Discussion

This is taken at the White Cloth Gallery in Leeds where I joined a number of blippers for the opening of an Urbex exhibition. As so often happens at these kinds of event I became far more interested in the people looking at the photographs than in the photographs themselves. They were good but it felt mostly like historical documentation. I didn't seem to be able to find any real emotional engagement with the pictures. That was possibly down to the headspace I was in following a tough day at work. So many hours spent at the computer means that all the mind really wants to do when it escapes is turn itself off. Following the exhibition I succeeded in doing that completely by watching Kingsman, which was a thoroughly entertaining movie in the silliest, cleverest and most stylishly violent way imaginable. Sometimes silly is just what you need. I shall never be able to enjoy a firework display in quite the same way again!

Thanks for your thoughts on Multitasking. It was meant to be a bit provocative. I think multitasking only properly happens when one or more of those tasks have been practised long enough to have been taken over by the unconscious mind. I don't actually think it's possible to give our full conscious attention to more than one thing at the same time. I think young people often flit rapidly between many things but I'm not convinced that's true multitasking. I think that in this day of the internet and instant mobile communication we are possibly losing the ability to focus on one thing at a time, perhaps trading quality for quantity as a result. I'm still resisting joining the smartphone revolution because I don't want to smear out my concentration any more than it already is. I think singletasking is now becoming a rarer skill in life and I want to keep my practice in at that!