One of the main reasons I started blogging was to form some kind of catalogue of inspirational things I come across.   Being a great believer in the emerging ‘open source’ way of working, I like the idea that keeping an open sketchbook allows much opportunity for collaborative work and solutions to come forward.  With this in mind I’m going to make more of an effort to post ‘in homage’ to the things I feel are worthy of mention, starting with the work of Jimmy Chin.

I don’t think it’ll take you long to realise why his work is worthy of mention, but for me, what comes through is his personality.  I get the impression he is never trying to impose himself on the situation, and therefore the result is something which both un-contrived and beautifully effortless.   In this day and age it’s great to see such strong content that relies so little little on digital manipulation.  Check out Jimmy’s  website and blog.

The last few months have been little more than making whistles and ice climbing.  Along with Nik Powell we’ve been reviewing and improving the production processes we use for making the instruments.  Aside from a display stand to go into shops there’s been little in the way of new design.  While the amazing climbing in the Scottish highlands this winter has provided it’s own excitement and the weekly routine has been productive, there has been little in the way of new experiences to provide inspiration to take into a new design stage.   At times like this I try to remind myself that sometimes you have to keep your head down and get on with things until a window of opportunity appears [keeping your powder dry - as my dad would say].  In the mean time, here’s some pictures from weekend adventures of late:

After ten years of living an almost completely urban life in the city of Glasgow, 2009, for me, was the year that I emerged from the cocoon to discover the majestic Scottish wilderness.  Perhaps it could be same for any of the world’s great wildernesses, I don’t know any of them well enough to know if they have the same depth, but something of the way the landscape and people have woven together through time,  is truly magnificent.  It is said that the Scottish mountains are amongst the oldest in the world, and the poetry, the music and the people, even to this day, move forward with echos of this ancient history.  It might be foolish to try and convey this – like describing the taste of one of the finest single malt whiskies – but here are a few things that speak to me the loudest against this backdrop.   I’ll let you peel back the layers:

Sounds

‘Walts for Hector’ from Bothy Culture by Martyn Bennett

‘Why’ on Grit by Martyn Bennett ‘

‘Blackbird’ on Grit, by Martyn Bennett

‘4 Notes’ from Bothy Culture by Martyn Bennett

more info | buy Grit | buy Bothy Culture

Words

A Man In Assynt_Norman Maccaig

more info | book available here

Pictures

With the news, before Christmas, that America is going to commit 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, it’s easy to pass over this piece of information without considering much more than politics behind the headline.  Since the invasion in 2001, notably now over 8 years ago, the news from ‘on the ground’ in Afghanistan has dwindled to a distant murmour.   There are still undoubtedly people out there recording it for us to see, but the story isn’t getting through.  It wasn’t until I saw the photo exhibition on this website, that I started to get any kind of idea what it must be like, and even then, watching this at home can’t possibly come anywhere close to what ’s it’s going to to be like for those 30,000 soldiers, or any of the other people involved with that war.

Strangely, in a small town outside Riga, myself and my girlfriend picked up a book by the Royal Geographical Society.  Titled The Royal Geographical Society Illustrated , it’s a mainly photographic record of some awe inspiring explorations to far flung corners of the world – from Shackelton’s fateful Arctic exploration, to tiger hunters in India, to photographs of the the first Europeans to discover the Holy city, Lhasa, on the Tibetan plane.   While it might be tinged with a kind of colonial philosophy about the ‘discovery’ of distant places and peoples by Europeans (or mainly the British in this case), it is also fantastically illustrates what a culturally and geographically diverse world we have lived in.

But at the same time as laying out  the records of these great ‘discoveries’ of the past 160 years, it also somehow highlights how we have been eating away at the world’s diversity.  Never before have I had such a sense that the world is getting smaller and smaller.  As we pack more and people in, it seems that the last great wildernesses are shrinking, and the ‘unique peoples’ are being amalgamated into the juggernaut of general society.  Many of the tribes and peoples in this book don’t exist any more.

Exploration isn’t the same any more; from watching watching Jeremy Clarkson ( BBC presentor for the car related program topgear) drive to the North Pole in in a  4×4,  to the cue of people waiting in line on an in season day to stand at the top of Everest, there are obvious examples of how things have changed.  Could the golden age of geographical discovery be over?

There are still strands of geographical exploration which stand out as reaching into fresh territory, most obviously perhaps, there is space exploration, and Robert Ballard’s talk on deep sea exploration might demonstrate another example.  There are also always people pushing the limits somehow, climbing mountains by new routes, sailing round the world in faster times etc etc.  But is this anything new, or just more of the same?

My instinct tells me that there will always be great discoveries to be made, stagnation isn’t possible, but when mother nature has had enough, we’ll be gone.

Pictures to follow…

persevering with digital I took these pics in and around Riga :-