I’m going to pretend it’s the days of old twitter, and before the internet got algorithmically inclined. I’m going to talk about the things that came up this month that were really quite lovely, and not worry about what happens, after that.
Writing together in small circles for fun
Writing, sharing, and discovering others who also want to write, share, read, and be read, that’s kind of important to me. I think it’s why I started this blog in 2006, writing every day about what was going on in the neighborhood and whom I was meeting and our gigs in those days at Design Kompany when we were in Seattle. So many great people passed through our doors, in the office, and also at the thing that I didn’t realize was functioning as an ‘art space,’ but that’s exactly what it was, Kornerhaus. We did not have ‘funding’. We just did what we could with what we had, around us, and with whom. A lot of creative, smart and talented people, for one, and with those wonderful conversation-opportunities, began hosting conversation salons.
One of them was at Kornerhaus.
Flourish: What is the role of the artist?
It was my first one, that I hosted. It was called Flourish: What is the Role of the Artist?’ I printed flyers at the copy shop and stapled them around the neighborhood, and people came and talked in a circle in our big downstairs room that was going to be where, from then on, conversations like that would happen. I loved this. I still love gathering people but it’s trickier now. I do this virtually and I use Telegram, LINE, email, Canva and Zoom. I mean, see what I mean about more complexity?
The good news is, there is still an interest in connecting with people who are new, new and different, new and different and ready to join in on a conversation. About: let’s go see. That’s the ethos here at Design Kompany. Anything is possible. Let’s try it. Let’s connect. Let’s converse. Let’s play.
At the end of the day that is it. That always was it.
Play.
Making the most of where you are
Does it work in Cambodia? Sometimes, yes it does, and very, very well. This is a place where you can watch people adjust and adapt to the circumstances as they pop up, and it’s quite markedly different from what I just saw in the summer in Japan. I mean, what a difference. I sometimes forget how the playfulness of the Kingdom of Wonder made me feel when I first landed, slowly getting out of the old mold that says you have to have a purpose, you have have a point, you have to be doing something productive.
Who’s really gonna care, though, in the long run? These last ten years in Cambodia have given me a chance to experiment widely, and deeply, with the limited resources for me at hand. Instead of gathering people like I used to in Seattle, though, now I engage with the materials that fall to hand. Bits of cellophane, yesterday. Incredible textures of flora and so many patterns of the Khmer ornamental style, too.
Cojournal Phnom Penh is having a nice set of early-on conversations about starting to start, too. This is the part that’s the funnest. Seeing what might happen… next.
Here is a page with opportunities for my writing site, Kismuth,’s Cojournal: