Letter 44: Radical Intersection, Unreasonable Work, Jasper Johns.
What to do when there's conflicts at work, how to be an artist, how to start.
∩ Conflict Resolution via Radical Intersection
My father spent a half of a century occupying what he called the “radical middle” between two seemingly irreconcilable worlds: cattlemen and environmentalists. His life’s work was to help people realize that you could create land conditions that were simultaneously good for the environment and good for cattle grazing. The idea that grazing—when done with care and science—could actually help (instead of only destroy) the environment was indeed radical. Why do I bring this up? I am very interested in how we can step into the radical intersection of the conflicts in our own lives.
I watched my father work in the field from an early age. He would bring people together who identified as ideological adversaries and then, after just a few hours of walking the field, looking at the stream bank, and reading the rangeland like one might a book, they would soften their expressions and almost always start to see some possibility (however slight) of common interests. It’s hard to deny the presence of common ground when you’ve spent several hours walking on it.
Resolving Conflicts
What are the conflicts in your life?
What would happen if you sought the radical intersection?
What if your enemy was your ally in a common cause?
This doesn’t work with with every situation. I respectfully acknowledge some situations are outside the scope of this advice.
And yet…
What if it’s a way forward for your problem?
If you work at a company and are fighting with someone inside the building in a battle of wills or ideals or mental models, or “personalities” or dogma, or interpretation of “data” or priorities or any other conflict that might divide us, then ask yourself what’s our radical intersection?
Let’s hope at its core it’s the customer: that wonderful person using your product. Let’s hope both you and your teammate want a transformative experience for her. Let’s hope you both want to change her life and keep her happy (and a continuing customer) forever.
If you’re a writer, director, actor, or any other job related to film, let’s hope your radical intersection is the audience. How might we transform the audience and help them become the people they long to be? At Dreamworks, when there was a battle in the story dept or the art dept or the layout dept or the editing suite or anywhere else in the production pipeline, the radical intersection was always the audience. What does the audience need in the moment (not what do they want, but what do they need to experience by means of the characters on the screen)? Or at least, when we were at our best we thought of the audience.
Your Turn
Challenge yourself to seek the radical intersection in your own conflicts. It might be just under that first layer of anger or frustration or obstinance or greed—either yours or the other party. Try looking for it. It might be closer than you’d think.
Unreasonable Work
Artists, designers, writers—let’s do unreasonable work. The rest of the team is already busy being reasonable. Let’s be the ones to think radically differently. Let’s find the edges. Let’s give the world the never before and the forever after. Our purpose is to do what others can’t dare to dream. Our place is to speak truth—that deep, aching, irreducible truth. We open doors to new thought. We connect the dots that no one else can see. We fight for beauty. We set fire to fear and walk through the flames. Our job is to create. So let’s create. Let’s give the greatest we’ve got. And if we succeed, (a very slight chance, but let’s try) our reward is immortality.
Jasper Johns
American Artist Jasper Johns offered this:
“Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”
It is a recipe for an experimental art practice. It is also a fantastic way to start nearly any project. Instead of coming up with your most creative, outrageous, and totally new thought… start with an ordinary one. Start with something so dull it hurts. And then make a change. And then another. And keep going.
Somewhere along the line the idea will stop being a transmogrification of the dull idea and will instead be something wholly new. And from that a different, even more interesting or important or effective idea will emerge. Just start (and keep going).
Your Turn
What’s something you’re trying to do but struggling to start? Try the Johns approach and just begin. And then change one thing. And then another.
Thanks for reading. If any of this was enjoyable to you, or lit a spark of imagination inside your mind, please reply to this email. I very much enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Challenge:
Can you think of three people you know who would enjoy this newsletter? Just fwd it with a note saying…
“Thought of you while reading this newsletter.”
That one interesting friend who is always reading
That one fashionable friend who loves difficult art
That one friend who is working in tech, but has the heart of a poet
Also—Thank you to the writers and substack managers who have listed me as a recommended site. Your trust means the world to me.
You’re getting this newsletter because at some point you signed-up on my Twitter Medium LinkedIn or Insta. Think of me as your favorite creative person on the internet, who always tries to give you something artful, helpful, and interesting.
24-Hour Story, Art, and Design Hotline
(call my Digital Mind and talk to AI-Buckhouse)
+1 (650) 675-5734