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| image by Theodore Zeldin |
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| Sophie Munns |
The text above is by eminent thinker Theodore Zeldin who has been an inspiration for some years now after reading his seminal 'Intimate history of humanity' and 'Conversations' which was published following his BBC4 lectures on conversation. I tracked him to a philanthropic foundation he launched - 'the Oxford Muse' - some time later and have at times worked directly with his ideas like conversation dinners and text in art work.
In 2008 I had the time to rethink completely where I was going in my Art Practice and I wrote to the Oxford Muse foundation in the UK and exchanged emails for a time with one of the staff there. I was looking into how I might engage further with the conversation dinner idea I had experimented with partly pursuing my own interests and then discovering the Muse model for this form of innovative social collaboration. One day Kim at OM said "Theodore wants to phone you to speak personally - when will you be home?"
He rang me that week and talked for over half an hour - by far the most dense conversation of my life in its sweep and profundity and searching questions. I made notes - thankfully! And I sat on that exchange for a long time after pondering how I might activate some of the ideas he prompted me to consider. Maybe I find myself mentioning this tonight because there is perhaps an opportunity coming up that will allow space for such possibilities as he spoke of to come into play. I'm realising this as I write. More soon on that...
To read more click Muse Ideas. Some years ago i watched a webcast of a 2 hour talk he gave at the Tate Modern. Muse ideas will take you to similar links. There you will also see at this website Zeldin's own art work that frequently accompanies the text for the Oxford Muse.
The following images are employing text from his book Conversation that I wanted to consider more fully.
*click on the artworks to enlarge if you wish to be able to read the text
these 2 pages below actually join up
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Today I have had some amazing conversations and communications through the blog, via email and over the phone... many more memorable and enriching ones than I usually have in one day. Plans being made, ideas being exchanged and thoughts being shared... when communications flow and understanding and cooperation is increased the world is indeed a brighter place!
And thats something to be extremely thankful for!!
