Skip to content

Maybe Art Only Needs to Be

2023-02-21 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Global development, History & curiosities, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal update · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask

Throwing a secret keeper on the pottery wheel after the P4A weekend, John reports the 16th Project for Awesome has raised over $3 million, muses that wheels were invented for pottery, calls the chat's closing chorus his favorite part and a reminder that hope is the right response to consciousness, and says art need not be great to be worthwhile.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; pottery for peace and quiet after the P4A weekend

  • ★★ After the weekend's excitement John makes pottery for some peace and quiet, not trying to be good at it but to distract himself. — 00:00:00

00:00:23 — Centering the clay; what secret keepers are for

  • ★★★ John makes closed clay forms he calls secret keepers: you whisper something difficult, painful or traumatic into their holes so the secret lives in the form, not your brain. — 00:00:23
  • ★ John wants the secret keepers a little wonky, but says that with pottery, as with brains, centering is helpful. (playful) — 00:00:23

00:00:53 — P4A 2023 total, last day to donate, awesome in the classical sense, lucky to still do it; pulling up the cylinder

  • ★★★ John reports that as of recording the 16th annual Project for Awesome has raised just over three million dollars for charity. — 00:00:53 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John tells viewers they can still donate at projectforawesome.com/donate until the end of the day. — 00:00:53 · Project for Awesome

  • ★★★ John says every year the P4A is awesome in the classical sense: overwhelming, intimidating, thrilling and above all beautiful. — 00:01:05 · Project for Awesome

    “awesome in the classical sense of the word, overwhelming, intimidating, thrilling, and above all beautiful”

  • ★★ All weekend John kept thinking how lucky he and Hank are to still be able to do this and feel the warmth and light of this community. — 00:01:18 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:47 — Wheels were invented for pottery; bread and beer are older than wheels

  • ★★ John says wheels were not initially invented for transport but for pottery. — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Throwing pots feels ancient to John, but it is not that ancient: eating bread and drinking beer are older than wheels and wheel-thrown pottery. — 00:01:47

00:02:17 — Favorite P4A moment: families on stream and the chat's written chorus; hope as the response to consciousness

  • ★★★ John says his favorite part of this year's (2023) P4A was the very end, when their families were on the stream, everyone was celebrating together, and the chat together typed the phrase we're here because we're here over and over, a kind of written global chorus. — 00:02:17 · Project for Awesome

  • ★★★ John says the P4A reminds him that hope is the correct response to consciousness. — 00:02:33 · Project for Awesome, hope

    “hope is the correct response to consciousness”

00:02:46 — Closing the form with attention; carving spirals that are felt when unseen

  • ★★ Closing the form requires what John's distracted internet-based brain resists, being attentive, steady and patient; it is close to meditation. — 00:02:46
  • ★★ John carves spirals that he sometimes smooths over, yet they can still be felt in the hand; he likes how some unseen things are nonetheless felt. — 00:03:15

00:03:44 — Art only needs to be to be worthwhile; thanks for 16 P4As and sign-off

  • ★★★ John used to think art had to be great to be worthwhile; now he thinks it only has to be. — 00:03:44

    “I only think it has to be to be worthwhile”

  • ★★ John thanks Hank for 16 amazing Projects for Awesome. — 00:03:44 · Project for Awesome

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says John is making a secret keeper for a P4A donor, and that donating gets great perks until midnight tonight. — video description · Project for Awesome

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: pottery · Project for Awesome

Also: hope · We're Here Because We're Here

Also centred on pottery: Introducing: The Format

← Previous: COUNTDOWN TO THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME · Next → The P4A 2023 is The Hottest Club on the Internet