I watched a documentary about “prog rock” on BBC Four the other weekend. If you don’t know what “prog rock” is, you’re probably significantly younger than me! That genre of music of one was one of my favourite genres in my teens – bands like Caravan, Soft Machine, Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd. I really enjoyed it, not least because of all the memories it brought back. In fact, it stimulated an exploration of a deep cupboard in my house, digging out some LPs (that’s large, black vinyl discs!), and setting up a USB turntable with Audiohijack software on my iMac to record some of those old tracks as MP3 files and syncing them onto my iPod! Oh the joy! One of the musicians on the programme (I think it might have been Rick Wakeman actually), said one of the things which was important amongst those bands was that they were given recording contracts without any great commitments. They were encouraged to play and see what emerged. Well, how different is that from the factory-style production of contemporary pop!?
It was the statement about “play” that stuck. I need to play more. Even if it doesn’t stimulate my creativity it’ll be fun!
While I’m on the subject I thought I’d share something playful with you. I got this camera for Christmas –
It’s a Lomo Fisheye 2. Lomo cameras use film. Remember film? There are a number of different Lomo cameras and each has its distinct characteristics. In fact “Lomography” is a bit of a cult. In the box with the camera comes a number of booklets, posters and leaflets about using the camera. But the big difference is that none of the material is serious. It’s all presented in a fun way and it’s all focused on persuading you to just go and “play” with the camera. So I did. Here are some examples from the first roll of film I shot –
The first two are of a ring of standing stones up by Aberfeldy.
A Highland road…..
And a double exposure – standing stones and a forest….
This last one, hints at one of the things I’m going to explore with this camera – you can take as many exposures as you want on any frame. It’s an interesting and somewhat spooky effect, isn’t it?
Heroes Not Zombies 
http://www.nifplay.org/
here we have an institute devoted to it!! Interesting in some ways that a psychiatrist is researching the subject…
broadcast by stuart brown the physician here with some interesitng vidoes….
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/
I fully endorse it and didn’t do enough of it as a youth..making up for it now —kids heard today at a voice workshop that they would be mortified if their friends heard their parents singing like that –must have been good!
We lived a few minutes away from those standing stones ….
If you haven’t heard it this video by ken robinson on creativity is fantastic !!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
ian
Just love that tree! Thanks for posting these pictues.
Wow, what a wonderful set of shots – I’d love to get me one of these cameras!
As for prog and play, yes, so much music on the radio is so boring and predictable, huh? I have a great Casio keyboard I’d spend hours on end playing on, with a built on six track recorder. It was that simple act of creating these little electronic compositions in the kitchen (and sometimes on the bathroom, thanks to the good acoustics) that brought me great pleasure. Some of it was actually not half bad either!