Strands of Genius: The Disruptive Power of the Outsider, House of Dreams, The Art of Out of Office

Guest Curated by Steve Chapman

Apr 01, 2020

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, STEVE CHAPMAN ::

LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Can Scorpions Smoke

[Inner monologue: Oh my! Guest curating the legendary STRANDS OF GENIUS! Now I’m definitely going to be found out!]

Hello there. I’m Steve – a professional imposter. Or, if I’m being kind to myself, a professional outsider. An artist, writer, speaker, philosopher with no formal training or qualifications in any of those subjects.

I’m interested in creativity and the human condition. Two facets of our human experience that are in perpetual opposition like a never-ending existential Tom and Jerry battle. Creativity being our desire to move towards the novel. The human condition being our pre-disposal to move away from the unfamiliar. All of my work takes the form of projects that are essentially experiments that look to shake things up by doing the opposite of what is regarded as “normal”. For example, in 2018 I curated a sold-out conference called Inexpert that had the sole objective to be the opposite of TED with 16 speakers giving talks on subjects they were interested in but had no expertise in. I was also the owner and sole exhibitor of The Hungerford Bridge Gallery of Outsider Art which, for 91 days, was London’s smallest and most visited independent art gallery until the local council threw it in the bin. And I’ve spent the last two years being host of Sound of Silence - the world’s first silent podcast featuring special guests. (Rosie and Faris were on episode 4! In fact, that was the first time we met in person!)

These are strange times we’re living through and I’m way out of my depth on technology or design so I’ve focussed my curational duties on pulling together some of my favourite wonky, creative things from places and people that inspire me to bring a bit of light and colour into your world. I hope you enjoy it.

Editor’s Note (Ashley): Rosie and Faris had met Steve before I did and had expressed so many wonderful things about him, so I was quite excited to meet him! Needless to say, meeting him at LearnFest was stellar. After a full day of sessions, we’d drink and eat into the wee hours of the evening, playing games and talking of all things — surface level and deep below the surface. The real honor was being introduced to Steve’s handmade art that had participants of LearnFest squealing in excitement when they found a piece. Even more so was participating in his interactive sessions and taking in his observations and challenges that really spoke to the power of the human connection! So, you could say I’m a ChapFAN :)

Editor’s Note (Rosie): I see how you slid an an editor’s note in there Ashley, but you didn’t think I was gonna skip out on the opportunity to profess our love for Steve, did you?! Faris and I been long fans of Steve from afar before we met in person to record some silence together. I don’t want to reveal how we score people after we meet them (we don’t), but needless to say, Steve’s scores were so high that he’s remained on the leaderboard ever since (the leaderboard is only in my imagination.) As Faris would say, “It’s not a competition, but Steve is totally winning.” His bravery is evident in everything he does, and we always end up talking about how the playful elements of his creativity are what keep us coming back. Whenever we have fanciful notions, we’re always scheming as to how to get Steve involved. We’re excited for you to read what he’s curated below (the links are fabulous), and for you to poke into more of what gets us jazzed. (Seriously, you could spend an entire day getting lost in Can Scorpions Smoke?, but you gotta start with why it’s called that, to find out the answer to the question.)

:: THE LINKS ::

THE DISRUPTIVE POWER OF THE OUTSIDER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PORTSMOUTH SINFONIA

In 1970, a group of subversive art students at Portsmouth Art School formed an orchestra called The Portsmouth Sinfonia. Anyone could join the orchestra but the rule was that you had to play an instrument you had little or no expertise in. Other than that, the only other rules were to 1) Show up for rehearsals, 2) Try your best and 3) Don’t play deliberately badly. The results were phenomenal as evidenced in their now deleted album “The Portsmouth Sinfonia play the hits”.
The Sinfonia built a loyal fan base and even got to play at the Royal Albert Hall, much to the horror of the classical music establishment who decried that classical music should not be treated in this way and did everything they could to stop them. Sadly, over time, the Sinfonia performed so much that they got too good and disbanded.
I often play their version of Also Strach Zarathustra in my keynote talks as an example of the disruptive power of the outsider. 2020 is the 50th anniversary of their forming so it seems that, as the world is in a rather chaotic and disturbed state, their wonderfully wonky music may finally find a welcome home. (YouTube)

HOUSE OF DREAMS

In the middle of a very normal looking suburban street in Dulwich, London lies one of the most amazing things I have ever encountered. In fact, it is so amazing that you don’t necessarily have to visit to appreciate its amazing-ness – the online photos alone are stunning. House of Dreams is difficult to describe. A project? A piece of art? Just one man living his life surrounded by thousands of colourful oddities?
London based artist Stephen Wright began the project in 1998 and describes it as “A diary of my life. A way of dealing with the outside world which is quite a difficult place to live in sometimes.” The house comprises 6 rooms with every surface covered with bizarre and colourful found objects including false teeth, old dolls, bottle tops, wigs as well as Stephen’s sculptures and hand-written memory boards which recall important moments in his life. The house is an experiment in colour and Stephen has drawn his influence from different cultures around the world. Stephen say he has drawn inspiration from “cultures that use colour to express joy, loss and really understand how to use colour. There’s hardly anything here from London, other than bleach bottles!”
So take a look at the pictures of the House, then take a look at the walls surrounding you -and start to dream. (Stephen Wright)

THE ART OF OUT OF OFFICE

Current events make me wonder what “out of office” actually means now. Does it mean that we’re out of the office but working or out of the office and not working. Maybe we need to introduce the In-the-office-auto-reply to highlight a different form of exception? But assuming that the disruption to our working patterns doesn’t kill off the automated out of office e-mail, then why not embrace it as an opportunity to create something special. The ever entertaining Nick Parker suggests how we might do this in his brilliant blog post. (That Explains Things)

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Real - "What are you doing?" - an improv game | Cards : Sh*thead | Virtual: Minecraft - one of the only things my daughter and I still do together

:: City :: London (closely followed by New York)

:: Book :: The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

:: Album :: Hi How Are you? Daniel Johnston

Guide to washing hands for people who can’t draw hands

:: BOREDOM BUFFET ::

A pick and mix selection of stuff to do if you are bored, isolated, unable to leave the house, in need of pointlessness. Have a pick at it, see what bits you like and leave the bits you don’t. But please avoid double-dipping.

* Blow your mind with the size of space

* While away the hours with this collection of on-line synths

*Get lost in one of the first sites I ever visited on the internet back in the 90s

* Do some of the #WTFEB challenges

* Watch my talk on "The rise of the outsider" at The Good Life Experience

* Or if nothing else, use Rob Poynton’s brilliant checklist to make the most out of your pauses

Steve Chapman
email: sc@canscorpionssmoke.com
linkedin | instagram | twitter

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Send ‘em our way!

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

SPEAKING
We're currently booking speaking gigs for the year.
Check out full descriptions and key learnings from our talks on here:
http://bit.ly/TalkDescriptions2020

If you're pitching us to others, here's a handy press kit:
http://geniussteals.co/press-kit

Strands of Genius