...another green world

Dear 'fellow citizens' the BFI have a Dennis Potter season beginning on the 6th June right through until the end of July and there’s a good article in the Guardian this weekend by Michael Newton who again reminds me how few writers there are that are able to hijack the media to such potent affect as ‘...an entertainer, an instructor and an emancipator.’ Now, why isn’t he on the national curriculum Mr Gove? I think he’d have a few chic words to share. Thank goodnes for Ken Loach then, who has blasted film critics for not engaging with working class people. He said he was disappointed about the reluctance of reviewers to engage with stories which don't "fit their preconceptions" as well as working-class characters who deviate from stereotypes such as "thugs, drug dealers or whores … the victims of their predicament rather than architects of its change". Keep it up Ken.

The Oldest Living Things in the World

Since 2004 the photographer, Rachel Sussman has been working with biologists researching continuously living things to photograph the oldest living things in the world. She captures ‘...multi-millennial lifespans in 1/60th of a second…and bears ‘...witness to organisms that precede human history and will hopefully survive us well into future generations.’ These mostly greenish images are beautiful and remind me of our fragility and transience...or perhaps something infinite...

I am very excited to be welcoming Australian artist Vic McEwan to Manchester this week as we embark on a long-term exploration of research and development opportunities as part of his fellowship. What to know more - and how you might be involved? Read on.

A project exploring community, health, trauma and experimental arts

Arts for Health present a free North West Arts and Health Network event on Thursday 5th June between 5pm and 7pm in the School of Art at MMU. Register your interest in attending by emailing artsforhealth@aol.com 

Please note registration doesn't guarantee a place and confirmation will be sent on Tuesday.

In April 2014 the Australian artist, Vic McEwan was announced to be New South Wales first ever Regional Arts Fellow. This fellowship period will last from 2014-16. Vic will make several visits to the UK to work with Arts for Health developing new opportunities for research and the creation of new experimental contemporary artwork in health settings.

On this first visit, Vic will talk about a ground-breaking Australian arts project he developed after devastating floods in the New South Wales town of Yenda. The Cad Factory is an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place.

For more info on his work check out:

www.vicmcewan.com/#!past/galleryPage

www.artsnswfellowship.com

www.cadfactory.com.au

So, maybe see you this Thursday and if not, watch this space (or video below) for more details. 

Arts & MInds are recruiting for a Project Manager to run Arts on Prescription 

Arts and Minds believes in the benefits of the creative arts for sustaining and aiding recovery of mental health and well-being, and this is strongly supported by our research.  A&M’s vision is to help everyone throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who has a mental health problem to live happier, more creative lives by providing opportunities for them to engage practically in all forms of the arts through participation in long and short-term projects. Arts on Prescription (Cambridgeshire) provides weekly workshops for adults experiencing mild to moderate depression and anxiety. Previous sessions were the subject of evaluation research carried out in association with Anglia Ruskin University and the London School of Economics which found that Arts on Prescription resulted in positive outcomes for 78% of participants in terms of self-reported improvement in levels of social isolation, anxiety, depression and wellbeing and is cost effective when compared to other therapies.

http://artsandminds.org.uk/arts-on-prescription/

Beyond Borders 

The Performing Rights Society (PRS) for Music Foundation, the UK's leading funder of new music across all genres, has announced that its Beyond Borders fund has re-opened for applications. The Beyond Borders Fund provides funding of up to £15,000 to stimulate collaborations between organisations in England, Northern lreland, Scotland and Wales. The scheme enables music creators to produce exceptional new music to be performed in at least two UK countries. Launched in 2010, the scheme has supported 31 co-commissioning projects so far, bringing together organisations and music creators across the UK and abroad. Beyond Borders has been made possible by a pioneering UK wide partnership between PRS for Music Foundation, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Creative Scotland who joined forces to support cross border collaboration. The closing date for applications is 6 pm on the 10th July 2014. Read more at  http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/Partnerships/Flagship-Programmes/Beyond-Borders

Hilton in the Community Foundation Central Grants

Registered Charities that work with young people have the opportunity to apply for grants through the Hilton Foundation Central Grants Programme. Registered Charities can apply for grants ranging from a few hundred pounds up to £30,000 per year for up to 2 years that are working in the areas of education or health with one of the Foundation' four chosen focus groups. These are

disabled children;

children in hospital;

young people that are homeless;

and life-limited children requiring palliative care.

