The last two years have been strange indeed. We have been, as I recall my grandfather (who was born in 1899) was wont to say, cabined, cribbed, and confined. This is a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth that speaks to the protagonist’s sense of mental unease following his murder of Duncan the king and Banquo.
We too have a strong sense (in a very different way!) of a physical and mental constraint from extended lockdowns and remote learning, where relational engagement and creative expression have faced obstacles.

Yet great art, creativity and innovation can often be found where there are difficulties, challenges and impediments to overcome.

As a musician, one of my favourite observations about creativity and artistic freedom comes from Igor Stravinsky’s Poetics of Music.

‘I have no use for a theoretic freedom...And yet which of us has ever heard talk of art as other than a realm of freedom? This sort of heresy is uniformly widespread because it is imagined that art is outside the bounds of ordinary activity. Well, in art as in everything else, one can build only upon a resisting foundation: whatever constantly gives way to pressure, constantly renders movement impossible.
My freedom thus consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings.
I shall go even further: my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.’

I shared this perspective last year and do so again here, hoping that the release of constraint at the end of 2021 can itself be equally inspiring!

Trevor Smith

(Principal)