Reading up on the use of social media to help artists promote their work.
Marketing should not feel like a dirty word, so Ive decided to redefine it as sharing my story with my tribe.

Useful reference
Art and Money by Chris Guillebeau, 2009
http://unconventionalguides.com/art.htm

“Creativity is like chasing chickens,” Christoph Niemann
Interesting reading exploring insights into art, fear, creative habit, courage and trust.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/09/12/fear-creativity/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer54598&utm_medium=twitter

Thinking alot about creativity and the mystic and myths about those who display it, where it comes from and how to get it. 

Some interesting thoughts via Brain Pickings by John Cleese. See his insights at the video links below where he explores open and abstract verses closed and specific. 

He says you need:  Time- Time - Space- Confidence and Humour. 

What about the myths
A recent article in Artshub explores Phd research soon to be finalised:

Creativity belongs to the geniuses
The reality: Research suggests that creative ability has far more to do with hard work and commitment than any natural ability; even for those people we call geniuses. Read Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers' and note the 10 000 hour rule. 

Creativity is making something from nothing
The reality: Creative people are synthesisers as much as they are originators. They bring ideas together in new ways to create something new out of existing ideas. Acknowledging influences and responding to them is not weakness, it is self-awareness.

Creativity can’t be forced
The reality: The Inspirationist view holds that creativity is divinely inspired and that creative people merely act as channels for external inspiration. This view does not give the artist much credit for creativity – but doesn’t give the creative person any responsibility either.

Mental illness causes creativityThe reality: Science has found a link between mental illness and creativity in some creative industries.  But that does not mean that creativity causes mental illness nor that you need to allow a mental health problem to flourish in order to be the most creative.

Drugs make you more creative
While this myth and the previous one both stem from the belief that creativity comes from extraordinary thought processes or an altered stated of mind, current research suggests that creativity has more to do with a number of ordinary thought processes and a combination of divergent (or lateral) thinking and convergent thinking.

To be creative you need to be free
Rather than hindering the process, structures actually enable creativity to occur.

Creativity belongs to the arts
Although the two words are often used interchangeably, ‘artistic’ and ‘creative’ are not the same thing. Arenas like maths, science and engineering that aren’t traditionally associated with creativity have just as much claim to the word as those that are.

Creativity is a solitary activity
Some art forms have completely exploded this myth just by the nature of the skills involved. But all creativity activity involves and relies on other people, whether that is in the manufacture of materials, those who provide advice, the foundations built by those who came before you, or those responsible for recognising products and ideas as creative.

Extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity
Romantic ideas of authenticity and art for arts sake have traditionally privileged intrinsic motivation over any other from of reward for artists – particularly financial. But creative people like praise, status and money as much as anyone else and many are fast tiring of the myth of intrinsic motivation being used as an excuse for undervaluing what they do financially.

To explain creativity is to damage it
If we understand how creativity works, that it is the product of cultural and social forces, and that it doesn't belong to lone geniuses but to individuals who actively participate in the process, then we can replicate that process.

Neurology, psychology,sociology  and education are now contributing to a growing body of research about creative processes and one thing all the disciplines agree on is that understanding the creative process helps people be more creative.

References:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity-1991/

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/01/breakthrough-alex-cornell/

http://au.artshub.com/au/news-article/features/arts/top-ten-myths-about-creativity-196291 utm_source=ArtsHub+Australia&utm_campaign=e2eabcd78b-UA-828966-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2a8ea75e81-e2eabcd78b-302586585

What a great resource!

CreativeMornings is a monthly, free breakfast lecture series with interesting speakers and discussion. CreativeMornings/Melbourne is free of charge!

Facebook - facebook.com/cmmelb
To view past videos go to http://vimeo.com/cmmelbourne

I'm such a fan of the blog  'Brain Pickings'... another great well researched piece on the 100 ideas that changed art by Maria Popova.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/25/100-ideas-that-changed-art/

A good article worth reading

http://au.artshub.com/au/news-article/features/arts/five-mistakes-artists-make-online-196286

Everything is Remix 
This is a great 4 part online video series that is so worth listening to. Its all about appropriation and nothing is off limits. Artists take note!

I especially loved 'Part 3 - The Elements of Creativity'
http://everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/

This time last year I was immersed in a study tour in Germany with VCA students, and I desparately need another fix...so a few sites and images to re-inspire.

Genießen !! (enjoy)

StreetArt In Germany is such a fun site, and really captures what it says...https://www.facebook.com/StreetArtGermany?fref=ts

Monocle24 is the coolest, hippest thing to come out of the UK since...ummm.
It has a film section and Art In Berlin was a recent feature....it shows a serious and grown up side on Berlin 
http://monocle.com/film/culture/art-in-berlin/

Interested in what happened to all artwork looted during WW2?Recently the spotlight has fallen on the incredible and sustained effort to track and reclaim collections.
Searching for plundered art..audio at
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/marc-masurovsky/4663344

and for my own walk down memory lane...
http://mariasimonelli.weebly.com/project-sojourn.html

The documentary explores how urban environments impact and enhance human life and happiness based on a thesis presented by Danish architect Jan Gehl. 

The human scale is investigated with a series of ten examples of cities from Hong Kong, China,New York,Copenhagen, Dhaka  and Melbourne

http://www.acmi.net.au/lp_human_scale.aspx 

The film starts with noting 50 % of the world’s population lives in urban areas and by 2050 this will increase to 80%. 

Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account.
  
This is the main thrust of thinking that drives Gehl and his associates: by building cities that encourage citizens to reclaim public space, the city (and even megacity) can become a more inhabitable space for humans.

He also uses statistics eg  How many people pass this street throughout a 24 hour period? How many percent of those are pedestrians? How many are driving cars or bikes? How much of the street space are the various groups allowed to use? Is this street performing well for all its users? 

Jan Gehl made his first studies in Italy and later he inspired the planning of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, for 40 years. His ideas inspired the creation of walking streets, the building and improvements of bike paths and the reorganization of parks, squares and other public spaces throughout this city and in many other cities in the Nordic region. Around the world cities like Melbourne, Dhaka, New York, Chongqing and Christchurch are now also being inspired by Gehl’s work and by the developments in Copenhagen.

Dark light 

This looks like a spectacular piece at Hobart's current Dark MOFO.
A large scale public piece that creates a 15km tower of light made up of 49 searchlights to break the black evening. 

This is Spectra, Ryoki Ikeda's installation that forms the central plank of Beam in Thine Own Eye, and the word is people seemed pulled towards it unable to resist its allure.

http://i.imgur.com/uBO4kgw.jpg

Grand Sculpture Light and steel in Melbourne Fed Square

The Helix Tree by Bruce Ramus is a grand sculpture of light and steel in the centre of Melbourne City at Fed Square. Inspired by the naturally occurring shape of the helix, the sculpture is constructed from 21 curved steel beams fitted with hundreds of LED lights. Like branches of a tree, the beams spiral 13 metres high into the sky from a central trunk. The Helix Tree uses sound-responsive technology via which voices of Melbourne bring to life its unique and vivid light displays.

http://vimeo.com/67788230

Square of Light
A series of community driven short videos to address the question "When does the light turn on'? sharing diverse views on what it means to be part of contemporary Australia.
http://vimeo.com/groups/squareoflight

..........and for something different see how the northern hemisphere sees this Summer Solstice with National Geographic photos 


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/pictures/130621-pictures-june-summer-solstice-celebrate-culture/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20130621news-summersolscel&utm_campaign=Content#