There is approximately £150,000 available to distribute each quarter. Grant applications for up to £10,000 can be approved by the Committee, and applications for more than £10,000 are recommended to the Trustees for final approval. There is no limit on the amount of money that a charity can request. However, the Foundation is a small charity and generally will not make awards of over £30,000 (per year). Funding can be requested for up to 2 years for any particular project. The next closing date for applications is the 29th July 2014. Read more at: https://www.hilton-foundation.org.uk/apply.html

Artists in Residence Grants 

The Levehulme Trust is offering grants of up to £15,000 to UK universities and museums to foster a new creative collaboration with an artist (visual artists, creative writers, musicians, poets) working in a discipline outside the institution's usual curriculum. Artists may not apply directly - all applications must be made by the host institution. There must be a distinct contrast between the artist and host department's expertise (for example, a poet being hosted by a physics department, a composer by a geography department). The residency must be a newly constituted collaboration between artist and hosts. The grants provide a stipend of up to £12,500 for the artist and consumable costs, such as artist's materials, of up to £2500. A typical residency would be for ten months based on the artist being present at the host institution for two days per week. The deadline for applications is 16th September 2014. Read more at:

http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/AIR/AIR.cfm

Arts Council Funding Available for Bridge Organisations 

To help ensure that every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, Arts Council England will fund a small number of 'Bridge' organisations. Bridge organisations are primarily facilitators and will use their experience and expertise to connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and culture. Bridge Organisations are not expected to directly deliver arts and cultural opportunities for children and young people. Their role is to provide an environment in which cultural education can flourish both in and out of school. The Bridge role may be undertaken by a museum, an arts organisation or an arts education agency. The minimum grant that must be applied for is £500,000. Potential applicants must have a preliminary conversation with the Arts Council before applying. The application process is ongoing and there are no deadlines. Read more at

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/bridge-organisations-2015-18/

A damn fine quote
'Many clever people make absolutely rotten parents and many people who are intellectually impaired are warm and caring and provide children with a wonderful upbringing'
Mrs Justice Parker, a high court judge, ruled this week that a baby should not be adopted due to his mothers learning difficulties.

Telemedicine, Here I Come!

By Hind Benjelloun, MD @hbenjelloun 



My decision to
pursue a career in telemedicine was a long process. I had a comfortable, stable
clinical position at a highly regarded academic center in a lively city. But I
kept wondering if my career needed a boost. I found myself thinking, career
development takes risk. Medicine is an ever-changing and growing field. I
felt that I had to embrace some changes myself if I wanted to keep up.



Telemedicine is a relatively new discipline. The idea of
incorporating health care with technology, specifically the web, may have some
rolling their eyes or shaking their heads. But, simply put, it is the future of
healthcare; and it is certainly getting the buzz these days.

The American Telemedicine Association is rapidly growing and developing
its services and its role in healthcare. Many medical and scientific
organizations are recognizing the importance of the discipline as well. You can
see it reflected in the number of publications, conference seminars, and
available CME. Tech gurus are predicting that the recent acquisition of Oculus
by Facebook will be a game changer in the tech industry and will further grow
telemedicine’s influence.



So I took the plunge into a field in its infancy. I went for it.
 Telepsychiatry! After almost ten years at Georgetown University Medical
Center, I drastically shifted gears to pursue a full time career in crisis
telepsychiatry.



