Month: May 2019

GATTACA: one of the great films.

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In life, perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much about external ‘success’, money, material things, etc– perhaps we are the happiest when we maximize our day to be artistically productive.

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One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes:

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

But what does this mean– both philosophically and practically?

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Why are aesthetics important in terms of art, design, our clothing, cars, devices, cameras, and more?

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Perhaps we should think beyond photography — to create a hybrid between photography, painting, and any form of visual art-remixing.

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Some current thoughts I’m having on color theory:

1. Why color? If you have the option between monochrome and color — why would you choose color?
2. What if color is connected with physiological responses? For example the color red as being the color of lust, sex, danger — a woman (or man) with red lipstick or clothing as seen as more powerful, formidable, or sexual.
3. Color combinations: Is there an “ideal”for color combinations? Are all color combinations socialized? Or is there some biological “truth” to more ‘desirable’ color combinations?
4. Is if the role of the artist to imitate “natural” colors, or to totally disregard all nature, and create “unnatural” colors?

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A thought while contemplating consumer culture in America:

We are often suckered into buying new things to “improve” our lives, but more often than not — these new things actually complicate and worsen our lives.

Thus my simple thought: perhaps with material things, tools and equipment — we should strive to simplify our lives, instead of complicating our life.

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When I’m studying the artwork of others, I’m always hungry for the sublime — art that is so sublimely beautiful, that the artwork feels effortless, and you can feel the grace, beauty, and power of the artist.

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Of course we need a body to live and for practical and functional purposes. But in today’s world and society, what is the role of the body from a philosophical perspective?

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Just watched GATTACA for the first time — and it has a lot of interesting philosophical ideas about genetics, biological potential, and SURPASSING your “potential”(ingenuity, hustle, effort, luck).

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Something I’ve been thinking about for a long time:

What if this “romantic” notion was a bad one — which leads to decay, decadence, and a decline in our human spirit and human ingenuity?

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What if we changed our mindset — that instead of striving to make “timeless” art works, we sought to just create for the sake of it — and not concern ourselves with making things that “stand the test of time”?

As artists, we should embrace change, flux, and the transitoriness of life. Making art is our attempt of immortality — but it ain’t!

A recent discovery:

The kettlebell is a wonderful life, art, productivity hack.

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What do we really desire and “need”to thrive on our time on planet earth?

My idea so far:

We desire art, food, and our fellow human beings.

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Is it bad to be an “asshole”? 

A thought while walking around today:

Why is it considered bad or “evil” to be an ‘asshole’?

Furthermore, what if it is necessary for us to be an “asshole” in order to do great things?

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A simple way to think about life:

Almost anything in life is possible for you to do or achieve (from a physics ‘first principles’ perspective).

Now the question is — “How bad do I want it?”

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Dear friend,

If you’re hungry to conquer your fears in street photography, I cordially invite you to my intensive 1-day PORTLAND Conquer Your Fears Workshop (Saturday, October 19th, 2019).

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Love the music video of Apeshit by Beyoncé and Jay Z:

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A thought —

Why create?

Furthermore:

1. What prevents us from creating?
2. Is it “good” for us to create?
3. What is the meaning or significance of us to create?

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A simple thought in life:

Never take the word from others — test it out for yourself, and dare to inquire for yourself, and come up with your own independent opinion!

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Our modern vices: self-doubt, self-fear, hesitation. To me, these are all rooted from lack of faith in ourselves.

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1. Everyday uninstall one app from your phone/laptop/tablet
2. Be very very skeptical of ‘free’ social media platforms. Whenever possible, pay money for your digital tools (or pay monthly subscriptions).
3. Ask yourself– what do you value more — your attention and focus/time? Or social validation?
4. Be very aware of how social media algorithms are tweaking your behavior and thought patterns. Determine which platforms you decide are ‘worth it’, and which aren’t. Stop using the ones you find disempowering.
5. If you want honest feedback on your photos and artwork, upload it to arsbeta.com and also contribute your feedback to everyone in the community!

Deconstruct anything in order to learn!

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A simple yet profound question:

Why think?

Of course there is the practical and functional purpose: we must think in order to eat, procure water, and not die of the cold.

But beyond our biological needs — what should we do with our brain-power and intellect?

My simple answer:

To create new artworks, to deepen human wisdom and knowledge, and to use this information to empower our lives.

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As I see my evolution unfold before me as a photographer– I am starting to think BEYOND single-images that get lots of likes on social media. Instead, I am very interested in this notion of creating image-collages — a visual tapestry of images.

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Is it the sign of the strong to desire simplicity and strength?

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A thought the other day:

As a biological being, we are very small. We don’t need much in terms of biological sustenance (food, water, coffee, warmth).

In other words — our basic needs (especially in modern society) is very very easy to obtain.

