14 Smart Inventions

Inspired by Nature:
Biomimicry
Companies seeking breakthrough products tend
to ignore the greatest invention machine in the
universe: lifes more than three-billion-year history
of evolution by natural selection.
by
Amelia Hennighausen
and
Eric Roston
February 23, 2015, 10:48 PM GMT+5
Nature as R&D Lab
Whats missing is a systematic way of capturing natures creativity, says Janine Benyus, a
biologist, "innovation consultant" and author. Engineering practices are fractured, Benyus says.
Experts in biomimetics study materials; bionics engineers work on prostheses and mechanics.
"There was no umbrella term that encompassed everything from agriculture to business," she
says. And thus no way to systematize innovation. So she launched what she calls a new
discipline, biomimicry, the title of her 1997 book. Benyus has worked since then to popularize
and organize ad hoc biomimetic practices that are probably as old as human invention. With
assistance from Tom Randall.
Photographer: Andreas Reh
Velcro
After a hunting trip in the Alps in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestrals dog was covered in
burdock burrs. Mestral put one under his microscope and discovered a simple design of hooks
that nimbly attached to fur and socks. After years of experimentation, he invented Velcro and
earned U.S. Patent 2,717,437 in September 1955. Benyus said it is probably the best-known and
most commercially successful instance of biomimicry. Correction: This slide originally
stated that the patent was earned in October 1952; that is when it was filed.
Photographers: Scott Camazine; Custom Medical Stock Photo
A Paper House for Wasps
Biomimicry is "innovation inspired by nature," according to Benyus. Biomimics engineers,
architects and other innovators are "natures apprentices," she said in a 2009 TED talk. They
are driven by the question, "what if every time I started to invent something I asked, How would
nature solve this?" Benyus sees examples of human inventions paralleling nature virtually
everywhere. The tissue that wasps make their nests from resemble "fine Italian endpapers." She
told the TED audience of a time she let one grow on her property: "It was so beautifully done. It
was so architectural. It was so precise." Benyus's consultancy, Biomimicry 3.8, helps companies
by searching scientific literature and assembling what she calls "amoeba through zebra" reports
that, distilled, offer relevant natural design principles that engineers can work with. The
company, a public benefit corporation, is beginning to expand its services beyond design
research into engineering and intellectual-property development for corporate clients.
Photographers: Steve Irvine; Atlantide Phototravel/Corbis
Shinkansen Bullet Train
High-speed trains can literally cause headaches. That's why Japan limits their acceptable noise-
pollution level, which can be particularly high when the trains emerge from tunnels. As they
drive through, air pressure builds up in waves and, when the nose emerges, can produce a
shotgun-like thunderclap heard for a quarter mile. Eiji Nakatsu, a bird-watching engineer at the
Japanese rail company JR-West, in the 1990s took inspiration from the kingfisher, a fish-eating
fowl that creates barely a ripple when it darts into water in search of a meal. The trains
redesigned nose a 50-foot-long steel kingfisher beak didn't just solve the noise problem; it
reduced power use and enabled faster speeds.
Photographers: Hiromi Okano/Corbis; West Japan Railway Co. Via Bloomberg
Boats, Hospitals Don Sharkskin
For a beast that moves slowly through the ocean, sharks stay remarkably clear of algae and other
fellow travelers. Thats largely a function of their unique skin, covered with microscopic patterns
called dentricles, which help reduce drag and keep microorganisms from hitching free rides.
NASA scientists copied the patterns to create drag-reducing patterns they call riblets. They
worked with 3M to adapt the riblets to a thin film used to coat the hull of the sailboat Stars &
Stripes, which won an Olympic medal and the America's Cup before the riblets were banned in
1987. The America's Cup race has since reinstated them. Other applications can help planes,
boats and windmills reduce drag and conserve energy. Sharklet Technologies, based in Aurora,
Colorado, makes surface materials for hospitals, restaurant kitchens, public bathrooms and
elsewhere that repel bacteria. Dentricle-like nano-scale structures on the surface prevent the bugs
from taking root.
Photographers: Edward Kinsman/Photo Researchers; Nick Wilson/Getty Images
Harvesting Desert Fog
The Namibian Beetle raises its back into the air as fog rolls into its desert habitat. Bumps on its
shell catch water droplets, which then run down chutes toward its mouth. The design of this
fog-collecting structure can be reproduced cheaply on a commercial scale and may
find application in water-trapping tent and building coverings, wrote the authors of a 2001
paper that revealed how the water collection works. Inventors and designers have taken note. A
Dew Bank Bottle, designed by Pak Kitae of the Seoul National University of Technology,
imitates the beetles water-collection system. Morning dew condenses on it and conveys it to a
bottle, which has a drinking spout.
Photographers: Michael and Patricia Fogden/Minden Pictures; Coutesy Pak Kitae
Nature's Water Filter
The 2003 Nobel Prize was awarded in part to Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins for his discovery,
around 1990, of a membrane protein that allows water to pass through cell walls. The discovery
of aquaporin solved a longtime problem in biochemistry. The Danish company Aquaporin has
developed a new approach to seawater desalination that eschews the polymer-layering of
traditional industrial films for the elegant complexity and energy efficiency of biological
membranes.
Photographer: Andew Geiger; Rendering by Aquaporin A/S
Experimental Fish Car
"Reinventing the wheel" is imprecise, even as a metaphor, in the biomimetic context. Thats
because nature doesnt really do wheels; theres nothing for engineers to reinvent. The rough-
and-humble tumbleweed is one of the few works of evolution that roll to get where theyre
going. Mercedes-Benz instead found inspiration for a car body (less its wheels) in the boxfish, a
tropical species shaped sort of like, well, a two-door compact. The fishs body turned out to be
aerodynamically superb, and the resulting concept car has one of the most efficient shapes for a
car of its size.
Photograpger: Secret Sea Visions/Peter Arnold; Rendering: Mercedes-Benz/Daimler AG

Hive Mind Manages the Grid

Bees are more than busy; theyre nimble, too. Despite their limited brainpower, individuals can
sense what job the colony needs done and set at it instinctively. A problem with complex human
infrastructure, such as the electrical grid, is that its various parts dont talk to each other. Grid
components dont monitor the whole grid. Regen Energy turns a companys uncommunicative
power-sucking appliances and machines into a network, able to balance loads during pricey
peak-power periods when electricity is expensive, or worse, unreliable. The company provides
controllers that communicate wirelessly with each other to maximize efficiency, keeping every
bee in the hive in sync.
Photographers: Temmuz Cam Arsiray; Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
Fin to the Wind
Humpback whales are surprisingly agile swimmers considering each beast weighs in at about
80,000 pounds. Part of their swimming prowess may come from a row of warty ridges, called
tubercles, on the front edge of their fins. Frank Fish, biology professor at West Chester
University in Pennsylvania, discovered that by adding rows of similar bumps to turbine blades he
could reduce drag and noise, increase speed to changing wind direction and boost the power
harnessed by 20 percent.Fish developed the idea after he noticed bumps on a whale statue in a
Boston gift shop. He assumed, incorrectly, that the artist got it wrong and that the bumps
shouldn't go on the front edge of fins, which typically are straight and sharp.The bumps are now
being sold on industrial fans made by Envira-North Systems and on surfboards by Fluid Earth.
Photographers: Doug Cheesman/Peter Arnold; Source: Envira-North Systems LTD.

Watercube
When China hosted the Beijing Olympics in 2008, it wowed the world with architectural feats,
chief among them the swimming center, dubbed the Watercube. The Watercube's design is based
on the structure of soap bubbles, giving it a natural feel and earthquake resistance.The walls of
the rectangular facility are made of large bubbles, both in form and function. Each bubble is a
pillow of rugged plastic. The bubbles, which are just 0.008 inch thick, trap hot air from the sun
that's then circulated to heat the pools. The plastic is resistant to damage from sunlight, weather
and even dust. It's also easy to clean. When it rains, grime from Beijing's thick smog is swept
away.For purists, the watercube doesnt qualify as biomimicry. Bubbles felicitous interactions
of gas and liquid are a physical, not biological, phenomenon.
Photographers: Henrik Sorenson; Tony Law/Redux
Gecko Feet Adhesives
Geckos are born with the mythical ability to scale smooth walls and scamper upside-down across
ceilings. The source of their grip is millions of microscopic hairs on the bottom of their toes.
Each hair's attraction is minuscule, but the net effect is powerful.Scientists estimate that the setae
from the tiny toes of a single gecko could theoretically carry 250 pounds. The real trick is that by
changing the direction of the setae, the grip is instantly broken: no sticky residues, no tearing, no
pressure necessary.A team of University of Massachusetts, Amherst, researchers has developed
Geckskin, an adhesive so strong that an index-card-size strip can hold up to 700 pounds. A form
of gecko tape could replace sutures and staples in the hospital. And the ability to don a pair of
gecko-tape gloves and scale walls like Spiderman may not be far off.
Photographers: Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures; Source: Michael Bartlett and Alfred J. Crosby/UMASS Amherst
Spider Web Glass
Certain spiders protect their delicately crafted insect nets with a special silk rope that reflects
ultraviolet rays. Birds can see the ultraviolet rays and recognize the webs as obstacles they
should avoid.If engineers can reproduce the effect, it might save birds from their occasional
accidental suicide runs into glassy buildings. German engineers at Arnold Glas copied the
spiders and glazed their Ornilux-brand glass with a web-like pattern of ultraviolet-reflecting
coating to save the birds from high-speed headaches.
Photographer: Monica Murphy; Illustration: Arnold Glass
A Very Fishy Wind Farm
Wind turbines are the Colossus of the modern landscape, their blades sweeping circles more than
a football field in diameter. Critics call them unsightly and say that the rotating blades clobber
unsuspecting birds. Theres an efficiency problem, too. Turbines have become more powerful,
but their size requires that they be spaced far apart. That means a wind farm takes up a lot of
land. John Dabiri of Caltech found a solution underwater. He built an experimental wind farm
the Caltech Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy (FLOWE) in which the location of
turbines relative to each other takes advantage of the air flow among them. The turbine
placement was determined by studying the wake vortices produced by schools of swimming
fish. Dabiris 30-foot-tall turbines have twirling vertical blades that gather energy generated as
wind flows through the wind farm. In essence, the blades take advantage of the wind's behavior,
for energy production, the way that fish take advantage of the water's behavior for forward
movement.
Photographer: Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures; Source: John O. Dabiri/California Institute of Technology
'Candy-Coated Vaccines'
Nature cant make the dead come back to life, but it can re-animate the seemingly dead.
Tardigrades, which are millimeter-long cousins of arthropods, can dry out for up to 120 years. A
process called anhydrobiosis protects the critters chemical machinery DNA, RNA and
proteins until water revives them.Biomatrica, a San Diego company, adapted that process into
a product that protects live vaccines so that they no longer need to be refrigerated half of
vaccines are lost to breaks in refrigeration during transportation or treatment. Biomatricas
chemical barrier "shrink-wraps" the vaccine until it can be reanimated with water.Nova
Laboratories, in Leicester, England, developed technology that secures vaccines "in a glassy film
made of sugars," according to a 2010 journal article about the companys "candy-coated
vaccines." The coating keeps the virus effective for six months at temperatures up to 113 degrees
Fahrenheit helpful for vaccinating vulnerable populations in tropical countries.
Photographer: Jan Van Arkel/Corbis; Source: Nova Laboratories LTD.
Firefly Lightbulbs
When insects of the genus Photuris light fires in their bellies, the radiance is amplified by their
anatomy sharp, jagged scales, according to research published in January by scientists from
Belgium, France, and Canada.Based on this observation, the scientists then built and laid a
similar structure on a light-emitting diode (LED), which increased its brightness by 55 percent.
Photographer: Gail Shumway/Getty Images; Source: Nicolas Aandre

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Naturally better. Science and technology are looking

to nature's successful designs for inspiration
Biologists often find themselves awestruck by the elegant perfection of living organisms. From
the sophisticated ventilation system of a termite mound to the tensile strength of spider silk,
nature has invariably selected the most effective designs through billions of years of relentless
evolutionary pressures. From molecules to organisms, scientists and engineers have repeatedly
been enthralled by nature's handiwork and have emulated natural designs in man-made
innovations.
A range of technological advances have been inspired by living organisms and examples of
biomimicry now include synthetic materials with new mechanical properties that emulate
mollusc shells, bones or sponge spicules; self-cleaning surfaces that copy the microstructure of
lotus leaves; an echo-receiver for shallow-water operation modelled on dolphin sonar; and new
photovoltaic techniques inspired by photosynthesis.
Technical solutions to problems usually optimize existing concepts as can be seen, for instance,
in the development of the Otto engine, which has practically remained unchanged for a hundred
years, said Ralph Spolenak, Chair of the Laboratory for Nanometallurgy at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. If one wants to make big steps forward,
one has to think out of the box and try completely new concepts. Natural solutions may, in this
regard, be used as inspiration for new technological solutions.
This is the real news of biomimicry: after 3.8 billion years of research and development,
failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
Scientists and engineers who emulate nature's designs often ascribe to the insights of science
writer and conservationist Janine Benyusprobably the most popular and influential herald of
biomimicry. Educated as a forester, Benyus wrote her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by
Nature, in 1997 and it has subsequently become a roadmap for the growing biomimicry
community (Benyus, 1997). Benyus's message is clear and straightforward. The core idea is that
nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling
with, she wrote on the website of the Biomimicry Institute (Missoula, MT,
USA; www.biomimicry.net), of which she is Board President. Animals, plants, and microbes
are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most
important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: after 3.8 billion years of
research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
Benyus maintains that biomimicry might be the best path to a better future for mankind: The
conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a
sustainable future. The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to
endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone.
One example of a natural-design solution that humans are willing to emulate is the ability of
geckos to climb walls and ceilings. The gecko's secret lies in the composite structure of its feet,
on which every single toe pad is covered with millions of keratinous hair-like bristles called
setae (Autumn, 2007). Each seta in turn branches into hundreds of flat tips called spatulas, which
make intimate contact with surfaces (Figs 1,,2).2). This fibrillar arrayalso common in other
biological adhesive organsachieves adhesion primarily by non-covalent van der Waals forces
between the spatulas and the surface (Autumn et al, 2002), although capillary forces have also
been proposed to play a role in some circumstances (Huber et al, 2005).

Figure 1
Geckos have millions of dry, adhesive hairs (setae) on their feet that allow them to stick to nearly
any surface. Each seta branches into 1001,000 flat tips (spatulas) that exploit van der Waals
forces to generate adhesion. These chemical bonds ...
Figure 2
Structural hierarchy of the gecko adhesive system. (A) Ventral view of a tokay gecko (Gekko
gecko) climbing a vertical glass surface (photo by M. Moffett). (B) Ventral view of the foot of a
tokay gecko, showing a mesoscale array of seta-bearing scansors, ...
Biomimicry of these structures would allow for novel applications in robotics and general
temporary adhesive systems, Spolenak said. [The] [f]irst climbing robots utilizing gecko
derived structures, for instance, have already been implemented. However, although there is a
huge economic potential for efficient adhesive materials, creating the underlying nanostructures,
especially for larger applications, is difficult and expensive. The commercial success of gecko-
inspired adhesive structures will therefore depend on developing fast and inexpensive fabrication
processes. If [these] issues can be overcome, [the] technological solutions may be superior to
the natural ones. This is due to the fact the natural systems are always as good as they have to be,
on one hand, and the choice of materials for technological replicas is much wider than in the
natural [world], on the other, Spolenak concluded. A team from the USA recently developed a
gecko tape' that consists of arrays of carbon nanotubesreplicating the setae-and-spatulas
designattached to a flexible polymer tape, which can withstand shear stresses nearly four times
higher than the gecko's foot. The tape sticks to various surfaces including Teflon (Ge et al,
2007).
Nature has also developed anti-adhesive surfaces that have attracted much attention from
engineers and biologists. The carnivorous plants of the genus Nepenthes, for example, have
highly specialized pitcher-like leaves that they use to attract, capture and digest insects and other
small arthropods (Fig 3). The pitchers contain devices and adaptations that prevent insects from
climbing out again, including epicuticular waxy crystals that form slippery surfaces within the
pitchers. Elena Gorb's group at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart,
Germany, has shown how the physicochemical properties of these surfaces influence insect
adhesion (Gorb et al, 2005). The secret lies in a double layer of crystalline wax, the upper layer
of which has crystals that contaminate the insect's adhesive appendages, while the lower layer
reduces the contact area between the insect's feet and the plant surface. The insects thus slip ever
deeper into the trap where they are digested (Fig 3). These results provide ideas for further
developments of technological non-adhesive surfaces. The principle is recently patented and will
be applied in anti-insect foils, anti-adhesive materials and soft-touch surfaces, Gorb said.
The so-called biology-to-design approach begins with understanding a biological phenomenon
and then applying it to a human design challenge

Figure 3
The pitfall trap of the pitcher plant Nepenthes alata. In the background, the image from a
scanning electron microscope of the upper and lower wax layers. The diagrams show how the
two wax layers reduce the adhesive ability of insects. The upper layer ...
Her colleague Wilhelm Barthlott, Professor of Plant Science at the University of Bonn,
Germany, is already forging ahead with the commercialization of naturally inspired non-adhesive
surfaces. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Barthlott and his student Christoph Neuhuis took
scanning electron microscope pictures of the epidermal surfaces of thousands of plants. Their
work revealed that the cleaner the surface of a plant leaf, the rougher it looked in electron
microscopy images. In particular, the leaves of the lotus plant (Nelumbo nucifera)which is
considered sacred in Buddhist tradition for its blinding whiteness and purityare densely
populated with little bumps. Further investigation showed that dirt particles and water droplets
only touch the tops of these nano-sized spikes and drop off owing to a lack of adhesion.
Barthlott, while remaining at the university, has commercialized this discovery: dirt-repellent
products that emulate the surface of lotus leaves include paint, camera lens coatings, wallpapers
and kitchen frontages.
Benyus has proposed two strategies for nature-inspired innovation. The so-called biology-to-
design approach begins with understanding a biological phenomenon and then applying it to a
human design challengeBarthlott's discovery of the lotus effect and the design of synthetic dry
adhesives based on gecko toe pads are examples of this. By contrast, the design-to-biology
approach starts with a design challenge, identifies the core function and then looks to nature to
see how various organisms or ecosystems have achieved that function.
Peter Steinberg and Staffan Kjelleberg, both at the University of New South Wales in Australia,
literally swam in this direction in the waters of Botany Bay while looking for new compounds to
inhibit bacterial growth. [M]arine organisms such as seaweeds [and] sponges [] live in a
bacterial soup [] and are constantly challenged by bacterial colonisation and biofilm
formationthe same challenge faced by people when biofilms form on their lungs, catheters,
heart valves and other implants [] and industrial surfaces such as water or oil and gas piping,
and many other surfaces, Steinberg explained. A local seaweedDelisea pulchra or delicate
beautymeets this challenge not by producing bacteriocidal chemicals, but rather by producing
chemicals which act as antagonists of bacterial signalling, or quorum sensing' systems.
These signalling systems, which are broadly distributed across bacterial taxa, control bacterial
phenotypes such as biofilm formation, colonization, production of exotoxins and virulence
factorsalthough the specific phenotypes vary between bacteria. Steinberg and his team found
that the reason why Delisea pulchra remains unfouled is due to a group of secondary metabolites
known as halogenated furanones that interfere with bacterial quorum sensing systems (de Nys et
al, 1995; Hentzer et al, 2003). To explore the potential of this finding, they founded the company
Biosignal in 1999 to develop and commercialize the signal inhibitors in medical and
industrial/domestic applications. We have progressed as far as animal models in our
therapeutics program targeting respiratory infections, initial human safety trials for contact
lenses, and have just begun the registration process for compounds targeting biofilms in water
treatment, Steinberg said.
Proponents of biomimicry hope that it could help to solve some of the major problems created by
the uncontrolled global growth of industrialization and the exploitation of natural resources.
Biofilms might be responsible for more than 65% of human bacterial infections and are a serious
problem in industrial facilities; they are also notoriously resistant to standard antibiotics or
biocides. Our strategy is to specifically target the biofilm mode of existence using this
biomimetic, signal-blocking technology, concluded Steinberg. An additional advantage of this
strategy is that it does not kill the bacteria and therefore puts less selective pressure on them to
develop resistance.
Another important frontier for biomimicry is the development of advanced optical systems to
imitate the various biological optical structures that have evolved naturally (Lee & Szema,
2005). Luke Lee's group at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, recently constructed an
artificial compound eye that looks and works like that of an insect (Jeong et al, 2006). An
insect's eye consists of thousands of integrated optical units called ommatidia that are arranged
spherically along a curvilinear surface with each unit pointing in a different direction (Fig 4).
The many lenses and curved shape of an insect's eye provide a wide field of view, and extremely
fast motion detection and image recognition. Lee's group used flexible polymers to build
artificial ommatidia, each with a tiny lens connected to a tube-like waveguide to direct the light
on to an optoelectronic imaging device. They then arranged these artificial ommatidia around a
dome to project outwards (Fig 5). Miniaturized cameras and motion sensors based on such lenses
could have medical, industrial and military applications, such as data storage and readout,
medical diagnostics, surveillance imaging and light-field photography (Jeong et al, 2006).

Figure 4
Anatomical comparisons between a natural compound eye and an artificial compound eye, as
described from cross-sections. (A) An optical micrograph of a honeybee's apposition compound
eye (courtesy of B. Greiner). As an individual optical unit, (B) a natural ...

Figure 5
Microstructure of a biomimetic artificial compound eye. (A) The spherical arrangement of 8,370
artificial ommatidia on a hemispherical polymer dome 2.5 mm in diameter. (B) Hexagonal
microlenses. (C) A cross-section of the artificial eye with the spherical ...
Biomimicry is not just a fertile ground for biologists and engineers, it is also part of a larger
environmental movement. I think of biodiversity as a massive design library. There are millions
of species, each with different solutions to nature's problems, each with secrets that are waiting
for us. But the scary thing is that extinction is taking these books'speciesoff the shelves and
burning them faster than we can open them and read them. Even if all we care about is economic
progress, we need to slow the rate of extinction before these secrets of nature are lost forever,
said Kellar Autumn, Associate Professor of Biology at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR,
USA.
Proponents of biomimicry hope that it could help to solve some of the major problems created by
the global growth of industrialization and the exploitation of natural resources. Many of these
impulses come from the Biomimicry Institute in the USA, with similar initiatives appearing in
Europe. Biomimicry Europa wants to contribute to the quest for other routes by promoting
biomimicry as a key tool to develop innovative and positive solutions directed towards
sustainability, said Gauthier Chapelle, General Secretary of Biomimicry Europa (Brussels,
Belgium). According to Chapelle, the inventory of European biomimicry projects held by his
organization currently has more than 100 entries, with universities in UK and Germany among
the most active players.
I'm still ambivalent as to whether biomimicry is an environmentally correct marketing ploy that
promises more than it will be able to deliver, or the inadvertent rediscovery of practices that are
as old as human creativity.
Starting with this premise, it is possible that biomimicryperhaps coupled with the concept of
industrial ecology, which adopts nature as a model for optimal material and energy flowwill
change the industrial production system. We very much believe that the biomimicry approach
will grow significantly and, eventually, will be universally adopted across all industries. In my
many years of working in the area of sustainability, biomimicry is the only tool I have found that
is applicable in all design situations andif done properlycan always lead to sustainable
results, said Denise DeLuca of the Biomimicry Institute. It is the only tool I have found that
can get us out of this box canyon we have [gotten] ourselves into. Since the industrial revolution,
we have used our incredible intelligence to develop technologies and global economies based on
fossil fuels and toxic chemicals, which are clearly non-sustainable. We have to find other ways.
In addition, DeLuca noted that biomimicry has the added benefit of making people look at nature
differentlyas a source of innovation rather than simply a source of raw materials. Biomimicry
enables people to generate amazing creative and [innovative] designs inspired by nature, even if
sustainability is not a primary goal, she said.
However, not everyone shares this view. I'm still ambivalent as to whether biomimicry is an
environmentally correct marketing ploy that promises more than it will be able to deliver, or the
inadvertent rediscovery of practices that are as old as human creativity, said Pierre Desrochers,
an expert in sustainable economic development and technological innovation at the University of
Toronto Mississauga in Canada. He believes that we already owe many of our present
technologies to inspiration from nature. The problem, as I see it, is that there is often a world of
experimentation between a basic idea or a promising lab result and the scaling up' of those into
commercially viable production operations or systems, he said. Biomimics should remember
Thomas Edison's famous dictum that invention (or genius) is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration. I'm afraid that many of them don't see much beyond the 1%. Having ideas or being
inspired by nature is a nice thing, but it's only a first step. Much work needs to be done
afterwards and this probably explains why we do things the way we do them now rather than
simply copy things as we see them in nature.
Although the road from the inventor's mind to the real world is rarely clear, some of those who
draw inspiration from nature are aware that simple imitation alone is not necessarily the way
forward, rather combining naturally inspired design and human inventiveness. Imitating nature
is a complex endeavour, and a blind biomimetic approach is not the best methodology, Luke
Lee and Robert Szema wrote in Science. However, if we are able to decode the designs, then the
combination of our creativity in materials and nature's wisdom is a synergistic one with
incredible potential (Lee & Szema, 2005).
Go to:

References
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THE PHILOSOPHIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The period of Enlightenment refers to the European culture of the 18th century. The
People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied
the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. this is the period in
which the humans became overconfident in the human Reason an rationality.
Philosophers and Scientists committed the fallacy of argumentum ad
ignorantiam. Anything which cannot be understood by rational knowledge and the
current status of sciences was defied as meaningless or superstitious. Philosophy
became very popular among the intellectuals and people read philosophical opera.
However, the general concerns were about the practical use of our knowledge. In
other words,
The Two Fundamental Characteristics of the Philosophy of Enlightenment are:
1) faith in the European Reason and human rationality to reject the tradition
and the pre-established institutions and thoughts;
2) Search for the practical, useful knowledge as the power to control nature.
John Locke is considered generally as the founder of Enlightenment movement in
philosophy. However, in England, both characteristics of Enlightenment, namely the
defiance of the tradition and the search for the knowledge as the practical, useful
power to control nature, were not so emphatically visible due to the nationality and
the social conditions in England. So it is generally agreed that the philosophy of
Enlightenment will be divided into a) the Philosophy of Enlightenment in England,
that in France and Germany. Therefore, a) is normally called as the British
Empiricism and it s development. Distinguished from this, we consider the
Philosophy of Enlightenment and its movement with the emphasis of the phases in
France and Germany.

