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I appreciate greatly this sentence,"We’re on a perennial quest for knowledge and ideas that inform rather than educate, that supplement rather than provoke, that reaffirm rather than disrupt."

The modern world presents us all with such odd territory. In my perspective is also that knowledge without questioning and contemplation is empty. I need to ask myself how often I devour instead of educate myself.

Thank you for another wonderful publication!

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I am so glad you said all this! I get irritated every time some entity online talks about a "curated" collection when they never had anyone in mind but themselves. They made a list. They used technology when a truly curated offering is indeed connected by many well-thought-out dots, some of which are discovered only after taking time to reflect on a collection. When I walk through a photographic exhibit, for example, I love the glimmerings I catch of how it was put together, all the obvious and less obvious connections.

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Apr 17, 2022·edited Apr 17, 2022Liked by Josh Pillay

The obscure and unknown, or often just something emergent from the fringe of popular culture is the lifeblood of creativity. That was definitely lost to a world of algorithms based upon "popularity". A wonderful essay 👍

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Interesting, I had never tied curation with our ability (or inability) to be with the unknown. As a photographer, I do a LOT of curation really. I mean, I take hundreds of photos nearly very day and a long time ago I decided I would post a sunrise in the morning, a more artistic photo in the evening and then one other interesting subject during the day. Sometimes I can't resist an extra post, like in the middle of migration when something really cool happens, but mostly I stick to this. Same with my weekly posts and selecting the photos for them.

My biggest thought on this is that when I go to museums the curations often feel cold and lifeless to me. Like they were too intellectually selected with not enough feeling. I do try to select everything I post based on feeling. (Which is interesting, because I've learned that my feeling from a photo won't match the recipient.) None the less, it's far less intellectual than feeling based (and in feeling I'd include sensing, intuition and emotion at least). I have a friend who owns a very successful art gallery and her curations never feel lifeless. I suspect this is because she's coming from the feeling perspective and she's always aware of the feeling she's generating in her gallery. She lives in an apartment attached to the gallery - it's literally part of her.

I know so many great artists that can't get past academia and museum snobbery but they produce the most amazing artwork that makes me feel and ponder the unkonwn. So I can see that even in those curated spaces, the unknown is not very popular. Big blobs of blue splashed on a canvas can go for thousands of dollars but intriguing shapes, shadows and images that make us feel are hard to come by.

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