trinity - that's a vast concept, which i'm not going to attempt to even try and summarise, but suffice to say that the trinity involves the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

aspects of the extent to which God knows us are evident in each part of the trinity.

Father: in the sense that we are God's children, He knows us. the concept of God being our father can get a bad rap because our understanding of the concept of 'father' is inevitably influenced by our own personal experience of what a father is. nonetheless, this concept of God represents what an untainted father is. a true father wants what is best for his children and experiences a level of bond and connection (love) that can only come because the children are his. we are made in God's image - He recognises the things in us that came from Him.

Son: Jesus is God coming to earth to exist as a human. God's experience of what it means to be human (the human condition) is firsthand. in other words, He knows what it's like. He knows what it's like to be in a human body - the strengths, weaknesses, limitations - He knows what it's like to think like a human - apart from the union of God and humanity, He's also felt the gap that humans experience between themselves and God.

Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit is the part of God that lives inside a human when that person places their life in God's hands. the Holy Spirit dwells in the essential core of the person and as such is utterly involved in what that human experiences. the Spirit is right there where the emotions and thoughts occur - where the subconscious happens, where all the memories and personality are stored, and where the neurological and other biophysical interactions occur that make us function.

these aspects of the immanence of God are so effective that God knows us better than we know ourselves. it is impossible to be better known than God knows us.

free mp3 fresh from new zealand

in recent months three - no, four! - very nice free new zealand albums have fallen into my lap... there's an indie introspective theme to them. here they are now:

1. the haints of dean hall

the album is called 'sleeper'. their second album. stuff recorded in the front lounge. little bit country. acoustic.

the album is available from arch hill recordings for free and you can download it here.





2. secret knives

the album is called 'affection'. first full album (i think), though there is an also a rather nice ep. this is indie shoe gaze stuff with some nice synth ambience with some strong melodies popping out.

the album is available from a low hum for free and you can download it here.




3. avalanche city

the album is called 'our new life above the ground'. the first album of dave baxter. according to the website, "Armed with a sack full of vegetarian single serve curries Dave Baxter headed into the countryside and moved into a little community hall called the Kourawhero Hall, just north of Auckland. There he spent the week alone recording and playing everything himself with only the cows and the milk trucks as company."

he then decided to give it away for free. it's got a folk vibe to it (a la mumford and the decemberists and fleet foxes and stuff). and you are the lucky recipient of this third musical treat also: here.

4. glass vaults

american indie hype blog, i guess i'm floating, describes them thusly: "New Zealand continues to impress with solid music... the small Pacific Island [sic] has more aural deliciousness to offer. Glass Vaults is the two-man project of Richard Larsen and Rowan Pierce, crafting elegant synth sounds perfect for rendezvous on moonlit shorelines... Driving all of the diaphanous sound is a rhythmic beat intermittently thumping along, with shades of Animal Collective-esque composition mixed with vocals that lull in a manner similar to Thom Yorke’s."

it is very lovely and ambient (indie ambient not dance-musicy ambient, in case you're worried). so then, all you need to do is download it by going here.

there we are then.

little house on the island

another instalment in the intrepid adventures of my little house... the earlier episode is here. this time, the little house is on kawau island in the hauraki gulf...

safelittleworld: little house on the island from andrew killick on Vimeo.

theologising / philosophising: the nature of man

there's a quote that always nags around in the back of my head. i can't shake it. it's creatively compelling. when i first read it, intermittently staring up at a clear blue sky and what i was reading as i lay on a recliner in the backyard, i wrote it down in my notebook. i've had other notebooks since but i get anxious if i don't know where that notebook is - mainly because i worry about misplacing the exact wording of the quote.

the quote comes from pascal's pensées (VII:434). pascal was one of the world's greatest thinkers - a genius of science, but also an astute observer of the condition of man, and a christian. when he died in 1662 he left behind an unfinished work, in notebook form. pensées (french for 'thoughts') is a collection of notes that he jotted down about life, the universe and everything.

the quote ('my' quote) is his definition of humankind:

"Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe."

this captures the massive paradox, the tension, in what it is to be human. another quote that captures the same paradox is found in psalm 8:4:

"what is man that you [God] are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

to my thinking, we are all aware of this tension.

when i was at university, my research topic was 'christian poetry'. i was interested in poetry written by christians that was an established part of the 'canon' of english literature. two of the more prominent names, for example, are milton (in the 17th century) and eliot (in the 20th). another name that requires consideration is christina rosetti (19th). while researching her work, i came across a book in which the author (mary finn) had critiqued rosetti's poetry from the standpoint of a concept devised by soren kierkegaard (the 19th century philosopher and theologian).

that concept was the idea of 'incommensurablity'. i might be a little patchy on this - i'm working from memory, and i doubt i ever fully grasped exactly what kierkegaard was on about even at the time. but for our purposes, and i'm probably hijacking kierkegaard's concept here a bit, it describes in another way the tension described by pascal in the quote above.

mary finn's point was that out of this tension - this struggle to unite the paradoxes of the human condition - comes some of the greatest works of creativity.

kierkegaard overcomes this 'incommensurability' by something he calls 'the leap of faith' - ie, while holding the paradox (in the form of 'doubt') to be evident and undeniable, the chasm can be crossed by making a leap of faith into belief in God.

in the essay that resulted from my research (which also touched on the writing of eliot as well as rosetti) i argued that incommensurability was ultimately overcome by 'consummation', ie the union of God and humankind (the Bible describes it in terms of Christ and his bride) that is ultimately furnished by God in the form of heaven, and (now that i think of it) the new heaven and new earth, and the kingdom of heaven, and the Word becoming flesh in Jesus.

this morning i was reading an essay by karl barth (the 20th century theologian) called 'God's Word and the Decision of Faith'. he poses psalm 8:4 as a direct question that demands an answer. what is man, that [God] is mindful of him? he says,

"Here there is only one answer: This man is man in the decision of faith."

'the decision of faith', as barth terms it, is our response to the Word of God (including the fact that the Word became flesh, ie Jesus is the Word).

it is this decision, and the fact that we are in the position to need to, and be able to, make this decision, which ultimately defines us. as barth puts it,

"Man is what he is and he is everything that he is in the decision of faith."

i think a good illustration might be to look at it in terms of a 'male' and 'female' plug. the 'male' plug is the Word of God, the 'female' plug is our decision of faith. to allow 'power' or 'signal' to flow the two have to be connected, joined.

in those two parts is the process of redemption - redemption being the process by which the paradox is overcome and the 'contradictions' in humankind settled. the ultimate act of creativity and consummation.

to pick up, and finish with, barth again:

"For in the decision of faith [man] moves toward being ascribed and given the human nature which Jesus Christ has united to Himself, that He might establish in it peace between God and man. In the decision of faith, he stands before God as the man God intends and in the way in which God wills to have him. In the decision of faith, he exists and stands before us in his true nature. No matter how it may be with other determinants of man, in the decision of faith and only there is he his true self as a true man!"

new safe little world piece

this just completed...