1. The relation of Descartes to the philosophy of Enlightenment

In France and in England, all the philosophical thoughts from the middle of 17th
century through the 18th century were under Descartes's influences.
Fontenelle (1657-1757)
The admirer of Descartes' physics and his radical rationalism threatened the
Christianity and the established Church. Fontenelle's philosophy did not accept the
Cartesian spiritualism and overemphasized the positive elements of the Cartesian
philosophy. Thus, Fontenelle merely criticized the Ancient oracles as superstition, but
this was immediately applied to the miracles of Christianity.
Bayle (1647-1706)
Starting with the Cartesian rationalism, Bayle considered that to believe in
Christianity means to abandon Reason and the human rationality and to surrender to
the miraculous phenomena. The opposition between philosophy (rationalism) and
religion set up by Bayle created an anti-religious movement against Christianity as
well as prepared for the development of the 18th Century philosophy.
The Enlightenment Movement in France is a synthesis of the Cartesian philosophy of
the mechanistic understanding of nature and the British Empiricism.
In the 17th century, British philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes and Locke came to
France and were strongly influenced by the French Philosophies. In the 18th century,
the French philosophers visited England and were strongly influenced by the British
Empiricism and advocated empiricism rather than idealism in France upon their
return.

2. The influences of British Empiricism on the French Philosophies

The most conspicuous example of the philosophers who were influenced by the
British Empiricism was Voltaire.

Voltaire (1694-1778)
Voltaire was a French man of thought who was most strongly influenced by British
Empiricism and attacked the philosophers of Continental Rationalism.
Voltaire was the author of Candid, which made fun of Leibniz' optimism.
Voltaire attempted to refute Descartes' metaphysics
on the basis of Locke's Empiricism
and
attacked Descartes' physics,
employing Newton's mechanics.
Voltaire mocked Descartes' innate ideas by referring to Locke's theory of the
empirical origin of ideas which refuted the innate idea. Following Locke, Voltaire,
too, considered man's desire to pursue one's happiness as inborn.
Voltaire further maintained that
while Descartes created a novel about the human spirit,
Locke wrote the history of the human spirit.
Voltaire praised Locke in how he was able to explain the origin and the process of the
development of human spirit.
Voltaire accused of Descartes in the following points:
1. Descartes by reducing physics to geometry denied the absoluteness of motion and
argued for its relativity (i.e. motion is no other than the change of place, in other
words, a portion of matter changes its place in relation to the portion of the other
matter which is immediately touched to the former)
2. Descartes did not recognize gravitation (=the weight as the unique quality) by
reducing matter to extension
3. Descartes by failing in recognizing the universal gravitation had to explain by the
celestial vortex the motions of the celestial bodies. Thus Descartes explained the
motion of solar planets by a heliocentric vortex.
In that sense he did not disagree with Copernicus.
In contrast, Newton proposed the universal gravitation by which he explains all the
motions of celestial bodies.
Voltaire became Newton's follower in physics and astronomy. Against the universal
gravitation being a hidden(occult) power, Voltaire argued that the cosmic turbulence
(vortex) is more a hidden power than gravitation because the law is verified and the
phenomena are explained.
In his letter in 1728 Voltaire writes,
"When a French went to London, he discovers a lot of things different. So are there a
big difference in philosophy. When he was in Paris, the universe is full of something
like turbulent ether, upon his arrival in London he discovers that the same space is
empty."
Following the fashion of his time, Voltaire considers a systematic approach less
valuable than a fragmental expression of insights.
Voltaire was successful in making philosophy more popularized (journalistic).
Voltaire discussed on may topics such as on God, freedom, immortality of soul.
Voltaire holds that it is the true religion that one loves God and loves others like
one's own siblings and that less dogmas it has, the better and true it becomes.
Thus Voltaire fought against the traditional established Christianity.
On the other hand, he criticized d'Hollbach's La Systeme de la nature, and attacked
Pascal's Christianity.
Influenced by British Deism, Voltaire maintained that religion must be a moral,
rationalistic natural religion. He did not support the cosmological and teleological
argument and yet considered the moral argument for the existence of God to be
most useful.
Voltaire maintained that without God morality is not possible, therefore God must
exist. "If God did not exist, we must invent God!"
Voltaire considers that it is not possible to theoretically demonstrate the
immortality of soul and yet without the immortality of soul, morality is also not
possible.(VERY KANTIAN)
Voltaire contends that the basis of metaphysics consists in morality and
that the obscurity and incompleteness of metaphysics will be clarified by
morality.
In his early period, Voltaire held the freedom of will, but abandoned it in his later
years as meaningless and recognized only the freedom of action.
According to Voltaire, freedom is when one can do what one wants to do.
Whether or not what one wants is free, the answer is not, but what wants to desire is to
necessarily desire. Otherwise, we desire to do something without reason or cause, that
is impossible.Thus Voltaire proposed the psychological determinism.
Regarding the problem of evil, he was optimistic, but after Lisbon's earthquakes
Voltaire abandoned optimism.
In relation to politics and society, Voltaire insisted freedom of reason, freedom of
consciousness and particularly the freedom of research which contributed the
further development of the contemporary european culture.
Voltaire was the representative of the 18th century Enlightenment Spirit and
enormously influenced the intellectuals of the days, according to Thomas Carlyle.
Du Bois-Reymond said,
"The reason why we do not consider Voltaire as a very important Enlightenment
philosopher is because we unconsciously and implicitly have been a Voltaire
ourselves. What Voltaire had fought and won such as culture, freedom of spirit, the
dignity of humanity and justice have become some of the essential elements of our
natural everyday life today."
Voltaire was highly treated by Friedrich the Great at Prussian Sansoun Palace as an
important guest.
There are two poems of Voltaire;
Le mondaine
Defense du mondain ou l'apologie du luxe
He loved gambling!
Lettres sure les Anglais or Lettres philosophiques(1734)
Elements de la philosophie de Newton
Dictionnaire philosophique
La philosophie ignorant
Candid

Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Montesquieu went to England and was also influenced by John Locke. He was deeply
impressed by Locke's three division of the government. His main work is
L'esprit des lois (1748)
Recognizing the peculiarity and uniqueness of each nation, Montesquieu attempted to
explain the legal system of the each nation from the geographic conditions and the
social conditions of the given nation. In stead of seeking the foundation of the legal
system of a certain nation in the rational, universal principles, Montesquieu tried to
find the causes of the legal system of a given nation in the particular climates, the
nature of soil, the largeness of the land, the living conditions of the people, religion,
passions of the people, the degree of wealth and poverty, population and the historical
conditions such as customs. He emphasized the uniqueness and the accidental nature
of the legal system of a given nation.

The differences of the systems of government are due to the peculiarity of the given
nation.
the republic = the subject has the right to govern
all the subjects = democracy
a portion of the subjects = aristocracy
the monarchy = the government by one ruler based on the constitution
the constitutional monarchy
the despotism = the government by one ruler by his will

There are the basic passions which motivate each of these forms of government

the republic = virtue

the monarchy = honour

And the size of a country will affect the nature of the government. etc.

3. Radical Empiricism in France

Condillac (1715-1780)
Condillac developed the Locke's empiricism to an extreme. While in England the
common sense plays an important role and balances philosophical ideas, once those
ideas were transferred to the Continent, they took up very radical forms.
While Locke denied the Cartesian innate ideas' existence and considered our mind to
be "tabula rasa," he was influenced by Descartes and distinguished experience into
sensation (external) and reflection (internal) whereby sensation precedes reflection but
the latter does not come from the former.
On the other hand, Condillac held that everything including reflection comes from
sensation, that is a radicalization of Locke's thought about the origin of the internal
perception. Sensualism.
Condillac's major work is
Trait des sensations

4. Encyclopaedists

In France the editing and publication of the Encyclopedia, a comprehensive book of

all the books about wisdom of all humanity, was attempted for the first time in the
West. Many of the contemporary contributed to drafting the manuscripts. Voltaire,
Rousseau and Helvetilus contributed.
The basic motive of this edition was the denial of the past and the resistance against
church's authority.
The leading motives were 1) nature,
2) reason
3) humanity.
The encyclopedists were considered the representatives of the Enlightenment
Movement.

Diderot (1713-1784)

Pnses philosophiques
Trailt de l'interprtation de la nature
Rve de d'Alembert
Lettre sur eles aveugles
Lettre sur les sourds et les muets

Diderot devoted himself to the editing of the Encyclopedia for more than twenty
years. At the first half of the eighteenth century, Voltaire occupied the leading
position among the intellectuals, at the second half of the eighteenth century, Diderot
played the leading role. Diderot was multi disciplinary and possessed a wide range of
knowledge, but he never had a consistent philosophical thoughts.
His thoughts were usually divided in three periods, that of deism, that of skepticism
and that of naturalism.
At the first period, Diderot attacked both the atheism and the theism from the point of
the deism.(= rationalistic)
At the second period, Diderot was influenced by Bayle and became a skeptic. "I do
not know whether or not You, God, exist, but let me behave myself as if You did
exist!"
At the period of naturalism, Diderot held monism and said that the rule of
mathematics ended and the rule of the natural sciences will begin. This means that
against the simplistic mechanistic view of nature, Diderot sought to discover the
principle based on the organism like Leibniz. He regarded the observation of nature
and experiment as very important and objected the distinction (like Descartes)
between mind and matter. Diderot said that a stone senses. Diderot adored nature and
considered that nature be the ultimately Divine.

d'Alembert (1717-1783)
d'Alembert was Madame de Tencin's abandoned son. d'Alembert was a mathematician
and edited the Encyclopedia together with Diderot. d'Alembert wrote the Introduction
(Discours prliminaire) in which he made detailed distinctions among the human
knowledge, although in principle he got them from Bacon's distinctions. The major
difference consists in the fact that d'Alembert made the faculty of imagination as that
of fine-arts rather than that of poesy, as Bacon did.
d'Alembert contended that the progress of human cognitive faculties goes from
memory through reason to imagination rather than memory, imagination to reason.
the official title of Encyclopedia is
Encyclopdie ou Dictionnaire raisonn des sciences et des arts
Bacon did not recognize the value of mathematics, d'Alembert considered
mathematics as a part of natural sciences.
d'Alembert was skeptic regarding the nature of knowledge and its object. We are not
able to recognize both nature and spirit ultimately. After Diderot became a naturalistic
materialist and consequently the content of Encyclopedia, too, became materialistic,
d'Alembert quit working for Encyclopedia as the co-editor.
His main work (apart of Encyclopedia) is
lments de philosophie.
D'Alembert was invited by Friedrich II, but stayed in Paris and lived the life of
poverty.

5. Materialists

La Mettrie (1709-1751)
La Mettrie was born in Sant-Malo and was a military physician. La Mettrie published
Histoire naturelle de l'me (1745)(which advocated the materiality of spirit and its
reducibility to matter) and lost the job. Three years later, he published a more radical
book, called L'homme machine (1746). As a consequence, he was purged from
France, and then from Holland and took refuge to Friedrich II in Prussia. Friedrich the
Great warmly treated La Mettrie and appointed to the Academy and made him his
personal consultant.
In ethics, La Mettrie took the position of hedonism.

d'Holbach (1723-1789)
d'Holbach was born in Pfalz, Germany. He went to Paris and was naturalized to
France. His main work was
Systme de la nature ou de lois du monde physique et due monde moral (1770)
At his early years, he contributed to Encyclopedia on Chemistry, but later he was
deeply influenced by Diderot and became a materialist philosopher. His residence on
rue Saint-Roch in Paris became the central salon of the free thinkers and the
intellectuals.
Any supernatural thing exists only in our imagination. What really exists is matter and
its motion. This matter and its motion are governed by the strict natural laws.
Descartes mechanistic view of nature was extended to the entire universe.

Buffon (1707-1788)
Buffon was a natural historian and was also a materialist. He held that a living
organism changes under the influences of its environment. The forerunner of the
evolutionist before Lamarck and Darwin.

