Last summer, I was travelling in Italy. It was a hot day and we were walking in the garden of Basilica S. Vitale in Ravenna. When we came around the corner, there it was: the “Roto B”, made by Marco Bravura (in 2008).
From a distance, it looked like real grain, which was a little weird (what’s grain doing in a garden?) So the curiosity started immediately. But besides that, there was something more about this peace: a ‘glow’ that struck me and something else that I couldn’t get a grip on. I had to find out more.
At the same time, the sun came out from behind the clouds. A magical moment, because the Roto B suddenly sparkled. It lighted up; seems to invite me to come closer. So I did. And I stood there, just watching, from all sides. After a while, I began to read the description. Marco Bravura used gold pieces of garbage to create Roto B. His intention with this work was to remind us about the strength and value of re-use and that it can be an art form.
Okay…great intention, I can see this.
But then, the last sentence just hit the core of what I was experiencing:
“(…) above all we must learn to reshaping our way of seeing things, so that we don’t let it simply fall back into obvious habits and routines. We need to revise our sight to stimulate our capacity to discover, see and surprise ourselves the way we did at the beginning of our visual voyage.”
Since this day, this Roto B pops up in my mind every now and then when I’m writing. Because it is so related to an essential part of my current research: reshaping the way we think, shift our mind set, to deal with the complex issues of today’s world.
My research is scientific, but I let myself be inspired with everything that I experience in ‘the real world’. Like art. Sometimes, things get really stuck in my head. The Roto B is one of them.
I have lots of this ‘inspirational anchors’. For example, the performance and song ‘Glitter in the Air’ of Pink. This is also ‘nested’ in me and has now almost reached the status of being my research itself – I listen to it when I’m stuck, having a writer’s block or when I need something to remind me why this research is so important for me .
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that – for me – science and art really go well together. Also on a much deeper level than the ‘sketchy’ inspirational moments I pointed out (but that’s another blog…). In this blog I just wanted to share how nice it is to find such inspirational ‘anchors’. I live by them!