One of our number, Alexia Maddox, posted a lovely piece – Nurturing the space for creativity – on her blog Social Forecast. In the extract below she reflects on our recent Parallel Fascination No. 3 (featuring a beautiful presentation by Romaine Logere) and, more generally, our journey so far. ~ Meredith
“The narratives of scarcity versus abundance are rife and it seems impossible to pick which times we are actually in. I’ve decided that I live in times of abundance and that it is up to me to generate the creativity through which to source and nurture this reality.
Alongside this realisation, has been the collective realisation of two of my prime ladies-in-arms, who also see that we have the capacity to create a better future through nurturing the creativity and voice of our peers in the present. And we are doing this through the shared vision of Parallel Fascinations, an interdisciplinary salon that we run out of the Channel at the @artscentremelb.
One of the reasons I’ve been napping in a sunbeam like a true nanna this weekend is as a recovery from all the excitement of Friday night. We held our third salon, with Romaine Logere presenting on metaphor as a mechanism for the liminal. Romaine is one of the co-convenors for the salon, alongside Meredith Lewis, who presented at the salon prior to this on using Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as a narrative through which to explore organisational disfunction. Needless to say, these sessions have been absolute rippers.
What happens during the salons is unpredictable, rich and reliant on our carefully curated group of attendees who thrive in the intimate moment, both giving to and gaining from each speaker. Within the ebb and flow of repartee ideas are sparked and exchanged. The light bulbs go on as we each realise how the passion and private obsessions of the speaker open up a way of thinking and seeing that resonates beyond the rational.
Romaine kicked us off by exploring metaphor, mirroring and the body dysmorphic through exploring the social phenomenon of amputee devotees. Yes, you read that right. And why not? When you want to explore the liminal and black space of ‘that which cannot be put’, we learnt, this was the perfect launching pad into unchartered territory. Romaine, used a segment from this episode of QI to get us all on the same page.
She asked what role metaphor might play in finding ways of knowing and articulating the unthinkable, the complex, the intuitive, the indistinct, the messy and the diffuse. In doing so, Romaine took us on a fascinating and intimate journey from deep within the bowls of the human psyche, across the mirror spaces of film genres to horror and landing in metaphor as a vehicle to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.
When such unbounded and thought provoking ideas flowed over the group, we rose, almost as one, into a creative and inspirational domain that is as unchartered as it was unanticipated. In this way, our parallel fascinations were on a collision course to fusion, eruption and recreation. I have yet to walk away from these salons the same person, and I may speak for more than myself when I say this.
So, I think I’ll turn back to my mundane list of ‘to do’s now that I’ve got that off my chest. There is a space of abundance and creativity in our social landscape. It’s a slipstream that runs like a current through the city I live in. To find it, you need the right vehicle (perhaps a metaphor) and the right people. Once you’ve found it, nurture it, for these times are precious and our future grows from what we do together.
Keep an eye out for our #parallelfascinations posts on twitter. This is my attempt to collectively engineer a future that I desire to be a part of.”