In this career change, I have been labeled a pioneer among colleagues
and friends. It feels wonderful to immerse myself in such an innovative
healthcare movement. My healthy narcissism embraces it and it strengthens my
confidence in what some may call a risky career decision. Today, telepsychiatry
is revolutionary in the way it enhances access to care. And although right now
telepsychiatry is primarily seen as a means of engaging the rural patient
population, it will progress in the medical community as a future medical norm.
The evidence is growing and continues to demonstrate the boom of telemedicine
and its success.

Still, taking the leap into telepsychiatry had its downsides.



Because of its youth, telemedicine lacks a number of accessible mentors
who can guide the process. There are few clinicians who have an “institutional”
knowledge of telemedicine to share. This means that other than the anecdotal
accounts that you may read in a journal or blog post about what it’s like to
venture into the world of telemedicine as a provider, there aren’t many
reputable sources to turn to.  I had trouble knowing what to expect.



I started working with InSight, a national telepsychiatry provider
company earlier this year. As a crisis telepsychiatrist with InSight, I have
the ability to seamlessly transition between seeing patients at multiple
hospitals in multiple states back to back. Today, I love my job. But the
legislative hurdles I had to jump through to get going were a major headache.



I was completely committed to offering services right away when I made
the decision to start practicing telepsychiatry. I was ready to go. But I had
no idea what kind of challenges I would encounter as I attempted to receive
licensing from medical boards that all work independently of each other.



After the first hurdle of becoming licensed, I thought I had passed the finish
line. But to my surprise, I was back to waiting on privileges from hospitals
that were scrutinizing my immunization records and testing my knowledge of
their fire code. This all seems so frivolous and a waste of time, effort and
money. Didn’t they understand that I would be seeing patients remotely?



When I finally began working with a regular schedule, I found myself
asking, why did it take so long for me to be able to actually see patients and
provide care?



The answer lies in legislation. The laws and regulations in place for
telemedicine are significantly outdated. Why is my medical license in one state
insufficient in another? Big changes are needed to reflect the advent of
technology’s integration into medicine. And when it comes down to it, it’s the
patients who suffer from these outdated practices the most.



The shortage of psychiatric prescribers, as well as other types of
providers in the United States is a growing problem. Telemedicine is an
important way of addressing that shortage with the providers we already have.

Thankfully, there is yet hope. The Federation of State Medical Boards
(FSMB) has recognized this unnecessary obstacle to patient care and the strain
inflicted on telemedicine as an industry.  At its annual meeting at the end
of April, the FSBM will vote on adopting the federation’s Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, a licensing option that would allow qualified physicians to
expedite licensure in all states who participate in the Compact. Telemedicine
as a field of practice would be transformed dramatically with the adoption of
the Compact. Fingers crossed.



I am enthusiastic about potential for growth of telepsychiatry and
telemedicine. But I believe providers must take an active role in pioneering
this new form of care, and pushing for its successful implementation for the
people who need it—our patients.



Bottom line—we are in this for our patients, and it is our patients who
will benefit the most from telemedicine and a successful reevaluation of the
legislation that regulates it.

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You cannot restrict the mind's capacity

Last Thursday, the North West Arts and Health Network was proud to host an over-subscribed event led by Mike White from the Centre for Medical Humanities. With a presentation entitled - Randomised Thoughts, Controlled Ramblings and a few Trialised Thoughts - we knew we were going to get something mischievous from this cross-Pennine foray into the historical arts and health, hilltop fortress that is Mamucium (or rather the Manchester Art School), and Mike didn’t let us down. Opening his presentation with Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads, he took us on a journey that conjoined his early work by way of Welfare State International to the possibilities of generating new traditions. 