Which makes me wonder —

What is the best way for us to direct our human energy, intelligence, and power-metabolism while we’re still alive?

Apex: Make art!

It seems the best use of our human metabolism is to make artwork.

Why?

Well — when we are in the process and the flow of making artwork, we are personally happy and empowered. We get into a state of “flow”, which Mihalay C considers the “optimal state” of human experience.

Secondly, when we create art and share it with others, it empowers other human beings! If we can make artwork which inspires and motivates others, gives them more appreciation of life and beauty — we certainly help humanity move forth, evolve, and become something greater.

Thirdly, it seems the ultimate state to become isn’t rich, influential, etc — but simply for us as individuals to stay motivated, inspired, and EXCITED to create new art works! To fall into the Dionysian rapture of eternal creation — to keep making new art works until we die. I think this is 100x more important than wealth, accolades, or other forms of external success.

To me true success is:

Do you wakeup everyday excited about what you will make today?

Perhaps we can use this as a simple compass to live our lives.

ERIC

A thought:

Much of the beauty of artwork is from randomness

For example:

1. Paint drips as a random/fractal-like-dispersion pattern. Paint drips are beautiful
2. The beauty of the randomness of film grain dispersion in photographs.
3. The joy of shooting with ‘film camera simulation’ phone apps like ‘CALLA CAM‘ for iPhone. The fun, joy, and excitement of NOT knowing what a photo will look like before you shoot it.
4. The joy of shooting expired film– the random aesthetic effects of expired film are often beautiful.
5. The joy of random beautiful light leaks with film cameras.

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Much of composition is about proportions — the proportions of visual elements in an image.

For example below is two different compositions of the same scene and image:

Now the simple question:

Which composition is “better”?

Let’s break it down.

1. First photo

You can see this scene you have the two red rectangles equi-distant on the top of the frame.

Also the yellow is a nice diagonal divider in the middle of the frame.

The green shadow is effective, because it extends throughout the frame. I consider this a strong and dynamic composition.

2. Composition number two

Now the second composition, note the “eyes” in magenta are more in the top-left corner.

Furthermore, the overall composition is less “balanced” than the prior composition, because the second composition leans more towards the left:

So when looking at these two compositions (abstracted) — let me ask you:

Which composition do you think is “better”?

For myself I don’t think in composition there is an objectively superior composition. But these are my thoughts:

1. The left composition is more balanced
2. The right composition is more dynamic and off-kilter
3. I prefer the left composition, as I prefer the blend of the balance and the dynamic elements. Also, I like how the composition feels more “head-on”.

More thoughts on composition to come!

ERIC

A concept I borrowed recently from Cindy:

Life is better with “plug and play”

Easier and simpler is better

For example, anything to reduce friction to allow you to most easily play or do anything is supreme.

In photography, the ultimate “plug and play”camera is a phone. You can easily shoot, process/filter your photos, select your favorite photos, and easily share your best photos with yourself or others.

With Windows drivers and printers — plug and play is 1000x better than having to find the drivers online and manually download them.

And I think this is why the App Store is so revolutionary — having to download .exe files on the Windows operating system was a major pain in the ass, and confusing for most people.

Plug and play living

So this is where things start to get interesting for myself —

How can I simplify my life to the maximum, in order for me to have the least distractions/frictions in order to be maximally creatively productive?

Simple solutions

Simple ideas:

1. Don’t use the “best” tool for the job, use the simplest tool and solution
2. Be skeptical of people who try to sell you a more complicated solution — often more complicated solutions will actually WORSEN your lifestyle. For example, owning more cars, and more possessions often adds MORE STRESS and makes our lives shittier.
3. With housing, better to move into a pre-furnished apartment/studio with all amenities and things included. This is also the upside of living in a hotel.
4. With design and UI/UX, perhaps we should optimize for ease of use for the user — to make it as “plug and play” as possible. Reduce friction from the setup to the actual playing!

And it seems the goal is this:

Reduce the friction to the max, in order to let us play as easily as possible— to maximize our play!

ERIC

What is the future of technology? My theory — “art tech” (the ultimate bridge between art and technology)— the two Archimedes levers of society.

Why “art tech”?

We got all this technology to optimize for our productivity, planning, and doing logistical things/answering emails.

Why don’t we have more technologies which optimize our artistic creativity and production?

More apps that re-awaken your inner artist

Any technologies, apps, or things which empower you to create more artwork is good.

This is my vision with arsbeta.com — actually making a platform which encourages us to become MORE artistic in our photography, by allowing us to get honest feedback and critique to improve our artistic vision.

Conclusion: Technology as a means to create more artwork

The point isn’t technology for the sake of technology, nor is the point technology for the sake of making us more mechanically-productive in answering emails or checking things off our todo list.

The supreme purpose of technology to augment our artistic abilities, vision, and artistic output and productivity!

ERIC

Prolific: creating much, sharing much.