THE ANTI-RATIONALIST TREND AND ENLIGHTENMENT

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)

Jean Jacques Rousseau had a double relationship with the Enlightenment
Movement.
On the one hand, for example,
Kant defined Enlightenment as "der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner
selbstverschuldeten Unmndigkeit." (the exist out of the humans' adolescence which
they had imposed upon themselves). This definition is the one in a wider sense. In
this sense,
Rousseau was certainly one of the Enlightenment philosophers.
On the other hand,
in its narrower sense, on the other hand, the Enlightenment means the almost blind
faith in the almightiness of human Reason.
In this sense, Rousseau was against the Enlightenment in that Rousseau rejected the
tyranny of Reason and advocated the return to nature and the revival of inner
feeling.
Rousseau occupied a very unique position in the history of philosophy in the 18th
century: On the one hand, Rousseau was a product of the 18th century Europe in
that Rousseau with faith in the human dignity and intelligence was the
philosophical father of the French Revolution. Its motto was to return to nature,
regaining the natural rights of "liberty, equality and fraternity."
Rousseau was the successor of the non-rational tradition of Pascal in which the
way of thinking alternative to rationalism was developed in curving the power of the
European Reason.
Rousseau was born in Geneva in a protestant family (he was threatened by the
catholic and later converted to Catholicism, but) and was constantly threatened by the
prosecution phobia. E.g., Hume helped found Rousseau a job, which he could not kept
and fled for France again.
Rousseau sought many different occupations, but he never kept any for any period of
time worth mentioning. As he was in Paris, he got acquainted with Diderot and
contributed to Encyclopedia. Rousseau was 37 years of age.
In the same year, the academy of Dijon made a prizing wining contest for a paper
under the title "Le rtablissement des sciences et des arts a-t-il contribu purer les
moeurs?" (Did the re establishment of sciences and arts contribute to purifying the
morals?) Looking at this title, Rousseau was extremely excited and immediately
grasped by intuition that culture (sciences and arts) was the clusters of the
meaningless Reason and merely the world of the forms.
The culture is the world of externality which distorts the genuine, original human
nature. Against it,
there is a world of internality which is more precious and quite different from the
world of externality. this is the world of our natural sentiment. Therefore, Rousseau
said in the prize winning paper, Discours sur les sciences et les arts, that the culture
did not contribute. For sciences and arts only deal with the external elements of the
human existence. Not only it is superficial, but also it harms the inner world of the
human nature.
Rejecting the culture of Reason which the Encyclopedists advocated, Jean Jacques
Rousseau urged that we must Return to Nature. The nature here stipulated is the
nature without corruption, the nature of naivety, the purity of the natural humans.
His paper won the prize and Rousseau became instantly famous.
Five years later, the same academy of Dijon publicized a prize-wining paper with the
theme, Quelle est l'origine de l'ingalit parmi les hommes, et si elle est autorise par
la loi naturelle? Rousseau responded with his article titled, discours sur l'origine de
l'ingalit parmi le hommes, and radically criticized the social and political conditions
of the time, just as he did in the first paper the wrong culture and the culture of
Reason.
In the article, Rousseau advocated the society in the state of nature, the society
with no class-distinctions, no distinction of the master and the servant.
The social inequality, according to Jean Jacques Rousseau, was produced by the
development of agriculture and its accompanying the concept of private possessions.
Some people started to publicly demand their territories by setting up the fences,
while the other ignorant people believed them. from this, the right of property and its
digression were brought into the society and the inequality of the rich and the power
as well as the distinction of the master and the servant was established. The equality
and freedom of the state of nature was destroyed by the social institutions of
inequality and constraint. "We were born free and equal. Now we are all chained!"
Although Rousseau did not advocate that there were the state of nature historically in
fact, but the state of nature is the state of "ought" or that of the Ideal, toward which we
must return and we must recover our own authentic being by recovering those natural
rights of equality and freedom. This paper did not get the prize.
While these two articles criticized the spiritual conditions and the social institution of
the time, the following two opera were so-to-speak to advocate the positive Ideals for
reconstruction of culture and society:
mile
Contrat social
The Social Contract was one of the most influential publications in the social-political
philosophy in the Contemporary European history. While Montesquieu dealt with the
political institutions prevalent in the time, Rousseau was concerned about the Ideal
conditions and the principles of what the government ought to be. : "Je cherche le
droit et la raison, et ne dispute pas des faits." (I search the right and the reason
and do not dispute about the facts!)Contrat Social Book I, 5
"Il faut savoir ce qui doit tre pour bien juger de ce qui est." (We must know what
ought to be in order to judge what is.)mile, Book V
According to Jean Jacques Rousseau, the right of governance is not given to the
monarch by the Divine Power advocated by Filmer, nor is established by the contract
between the despot and the subject like that of Hobbes' theory in Leviathan, but it is
due to the social contract by which the people establish a nation. The selection of
the monarch was done after the establishment of the nation by the social contract and
it means that the subject entrust one person to rule for their sake. At the initial social
contract, the people give up their original natural right of freedom for the spiritual
unity as the civil state is born.
The ultimate source of the power of the civil state consists in the general will (la
volont gnrale). However, this general will is to be distinguished from the will of
all (la volont de tous). The will of all is the aggregate totality of all the individuals'
wills each of which seeks each individual's personal profit. The general will aims, as
the will of all people, at the happiness of everybody in the society.
Each of the members of the society loses the freedom as the natural right, in stead he
or she gains the civil freedom determined by the general will. And under the civil
laws, each individual is guaranteed its right for property and the right for equality. The
genuine possessor of the right of governance is the subject, whereby the civil law is
the expression of the general will
the sole object or purpose of which is the establishment and maintenance of freedom
and equality.
In the genuine civil state, the people are to be forced to be free. The possibility of the
state religion is also considered, It is the religion which believes in god and the final
judgment.
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote an article for Encyclopedia on the political economy.
In La nouvelle Hloise, Rousseau defended the rights of our inner soul and advocated
the sacred nature of marriage.
mile is titled as mile ou de l'ducation (mile or on Education) and this opus deals
with the problem of education. John Locke also influenced Rousseau in this respect. It
is a story about the brilliant tutor's educating the child called mile and later having
him married to Sophie.
At its beginning, Rousseau writes,
Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l'auteur des choses, tout dgnre entre les mains
de l'homme. (Everything is good as it departs from the hand of the Creator, but as
soon as it enters in the hands of the human, everything degenerates.) Rousseau
maintains that education must be left to nature and things themselves.
Dans l'ordre naturel, les hommes tant tous gaux, leur vocation commune est l'tat
d'homme, et quiconque est bien lev pour celui-l ne peut mal remplir ceux qui s'y
rapportent. ..Avant la vocation des parents, la nature l'appelle la vie humaine. Vivre
est le mtier que je veuxx lui apprendre. En sortant de mes mains, it ne sera, j'en
conviens, ni magistrat, ni soldat, ni prtre; it sera premirement homme. (In the order
of nature, all the humans are equal and their common vocation is to be human. And as
long as one is properly educated, there must be nothing being human which one
cannot do. ...Before the vocation of parenting, nature demands him (mile) the truly
human life. To live is the very means which I want him to learn. I am convinced that
mile leaving my hands, will neither a lawyer, a soldier, nor a priest. He will be above
all human.) This is Rousseau's ideal of education.
The only way to educate a child toward freedom is, according to Rousseau, to educate
him or her by freedom. We must assist that the one who is to be educated will educate
himself or herself. We must not constrain the child.
mile shall be educated by nature, not by books (only a little bit of astronomy,
geography and chemistry are sufficient.). mile shall be trained for handwork, i.e.,
carpentry. That is enough for training of reason.
For the training of heart, first the sentiment of pity, then of gratefulness, then that of
love for humankind. And virtue which is the power to control oneself is to be taught.
Rousseau said,
"Ma rgle de me livrer au sentiment plus qu' la raison est confirme par la raison
mme." (My regulation to depend on sentiment rather than reason is confirmed by
reason itself.)mile, Book IV
Another important point for the education is that mile shall not be educated for
religion until much later an age. Rousseau's religion may be called the natural
religion.
"J'aperois Dieu partout dans ses oeuvres; je le sens en moi, je le vois tous autour de
moi; mais sitt que je veux le contempler en lui-mme, sitt que je veux chercher o il
est, ce qu'il est, quelle est sa substance, it m'chappe." (I perceive God everywhere in
His works; I sense Him in me, I see Him in everything other than myself; however, as
soon as I want to contemplate Him in myself, as soon as I want to search where He is,
what He is, What is His substance, He escapes me.)mile, Book IV
Thus, God, to Rousseau, is not rationally comprehensible, but He can only be
intuitively grasped.
He was chased by the orthodox Christians, was objected by atheistic materialists.
The French revolution was motivated by the philosophical ideas advanced by
Rousseau. Robespierre made his system of Convention (National Assembly) on the
basis of the principle of Rousseau's Contrat social. The Strum und Drang Movement
in Germany (of Goethe and Schiller) was also influenced by Rousseau. Kant was also
deeply moved by Rousseau's mile, too.

The German Enlightenment Movement

Thomasius (1655-1728)
(Omitted)

Christian Wollf (1679-1754)

Christian Wolff is the most important philosopher in the German Enlightenment
Movement and was known for the systematization and vulgarization of Leibniz's
philosophy and an important bridge to Kant's early dogmatic period (Kant was a
Wolffean). Wolff did not accept Leibniz' notion of monad which Wolff interpreted as
material atoms, as well as Leibniz' the principle of pre-established harmony which
Wolff admitted only to the mind-body relationship,
(Omitted)

Reimarus (1694-1768)
Reimarus fought against both atheism and the theology of revelation at the same time.
(Omitted)

Lessing (1729-1781)
Lessing is considered as the most beautiful blossom of the German Enlightenment.
Lessing's contribution in the philosophy of religion consists in
1) interpret the trinity-unity more speculatively
2) apply Leibniz' notion of development to the pre-established religion and theology.
In this sense, Lessing anticipates Hegel's philosophy.
(Omitted)
Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786)
is considered as one of the most beautiful intellectuals of Enlightenment. He was a
grandfather of Felix Mendelssohn-Baltordi, the famous Romantic composer who
revived Johann Sebastian Bach and his music. At that time, Moses Mendelssohn was
better known and more highly respected than his contemporary, Immanuel Kant.
(Omitted)

Tetens (1736-1805)
Tetens established the division of Thinking, Senses and Will.
(Omitted)

How Nature Inspires and Transforms Us All

by DR. TROND LARSEN
December 1, 2014
This is the ninth blog in CIs Nature Is Speaking campaign. Read all blogs in this series.

A man holds a previously undescribed species of toad in the department of Choco, Colombia. ( Robin Moore/
iLCP)

A furtive rustling sound first drew me to the pile of dead leaves. Then I spotted it. A long, snuffling
nose emerged into the crisp air, soon followed by an impossible array of bi-colored spikes seemingly
exploding in every direction. I watched, transfixed, as this curious beast continued to push through
the underbrush, searching for worms and insects.

How could such a striking and unusual creature be wandering through my urban backyard outside
London?

My first encounter with a hedgehog as a young boy remains indelibly imprinted on my mind more
than 30 years later. The power of nature to transform us, infusing all of our senses, becomes
evident through these vivid, lasting connections. For example, while I cant recall much from the
age of three, I can still clearly feel the joy and wonder that jolted me when I discovered a salamander
hiding beneath a rotting log.
The diversity of life on Earth influences us in profound ways perhaps none more so than a flower,
as Lupita Nyongo eloquently explains in Flower, Conservation Internationals latest Nature Is
Speaking film.
As Flower says, it feeds people. In fact, flowering plants produce the vast majority of food we eat,
like fruits, grains, beans and potatoes, and they provide the worlds poor with 90% of their basic
needs.
While we depend in large part on domesticated crop species, the protection of wild species is also
crucial. The wild relatives of many domesticated plants provide an irreplaceable reservoir of genetic
diversity that can be used to improve crop yields, especially through increased resilience to climate
change, invasive pests and disease.

The array of chemicals that plants produce to deter predators, and even communicate, turn out to
provide us with life-saving medicines. For example, medicines made from rosy periwinkle have
increased survival rates from childhood leukemia by 85%. Yet, we also know that many plant
species with the potential for triggering tremendous innovation in technology and medicine
still remain to be discovered.

A hummingbird hovers over flowers on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. Around 30% of everything we eat
and drink depends directly on pollinators. ( Conservation International/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn)

The list of benefits that nature provides to people also called ecosystem services is long.
Understanding that these services are vital for human well-being, CI works to preserve the links
between healthy ecosystems and healthy, sustainable societies. While we tend to target direct,
quantifiable benefits, the example of the flower provides an opportunity to also explore some of the
less tangible benefits sometimes overlooked, but by no means less important.

Why do we give flowers to express our love, our apologies or our sympathies? The intricate beauty
and delicate fragrance of each type of flower evolved not for human appeal but to attract particular
varieties of pollinators that aid in their reproduction. Yet, we are similarly drawn to their colors, forms
and scents. Species inspire us. They feed our souls. Even the greatest of scientists and
philosophers struggle to explain exactly why, but it is so.
My own childhood experiences with hedgehogs, salamanders and species too numerous to list
strongly influenced my career path. As director of CIs Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), I lead
field expeditions to explore and understand environments around the world, providing data to help
maintain the connections between biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and human societies.
Since its inception, RAP results have supported the creation, expansion and improved management
of more than 20 million hectares (around 49.4 million acres) of marine and terrestrial protected areas
places that are critical for sustaining nature and its benefits. Like other CI programs, RAP is
working to empower communities to sustainably manage their natural resources. We have trained
hundreds of students and local community members the next generation of scientists and
conservationists.

RAP expeditions have also discovered over 1,400 species new to science. But most species on the
planet remain unknown, and each new species we document holds the potential for great
advances in science, medicine or agriculture. Yet on a personal level, my greatest reward still
lies in the inspiration I receive from observing each flower, each insect, each bird, each frog, each
fish and I know I am not alone.
 Children hold hyacinth flowers in Baobab Alley, Madagascar. ( Conservation International/photo by Russell A.
Mittermeier)

The publication of our findings, especially the discovery of new species, generates widespread
fascination. I often receive emails from parents explaining how our discoveries have inspired their
children to pursue careers in biology and conservation. Recently, I even received a beautiful poem
written about our work.

