I start the creating my future exercise today bound and determined that I can create a spiral of images.

I arrange and re-arrange the images until I am sure I have finally done it. I stand up with my iPhone 4s to take the quick photo.  As I look down at the collage, I just break up laughing. For all my work to break out of my habit, I have just shifted the angles to form a diamond. Too funny for words.

Back to re-arranging. While I had believed Christine’s research, I clearly didn’t realize how difficult it would be to break out of the prison of one’s visual patterns. If I can’t break out of what should be a simple design patterns, how many other deep seated patterns am I locked into that I can’t “see.”

I struggle beyond the allotted time to re-arrange the pictures. I finally am satisfied that today I got it.

Today’s story revolves around the rainbow in the center:

“The paintings are not clumped together in this one.  That took work.  And yet, I still can’t force myself as far as the ‘jumbled up’ example you sent.  Soooooo, what does it mean?

“At the center is the rainbow and the call to all the wonders of nature.  It is a reminder that all of science flows from nature and all of technology flows from science and all products flow from technology (and art – actually in Heidegger and Goethe, but lost in the industrial revolution – hmmmm). It is the starting point and it is the inspiration and it is the muse.  While there is no pot of gold, nature’s rainbow inspires, that is the pot of gold.  That inspiration flows through humans and back out to others to ‘throw their pot.’ The clay pot is envisioned first in mind and then flows through the hands.  It is the interaction between mind and hands, the craft of creation. While it is important to throw a single pot, it is but the beginning of creation and the start of the journey.

“Sometimes that journey is through the desert, and some times there are oases where we can celebrate the gains that we’ve made with the fine wine produced through many hands from the biodynamic fruit. The wine is used as toasting but pours back into the earth and is fossilized as a spiral of life, a reminder of the seasonality of life. As I finish up the circle of inspiration, I realize that the key is to have each talented member of the company perform many jobs to develop many talents so they can see the many points of life and light they bring to the endeavor.  Those many points of light leave rainbow traces, much like laser art, to illuminate a whole, which then emanate to others.

“As I stare at the images and reflect, from many different directions (Bootcamp TeamArt, VisualsSpeak, Heidegger, Betty Edwards, Dale Chihuly) I get the message loud and clear that the new company has to include as a core value (and maybe as a core product) art making or process art. The other reminder in these images is to resurrect the “biodynamics of information” work I did a couple of years ago.

“As I look at this collage with the rainbow at the center, I am reminded of the slide I use to introduce myself.  Rainbow photos are my favorite to capture with my DLSR camera off of my deck at the house and whenever I catch one on the ferry.  The print for building a rainbow was given to me by a colleague 30 years ago and framed hangs in my office.”

Christine, the computer, responds to the collage with another collage.

CHRISTINE:

Here are the four days of images. What do you notice?

When you think about what you notice, do those things have anything to offer you about your question?

Reread your stories from each day. What are the themes that enter day after day?

Are there particular images that you have grown to really like? Any that have lessened in importance?

Make one more version tomorrow, without any effort to make it a particular way. Simply answer the question, starting with the image and then allowing words to emerge.

Best from your computer muse……

SKIP:

Getting a little pushy on this one, oh computer muse.  Moving from asking to telling.  I love it.  We’ll have to remember that when we give the VisualsSpeak chatterbot a little personality.

CHRISTINE:

Moving from divergence to convergence – across the facilitation framework (another chart) 🙂

SKIP:

You didn’t show me that one.   Holding out are we?

Glad to see that we are travelling the same paths.  The divergence convergence divergence waves are what is always hardest for my students and entrepreneurs to get.

CHRISTINE:

Here is part of the VisualsSpeak Facilitation Framework that deals with the divergence/convergence cycle:

SKIP: Onward and upward then to Day 5.