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Chaos Theory

What if it doesn't have to make sense?

Published 19 days ago • 1 min read

chaos theory

with Antonina Mamzenko

Hi

Sometimes, as artists, we are too obsessed with making the meaning behind our work clear.

But what it we didn’t?

What if we left things unsaid?

What if we decided to be unapologetically non-sensical?

What if our work held conflicting meanings and we didn’t care to clarify our intentions?

I love this quote by the American artist John Baldessari: "I’m just interested in fucking people up when they’re looking at my work."

So, my question to you is:
​
How can you flip the script?
How can you get playful?
How can you get humorous and subversive?

How can you “fuck people up” when they are looking at your work?
​
This is one of the very first things I ask people to do in Words+Pictures: get nonsensical, hide the meaning, work intuitively, experiment unapologetically, trust their gut and ask it no questions - and see what happens.
​
​Come play - we start again on 16th April and there are 4 spots left.

Antonina x

Evergreen reminders about working with me:

​The Soup: A small group mentoring programme without a curriculum, but with spacious structure and accountability. Next one will run in the autumn. Hit reply if you'd like to chat and see if it's the right fit for you.

​1:1 Mentoring: If you need help with a specific question, be it your pricing structure, feedback on your brand new website or portfolio, or need some thought partnership, 90 minute mentoring slots are available. There's also a solidarity rate for those who would not be able to access mentoring otherwise.

​Family Photography: This year might be the last I'm offering my signature Adventure Sessions, and my availability is limited. If you're overdue one for your family, it may be a good idea to pencil in a date now. Hit reply to this email and let's chat. Unconventional Family Portraits are also available for those local(ish) to me. If we've worked together before I may be open to travelling a bit further afield for those, so ping me a message.

Want to leave me a tip and support my writing? Here's my tip jar.​

Antonina Mamzenko, Surrey, KT8
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Chaos Theory

with Antonina Mamzenko

In mathematics, chaos theory refers to the science of surprises. It deals with things that are impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, our brain states, the stock market – or, dare I say it, human creativity and imagination. This newsletter is for lateral thinkers. It’s for creative souls. For storytellers. For multi-hyphenates. For chaos goblins. For those who refuse to follow a trodden path. Those who feel everything so, so deeply. For those who are still working things out. For those who refuse to contort their humanity into a predictable, likeable shape so that they, too, can win at capitalism.

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