This is of course nothing new. Nature, and flowers, have been muses to some of the greatest poetry,
literature and art. Consider the works of Van Gogh, Monet, OKeefe, Thoreau, Keats, Emerson,
Frost and Leopold, to name just a few. Where would we be without them?

Every person on Earth deserves a healthy environment and the fundamental benefits that nature
provides. But the planet is rapidly changing. For people to thrive, we need to act now to preserve
not just the tangible benefits, but also the inspiration, wonder and awe by which nature
transforms us all. This, in my opinion, may be the most important ecosystem service of all.
Trond Larsen is the director of CIs Rapid Assessment Program. To learn more about what you can
do to help, check out our Nature Is Speaking website. In addition, every time you use the hashtag
#NatureIsSpeaking on social media platforms, HP will donate $1 to CI (up to $1 million) learn
more.

Poet draws inspiration from nature

News | 25 August 2016, 02:00am
John Harvey

Kenilworth poet Adr Marshall has an insatiable love of the outdoors, and it is not at all surprising that its
from nature that she draws most of her inspiration.

The former Stellenbosch University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and University of Cape Town
English lecturer regards herself as something of a late bloomer, having only begun to submit works for
publication in the past six years.
Adr Marshall will be at the McGregor Poetry Festival.

However, her efforts have not gone unnoticed and this year she was invited to the annual McGregor Poetry
Festival, taking place in the winelands from tomorrow Friday August 26 to Sunday August 28.

I wrote poetry as a child and even won a prize in Grahamstown during an inter-schools competition, but I
really only began to focus on my poetry in the past five or six years. Some have been published in journals
such as Carapace, New Contrast and Stanzas, she said.

I actually look back at the poetry I wrote earlier earlier in life and I want to cringe.

While Ms Marshall has not yet ventured into international waters - my son calls me a techno-peasant
because I havent published on the web - for the moment she is content to be inspired by the natural world,
taking long walks and hiking at every possible opportunity.

I feel inspired by the natural world, and I love animals. When Im out hiking, there is so much to see and
think about. However, I also like to do light-hearted poetry, and write about the Third Age, the experiences
of older people. These are the kind of poems that show you can still do creative things when you get older.
I dont think these themes are restricted to older audiences however. I think they are universal.

An example of the kind of humour she likes to inject into her poetry can be found in the work, In Dire
Kneed - an ode to failing knees: Now this knee shoots shafts of pain along my leg; Not bending, it
buckles, its a powder keg; About to blow up, sending splinters of bone; Showering over the fynbos all the
way home.

Ms Marshall said while should could not pin her inspiration to any one poet, she enjoyed the works of
Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson.

I am very thrilled to have been invited to the McGregor Festival. There will be established and new poets
there, and the weekend is bound to stimulate new ideas. Im sure its going to be a wonderful weekend.

Where Do Poets Get Their Inspiration?

Sharon Olds

We polled Pulitzer Prize winners, poet laureates and professors to get their thoughts on where
poems come from.
"Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memorya dress I lent my
daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the
tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked
over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors."
Sharon Olds, winner of the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Dead and the
Living

"Poetry for me is a little bit like noodling at a piano, or like muttering or shouting when you play
a game or dancealmost meaningless little grunts like oh yeah and whoopsy-daisy, and easy
does it and watch-it-watch-it-watch-it and yes-yes-yes (or, no-no-no).
Robert Pinsky, U.S. poet laureate, 19972000

"I'm only half joking when I say a stork brings the poems. They are little creatures I have to train
and send out into the world."
Terrance Hayes, winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Lighthead

"When I least expect it something strikes me. Just now, for instance, we were driving westward
and stopped at the West Virginia welcome station, and I looked at the woman next to me who
tucked her purse between her legs to wash her hands, and that little action triggered something in
meI suddenly thought of all the things we do subconsciously to keep things neat, and the way
women carry purses around."
Rita Dove, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Thomas and Beulah

"I think I was just born with iambic pentameter in my veins. Writing poetry is an obsession
who in his or her right mind would become a poet?"
Maxine Kumin, U.S. poet laureate, 19811982

PAGE 2
"The idea that poetry comes from beyond oneself is vital, as is the sense that one writes a poem
in a condition that is often associated with a spiritual position, i.e., the condition of humility. One
doesn't know what one's doing and is inspired in that respect. But it doesn't mean one's
completely inert, or passive; rather it's just about allowing a poem to come from wherever it
comes from and getting it into the world."
Paul Muldoon, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Moy Sand and Gravel

"I feel my way into a poem. Ther is no topic that is taboo. And even if I were to avoid certain
topics, they would return to me, beckoning, and demanding to be written."
Yusef Komunyakaa, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer prize for Neon Vernacular

"There seem to be no deals you can make with poetry to entice it out of its lair. A poem, actually
any writing, is always a private thing, and that is how I begin. It must have that secret source."
Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient and 12 poetry books

"There seem to be no deals you can make with poetry to entice it out of its lair. A poem, actually
any writing, is always a private thing, and that is how I must begin. It must have that secret
source."
Billy Collins, U.S. poet laureate, 20012003

"You have to pay attention to what's said and what's not said, and what's done and not done. And
that creates curiosity. You go to that what if. And that what if takes you into the poem."
Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech

PAGE 3
"I don't have any method. But I like to talk to people and find out what their story isand then
just listen."
Azure Antoinette, spoken-word poet

"When you go to bed, you can't force a dream, right? In fact, the dream is a gift because it's a
surprise. There are different theories about where dreams come from, but a general one is that the
day's residue often becomes the little grain of sand around which the dream will then build. i
think a poem is like that."
Timothy Liu, author of eight poetry collections

"They come from my wanting to write them. I want to make something. The way I work is I
start, and then something starts to happen. In other words, I have to mehanically, intentionally,
and willfully begin."
Kay Ryan, U.S. poet laureate, 20082010

"I think lines of poetry come to you whenever they come. You could be waiting for the dentist
and suddenly you'll get an image or a line and you write it down. I write on the backs of
envelopes, parking ticketswhatever I have at hand because you cannot lasso the muse. I really
believe you can't force a lot of this. Now, I passionately believe in revision, and that you have to
try to write in a disciplined way as much as you can. But I do think there are moments that you
suddenly get something, given to you as a gift from the imagination, and you have to honor those
moments as well."
Carol Muske-Dukes, California Poet Laureate and professor of English and Creative Writing
at the University of Southern California

Artists get inspiration from nature

ISLAMABAD: An exhibition of art work by artists Atiya Hassan and Cinzia

Dalessi opened at the Nomad Gallery on Monday.
Both artists work focuses on nature. My work is based on my response to the
environment around me, its the little details that I notice and focus on, Atiya
explained. She creates pieces with dark colours like black, blue and white, a
colour palette rarely used to depict nature. I got a very good response from
people; they told me, after seeing my work, that they felt as if they were
walking through the forest, she said.

Cinzia Dalessi, a Swiss artist, has been in Pakistan for the past year and it took
her four months to compile her work. My experience in the capital has been
an amazing one, I love greenery and that is what my work is based on, she
said. The artists have used an interesting array of colours which is rather
unusual but very effective, Shazieh, a visitor told The Express Tribune. The
exhibition will continue till May 30.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 12th, 2010.

Nature in art
The exploration of nature in art can take endless forms, because nature provides us
with such a vast wealth of inspiring phenomena.
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world,
physical universe, material world or material universe. Nature refers
to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general.
Wikipedia
That gives us a lot to work with! Nature is both all around us and deep within us. We
are inseparable from nature - our bodies, lives and minds depend on the air we
breathe and the food we eat. The earth sustains our very life force. Without the earth
- without nature - what would we be?

Artwork based on nature can take many forms and serve many purposes. Because
"nature" is such an immense topic that encompasses so many things, I can only
provide a partial list of the various subtopics that may appear in nature-related
artwork:

flowers, plants, trees, botany, animals, cells, anatomy, bodily systems,

weather, geology, matter, energy, fossils, any of the natural sciences,
water, fire, environment, conservation, natural history, processes,
evolution, birth, growth, aging, decay, change...
And of course within each subtopic, there are further subtopics, and on and on...

So if you want to create a work of art based on the theme of "nature", you've really
got a whole planetful of ideas to work from!

Below you can see one of my colored pencil drawings, Cosmic Frog, followed by a
brief description of the way this drawing addresses the subject of nature.

Cosmic Frog - 4" x 6" - Prismacolor Colored Pencils on paper

This drawing is part of my Deep Thinkers series, in which various animals are
juxtaposed with evidence of human thought, in the form of mathematical equations,
quotes, definitions, musical scores, etc. These pieces approach the topic of nature in
art by depicting a zen-like transcendent bridge between conceptual thinking and
animalistic consciousness. These two contrasts are united by a careful use of color
and decorative design. This piece depicts a frog in front of a series of black hole
equations.

This drawing depicts one way of approaching the topic of nature in art. My Cosmic
Frog drawing ties together earthly, amphibious life with cosmic, universal
calculations - thus combining something small and recognizable with grand concepts
that are abstract and intangible to our human consciousness. Frogs and black holes -
makes for an interesting contrast!

Many forms of nature in art

Nature in art can take many visual forms, from photorealism to abstraction. Art can
mimic nature, by seeking to visually replicate objects as they actually appear in real
life. But abstract paintings can also take their visual cue from actual forms in nature,
such as the painting below. This piece arose from the study, observation, and
contemplation of natural phenomena and natural forms. When sitting at the easel, I
used creative liberties to assign bright colors to detailed patterns that were inspired
by what I had seen in my natural surroundings.
My painting below, Fulgent Life, is another example of nature in art. This painting
was heavily influenced by my up-close observations of plants and insect life whilst
living on an isolated hilltop in southern France. This painting depicts the elements of
earth - rocks, stones, soil, minerals, and the things that live amongst them. This
artwork was based on the forms that I observed in nature, which I used as a starting
point to create an imaginative, abstract work of art.

Fulgent Life - 6" x 6" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

Art with a Purpose

There are many different ways to approach the subject of nature in art. Art can open
our eyes to the intricacy and beauty of the natural world. It can simply be a pretty
picture that appreciates nature for what it is... or it can be a challenging piece
expressing our complex human connection to nature. Art can serve a purpose beyond
being an object of beauty: it can also address pressing environmental issues and
topics about conservation, sustainability, preservation, biodiversity, and threatened
habitats. Art has the ability to interact with and educate the viewer about these issues,
spreading awareness about such important topics. We feel an instinctual need to take
care of the things we feel connected to. Art can help renew, or spark anew, our
connection with nature.

Sustainable art is a movement whose aims are to ignite discussion

(and adjust our perception) about the way we use our resources.
Sustainable art seeks to make us think more deeply about the impact
that our lifestyle choices have on the planet.

Artists for Conservation is a group of artists who, in various ways,

support nature through their artwork. They paint nature in art in the
form of beautiful and idyllic images of animals and landscapes. In
addition, they also donate a portion of their art sales to conservation
efforts.
Nature in Art is a British museum devoted entirely to artwork
inspired by nature. They have an extensive collection of artwork
covering a 1500 year time period, representing over 60 countries and
cultures. In addition to their permanent collection, they have special
exhibitions as well as classes and events for adults and children.

In these hyperreal, digital times, it is easy to forget, and even resist, that we are
susceptible to natural forces. Art can help us become more conscious of our true
relationship with nature. It is undoubtedly important to feel a connection to the
natural world... in fact, it is vital to our survival!

The first step to creating art based on nature is to spend time in nature. So unplug
yourself. Turn off the TV, radio, ipod, laptop. Go outside. Tune into your
surroundings. Feel the wind upon your cheek. Observe the veins of a leaf, sit against
the trunk of a tree, watch a river flow.

Let your mind be as vast as the sky.

Be still.

Appreciate.

Observe.

Bring a sketchbook and see what arises!

Read More
Making art from nature returns us to our natural roots, bringing the artistic process
back to basics. Learn about nature-inspired art and artists!
These whimsical bird drawings depict a variety of birds in colorful scenarios, with
the aim to expand our usual view of the creatures we meet in nature.

Learn how to draw a rose! Learn the steps to creating your own rose pencil
drawings using basic supplies you have around the house.

Learn how to draw a puppy in this drawing lesson! This drawing tutorial shows you
how to draw your own puppy drawings.

Here's a fun tutorial on how to draw a cat! These are not ordinary cats though...
these are Cosmic Cats!

Check out the detailed pencil drawings of Doreen Cross. Realistic animal drawings
are her specialty!

Learn how to paint flowers with amazing classical realist artist, Delmus Phelps!
Read an in-depth interview and view his breathtaking flower paintings of roses,
daffodils, magnolias and more.

Are you interested in drawing animals? Visit my friend Ivan's fantastic site, where
you can learn how to draw animals (and many other things also)!

