When I was about seven years old I invented a philosophy.
Back then I didn’t even know what philosophy meant, I probably couldn’t even spell the word. Nor did I know that I was creating a philosophy so significant it would impact every move I made from there on out.
It was a philosophy so simple that anybody, even a seven year old, could understand. And a philosophy so true that it can be applied to absolutely any situation.
It was a little spark of genius and I’m pretty sure in a hundred years’ time this quote will sit on a plaque somewhere in a famous gallery alongside Hippocrates and Hemmingway, but for now it’s just here on All My Heroes Are Weirdos.
We are all just dots on the planet
Laurie Elizabeth Stewart 1992
Encarta ‘92
I remember where I was when I invented it.
I was sat in the attic at home which had been converted into a very nice office for my Dad to work from home sometimes. It had a huge black wooden desk and a black leather chair, white walls and exposed brick, and thick wooden beams that led up towards the pointed rooftop.
There was a standing lamp in the corner shining down on the cream padded reading chair next to his book case full of books on management and strategy.
He had drawers full of stationery; pens and pencils and stamps and staplers and post-its in every colour. He had paperclips and hole-punchers and stacks of envelopes in every size.
But to my seven year old self it wasn’t an office at all. It was just a really cool den, full of really cool things with views to the world and unlimited access to Encarta.
Back then, classes in school had just about started to get interesting. We’d outgrown hand painting and nursery rhymes and had moved on to English, Maths & Science. But I wanted to learn more than my twelve times table – I wanted to learn about the world.
So every evening after school, Encarta ’92 became my around the world ticket.
I travelled to Africa, China, India and every other far away land I’d ever heard of. I learned about The Great Wall, Mount Everest and Kilamanjaro, the Pompeii disaster of 79AD and quirky Renaissance painters who chopped off their own ears. I learned about the World Wildlife Fund and Anita Roddick and Martin Luther King.
Then I learned that there were 5.4 billion people on the planet – and that’s when I had my epiphany.
The Dot Philosophies Installation
Now to explain this philosophy, I want you to imagine you’re walking through the tall glass door of an exhibition space at art gallery. There are high ceilings, white walls and immaculate while tiled floors.
The air is crisp and cool and calm as it always tends to be in those kinds of places and the only sound that can be heard is the slow-paced heel to toe movements of your own feet. There’s nobody else around. Everything you see and hear and feel is yours.
As you turn right into the space, there’s a sign on the wall illuminated from behind by soft grey-green lighting. You pause to read.
“We Are All Dots On The Planet by LS is a work that explores the simple and complex philosophies of human interconnectedness.
Using various lenses, we zoom in and out of our continued state of impermanence, gaining an appreciation for both the insignificance of our momentary presence and the microscopic details that make up our intricately entangled existence.
We explore the ever-evolving complexities of our social networks, how we create and abandon emotional bonds and the destructive role of the ego in self-perception.
We Are All Dots On The Planet is an investigation into our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual perception of reality and a philosophy, that if applied correctly, can lead to a happier and consciously care-free life.”
Join us tomorrow for installation number one