- nothing – something
Notes
While recovering from surgery, I experienced how there’s a thin line between “nothing” and “something”.
Nothing is filled with something, and vice versa, and it’s good to press the pause button once in a while and experience that.
May 2023 - asocial
Note
Note to self: try to be more “socially undesirable” sometimes!
May 2023 - moon & meditation
Notes
Looking at the moon and thinking about how mediation creates space between “earlier” and “soon”.
Space to experience the “now”.
May 2023 - organizing
Note
I realized everything I do, is basically organizing all my notes, thoughts, feelings…
And composing it into stories, collections and research.
May 2023 - endless loop
Note
Thinking about how every moment is a new beginning, but also an endless loop of events, without start or end.
April 2023 - head & body
Note
Reading and writing about how the body is in charge when you’re creating something.
April 2023 - snow
Note
I went to France for a skiing trip.
There I had an… interesting insight about how snow is just slowly falling rain.
March 2023 - the expanding & shrinking of space and time
Note
Writing about how my project The Big Nothing is about the slowing down & speeding up, and the expanding & shrinking of space and time.
February 2023 - pieces of nothing
Notes
In the city of Antwerp, I made “Stukjes Niks” (Pieces of Nothing) to invite people to slow down and do nothing (or to look around or inside them).
The Stukjes Niks are presented in the newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen.
Also, Kavka and Het Bos gave me the chance to work on this project and present it the coming months.
February 2023 - dutch
Note
Writing about being a Dutch person living in Belgium.
Thinking how to behave when I see another Dutch person in Antwerp.
Should I wave, just like bus and truck drivers greet each others as “equals”?
February 2023 - the overlab
Notes
Designing a logo for an idea I have for a while: The Overlab.
The Overlab is a creative place where different disciplines, audiences and ideas overlap and can connect & create.
February 2023 - sick
Note
Reading and making notes while experiencing some medical issues.
February 2023 - small ritual
Note
Writing about how rituals create space in time.
Starting with a small ritual where I make tea after my afternoon walk, and write or draw something in my notebook.
January 2023 - information overload
Notes
Drinking tea across from “Het Sterretje”; a shop with so much information on the window you can’t grasp it all at once.
Thinking about how we can say more by saying less. Or, how we can just say less, sometimes.
December 2022 - cow
Note
“Artists are like cows with 7 stomachs, who continuously ruminate familiar things until they created something new from it.”
(I later discovered that cows don’t have 7 stomachs, but only 4).
October 2022 - baas boss
Note
In October I started a program for entrepreneurs.
At Baas Antwerp I follow sessions about marketing and finances to start my ownéénmanszaakéénmenszaak (business led by one person) in Belgium.
October 2022 - read the world
Note
Brainstorming with colleagues about a promotional text for our library.
The library holds a special place in our society, and gives many people access to this society.
September 2022 - listening to nothing
Note
In my search for empty space, I discovered the podcast De Weg Naar Waar Het Stil Is about silence.
It discusses silence with people on the street, and one of them makes a surprising remark: ” I love to listen to nothing.”
September 2022 - how to be less productive
Notes & experiments
Reading, writing and thinking about how to be less productive and decisive.
Googling how to be less productive, without success. Apparently it’s not common to search for ways how to be less productive.
September 2022 - this post-it is empty
Notes
Creativity demands space, in our head and our environment.
That’s why I’ve been experimenting with creating empty space, in my agenda, on my screen, and at the office with these post-its.
September 2022 - observations
Notes
Observations about daily life.
September 2022 - wiggle room
Note
“There has to be “wiggle room” in life.”
This is the best translation I could think of translating this Dutch sentence.
It means that there has to be room, space to be not productive, to not do anything or to wander around sometimes.
September 2022 - connect & create
Notes
Connect & Create (with) the (digital) world.
August 2022 - (on)gezellig
Note
Listening to the the episode about racism of the Rudi & Freddy Show podcast, and learning about how you sometimes must be “ongezellig” to start discussions and change systems.
August 2022 - the importance of the notebook
Notes
Writing about the importance of carrying a notebook with you, as the creative process can never be predicted or planned.