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Embrace the extremes with your photography and cameras:

1. Phone (super convenient) x Film (very inconvenient) camera
2. Phone (super small) x Digital Medium Format (super big, but best image quality).

Let us avoid the “middle” (one size fits all) strategy.

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A thought while shooting more with a phone camera, and thinking about “vlogging”/ blogging in general —

Perhaps photography is best used as a tool of personal visual documentary of our own (“normal”) lives?

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A thought:

What if we just prioritized aesthetics over everything else?

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An idea:

It isn’t about iPhone vs Android; it is about owning both, and maximizing the most out of each (hybrid approach)

Having access to the best of both worlds. The notion “you can have your cake and eat it too.”

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After spending about a week commuting around (in a car) in the Bay Area (East Bay to South Bay traffic), I realized:

Wow — modern society sucks. Why do we need to waste all this time commuting and in a car?

But then this led me down another road of inquiry:

Are cars good or bad for us, society, and notions of freedom/slavery?

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A simple thought process:

The knowledge we consume in order to create art works of our own!

For example, watch movies, cinema, and film in order to create your own videos, vlogs, or cinema!

Consume and study photographs, painting, composition in order to create more of your own visual art works!

Let’s get rid of this romantic notion of art as being about pain, suffering/ “injustice” in the world.

Art as an expression of your soul of thanksgiving, joy, exuberant energy, and gratitude towards life, and being alive!

What I think we are searching for: sublime beauty.

Sublime beauty as aesthetics, shapes, and forms which make your jaw drop. A beautiful medley of colors, a dance of composition—

I’m hungry to discover the “secrets” of sublime beauty in art, composition, colors, tones in order to create my OWN artworks which I consider sublime beauty.

Once again —

Searching for sublime beauty in artwork, humans, design —> in order for us to make our own sublime art, and to turn our own bodies into sublime art.

Never stop searching!

ERIC

A thought while doing deadlifts at the gym today:

Nobody is “depressed” when attempting a max-attempt deadlift.

Then which made me start thinking —

We always talk about mental depression — but why don’t we ever talk about physical depression?

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A thought:

It seems evident that ‘intermittent fasting’ from food is beneficial to our physiological and mental health. What if ‘digital intermittent fasting’ was also beneficial to our “digital” health as well?

This means:

1. For certain periods of the day, totally disconnect yourself from the internet (live in #airplane mode)
2. Limit your internet access to only a certain chunk/block of the day.
3. The goal isn’t to NEVER use the internet– the goal is to use it in short/intense bursts when it truly benefits you.

Something I’ve been experimenting with the last month or so is this:

Own a phone, but don’t get a data/phone plan.

This means you can get offline Google Maps access (works very well), and you can also use it when you have wifi connectivity. This way, you’re not always using/checking your phone as a ‘nervous tic’ when at restaurants or other places, when you don’t really need to be using it.

Digital fasting retreat

Another idea– go to the woods, go on a cruise, a plane, or any situation where you don’t have access to internet or wifi. Try to go a day, a few days, or even a week without internet access. “Reset” your brain, and when you re-access the internet, re-assess yourself by thinking:

What are the effects of the ‘constant on’ internet access on my brain — and what don’t I like about certain thought patterns I have?

This means:

Create your own bespoke solution to your life, in terms of how you allow technology/internet access/change/modify/nudge/influence your behavior.

There ain’t a ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ approach. My suggestion is be AWARE of the effects of digital technology on your mind/body/soul — and ask yourself:

Am I controlling the technology, or is the technology controlling me?

Stay (digitally) woke!

ERIC

Why is art important to you? I’ll tell you why art is important to me.

First of all, I have the most fun when making art. To me, making art is the ultimate play. To me— the opportunity and chance and excitement of making art is what makes living worth it!

Secondly, I think art can uplift and empower all of mankind. A world and society without art is a world without hope, dreams, and beauty. To me, art is essential. What differentiates humans from animals is that we make beautiful art.

Third, to me, art is applied philosophy. To express your philosophical thoughts and beliefs is done through your art work. The photos you create are a manifestation of how you see, experience, and interpret the world. The music you create is what you deem as beautiful and worthy in life and existence on earth.

Why do you make art? Ruminate on this, and let this become your ultimate spur towards creating more of your own art!

ERIC

Think beyond the app store, think beyond Spotify, think beyond YouTube, think beyond Facebook/Instagram; think beyond all these platforms and industries.

It seems the secret to epic success in life:

Build your own industry!

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A thought in life:

Much thinking and modes of conduct are too “basic” for me. Perhaps we should strive to go BEYOND basic; strive to discover deeper new truths and sources of knowledge to empower future mankind!

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Currently at my friend Brendan’s home, and playing with his Oculus Rift– some of my personal thoughts on Virtual Reality:

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To make better compositions, strive to simplify and strengthen them!

