Sacred negative space of knowledge #

The fear of missing out. It is a fear of this negative space, that the negative space is a temporal mark upon your clothes, words, mind, views and ideals. Just as a man steps into a river and becomes swept away by its current, the same happens when you step into the river of any knowledge. By committing to read something, explore something, experience something, you are making this fork in the river.

Most of the time, perhaps even 99.999% of the time, this new experience or knowledge is vital and important, however you will never be able to return to this state of innocence. William Blake wrote poetry on both sides of this coin, on this fork in the river... "Songs of innocence and experience".

When you declare some gap in your knowledge sacred. This innocence is a material you can use in your work. The majority of work is built upon experience, but experience without a sprinkling of innocence, is deadened, soulless and repetitive. The innocence is the childlike wonder of how things could be.

For engineers, the negative space of knowledge is dreadful and has a terrible effect upon all society. This is most evident in programmers who forget every last year, and every last year's problems become a new interlocked chain in complexity. Just look at how few web developers know about C!

For artists, this negative space of knowledge is the innocence by which you can cultivate a unique experience, and experience is the guiding compass of your work. If your experience of High Fantasy is of Tolkien, then all your High Fantasy will be coloured and competing with Tolkien. If your experience of high fantasy is from your personally cultivated "inland empire"... then you may have something original and fascinating.

If you know what everyone in your industry is reading, chasing after or competing with... then you know what is considered "Sacred Positive Space". Butcher a few "Sacred Positive Spaces" and you will be able to produce something quite different.
Mind you reader, I am not supporting or clamouring for ignorance. Rather I am acknowledging informed ignorance to cultivate a Sacred Negative Space of Knowledge, as this can be used to improve your artistic work. This negative space that everyone else is rushing to fill in, often out of fear.

Published on 2024/12/23