Darwin Jingili Water Gardens Day 4-5



Across the first 3 to 4 days of walking around Jingili Water Gardens my thinking evolved from discovery and my understanding of the actual scope of commitment it will take to realize a creative breakthrough. My reflection efforts have been centered on observing my thinking and my thoughts about my thinking. I now realize that I have evaded thinking about my cognitive psychology and what I bring to the gardens each repeated activity. In short, the subconscious filters that inhibit my perceptions

As mentioned in previous reflections, I am a career educator and a fledgling artist, and I am preparing my exit from educational leadership and building my aspirations as a late-career artist. The repeated activity is intended to enable me to find a difference that can help support a transformation.

On the macro, when I entered my artistic and education-based careers, computers were not readily available. As such, the Fine Arts course I completed at RMIT was in oil painting and teacher training at Monash University did not address information technology in the classroom. The notion of creativity was constructed on elite aspirations and consumption. Fine Arts belonged to the rich and the successful studio artists sold art through commercial art galleries. Schools sorted youth onto either blue and white collar pathways. Access to achievement relied on school resources - access to non-curriculum activity, teacher knowledge, and the school library. I would like to suggest that Jingili Water Garden's were designed by yesterday's concepts - a 1980's pre-information technology design. Like how I passed through school and acted as an artist how I pass through the gardens conforms in with the design concepts. The basis of my usage is low-level physical exercise, a fleeting form of mobility within the space, and an adoration of the natural components. I more or less follow the path that has been laid out for me. 

However, this design factor is the purpose of my repeated entry. I am seeking something different within the design constraint. My repetitive engagements are to find a difference that may support an artistic transformation.  This is not a pursuit of relaxed "just-do-it" consumption. Despite not knowing what I will specifically gain, I am employing the design agents embedded into Jingili Water Gardens to create my discreet insights.  I am investing my time in the park to transpose my thoughts to find a way forward.

In the book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates combined the consumption of the Internet by the populous, and the fledging placement of Microsoft in society to reestablish the corporation within what was evolving as a devoted movement of nonproprietary computing. Open-source and internet-connected computing were threats to Microsoft. I believe that Gates employed the act of writing The Road Ahead for himself and his corporation. The intended reader was not for the general public reader - unless the message was read as; hang in there with us we will catch up. In short, Gates had to reestablish Microsoft within an emerging creative force and his reflective writing was the stimulus for organizational change. The transformation into cloud-based services was a struggle, as has been the transformation of education and the arts from 20th to 21st-century change. What I have observed is that the transformation from broad-based consumption to user-centeredness is occurring, however, my knowledge and experience is struggling to keep up. I am not dissimilar to Education services and the Arts industry who are struggling to develop the strategies to step forward. 

In short, the world's population is aging at the same time there is rapid technological change. Forbes research highlights the aging of audiences and declining numbers attending museums and fine arts events.  Ironically, the future of art attendance seems to be stable for attendees over the age of 75 and over.  So what are the younger adults doing if not attending? The average age of teachers is 45 and from my observation of the teaching-force is that it is struggling to be suitably responsive to rapid societal change. Many academic educationalists comment on student disengagement and the turn over of young teacher graduates. My walk begins at 7:00am, numbers are few and the age group is in the mature age group. Despite school holidays, the Jingili Water Gardens are basically empty. The rapid changes in society must have some impact on the contextual purpose of suburban/city parks. I think it is fair to say that the unconscious purpose has changed, however, the lingering structures have not

This leads to a subtle variation of my reflective focus. That is the conceptual interface that governs access and activity in the arts, schools, and parks and gardens have constant variables. Despite the uniqueness of each domain, there is a consistent challenge. This challenge is also my challenge.

What I am looking at is my opportunity at aged 60, to actually see the opportunities created by change within what are established services I think and operate in. In regards to Jingili Water Gardens, my initial thinking has to do with, aesthetics, access, and interactivity. My challenge is that as an older artist I presently create products differently to that that interests younger users. My step forward is in the art and science of engaging users, and what I can do to attract the interest.











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