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Accidental Creativity: The Undead Muse

April 10, 2023

First things first: The Undead Muse is the title of my most recent music album that, like the rest of the music that I make, is an exploration of postrock and postmetal music. As the title of the album reveals, there are Gothic elements in there – Gothic fiction, that is; not Gothic metal! We’ll talk about all that too, but there is another focus in this post: what I term accidental creativity.

Many writers will likely relate to the concept of accidental creativity, and will immediately understand what I’m getting at. Still, here’s a quick definition: I use the term accidental creativity to refer to artistically creating something that isn’t what you intended.

We’ll need to further revise this – and include some philosophical speculation; for instance, is there anything but accidental creativity? And allow me this little indulgence of combining this with a presentation of this newest album, which I really enjoyed making and really enjoy listening to.

accidental creativity
Album art of The Undead Muse
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Embrace Failing, or How to Live Free

March 6, 2023

I’m deliberately provocative, I fully admit. I’m asking you to embrace failing, supposedly promising you this will let you live free. Though the title isn’t a clickbait (in the sense, I really do mean it and I will argue for it), there is more nuance involved.

If you’re a thinking reader, you should first and foremost identify the ambiguity involved in this title. “Embrace failing” doesn’t quite reveal anything, in the sense that it doesn’t communicate what “failure” really is. Just think of how difficult success is to define, and you’ll see why. “Live free” contains similar problems.

I’ll try to unpack all this, but here’s a word of warning: In a truly meta- kind of way, it’s likely that I’ll fail in my attempt. That is, I don’t feel I’ll be able in this post to properly explain why you should embrace failing, let alone why it should help you live more freely.

Why I still go along with it is part of the lesson, of course.

embrace failing
“I again failed to stay awake today. I’ll embrace my failing and enjoy my dreaming”
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The True Nature of Art

June 27, 2022

Some months ago, I went to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The purpose of the trip was to visit as many museums and art exhibitions as I could fit in the span of six hours – I managed to visit a couple of museums, four exhibitions, and the Helsinki Observatory. It was great fun, but I wouldn’t bother writing about it if it weren’t for one serendipitous realization, one related to the true nature of art, that can be summed up this way:

  • Art hides in the most unexpected places.
  • You need to be able to see art.

All this might sound a bit cryptic. Moreover, referring to “the true nature of art” makes me feel uncomfortable – who am I to define something so undefinable? For all purposes, this text is somewhat stream-of-consciousness, drawing on the way I experienced some things. It’s subjective; there’s nothing but subjectivity.

Still, whether you’re a creator of art (a writer, a painter, a musician, or even – why not? – a coder) or “just” a reader/viewer, this might reveal new horizons to the ways you understand the “true” nature of art.

true nature of art
The true nature of art is… Well, I’m not the one to answer. Ironically, if we could even begin to approximate something remotely resembling an answer, we should begin from subjectivity and ambiguity
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