Resolutions for 2016.

A basic principle of military strategy with plenty of civilian applications: No plan survives contact with the enemy. Incomes, relationships and personal interests all change; accordingly it behoves one to construct their New Year Resolutions with adaptability in mind. It is for this reason that this year's edicts will, like last years, be free of measurable goals and progress plans. Sure, such things are beneficial to achieving short term success but over the course of something as unpredictable as a year they're more likely to turn out to be just frustrating and restrictive.

The second stratagem I will be implementing was first iterated to me by one of my undergraduate philosophy lecturers: Do Less, Achieve More. I possess a habit of developing amateur interests in an ever expanding range of activities. I find this habit to be both practically inconvenient and terribly rewarding. It's a trait that I'm quite proud of: one of the few figures of history who I consider to be a role model is the designer William Morris (a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement and also an avid dabbler). Despite sharing his appetite for using a wide variety of mediums, I need to give my work some focus. In light of this my New Year's Resolutions will be matched with an inverse of 3 New Year Executions.  Happy 2016!

New Year's Resolutions for 2016.

1.  Reading, Writing and Running.

Last year I successfully expanded the range of written work that I consume and diversified my musical palate. My fitness goals however were not met with similar success and my writing sessions were also largely sporadic - I only really wrote when I needed to meet a deadline that I had set myself. This resolution is a promise to integrate writing, both non and fiction, and running, or exercise in general, into an "almost-daily" routine. The plan is to focus on sustainable long-term regularity rather than intensity or productivity.      

2. Get Techie.

Our world is mediated by computers and understanding them confers not only practical advantages, in terms of cyber security and gadget proficiency, but also in understanding the quintessentially modern philosophical problems of digital space. I want to know how my computer, the internet and my smart phone work and I want to be able to take better advantage of them. I also want to learn some basic coding skills by December; maybe C#.

3.  Get Foodie.

In the last six months I have discovered a pretty intense love of food and drink and have begun developing skills to match this interest. This resolution is simply a proof of intent to continue this trend through 2016. Health and general utility abound!

The 2016 Temporary Hit-list.   

1. Video Games.

 The thought came to me recently that I'm more in love with the idea of video games than I am with games themselves. There are a handful of titles that I love in theory and in execution but most of the games I enjoy, I enjoy primarily for the sake of the concept. Likewise the idea of a digital interactive space as a communicative platform is really exciting but most video games tend to disappoint my expectations of them as far as "art" is concerned. I'll keep playing Minecraft and perhaps dip my toe here or there but for now I'm content to give up trying to finish the classics or look out for cool new titles.

2. Video Editing and Production.
I have a youtube channel where I upload things related to video games. It's mainly an exercise in video editing and presentation and has been a fun side project. Regardless, video editing is time consuming and I have better things to focus on.

3.  The Misc Clause.

No wood-work, painting, electronics, amateur engineering etc: this is a general resolution to not pick  up any new hobbies, at least until my other resolutions succeed. It refers both to hobbies I have outside of the now sanctioned cooking, writing, reading and running quartet and also pre-emptively excludes any new hobbies from my life for the foreseeable future.    

Defending Dionysus: Putting the Art in P"art"y.

Looking over interviews with comic book writers like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison one could be led to believe that there is an overlap between brilliant artists and practitioners of new-age "magick".

As a secular person I take Moore and Morrison's metaphysical ramblings with very little seriousness but both of them bring attention to an interesting analogy between art and magick*

According to the above authors, Magick is like art in that it is the practise of arranging symbols to produce profound emotional responses. Art at its root is just the manipualtion of the mind via our secular senses. When building a cathedral, a 15th century architect might install a high-roof to inflict a sense of awe onto onlookers. Songwriters likewise will scribe in a minor chord to match their dirge's lyrical content. We could spend all day discussing the various "cause, effect" relationships that underpin arts ability to move us: my point has been made..

There is something distinctly magical about any kind of creative endeavour that achieves its desired effect. Take for instance the preparation of a pepper-corn sauce. The chef burns off some whiskey, mixes in cream, adds gravy, allows the mix to reduce in the pan and finally chucks in a fistful of peppercorns. The result is a sauce that through the combination of its individual components, achieves a qualia greater than the sum of its parts.

I am quite fond of this definition of art and accordingly I will now use it to discuss party planning as a serious artistic medium.

While the act of enjoying a party is often a relatively dumb activity**, the act of designing a party has the potential to be a highly cognitive and artful process. As someone orchestrating a connoisseurs revel you control the refreshments,  the dress code, the music, the ambient noise, the spatial layout, the whole visual, gastronomic, social and auditory aesthetic is yours to act on, adjust and perfect.


What's more, you can design and select activities to take place at the party. You can use a party to play host to party games.

Indeed the prime contribution that video games have made to artistic understanding is the mediums emphasise on interactivity. Video games have helped us to think of active doing, as opposed to passive listening or watching, as a way to communicate with audiences and at the very least the principles at play in video games can be carried across to party games. Afterall they are both games, just with differing forms of simultion.

For anyone curious, I am thinking along lines less cliche than spin the bottle: though that might actually work as a sort of semi-ironic nostalgia peice. An alternate example would perhpas be a party with the theme "Intrigue" which includes a game where guests try to outwit eachother to accomplish their own competing clandestine objectives, perhaps with booze as an incentive.

If art is the arrangement of symbols to invoke experience then what medium offers the artist a more immersive and developed platform upon which to work their magic, than a party?***



*I use the "magick" spelling to specify it as a religious/spiritual practise distinct from "magic" which denotes the practise of deceiving small children and boring your family members at wedding receptions.

** In fairness the same is true for experiencing music, film or any other medium of creativity.

*** It goes without saying that there are many limiting facets at play here which I have not mentioned. Parties are generally held for fun and so one may struggle to justify a party that explores depression or the horrors of war. Unless a cultural revolution takes place and artists begin to orchestrate and direct parties in unusual ways we may not be able to progress past partying as having "a grande old time".