Blasting the crass commercialism of the Baguette of the North and imploring us to share something of the spiritus mundi, Mike framed much of his presentation in David Byrne’s ‘slow dawning insight about creation,’ that 'context is everything.' Urging us to consider Bevan’s collective commitment to social habits and offering the best we can give to society, he subverted the context of health and safety from authoritative and risk-averse control, to caring for each other. His own work illustrated perfectly how investing in children and young people reaps dividends in generational change, not least in creating young researchers who inform new ways of thinking, being and doing.

Discussing the current ‘trends’ in research and evaluation, he poked a blunt stick in the side of reductionists and reflected on the range of documents ‘out there’ and drew from the 2004 Kings Fund report: Finding Out What Works: Building Knowledge about complex, community-based initiatives, as one of the most useful.

For me, there were some key messages from his presentation and the illuminating and animated formal and informal discussions that followed. He raised some fundamental questions, of which these a few, and which I will leave hanging in the air for you to ponder:

• Why does the state fund the arts?
• What is health for?
• How do we better disseminate evidence?

On the final question and that of the 40+ members of the fledgling Arts and Health Research Network, we had a short discussion about the ongoing role of the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing and alongside the burgeoning archive of research data held at MMU, how this might be made freely available to a wider international community. More on this soon. His discussion of being at the crossroads in research and of having the ‘empirical highway’ or the ‘lantern road,’ resonated with some and was questioned by others (see below), but for me echoed the dangers of thinking that one size fits all. The agendas of those working in clinical settings and those working in communities have shades and nuances that can’t be aggregated into one crude ‘measurement.’

For my own part, the constant cries for a Gold Standard in arts/health research is horribly flawed. After all, it seems it's the big pharma model that’s being held up. Well, that objectivity isn’t skewed by greed and manipulation, is it? When Gold is used in our context, might it be more appropriate to think in terms of Gold Methods and not Standards? More subtle, reflexive and appropriate. 

Whilst there is room for diversity in the way we understand cultural value and the subtle impacts of creativity and the arts across societies, context is critical, as is placing people at the heart of what it is that we do - not simply seeing them as subjects to be ‘done to.’

I was struck by a sense of shared vision with those present and Mike embodied what I can only describe as an authentic voice in this arts/health field. So often, the agenda is scuppered by those looking to patent their ideas or position themselves as central to a field which Mike so clearly illustrates is emergent and ever changing. His own slow and honest dawning insight in this journey, is enriching to be a part of. I can only say thank you Mike. 

coda 1

There is a tradition of radical thinking in Manchester, a place that urbanist Anna Minton describes as the ‘bellwether for social change in Britain.’ It has been a temporary home to Engels and Marx and the Pankhurst family were residents, the city arguably being instrumental in universal suffrage and the co-operative and working-class movements - deluded or not - I think of this arts/health movement as having strong roots in this place and tradition too.

As part of what Mike describes as this small scale global phenomenon, the good citizens of the People’s Republic of Arts and Health (AKA the NW Network) would like to confer upon him the honour of citizenship and thus, our highest award, that of honorary Mamucium Republican. Judging by all the extended email signatures of my esteemed colleagues in academia - which seem to be growing day-by-day with fellowships, societies and much conflated (oft purchased or self generated) clap-trap - this means he can now refer to himself proudly as MR (Hons).

Much as though I tried to audio record the event for those of you who could’t attend, the quality of the sound is appalling, so it will be left for those of us who attended to disseminate his thoughts through loud-hailers on street corners, or hushed whispers on hospital corridors. I also offer some quick reflections from some of the people who attended.

9 reflections...

“...I found his talk to be thoughtful, sensitive and full of respect for the participants he has worked with. It was a pleasure to listen to and a reminder of the power of creativity to bring communities together and to transform people’s lives.”

“...As always Mike was inspiring and it was really great to hear someone talking about the realities of our work. A great spokesman for what we are all doing.”

“...the image of a fork in the road frightens me as it feels that these directions are moving away from each other, which feels pretty hopeless! {…} developing our smaller scale artist led research I have found my path much more meandering with my practice and those I practice with…”

“... I'm inspired by the lantern and transition projects and would like to initiate a new project with my local community.”