And about how documentation enables us to unravel the “red thread” in our work.
July 2022 - creating creates independence
Notes
Reading the books My Dark Vanessa and The Body Lies.
In both books women are taking back control after being controlled.
Thinking about how creating and shaping the world (by writing, making or imagining), gives you the power to take control.
July 2022 - n̵͕̰̣̭̣͔͍͌ô̶͓̩̝̱̈́̓́̓̂̏͂í̵̛͖̣̹̝̫̏͌̍̅̂́̂̕s̵͉͔̭̮͍̪̞̰̩͌̌͗̉͂̐̆̎̕e̴͚̲̭̠͉̭͉̻̱͍͒̇̐̄́͒͛̔͊͝ ̶̨͕͖̝͜͝à̷̡̧̺̮̑̃͐͊̎͌̏͐͌n̴̗̺͎̰̙͔̒̇̂d̸̛̪̭̰͇͐̑͆͐ ̶̢͈͔͙̳̲̉͊̒̓̔̓̀͜ͅf̴̲̜̥̹̬̝̖̽͊̀̃́̃͝͝r̵̖̥̠̽̎̉͛̋̐́ḯ̴̠͚͖͓͚̳̫͜ͅc̴̠͕͔̈̕t̶̨̲̞̝͔̐̑i̷̧̧̻̖̗͍̤̗̟̝͠ơ̸̛̭͉͐̌͋́͝͝ņ̶̦̟͓̘͎́̆̈̎͑͠
Note
Unlike influencers and designers try to show a creative process, it can never be clean, slick and perfect.
We need noise and friction to create.
June 2022 - corona 2.0
Notes
I got corona for the second time.
Or actually, corona got me, pretty hard.
June 2022 - time + space
Notes
Thinking about how we create, fill and are time and space.
After asking permission to work part-time, I immediately felt more time and space.
But I also experienced that if we don’t decide how to fill our time and space (or decide to keep it empty), it gets decided for you.
July 2022 - media wise(r)
Notes
Doing research to the possibilities and dangers of the virtual world.
Digital and social media are more and more portrayed as merely negative: they’re commercial, energy consuming and superficial.
The question is: can they still be or become a places for experiment and expression?
May 2022 - not to do
Notes
Thinking about how to create space.
For example, by creating a Not To Do list for every To Do list you make, or by creating a piece of emptiness in the digital and analog world.
April 2022 - making is building a bridge
Note
I went to the Maker Faire Gent and came back with a lot of inspiration and insights.
April 2022 - ego
Notes
“It’s fine, to be no-one sometime.”
Writing and thinking about how our ego is fragile and scattered by its focus on others.
While it can be satisfying to be no one for a moment.
April 2022 - connect [with] & create [the world]
Notes
Writing my new artistic statement:
Connect with
and create
the world
April 2022 - flowing notes
Notes
Random thoughts written on and between the flowing lines of the notebook I (re)designed and printed on recycled paper by a local printer.
March 2022 - spring writings
Notes
Writing about spring in my Flowing Lines Notebook.
Experimenting with weaving texts together using the flowing lines and the space around them.
March 2022 - expression vs communication
Notes
Writing about how communication is different from expression.
Where communication brings a message clear and direct towards another person, expression is more about bringing an inner process towards the outside world.
I believe both are very important to survive in our modern age.
February 2022 - movement / rhythm / dimension
Note
Thinking again about how life seems an endless cycle of circles.
The head and the hands are part of the body. Me and others are part of the world. And time and space are part of… Movement? Rhythm? Dimension?
February 2022 - idea upon idea
Note
Realizing how ideas always build upon each other.
Instead of replacing the previous idea, a new idea always enhances, enfolds the previous idea.
January 2022 - deepening
Note
Writing about how life, or time, doesn’t seem to pass by horizontally, but more vertically.
Instead of moving you in a linear movement and staying on the surface, time takes you deeper and deeper, through the layers of life and yourself…
January 2022 - cycle of circles
Notes
Describing how life just seems an endless cycle of circles. Circles that contain smaller circles, and at the same time are part of bigger circles.
January 2022