1. Simplify colors

For example, simplify the colors. 2-3 colors seem to be the most effective.

Good to study Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein for their simple use of colors, shapes, and forms.

2. Deconstruct and simplify compositions

When studying the works of the masters, strive to simplify their compositions to better understand and internalize them. Lovely compositions by Hokusai.

3. Shapes, forms, proportions

Keith Haring as making simple yet strong evocative political and social commentary in his artwork via simple and effective visual arts.

4. Simple and powerful photos are memorable and effective.

Bruce Gilden photos, from his “Go” Japan street photography book:

Auto-creation:

For myself, it seems that I’m the happiest and have the most fun when I create without thinking, without any stress, without any tension, without any resistance. When I can create in a flow — creating like a stream of water.

Empty your mind, and create in a state of flow. This is the goal!

ERIC

Why I love colors, textures, shapes, and forms as visual and life stimulus:

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My idea:

Perhaps the most effective way we learn is via imitation.

And with art, the best way to learn is via practice and play (via imitation!)

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To me, chaos is the ultimate stimulation. The chaos of public places, the chaos of dancing in a mosh pit, the chaos of the streets— this is when I have the opportunity to exercise my faculties and strengths.

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When should we fly solo, and when should we fly together?

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A simple goal in our artistic lives:

Never stop creating new art works, pieces, essays, projects, and concepts!

1. Never stop shooting photos
2. Never stop writing essays, blog posts, poems, books
3. Never stop drawing, painting, sculpting, designing, and building
4. Never stop building your personal strength and muscles
5. Never stop making music, and never stop dancing
6. Never stop being born anew (everyday as a blank slate, tabula rasa) — if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying (Bob Dylan)

It seems self-evident that composition in photography is essential. But why?

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Outlast
Ignore the past, present and future
Outlast
You’re in a class of all your own.

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It seems as a society we have deemed hoarding (physical things) as a bad thing. But what about hoarding digital things? Shouldn’t we also propose a more minimalist approach to our digital lives?

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A thought:

What if we made our body the priority, not our “mind”?

Would this make us happier, more powerful, more excited, more inspired, more motivated, and more epic?

I think so.

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Do you desire to become formed, or do you desire to do the forming?

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Don’t miss out the upcoming SF StreetFoto International Street Photography Festival — to hype it up, here is an interview with Ken Walton, the founder and visionary:

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A thought:

Nowadays with the great image quality with phone cameras, what is the purpose of a “standalone” digital camera — which is often bulkier, heavier, and less convenient to use?

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Is there an upside to deleting our files and photos, instead of just backing everything up?

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A simple way to feel happier, more empowered, and more epic in life:

Whenever possible, create things instead of simply purchasing or consuming them.

For example, it is cooler and more fun to restore an old school car and make it look dope, than to just buy the newest sports car.

More fun to take a busted old iPhone and replace the parts (new screen, home button, battery) than to buy the newest iPhone.

Or for Android, more fun to jailbreak/root it and install a new custom OS/rom than to buy the newest Android device.

Or for clothing, don’t buy designer clothes– design and thrift your own clothes!

For art, better to make your own artwork than to collect the artwork of others.

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Instead of purchasing your ideal lifestyle or following others, better to follow no one and to simply follow yourself, and design your own ideal lifestyle for yourself.

Creator mindset

I think what is essential is a shift in thinking:

A shift from thinking “I want to buy that”(consumer mindset) to “I want to build, design, or create something like that of my own”(creator mindset).

Make your own things and bespoke your own life.

ERIC

A simple guide to simplify your shooting, processing, and sharing photographic workflow:

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To “decide” as meaning cutting away superfluous options. Easiest way to decide to do something is what to decide NOT to do.

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Piet Mondrian is one of my favorite artists and thinkers/philosophers.

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The most ripe area for photographic innovation: discovering new compositions for your photographic artwork.

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Great photo compositions are dynamic, motivate you to move, have a dynamic balance/harmony of proportions in the frame, and simple+elegant.

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A game: something which is fun, done for the sake of it. A child as playing, as building sandcastles by the beach, to only have it be washed away by the ocean (Heraclitus), yet not feeling “sad” that the artwork is impermanent.

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I was on Google Photos today, looking at all these old photos from the past. Old friends, old loves, etc — and it was kind of a strange experience.

Here are all these people I haven’t thought about in years, or perhaps even a decade — but with unlimited free cloud storage for photos/videos— social media and these tools resurface old memories from the past.

Now my question is this:

Is this feeling of nostalgia bad? Does thinking of the past (or resurfacing it) hold us back?

I think so.

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Why have status symbols?

We all know what status symbols are (fancy clothes, expensive cars, fancy watches, etc)— but my question is this:

Why have status symbols? Why publicly display totems of “success” to others?

Why signal your status-level to others?

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