Nikio

In every field of human creativity you usually have two separate domains of creation; professional and the amateur. In many cases the amateurs are inspired by the professionals but pro's don't care much about the amateurs. In many cases. But not in all cases.

Especially in music many professional composers and musicians study native and folk music for inspiration. In painting something similar happened in late 19th century with Paul Gauguin who studied "primitive art" and childish drawings in order to connect with the primal instincts of our painting skills.

But there better examples. In astronomy pro's and amateurs work hand in hand. Ever since the equipment (telescopes, ccd chips, etc) became ever-more available, amateurs take a huge part in collecting all sorts of data that is impossible for the professionals to handle. Amateurs may not have the largest telescopes at their hand (quite frankly, oftentimes you don't need large telescopes), but they have lots and lots of time, and more importantly, they are in great number, so their contribution sums up. For the last 20 years a lot of asteroids and other small bodies within our solar system were discovered by the amateurs. Simply put; you just have to continuously photograph small portions of the sky and search for "stars" that move in relation to the others. Whatever moved may be a candidate for an asteroid or a comet. Detection of such things takes a lot of time which is something that you just might not have if you work on a large professional telescope (there are "better" things to do there). This kind of research is ideal for the amateurs, and professional community benefits greatly from the work of committed hobbyists.

Until recently professional photography and filmography didn't bother much for the amateurs. And many of the old time pro's still look down upon the amateur creativity. But I think we should be more careful. Amateurs of today can have almost the same kind of equipment as professionals and in these terms there is almost no distinction left. Sometimes you will see a bunch of amateurs with Canon EOS 1DS mkIII . Dedicated amateurs are no longer different in that respect.

But they do different things. Since they don't have responsibility towards the client, they can try and do so much more. The digital revolution lowered the price of failure to almost zero, so people try really absurd things and many times the results are surprising.
Just take a look at this:


Can you imagine somebody spending 500 EUR worth of film for this? You know, just to have some fun with a rotten apple? Of course not. We had "better" things to do with film. The price of failure was high and people didn't dare to try out these crazy ideas so nothing original was never produced. When the price of failure is high you stick to the old and well tested methods, of course you perfect them, but you don't innovate. If you see the collection of what we did on film, you may see a lot of perfection but not much innovation.

Things now changed and if one looks at Flickr, one may find the craziest things possible. People just experiment as they never did before. And I believe that professionals can learn from them. To often pro's don't have the time or energy to do this sorts of tests, but amateurs do. And pro's can learn from them a lot. There is no reason to look down upon them. We'd be all better of working hand in hand.

Usually when I travel I try to dig a bit deeper and go under the skin of the places I visit. Last weekend I was trekking and sailing on Kornati islands and for two evenings I stayed in its biggest town, Sali. As I walked the town I spotted a small library.


And what a library that is! On a very small space (about 30-40m2, if you know what I mean) you have a fine book collection, a few computers, a nice telescope, a piano (that anyone can play), chess, plasma TV, two couches, some sofas, a copy machine, lot's of photos, paintings, prints... And everything is sooooo nicely arranged. It invites you to stop, think and have some itellectual fun, while it is not serious and repulsive (as most libraries) at all!


Soon it became clear why. The man behind it, Mr. Ante Mihić, must be the most amazing guy you will ever meet. His idea of a library is far wider than of most of us. It is not just a place to rent and read books, it is a cultural and intelectual center where people of all ages gather, discuss ideas, have fun, watch football, tell stories, make jokes, laugh and inspire each-other!



"Most libraries are open during the week when people are at work or in school. What's the point of that? Our library works sunday evenings when people have time and energy for leisure! People, not the schedule, are our top priority!", he said. How often do we forget that!? "Everyone is welcome to join our library here at Sali. We have members from all over the world!" Indeed, it took me less than a moment to feel at home there. That small place covered almost all of my academic and social interests at once.


Don't you wish you had such a library in your town?

Today i went watching partial lunar eclipse. The night was clear, bright and very very warm. Even in august this would be considered warm.

The moon was fantastic. Here's a crapy picture as seen with my Sony camera.