Inspiration in Visual Art: Where Do Artists Get

Their Ideas?
RATING:

(135)

AUTHOR: Lucy Lamp

DESCRIPTION:
Why do people create art? What is the driving force behind creation? How do artists visualize their
ideas? How do they then turn it into a piece of artwork? This is the essence of visual art: translating
an abstract idea into a tangible form. This series explores how to come up with an idea for an
artwork, translate your idea into a visual image, and create it in tangible--material--form.

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TUTORIAL
Inspiration: Where Do Artists Get Their Ideas?
Why do people create art? What is the driving force behind creation? People have been making
visual art since the beginnings of human history, for a myriad of compelling and complex
reasons. If you visit an art museum you can see how true this is. Its overwhelming and
impossible to really take it all in.

The process of artmaking begins with the question, What should I create? You, as an artist
have to ask the same question: what do you want to create? Maybe you dont know where to
begin. Even if you have an idea you would like to explore, it is valuable to expand your horizons
by considering some of the ideas that other artists have investigated.
Following is a list of a number of different purposes, motivations, incentives, rationales,
intentionsthe ideas behind the art. You can add your own.
As part of a ritual, ceremony, or cultural tradition
These objects are created for a specific purpose. They have meaning and significance only within
that context. Once that purpose is finished they are no longer needed, and they are ritually
destroyed, or discarded. They are created with aesthetic considerations, with a strong emphasis
on craftsmanship. However, they are not created in the sense that we consider art today, as
something significant in and of itselfan object to be preserved, maintained and experienced on
its own. In the long history of artmakingmany, many thousands of yearsmost of what we
consider art falls within this category.

Yamantaka Mandala
Monks of the Gyuto Tantric University, 1991Colored silicate and adhesive on wood
Dimensions:96 x 96 in. (243.84 x 243.84 cm)Creation Place:Asia, Tibet
Gift of funds from the Gyuto Tantric University
A mandala, or circle, is a representation of the Buddhist universe. These cosmograms represent
in symbolic color, line, and geometric forms, all realms of existence and are used in Tantric
meditation and initiation rites. The creation of a mandala, considered a consecrated area, is
believed to benefit all beings.

"This is the Yamantaka mandala, a cosmic blueprint of the celestial palace of the deity
Yamantaka, Conqueror of Death, who is represented at the center by the blue vajra, or
thunderbolt. It consists of a series of concentric bands, the outermost representing eight burial
grounds with a recognizable landscape and animals symbolizing our earthly plane of existence.
Moving inward are a circle of flames, a circle of vajras, and a circle of lotus petals. These bands
circumscribe a quadrangle with gates at the four compass points, suggesting the realm of form
without desire. The innermost square is divided into triangular quadrants, and an inner circle is
subdivided into nine units containing symbols representing various deities. This is the realm of
absolute formlessness and perfect bliss. In the four outside corners are the attributes of the five
senses (smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch), reminders of the illusory nature of our perceived
reality.
All mandalas represent an invitation to enter the Buddhas awakened mind. Tibetan Buddhists
believe there is a seed of enlightenment in each persons mind; this is uncovered by visualizing
and contemplating a mandala. The complex symbols and exquisite combination of primary
colors are considered a pure expression of the principles of wisdom and compassion that
underlie Tantric Buddhist philosophy.
This mandala was created to honor the 1.2 million Tibetans who have lost their lives to
political/religious persecution during this century.
The museum thanks the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota for bringing the Gyuto
monks to Minnesota and for their efforts to preserve Tibetan cultural
traditions." www.artsmia.org
SOURCE: MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, VERBATIM FROM THEIR WEBSITE, WWW.ARTSMIA.ORG

To express the spiritual in tangible form

Indigenous Australian "Dreaming"

Rocks at Lupulunga by Makinti Napanangka

Synthetic Polymer on Linen, 2000

The Dreaming is a term that refers to the indigenous Australian concept of the "timeless time" of
original and perpetual creation of the world. This painting is an example of artwork that
represents the dreaming--an embodiment in physical form of a spiritual concept--creation--
which gives meaning to everything in life.

SOURCE: ILLUSTRATION (P.117) OF MCCULLOCH, ALAN; SUSAN MCCULLOCH, EMILY MCCULLOCH CHILDS (2006). THE NEW MCCULLOCH'S
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AUSTRALIAN ART. FITZROY, VIC: AUS ART EDITIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE MIEGUNYAH PRESS. ISBN 052285317X. THE
CAPTION IN FULL READS

To record history

Spanish Resistance to Napoleon's Army, 1808

 The Third of May 1808
Francisco Goya
oil on linen, 1814 Dimensions 268 347 cm (106 137 in)
Museo del Prado, Madrid

This painting commemorates Spanish resistance to Napolean's armies during the occupation of
1808. This painting confronts the viewer in an intimidating way because of its large size and
dramatic composition, a powerful remembrance of courage and bravery.
SOURCE: IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM

To teach something, using visual rather than verbal

language
Chartres Cathedral

Northern rose window of Chartres cathedral, stained glass

Chartres, France Cathedral constructed between 1193 and 1250

At a time when most people were illiterate, images were used to teach and to help people
remember religious concepts and history. The rose depicts the Glorification of the Virgin Mary,
surrounded by angels, twelve kings of Juda and twelve lesser prophets. B elow the rose, the five
lancets represent Saint Anne, surrounded by the kings Melchizedek, David, Solomon and by
Aaron, treading on the sinner and idolatrous kings: Nebuchadnezzar, Saul, Jeroboam and
Pharaoh.
SOURCE: PHOTO TAKEN BY EUSEBIUS (GUILLAUME PIOLLE), 2009. GUILLAUME PIOLLE / PUBLIC DOMAIN

To tell a storyfrom mythology, literature, religion, poetry,

music
The Tale of Genji

i
Nishikawa Sukenobu
Japan, 18th century
 Woodblock Print
Size: 6 7/8 x 10 11/16 in. (17.5 x 27.2 cm) (image, sheet)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Gift of Louis W. Hill

This print is from the Edo period in Japan (18th century). The tale of Genjii is a classical
Japanese story. The inscription reads: "Once upon a time, a man met a woman
in Kasugani Village in Nara"

As a portrait of someone, which can include physical

characteristics, personality, the artists interpretation of or
relationship to that person
The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, 15031505/1507

Oil on poplar 77 53 cm (30.31 20.87 in) Louvre Museum, Paris
Leonardo's Mona Lisa is one of the most well-known--and mysterious--portraits in the world.
The portrait is of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant. Unlike most portrait
paintings of its time, Leonardo omits all personal items-- jewelry, objects such as a book or
musical instrument, clothing embellishments, lace or fur, a lap dog--anything that would identify
her as a member of the upper class. This adds to the mystery of the painting and much discussion
about the true identity of Mona Lisa. The portrait is relatively small, in a gallery room filled with
large historical paintings, but her expression commands attention.
SOURCE: IMAGE: CYBERSHOT800I. COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM

As a self-portraitan exploration of the artists sense of self

Frida Kahlo


Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907-1954)

Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940

Oil on canvas, 61.25 cm x 47 cm

Nikolas Muray Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

At the age of 22 Frida Kahlo suffered a tragic, near fatal bus accident that severely injured most
of her body and left her in much pain. She spent three months recovering in a body cast and
suffered from pain and health problems the rest of her life. While she was bedridden her parents
gave her paints and had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed.

She painted many self-portraits and often incorporated personal experience and symbolism
within them. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits. She said, "I paint myself because I am so
often alone and because I am the subject I know best."

(Andrea Kettenmann, Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo, 19071954: pain and passion page 27)
SOURCE: IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM, ORIGINALLY UPLOADED FROM HTTP://ARTROOTS.COM/ART/ART18_INDEX.HTML.

To reflect the beauty of nature--landscape

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (American 18011848)

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a ThunderstormThe Oxbow

1836(1836) Oil on canvas 130.8 x 193 cm
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908

Thomas Cole founded the Hudson River School, an American art movement of the mid 19th
century known for realistic and detailed portrayals of the American landscape and wilderness.

As illustrationnarrative, medical, biological, botanic,

diagram
John James Audubon

john James Audubon (American, 1785-1851)

Golden Eagle, 18334

Plate 181 of Birds of America by John James Audubon, watercolor

Audubon spent countless hours observing, preparing, studying and drawing the birds he
portrayed, Unlike the stiff paintings of his contemporaries, Audubon's paintings of birds are
portrayed in action, in their natural habitat.
SOURCE: IMAGE SOURCE WIKIPEDIA.COM, FILE:181 GOLDON EAGLE.JPG

To express the ideal

Classical Greek Figurative Sculpture
 The Doryphoros
Polykleitos 120-50 B.C.
Marble, 78 x 19 x 19 in. (198.12 x 48.26 x 48.26 cm

Minneapolis Institute of Arts artsmia.org

Polykleitos is considered to be the first to incorporate naturalism in figurative sculpture (unlike

the stiffness of earlier Archaic period figures), using mathematical proportions and scale to
create the ideal figure, perfectly proportioned. This was a reflection of Greek cultural beliefs and
philosophy of the time.
To expose the real
Kathe Kollwitz

Kathe Kollwitz,

Woman with Dead Child

etching, 1903, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Kollwitz--a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor "offered an eloquent and often searing
account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century. Her empathy for the less
fortunate, expressed most famously through the graphic means of drawing, etching, lithography,
and woodcut, embraced the victims of poverty, hunger, and war." (wikipedia.com)
SOURCE: QUOTE AND IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM

To provoke others to think about or see something in a new

way
Claude Monet

Grainstack, Sun in the Mist

Claude Monet
Oil on linen 1891
 23 5/8 x 39 1/2in. (60 x 100.3cm)33 x 48 3/4 x 3 7/8 in. (83.82 x 123.83 x 9.84 cm) (outer
frame)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Claude Monet was interested in how we see things, especially how different types of light,
atmosphere, and weather affect visual perception. He explored this concept by painting the same
subjectusually very simple-- in varying times of day and types of weather. He studied
grainstacks in different seasons and changes in sunlight. This painting was done in the autumn, at
sunrise. The light frames the grainstack with a halo of light. If you look at the painting up close,
the subject is not recognizable. All you see are brushstrokes of many colors. But from a distance,
the grainstack comes into view clearly. Monet had a way of creating shimmering, translucent
light in his paintings.

To record dreams
Salvador Dali: The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dal
1931
Oil on canvas
24 cm 33 cm (9.5 in 13 in)
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
This is one of Salvador Dali's most famous paintings. It is filled with symbols and personal
iconography inspired by one of his dreams. The figure in the middle represents the fading aspect
of figures we see in our dreams. The clocks may suggest the strange sense of the passing of time
that we experience in our dreams. Dali sometimes used ants (seen on the orange clock) to
symbolize death.
SOURCE: IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM, TAKEN FROM MOMA.ORG

To experiment with formal elements

Wassily Kandinsky
 Yellow -- Red -- Blue Kandinsky, Wassily (Russian, 1866-1944)
1925
o/c Musee Nationale d'Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou), Paris

Kandinsky is known as the father of pure abstraction--that is, art that does not refer to any
subject matter outside of itself--the use of formal elements like color,shape, and line as the
subject of the work. He wrote many books and articles that discuss this philosophy in great
detail, assigning conceptual qualities to specific formal elements.

To experiment with qualities of a particular medium, i.e.

paint, metal, wood
Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, No. 5 1948

Oil on fiberboard 2.4 m 1.2 m (8 ft 4 ft) Private collection

Pollock developed a style of painting thst he called "action painting". He defied existing painting practices by
working ov very large sized canvas placed on the floor, and used houshold paints rather than traditional
painting media.
"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard
wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel
nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides
and literally be in the painting.
"I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I
prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass
or other foreign matter added.

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get
acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes,
destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.
It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure
harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.
-- Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956, as quoted in wikipedia.com
SOURCE: IMAGE COURTESY OF MAREINO ON WIKIPEDIA.COM

Other Sources of Inspiration

I have shown examples of some sources of inspiration for artists. There are many more. Here
are some others, with links to examples of each.

Still Life As an Allegory of Life "The Dutch Still Life 1550-

1720" http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_themes/7085
Humor: Indian Humor http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/indian_humor
Fashion: Coco
Chanel http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chnl/hd_chnl.htm The Golden
Age Of Couture http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php
Propaganda: "100 Years of Propaganda" http://www.smashingmagazine.com/.../100-
years-of-propaganda-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
Monument/Memorial: Maya Lin---Vietnam Veteran's
Memorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNh06Mu2V5c&feature=related, Civil
Rights Memorial http://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial
To Make a Statement: Jana Sterbek "Meat
Dress" http://www.artsconnected.org/.../vanitas-flesh-dress-for-an-albino-anorectic -
To Push the Boundaries of What Art Is: the Dada
Movement http://www.dadart.com/dadaism/dada/020-history-dada-movement.html
Fantasy "Fantasy Art Gallery http://www.fantasygallery.net/
Graphic Novel: "Graphic Novel Art http://www.graphicnovelart.com/
Music http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/.../art/ART:++Inspired+by+Music+/
Science: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception http://www.exploratorium.edu/
Math: Sol Lewitt http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/sol-lewitt/works/
Books: The Artists' Book http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/artbooks/

Top artists reveal how to

find creative inspiration
Guy Garvey, Isaac Julien, Martha Wainwright and other artists give their top
tips for unleashing your inner genius
Guy Garvey, musician
For fear of making us sound like the Waltons, my band [Elbow] are a huge
source of inspiration for me. They're my peers, my family; when they come up
with something impressive, it inspires me to come up with something equally
impressive.