“...what has touched me the most and made me think deeply? Having a motivating aesthetic - it's what drives my work, only that I had never found the words to describe it so greatly. Oh - and 'Psycho Killer' is in my top 5 favourite songs ever.”

“... succinct and informative - from embedding 'memories' into a calendar to the debates surrounding cultural contexts and a need to follow one's intuition concerning local needs, research and funding.”

“...I was fascinated with the concept of 'flourishing' and whether one can flourish even in ill health. I would answer a definite 'yes' to that from experiences both personal and professional. The networking afterwards was great too. So useful to talk with others exactly on your wavelength!” 

“...he blows the instrumentalists out of the water…”

“...as engaging and challenging a figure you could ever hope to meet holding a lantern at the crossroads…”

...and following in the footsteps of MR White, Winston Churchill

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has announced its areas of interest for the next round of fellowships. These involve travel for from 4 to 8 weeks to one or more countries to look at examples of best practice, innovation and inspiration, and then return to disseminate these experiences for the benefit of the Fellow’s organisation or community. Some of this year’s areas:

-  The Arts and Older People

-  Early Years Prevention and Intervention

-  Environment and Sustainable Living

-  Prison and Penal Reform

-  Young People 18-25

-  Medicine, Health and Patient Care

-  Science, Technology and Innovation

These are available to anyone (UK citizen) ‘with a passion for their subject,’ and so the focus is as much, if not more, on practitioners and professionals as on academic personnel. If you are interested in applying, or know practitioners/professionals who might be good applicants, the information is available by clicking on Churchill's own private war room below.

The deadline for applications is September 23, 2014.

Wingate Foundation – Performing Arts grants

Deadline: 23 June, 19 September & 12 December 2014

The Wingate Foundation’s Performing Arts grants programme is open for applications (this does not include music, which has a separate fund). Particular emphasis is given to providing financial support for not-for-profit companies with a record of artistic excellence that require additional funding (not available from public sources or commercial sponsorship) to broaden their repertoire or develop work of potentially outstanding interest. Assistance will also be considered for training and professional development for creative talent or the technical professions. Read more at: http://www.wingatefoundation.org.uk/sc_performing_arts.php

Paying Artists campaign: website launches as support grows

A new campaign aimed at securing a fair deal for artists working with publicly funded galleries in the UK is launched today. Led by a-n and AIR, the Paying Artists campaign comes after research revealed that more than 70% of artists are not paid for contributing their work to publicly-funded exhibitions. Almost as many have turned down offers from galleries because they can’t afford to work for nothing. The campaign, which has its own dedicated website and is supported by some of the UK’s leading arts organisations including the Design and Copyright Society (DACS), Artquest, Axisweb, NSEAD and Arts Development UK. International support has come from the Swedish Artists’ National Organisation, CARFAC in Canada and Visarte in Switzerland.

Susan Jones, director of a-n the Artists Information Company, said: “Unless we start valuing the artist as well as the art, in future galleries will only be showing work by the privileged few who can afford to work for nothing. The Paying Artists campaign is about tackling the inequalities faced by artists and giving galleries and the visiting public access to quality art that genuinely covers the spectrum of human experience.” http://www.payingartists.org.uk/ 

Aphorisms on Futurism (1914) by Mina Loy (part 2)

LET the Universe flow into your consciousness, there is no limit to its capacity, nothing that it shall not re-create.

UNSCREW your capability of absorption and grasp the elements of Life—Whole.

MISERY is in the disintegration of Joy;
Intellect, of Intuition;
Acceptance, of Inspiration.

CEASE to build up your personality with the ejections of irrelevant minds.

NOT to be a cipher in your ambient,

But to color your ambient with your preferences.

NOT to accept experience at its face value.

BUT to readjust activity to the peculiarity of your own will.

THESE are the primary tentatives towards independence.

