The R Factor. Art & Design

I suppose that something ought to be said about the naming of The R Factor. Art & Design in the way that it seems pretty random.

My name of course is a beginning point for The R Factor (Roberto Rivera) though it moves closer in from that (or more wider as the case may be).

At a point in time we each of us experience different levels of epiphanies and Realizations that move us away from something and towards something else, in another direction if you will. Sometimes that involves a clearing out of old stuff before the new things can have a solid place...it could be called a Renovation or Reestablishment of some basic ground that allows us a new beginning. Kind of like cleaning a closet or renovating a space, the old needs to go so that the Replacement of the new can be Realized.

In many ways the preface of "Re-" signifies that Re-adjustment of attitude or Re-entry of a space, leaving us new starts and new beginning points from which we can Remove the old substance and Reconnect with the grounding Principals of new Points.

How fun is that.

I moved my blogsite to: http://therfactorartdesign.wordpress.com

I appreciate your comments!

Roll Over Galileo

Ok, I have got to ask, in the interest of a larger view of design that we all relate to:

Does the Sun rotate around the Earth or the Earth around the Sun?

Wait now….

Before you decide to answer this basic and simple question, we need to step into our own range of perspective…that is, what we know for a fact and not what we imagine nor what we have just been told.  Something that we know is something that one can feel from the inside, from the core so to speak. Would this not be a way of taking an inventory of what we really know and those things that we just subscribe to?  This might just be another way of understanding what perspective means.

If we move beyond the lip service of what we have been told and what we experience on Earth, the actuality of the experience feels at odds with the teaching does it not? Do we in fact experience that or do we feel that we are the center of the universe?

This interesting question has well over a span of 2000 years bothered mankind.  Why? In one sense we might say because of our adherence to the thought that those common occurrences that are seemingly predictable to some extent are taken for granted and thus are relegated to the unimportant in our lives. What we want is to really be stirred up by something uncommon! That is what brings the juices to the centering of our lives!

What if the Sun were to rise and fall in an unpredictable way, that is appear for 4 hours then rotate out of sight, and the following day be visible for 10 hours, then something else happened that it did not show for 3 days…do we think we would be interested in what was happening out there?

What would happen without the Sun's light? Hmmm.

So just saying this daily phenomena was really on the Greeks mind before 300 BC  and documented by the words and writing of one we knew as Aristarchus of Samos in around 200 B.C. whose theory of a heliocentric universe was downtrodden by those about him as being impious and not having common sense.

As the thread of this truth was not ready to be accepted by the scholars of the day, it followed a path of obscurity until Copernicus revived the thought in the 1500’s. It would seem also that Copernicus understood that these theories would not be accepted by his colleagues and community, so it is supposed that he did not publish his findings until close to his time of death.

It took until Galileo’s time for his willingness to perceive that the idea of a heliocentric solar system was within his range of perspective to profess.  How great was that for the world as a whole? 

And of course they convicted him of heresy and imprisoned him to house arrest to the rest of his life!

Is there any wonder why as a group of people living during anytime in history, we don’t want to use our individual creative perspective?

The world has a way of not responding to the real use of creative thought because it feels threatened and challenged by those things that shake the foundational assumptions with which it operates!

Yet we have the innate ability to really use creative thought each one of us individually!

What would the world look like if we chose to not just pay lip service to that thought but in fact utilized it to the fullness of the capability of each our own perspective? (Remember that perspective has to do with the interrelatedness of the facts and not the supposed accepted theories of the day).

Stay tuned! Maybe we may not be put in jail, but if we were, would that change the real truth of things or just try and hide it for the next generation to deal with?

The Interrelatedness of Albert Einstein

Well so far we have begun an interesting start into how design, though various great ones on this planet seemingly initiated and translated their inspirations into form, and our first foray of thoughts with Michelangelo, whose understanding was based on allowing something from the inside to be revealed knowing that what is true of design is already there.  

We have only to have the willingness to hear, see it, and allow it to come into form. 

And Leonardo Da Vinci whose attitude and posture, we sense had a range of perspective that spanned a larger scope of territory than the world had and has seen in a long time because of his willingness to let go of whatever were the limiting aspects of his imagination and those around him in his time and day on Earth.

A point of interest is that actually these two great people were in fact compatriots and artists of legend in Italy and at some point rubbed shoulders with each the other.

This of course brings up another point about which we are also fascinated with, and that is a point about the anomaly of certain human beings and their creative accomplishments.  Is it true that they were alone in their discoveries, set far apart from humanity encased in some kind of glass cocoon that was especially designed for them? 

It comes to mind that when we think of great artists and people we generally think that they were solo in their achievements, and to some degree that makes so much sense. 