Spending time in your own head is important. When I was a boy, I had to go
to church every Sunday; the priest had an incomprehensible Irish accent, so
I'd tune out for the whole hour, just spending time in my own thoughts. I still
do that now; I'm often scribbling down fragments that later act like trigger-
points for lyrics.

A blank canvas can be very intimidating, so set yourself limitations. Mine are
often set for me by the music the band has come up with. With The Birds, for
instance the first song on our last album the band already had this great
groove going, and I knew I wanted the vocals to reflect the bass-line, so that
was immediately something to work with.

Just start scribbling. The first draft is never your last draft. Nothing you write
is by accident.

The best songs often take two disparate ideas and make them fit together.
When I started writing lyrics for The Birds, I was sitting in a cottage in the
grounds of Peter Gabriel's Real World studios. I was looking out at the birds
outside, starting to think of lyrics about them; and then I thought about the
last time I'd been there, 10 years before, at the end of a great love affair. I
thought, how can I combine these two ideas? So I came up with an idea about
a love affair that had ended in a field, with birds as the only witnesses.

Don't be scared of failure.

If it's all getting too intense, remember it's only a song. I learned that the
hard way: when I was younger, I played the part of the erratic, irascible drunk
in order to have something to write about.
 The best advice I've ever had came about 20 years ago from Mano
McLaughlin, one of Britain's best songwriters. "The song is all," he said, "Don't
worry about what the rest of the music sounds like: you have a responsibility
to the song." I found that really inspiring: it reminded me not to worry about
whether a song sounds cool, or fits with everything we've done before but
just to let the song be what it is.

Polly Stenham, playwright

Playwright Polly Stenham at the Royal court theatre. Photograph: Andy Hall
for the Guardian

Listen to music I always have music on while I'm writing. I'm a very aural
person; as soon as I hear a lyric or phrase, I'm transported to a particular time
or place. My taste varies wildly. When I was writing That Face, I listened
to Love Her Madly by the Doors, which seemed to say a lot about the
characters' relationship with their mother. For Tusk Tusk, I played
Radiohead's album In Rainbows over and over. One lyric, about being an
animal stuck in car, even made it into the play's plotline.

Doodle I'm very fidgety, and I seem to work best when my hands are
occupied with something other than what I'm thinking about. During
rehearsals, I find myself drawing little pictures or symbols that are somehow
connected to the play. With Tusk Tusk, it was elephants, clowns and dresses
on hangers. I'll look back at my doodles later, and random snatches of
dialogue will occur to me.

Go for a walk Every morning I go to Hampstead Heath [in north London],

and I often also go for a wander in the middle of the day to think through a
character or situation. I listen to music as I go. Again, it's about occupying one
part of your brain, so that the other part is clear to be creative.

Tamara Rojo, ballet dancer

Ballet dancer Tamara Rojo. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

I seek inspiration in film, theatre, music, art and in watching other ballet
companies, other dancers, and other types of dance. I never feel jealous of
another good dancer: I always feel there is so much to learn from them.

An idea never comes to me suddenly; it sits inside me for a while, and then
emerges. When I'm preparing for a particular character, I look for ideas about
her wherever I can. When I first danced Giselle, I found Lars von Trier's
film Dancer in the Dark incredibly inspiring. It was so dark, and it felt just like
a modern-day version of Giselle the story of a young woman taken
advantage of by others. It brought the part alive for me. Now when I talk to
others who are playing Giselle, they sometimes say they're worried that it feels
like a parody, and not relevant to today. I tell them to watch that film and see
how modern it can be.

To be truly inspired, you must learn to trust your instinct, and your creative
empathy. Don't over-rehearse a part, or you'll find you get bored with it. Hard
work is important, but that comes before inspiration: in your years of training,
in your ballet class, in the Pilates classes. That work is there just to support
your instinct and your ability to empathise. Without those, you can still give a
good, technically correct performance but it will never be magical.

Mark-Anthony Turnage, composer

Forget the idea that inspiration will come to you like a flash of lightning. It's
much more about hard graft.

Find a quiet studio to work in. Shostakovich could not have composed with
the telly on.

Try to find a studio with more than one window. I work best when I have
windows in two walls, for some reason; maybe it is because there is more light.
At the moment, I'm working in a room with no windows. It's not going well at
all.
 Routine is really important. However late you went to bed the night before,
or however much you had to drink, get up at the same time each day and get
on with it. When I was composing [the opera] Anna Nicole, I was up at 5 or
6am, and worked through until lunch. The afternoon is the worst time for
creativity.

If you write something in the evening or at night, look back over it the next
morning. I tend to be less self-critical at night; sometimes, I've looked back at
things I wrote the night before, and realised they were no good at all.

If you get overexcited by an idea, take a break and come back to it later. It is
all about developing a cold eye with which to look over your own work.

Take a break of two to three weeks after finishing a work, and before sending
it off to wherever it has to go. That is difficult if you have a deadline but it is
very important in terms of developing an overall view of what works and what
doesn't.

Fyfe Dangerfield, musician

I used to think that being inspired was about sitting around waiting for ideas
to come to you. That can happen occasionally: sometimes, I'm walking down
the street and suddenly hear a fragment of music that I can later work into a
song. But generally, it's not like that at all. I liken the process to seeing ghosts:
the ideas are always there, half-formed. It's about being in the right state of
mind to take them and turn them into something that works.

One of the most difficult things about writing music is the sheer number of
distractions: mobiles, email, Twitter, YouTube. When you're writing, you have
to be very disciplined, to the point of being awkward: turn off your phone and
find a space to work without any of these distractions.

For me, the image of the tortured artist is a myth you don't need to be
miserable to write songs. In fact, if I am feeling down, the last thing I want to
do is write; though it's important sometimes just to sit down and get on with
it, however you're feeling. Your creativity is like a tap: if you don't use it, it gets
clogged up.

We all have that small voice that tells us we're rubbish, and we need to learn
when to silence it. Early in the songwriting process, comparisons do nothing
but harm: sometimes I put on a David Bowie record and think, "Why do I
bother?" But when it comes to recording or mixing, you do need to be your
own critic and editor. It's a bit like having children: you don't interfere with
the birth, but as your child grows up, you don't let it run wild.

Martha Wainwright, singer-songwriter

I definitely don't have rules I'm pretty disorganised. In fact, I often have to
guilt-trip myself into sitting down to write. It is so easy to let your life get filled
up with other stuff cooking, cleaning, going to the bank, looking after your
baby. These everyday things do come through in my songwriting, though.
Most of my songs are defined by a sense of loneliness, of isolation, that I
probably get from spending a lot of time on my own.

The little images that I get from sitting alone in my apartment the way the
light is falling through the window; the man I just saw walk by on the other
side of the street find their way into snatches of lyrics. I write in short spurts
for five, 10, 15 minutes then I pace around the room, or go and get a snack.

When I first moved to New York some years ago, I used to go to concerts every
night I would see six or seven musicians a week. Now that I'm a songwriter
myself, I find watching other musicians can be frustrating I want to be the
one up there performing. But every so often I see someone who inspires me to
try something different. That happened recently with Sufjan Stevens I saw
him perform in Prospect Park, and his sound was so huge and poppy that I
went home thinking: "I should really try something like that."

Anthony Neilson, playwright and director

Don't forget to have a life. It's important to look outside the business. There
are so many great stories out there that have nothing to do with the theatre, or
with other writers.

Be as collaborative as possible. I do a lot of my thinking once I'm in the

rehearsal room I'm inspired by the actors or designers I'm working with.
Other creative people are a resource that needs to be exploited.

Try to ignore the noise around you: the chatter, the parties, the reviews, the
envy, the shame.

Listen to music to find a way into the story you're telling. Music is incredibly
evocative: find the right piece that reflects the world you're writing about, and
you're halfway there. When I wrote my play Penetrator, I listened to a
miserable Sade song on a loop. Listen to a song enough times, and it provokes
a Pavlovian response that helps you get back to the place you're writing about.

Masturbate frequently. You'll probably do that anyway, but you may as well
make it a rule.

Rupert Goold, director

 Get an alarm with a long snooze function and set it early. Shallow-sleep
dreams have been the source of many of my best ideas (sadly, small children
are no respecters of prospective genius).

The best ideas are tested by their peaks and troughs. One truly great image or
scene astride a broken mess is more intriguing than a hundred well-made
cliches.

Once you have an idea, scrutinise the precedent. If no one has explored it
before in any form then you're 99% likely to be making a mistake. But that 1%
risk is why we do it.

Make sure you are asking a question that is addressed both to the world
around you and the world within you. It's the only way to keep going when the
doubt sets in.

I always try to reshape my ideas in other forms: dance, soap opera, Olympic
competition, children's games, pornography anything that will keep turning
them for possibilities.

I prepare less and less as I get older, and try to lose my script in the first few
days. In the collaborative arts, the more open you are to shared inspiration,
the richer the work. Or maybe I'm just getting lazy.

An idea is just a map. The ultimate landscape is only discovered when it's
under foot, so don't get too bogged down in its validity.

Love the effect over its cause.

Isaac Julien, artist

I have a magpie attitude to inspiration: I seek it from all sorts of sources;
anything that allows me to think about how culture comes together. I'm always
on the lookout I observe people in the street; I watch films, I read, I think
about the conversations that I have. I consider the gestures people use, or the
colours they're wearing. It's about taking all the little everyday things and
observing them with a critical eye; building up a scrapbook which you can
draw on. Sometimes, too, I look at other artworks or films to get an idea of
what not to do.

It's very important for inspiration to go elsewhere: to move away from the city
into pastoral settings, and to make space for meditation. I also enjoy talking to
people who aren't involved in art. For my recent work, I've had a lot of
conversations with people involved in digital technologies. It's useful to get
perspective on what you do by talking to all sorts of different people.
Lucy Prebble, playwright

Lucy Prebble. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Act it out yourself. Draw the curtains.

If ever a character asks another character, "What do you mean?", the scene
needs a rewrite.

Feeling intimidated is a good sign. Writing from a place of safety produces

stuff that is at best dull and at worst dishonest.

It's OK to use friends and lovers in your work. They are curiously flattered.

Imagine the stage, not the location.

Write backwards. Start from the feeling you want the audience to have at the
end and then ask "How might that happen?" continually, until you have a
beginning.

Reveal yourself in your writing, especially the bits you don't like.

Accept that, as a result, people you don't know won't like you.

Try not to give characters jobs that really only appear in plays; the
deliberately idiosyncratic (eg "the guy who changes the posters on huge
billboards at night") or the solipsistic (eg "writer").

Write about what you don't know. If you know what you think about
something, you can say so in a sentence it doesn't take a play.

An apparently intractable narrative problem is often its own solution if you

dramatise the conflict it contains.

Surround yourself with people who don't mind you being a bit absent and
a bit flakey.

Be nice to them. They put up with a lot.

 Break any rule if you know deep inside that it is important.

Jasmin Vardimon, choreographer

Usually, I become aware of what has inspired me only towards the end of the
creative process, or much later. These are the sorts of things that motivate me:

Places that have certain emotional dynamics: hospitals, parks, court rooms,
therapy rooms.

Significant moments in my life that sharpen my senses, make me listen

carefully, look for the detail, and awaken my curiosity.

Things that keep dragging my attention and my thoughts, haunting me at

night.

Books, especially those that make me want to check their bibliographies.

A sentence I read or hear.

Things that my daughter says or does.

Contradictions and double meanings in language or actions.

Ugliness.

My dancers, the artists I collaborate with.

Questions I can't answer easily.

Sunand Prasad, architect

Keep asking: "What is really going on here?" like a detective
(or Rudolf Steiner).

Immerse yourself in the worlds of the people who will use and encounter the
building or place.

Forget the building for a while. Focus totally on what people will be doing in
the spaces and places you are designing next year, in five years, in 20.

The most inspiring thing is to see human ingenuity in action it is all around
us.

Ask off-piste questions. What if this library were a garden? If this facade
could speak, would it be cooing, swearing, silent, erudite?
 Keep practising scales. Architectural problems and propositions have many
scales simultaneously keep ranging across them.

Gather inquisitive and reflective people around you. The rapid bouncing back
and forth of an idea can generate compelling concepts at amazing speed.

Once there's an idea, turn it upside down and take it seriously for a moment
even if it seems silly.

We all have a sense of the sublime use it to test your propositions as

rigorously as logic and functionality.

Susan Philipsz, artist

If you have a good idea, stick to it. Especially if realising the project is a long
and demanding process, try to keep true to the spirit of the initial idea.

Daydream. Give yourself plenty of time to do nothing. Train journeys

are good.

Be open to your surroundings. I try to find inspiration in the character of the

place I'm exhibiting in. It helps me if I can respond to something that is
already there.

Always have something to write with. I seldom draw these days, but I need a
pen in my hand to think.

I like reading and watching movies, but mostly I find that it's things I have
seen or read a long time ago that come back to me. The things that you found
inspiring when you were starting out usually stay with you.