MAN is a slave only to his own mental lethargy.

YOU cannot restrict the mind’s capacity.

THEREFORE you stand not only in abject servitude to your perceptive consciousness — BUT also to the mechanical re-actions of the subconsciousness, that rubbish heap of race-tradition — AND believing yourself to be free—your least conception is colored by the pigment of retrograde superstitions.

HERE are the fallow-lands of mental spatiality that Futurism will clear—

MAKING place for whatever you are brave enough, beautiful enough to draw out of the realized self.

TO your blushing we shout the obscenities, we scream the blasphemies, that you, being weak, whisper alone in the dark.

THEY are empty except of your shame.

AND so these sounds shall dissolve back to their innate senselessness.

THUS shall evolve the language of the Future.

THROUGH derision of Humanity as it appears—

TO arrive at respect for man as he shall be—

ACCEPT the tremendous truth of Futurism
Leaving all those

                       Knick-knacks.

This blog is a-political - honestly! I just have to say this. One trick-pony jingoistic deluded zealots. Thank goodness for those spirits and minds that influence and feed me and this movement. All hail colleagues, immigrants and friends who infect me with ideas and challenge apathy. Thank you. The world is rich and diverse. Albion is small and needs your input.

Die in the Past, Live in the Future...

Un grandissimo grazie a tutti voi che  avete partecipato agli eventi per il Recoverist Manifesto a Pistoia e Pescara questa settimana. Io e Cristina siamo stati contentissimi di essere stati accolti in maniera tanto meravigliosa da tutti voi. Grazie infinite. Adesso che abbiamo condiviso un po' di  idee, di passioni e di sogni su quel che vogliamo, butteremo tutte le nostre parole in un pentolone e inizieremo a cuocere un po' di deliziosa poesia a fuoco lento. Le vostre parole, e le nostre aspirazioni. Ancora una volta - grazie - per aver partecipato, organizzato, per esservi messi alla prova ed aver condiviso. Non appena avremo una prima bozza del Recoverist Manifesto, la condividermo con tutti voi tramite i nostri amici di FeDerSerD e Gruppo Incontro.

Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in coming to the networking event and presentation with Mike White on Thursday evening between 4:00 and 6:30. As I said in last week’s blog posting, I’ll confirm places by email on Tuesday and of course, where the event will take place in the university. Last places before Tuesday 13:00 by registering at artsforhealth@aol.com 

A short and sweet blog this week. Light on polemic but littered with funding, commissions and Aphorisms on Futurism (1914) by Mina Loy. (part 1)

Artists commissions at The Walton Centre

As part of the major development of a new 3 storey building at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, LIME Arts wish to commission visual artists for three separate projects at £12k, £9k and £12k. More details by clicking on The Waltons below!

Wellcome Trust - Peoples and Society Awards 

Funding is available under the Wellcome Trust's Peoples and Society Awards for projects that encourage public debate and understanding of biomedical science. Projects can include:

Workshops and seminars

Arts projects for various different audiences and age groups

Teaching materials or techniques to encourage wider discussions; etc.

The People Awards (up to and including £30,000) are for innovative and creative projects in the UK and/or the Republic of Ireland that engage the public with biomedical science and/or the history of medicine. They can fund small-to-medium-sized one-off projects or projects that pilot new ideas with an aim to scale up or become sustainable following the grant, or they can part-fund larger projects.

Society Awards (above £30,000) can fund the scaling-up of successfully piloted projects (whether funded through People Awards or through other means) or can fund projects that are more ambitious in scale and impact than is possible through a People Award. Society Award projects would normally expect to reach audiences with a wide geographical spread across the UK and/or Republic of Ireland. They can also part-fund larger projects. Funding can be for up to three years. Applications can be made by a wide variety of individuals, organisations and partnerships.

The next closing date for applications for the People Awards is the 25th July 2014 and the 3rd October for the Society Awards. Read more by clicking on the snazzy pullover below! 