If we mention the name Albert Einstein, for instance, mostly the first thoughts that come to mind is that he was a genius,  a mathematician, an anomaly. Though history tells us that during Einstein’s time he was surrounded by like minded people who were interested in solving certain issues regarding the very things that he is famous for! He touched bases with those ones who were wonderfully gifted and had insights to many issues that were pressing.  But it did take Einstein his specific effort to hear and see what others did not. A way of looking at the facts clearly through his specific lens of understanding. That was his responsibility.

The fact that each artist needs to allow the expression of an idea or thought to be translated into something tangible is of course truly a one person job.  Yet to say that Michelangelo would have created the masterpiece “David" in any other time in history would be a statement that would bring a lot of doubt of validity.  That specific time was specific as the “factors” of the time really helped to engender his understanding for his area of accomplishment then.

Could we say that each great artist was (is!) living during a period of time where other touch points known as friends, family, compatriots or some strong connections were or are in agreement with them to move beyond the concepts and ideas of the time? And who would be responsible for the translation of such creativity? 

Where does creativity begin? And who would be responsible for the translation of such creativity?

Stay tuned! Let’s see what can be further discovered! Let me know what you think!

Leonardo Da Vinci: Design Maven part 2

Perspective, as we have discovered, seems to include and exude an essence of allowing the sense of the facts or truth to be evident in our lives. As we are willing to look at the facts of something, then in a sense things are not personal because facts do not center in personal opinions or concepts or ideas, facts are well, facts…interesting. 

A book is a book, a desk is a desk, etc., these are facts that let us see without it being personal. When we include the fact that the book was handed down from our mother and that it was written by her mother then one could possibly have an attachment to that so that now the value of this book has changed in our mind and in fact our heart!

What the description here is alluding to is that by looking deeper into those ordinary things in our daily lives we seem to begin to realize that there are elements that actually shift the way we see things. It is of course what makes life interesting because as our ideas and concepts change so do the things around us! If we are happy guess what? If we are sad, guess what?

So Leonardo, I sense, had a perspective on his work and his life in a way that he was extremely interested and had a passion to discover how things were put together, in essence how was life formed, and in his search he was willing and needed to forego a lot of what was the conceptual and abiding ideas of the time.  Most of which ideas were promulgated by the church and its views at the time, and more than likely because it desired the influence over people’s lives so that it could build an empire of its own making.

Hmmm. This sounds a bit like today’s world! So, how is it that we can begin to see more clearly, or in other terms, to begin to put together the interrelated elements that are working at this time so that the answers to certain questions can come for us to solve our design questions, or in fact our life questions if we want to move in that direction?

What questions did Leonardo want to find answers to? What questions do we want to find answers to?

Stay tuned, I do believe that we are still attempting to discover something more about design!

Touching On Design with Michelangelo

From our first part of our design thoughts with Michelangelo, we surmised that a specific core in Nature would produce a unique answer, yet are we to believe that Michelangelo could only produce a singular piece of artwork out of a unique set of conditions that can be described as a piece of marble, albeit a large piece of marble?

I think not!  Why? Because unlike a blade of grass we have the capacity to create an unlimited number of possible answers to a set of conditions.  Yet as Michelangelo approached his situation in a listening stance his design ideas were either confirmed or in fact refuted by his medium…Do we believe that Michelangelo saw all the details of his sculptures and all the process with which he would need to participate in before he started? How could anyone know all the future steps that one will have to take to complete a project? But without studying and realizing a beginning plan and taking the first step the movement towards a creative solution cannot take place.

What are the chances that a chisel point broke off a piece of his intended design as he initiated what he believed was the direction of the flow of material and was not?  Are we believing that what Michelangelo produced in marble, were his first design thoughts, or did they shift as needed in the discovery of what worked out…?

More than likely, he “tested the waters” as he moved into the space towards the form in the marble that by the way, was also moving simultaneously towards him…

 “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”.
Michelangelo

Hmmm. Were those the words of someone who was storming towards a destination with only one solution in mind, focused only on his accomplishment?  Really?

Again he said,

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”.
Michelangelo

What if we started using our “tools of design” in a way that melded with the energy that was already beginning to form!  Is this a novel idea? Gee, no. But it is one that Michelangelo used! 

As we gather around our beautiful “piece of marble” if we begin to take a listening stance, mayhaps we can hear and see the evidence of something wanting to come into form…our clients way of living, their sense of what they would like to have in design, the building structure itself, the pattern and direction of the rising sun...(cosmic factors?@*!)

To give an ear without thinking that we would have immediate design solutions, but more about being present to listen to what we might just term as factors. In this way we might examine as Michelangelo no doubt did, to see what directions the veins in the marble run so that when we pick up our tools we can start to chip in the right direction!

Stay tuned! I am beginning to wonder if we are on to something! What do you think?