Keep it simple.

Be audacious.

It doesn't always have to make sense.

I love silence. I can't listen to music while I work and I need to be alone.

I go through messy phases and tidy phases. Being messy during a tidy phase
is never good, and vice versa.

Akram Khan, dancer and choreographer

Akram Khan in Desh. Photograph: Alastair Muir/Rex Features

Collaborate Go on a journey with someone who is as different to you as

chalk and cheese. I am inspired by the dialogue between two different bodies,
two different minds, two different ways of expressing a single idea.

Observe I observe my surroundings acutely an animal in the city streets,

a man in the wilderness.

Displace yourself I am always inspired by things that are placed in an

unfamiliar territory. Even after 37 years, I still feel displaced within my own
body: I have never felt completely at ease with it.

Find stories I am inspired by stories of people, of communities, of different

cultures, of new history that we are writing or forming. Mostly, I am inspired
by children and their grandparents: the way their faces dance.

Let go The subconscious part of myself creates far more interesting things
than the conscious part can ever dream of.

Akram Khan's Desh premiered at the Curve Theatre, Leicester in 2011.

Polly Morgan, artist

Don't wait for a good idea to come to you. Start by realising an average idea
no one has to see it. If I hadn't made the works I'm ashamed of, the ones I'm
proud of wouldn't exist.

Leave the house. Or better still, go to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and
rescue a staffie. I did so partly to get out more, as I was spending too much
time surrounded by the same objects, within the same walls. The sense of guilt
I feel when my dogs are indoors forces me out at regular intervals. One of my
favourite new ideas came about when I stopped to examine a weed growing in
the forest I walk in.

Hard work isn't always productive. Your brain needs periods of inactivity. I
think of it as a field lying fallow; keep harvesting and the crops won't mature.
 Don't restrict yourself to your own medium. It is just as possible to be
inspired by a film-maker, fashion designer, writer or friend than another
artist. Cross-pollination makes for an interesting outcome.

Be brief, concise and direct. Anyone who over-complicates things is at best

insecure and at worst stupid. Children speak the most sense and they haven't
read Nietzsche.

Don't try to second-guess what people will want to buy. Successful artists
have been so because they have shown people something they hadn't
imagined. If buyers all knew what they wanted before it had been made, they
could have made it themselves, or at least commissioned it.

Don't be afraid to scrap all your hard work and planning and do it differently
at the last minute. It's easier to hold on to an idea because you're afraid to
admit you were wrong than to let it go.

Kate Royal, opera singer

Soprano Kate Royal. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Don't expect inspiration to happen when anyone else is watching. It usually

happens when you are on your own, and it's gone in a second.

Inspiration on stage is a controlled version of what you might experience in

the practice room. As opera singers, we are bound by many rules musically,
dramatically, interpretatively. When inspiration strikes, you have to hope that
the other 10 people on stage will give you space to wallow in your "moment".

Try not to analyse other voices and interpretations too much. Of course we
gain inspiration from the greats, but it is best found in the the opera's score or
in the poetry. If this doesn't inspire you, then you are in the wrong job.

Mistakes can be inspiring allow yourself to take risks, and do what scares
you. People might remember the colour of your dress and what encore you
sang, but no one will remember if you forgot a word or if your phrasing didn't
go to plan.
 Remember that art is everywhere. It's amazing what you can find inspiring
on the No 464 bus from Peckham.

Alcohol and singing are not a good combination not in opera, anyway. The
more you drink, the uglier you sound.

Be kind to your voice. If you want it to inspire you, you have to inspire it,
with lots of rest, steam, sweets and a good talking to every now and again.

Don't Google yourself or your reviews. It can only end in misery you either
believe the crap or the good, or none of it at all.

Let the audience into your world and you are bound to receive inspiration
from them. Sometimes even the man asleep at the back has inspired me to
sing with a little more "edge".

Get some perspective. I always thought I had to have music every second of
every day, or I wouldn't survive. The truth is that when I step back from it and
learn to enjoy the more mundane aspects of life, I appreciate my music so
much more.

Ian Rickson, director

Hang on in there. Inspiration can come at any time, even after it feels like
you haven't been getting anywhere. Keep your stamina up, don't force too
hard, and trust that you will find your way.

Try to create an atmosphere where people feel free to take risks. Fear can
shut down creativity, as can the pressure to impress.

Enable the power of the group, so that what can be collectively achieved
transcends the pressure upon any single person.

Trust the ingenuity and instinctiveness of actors. Surround them with the
right conditions and they'll teach you so much.

You cannot overprepare. Enjoy being as searching and thorough as possible

before you begin, so you can be as free as possible once you've started.

Questions often open the doors of the imagination, even if we feel we should
provide answers.

Embrace new challenges. When we're reaching for things, we tend to be

more creative.

Try to remove your own ego from the equation. It can get in the way.
 Work hard and relish the opportunities.

Take a deep breath, and a leap of faith.

Olivia Williams, actor

Olivia Williams. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Stay open. Acting is specific, because it requires co-operation and social

interaction both to observe, experience and empathise with other human
behaviours in order to reproduce them believably on stage or screen, or just to
work with other actors to create a scene.

Relax. That doesn't mean the work itself or the preparation is relaxed, but the
beginning of the process the reading of the script and the vision of how it
can be realised is not forced. Then, when inspiration has struck, comes the
messy process of practicalities.

Martin Parr, photographer

We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out there that I
want to record. However you cannot photograph everything, so I have to select
subjects that throw light on the relationship I have with the world. This is
often expressed as an ambiguity or a contradiction.

Look at tourism, for example. We have an idea of what a famous site will look
like as w've seen the photos but when you get there, the reality is usually
different. This rub between mythology and reality is the inspiration and the
contradiction.

Inspiration can also come when a good connection is made with the subject.
The nature and quality of this connection can vary enormously. It may range
from getting into a small community and winning the trust of the subjects over
a number of visits; but it could also come from walking in the mountains and
feeling a certain affinity with the landscape.
The knack is to find your own inspiration, and take it on a journey to create
work that is personal and revealing.

Wayne McGregor, choreographer

Do

Empty

Panic

Forage

Generate

Embody

Edit

Decide

Persist

Practise

Interviews by Laura Barnett

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SPOTTING THE POTENTIAL FOR AN ABSTRACT PAINTING

Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

When you re looking for inspiration for an abstract painting, you need to
change the way you look at the world around you. You need to stop seeing the big
picture and look for details. To look at the shapes and patterns which occur,
rather than focusing on the actual objects.

In this example, my starting point was the trunk of a gum tree, with stones of
various colours and sizes packed around it. It had recently rained, so the soil was
wet, making it quite dark in colour. The photos will take you step-by-step through
my thought processes as I narrow down the potential for an abstract painting.

This first photo shows the overall scene. Look at the photo and think about what
you re seeing. What elements are there, what textures, what colours, and what
shapes?

Have you noticed the lovely curves on the two big stones? What about the
contrast between the smooth white stone and the coarse texture of the tree bark?
And the contrast between the clean white stone and the mud stuck to its
underside?

Seeing this kind of detail is the first step in spotting the potential for abstract art
in nature. You need to train your eye to see the world anew.

02
of 07
NARROWING DOWN THE OPTIONS FOR AN ABSTRACT PAINTING
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

Once you ve seen something that strikes you as interesting, you need to focus in
on that, and explore the possibilities. Don t be satisfied with your first thought.
Look at what caught your attention from different angles -- from the sides, from
higher up, and lie on the ground for a frog s eye-view.

I decided to focus in on the white stone, because its smooth texture and
brightness contrasted to the elements around it. So what options did it present?
By focusing just on the stone and what was immediately around it, I narrowed it
down to two options to explore. These were either the stone with the soil below it,
or the stone and the tree trunk above it.

Shifting my attention to the stone and the soil (as shown in this photo), I decided
I probably preferred the tree bark option. The bark had a more defined texture
and pattern, as well as more colour variation, which would probably make for a
more interesting abstract.

Between the chaos of the ground and the simplicity of the stone, there s an
interface that s been stained. What I like is that the fact that it s not an
immediate jump between the two, there s this bit where two aspects of nature
have intertwined. (Yup, all this from a stone and some soil!)

03
of 07
DECIDING ON THE ABSTRACT PAINTING'S COMPOSITION
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

So now that I d made a decision on what elements I would use as the source of
my inspiration for the abstract, I needed to decide how I was going to arrange
these on my canvas, to set out the composition.

What were the options, given I'd only two objects -- the tree trunk and the white
stone. Would I use the two elements equally, creating an abstract painting that
was half smooth and half textured? Would I include some of the 'dirty' underside
of the white stone, which could be painted in an impasto style to give it texture
and in the same tones as the tree trunk, creating an echo or balance in the
composition?

04
of 07
STILL CONSIDERING THE ABSTRACT PAINTINGS COMPOSITION
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

Or what about letting the strong curve on the top of the white stone dominate the
composition? And using a little more of the underside of the stone, so there
would be almost equal areas of dark texture at the top and bottom of the
composition? Or how about not showing any of the underside of the stone?

Look at direction of the texture at the bottom of the stone: it s going

horizontally, which is in opposition to the direction of the bark. This would add a
dynamic element to the painting.

And what happens to the composition if I turn the photo on its side? Turn your
head to the left and to the right to consider for a moment how the composition
would alter by this seemingly simple change.

I continue considering the options and potential in this way until I decide which
appeals to me the most.

05
of 07
FINALISING THE INSPIRATION FOR AN ABSTRACT PAINTING
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

In the end I decided to use just the tree bark and the smooth white stone, without
any of its underside, as the basis for an abstract painting. And to 'zoom out' a bit
so that the curve on the top of the stone came down on both sides -- but not to the
same point.

I like the contract between the strong verticals in the tree trunk to the curve of the
stone. And the contract between the rough bark and the smooth stone. I visualize
it as an abstract painting done with a palette knife, applied roughly for the bark
(and mostly likely with some texture paste added to the paint), and in broad,
sweeping strokes for the stone, following the top curve.

06
of 07
HOW DOES THE FINAL ABSTRACT PAINTING LOOK?
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

I haven t yet found the time to paint this idea, it s still in my mental in-
box , waiting patiently. I m sure that one day I will translate the idea onto
canvas. In the meantime, the photo here is a digitally manipulated one, using a
palette knife filter and increasing the amount of red in the photo, to give you an
idea of how it might turn out.

07
of 07
NEW POTENTIAL FOR AN ABSTRACT PAINTING EMERGES
Photo by Marion Boddy-Evans

Then again, what happens if I turn it 180 degrees? Suddenly it reminds me of

looking up at a waterfall, with the water reflecting the red of a strong sunset. Or is
that a big full moon in a dark sky with the fiery traces of a comet s tail?

What was wood and stone has been changed through adapting the colours into
something which could easily represent fire and ice. Is that red lava flowing
there? This would create a striking incongruity -- that you could have something
so hot next to something that was frozen.

As I said, abstract painting isn t only about looking, it s about changing what
you see.
10 Lessons You Can Learn From Nature
(PHOTOS)
By Rafe Sagarin
Biological organisms and human society face the same fundamental problem,
which is that risk in the world is inevitable and unpredictable. In business, in
counter-terrorism, and homeland security, we have expended massive
resources trying to predict and plan for the uncertain threats of the future, but
the next terrorist attack, the next stock market crash, and the next killer app
inevitably take us by surprise, forcing us to react well after the damage has
been done.

The biological world has a much better track record. Biological organisms
have not only survived, but thrived, in a world of extreme and unpredictable
risks for over 3.5 billion years. Not even IBM has that kind of longevity.
Theyve also diversified into well over 10 million different species and covered
the planet from the deepest to the highest to the wettest to the driest
environments. Not even Google has that global reach. Remarkably,
organisms in nature dont plan, they dont predict, and they dont try to perfect
themselves.

How theyve pulled off this remarkable feat is quite simply that they are all
adaptable. Strictly speaking, adaptability is the process of changing
structures, behaviors and interactions in response to changes in the
environment. In practice, adaptability means owning the middle ground
between reacting to a past crisis (by which point it is too late to prevent it) and
predicting the next one (which is never possible in a complex and dynamic
world).

Of course, adaptability has become a buzzword in the business world and in

the security field. With each new market crash, regulatory change, natural
disaster, and terrorist attack, the cry comes up to become more adaptable.
The problem with these idealistic calls to arms is that few institutions
whether in the government or in the free marketreally know what
adaptability is or how to make it happen.

In my book, Learning from the Octopus: the Secrets from Nature that Can
Help Us Fight Terrorism, Natural Disasters, and Disease[Basic Books,
$26.95] I use my perspective as a biologist to break down adaptability into its
component parts so it can be built back into any organization, even those that
are currently mired in bureaucratic stasis. My case study is nature itself, in all
its diversity, from viruses to humans, and all its complexity, from DNA to
ecosystems. Culling the massive resultant database of adaptable solutions
and translating the results into outputs useful for society has required a large
interdisciplinary effort of evolutionary biologists, paleontologists,
anthropologists, psychologists, as well as network analysts, counterterrorism
experts and public health officials, which I first organized at the National
Science Foundations National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
Here I present some key findings from nature and show how they can help an
organization, or an individual, become more adaptable.