Music Grants for Older People 

The registered charity, Concertina which makes grants to charitable bodies which provide musical entertainment and related activities for the elderly has announced that the next deadline for applications is the 31st October 2014. The charity is particular keen to support smaller organisations which might otherwise find it difficult to gain funding. Since its inception in 2004, Concertina has made grants to a wide range of charitable organisations nationwide in England and Wales. These include funds to many care homes for the elderly to provide musical entertainment for their residents. http://www.concertinamusic.org.uk/Grants.php

Lloyds Bank Foundation Launches Two New Funding Programmes 

The Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales has announced the launch of two new grants programmes to replace its flagship "Communities Programme". The aim is to support projects that help people over the age of 17 who are experiencing multiple disadvantage at one of the critical points in their life. The funding programmes are "Invest" which is a flexible, long term core funding programme for charities helping disadvantaged people. Grants are up to £25,000 per year for two or three years, with the opportunity for continuation funding for up to six years in total. "Enable" which is a smaller and shorter grants programme for charities that have identified clear development needs. This funding aims to help the organisations deliver their mission more effectively. These grants are up to a total £15,000 over two years. The funding is available to registered charities and charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) with an income of between £25,000 and £1 million. To be eligible, organisations are expected to be working with people 17 years or older, experiencing multiple disadvantage at one of the critical points in their life. The only exceptions are young people who are under 17 years of age and young parents or looked after children and disabled young people moving into independent living.

There are no closing dates and applications can be submitted at any time. Read more by clicking on the twins below.

DIE in the Past
Live in the Future.

THE velocity of velocities arrives in starting.

IN pressing the material to derive its essence, matter becomes deformed.

AND form hurtling against itself is thrown beyond the synopsis of vision.

THE straight line and the circle are the parents of design, form the basis of art; there is no limit to their coherent variability.

LOVE the hideous in order to find the sublime core of it.

OPEN your arms to the dilapidated; rehabilitate them.

YOU prefer to observe the past on which your eyes are already opened.

BUT the Future is only dark from outside.

Leap into it—and it EXPLODES with Light.

FORGET that you live in houses, that you may live in yourself—

FOR the smallest people live in the greatest houses.

BUT the smallest person, potentially, is as great as the Universe.

WHAT can you know of expansion, who limit yourselves to compromise?

HITHERTO the great man has achieved greatness by keeping the people small.

BUT in the Future, by inspiring the people to expand to their fullest capacity, the great man proportionately must be tremendous—a God.

LOVE of others is the appreciation of oneself.

MAY your egotism be so gigantic that you comprise mankind in your self-sympathy.

THE Future is limitless—the past a trail of insidious reactions.

LIFE is only limited by our prejudices. Destroy them, and you cease to be at the mercy of yourself.

TIME is the dispersion of intensiveness.

THE Futurist can live a thousand years in one poem.

HE can compress every aesthetic principle in one line.

THE mind is a magician bound by assimilations; let him loose and the smallest idea conceived in freedom will suffice to negate the wisdom of all forefathers.

LOOKING on the past you arrive at “Yes,” but before you can act upon it you have already arrived at “No.”

THE Futurist must leap from affirmative to affirmative, ignoring intermittent negations—must spring from stepping-stone to stone of creative exploration; without slipping back into the turbid stream of accepted facts.

THERE are no excrescences on the absolute, to which man may pin his faith.

TODAY is the crisis in consciousness.

CONSCIOUSNESS cannot spontaneously accept or reject new forms, as offered by creative genius; it is the new form, for however great a period of time it may remain a mere irritant—that molds consciousness to the necessary amplitude for holding it.

CONSCIOUSNESS has no climax.

Mina Loy, "Aphorisms on Futurism" from The Last Lunar Baedeker, published by Jargon Press. Copyright © 1982 by Mina Loy. Reprinted by permission of The Estate of Mina Loy.