Anyway, some folk where wondering what an Africa born designer is doing fiddling around in the viking culture. Well part of my ancestry, (i say part because i have a very colorful bloodline) Is from Friesland (according to the dutch lady behind the counter at a hotel in Amsterdam who heard my surname- its where all the proper madmen are. Her very serious words to me, not mine. I immediately loved the place and that part of my ancestry) coupled with part of being born on the beautiful African continent is a fervent exploration of past linked cultures. Genetic creative design experimentation in some ways perhaps. As well as being inspired by the many cultures on our continent and the wild African fauna and flora - sky , land , sea. All this inspiration to ultimately try to understand oneself.
Also, surprise , surprise the vikings where known for 3 things amongst others - And you cant do the one, without sending genetic material across the known and unknown world. Enough said really. So i feel i have a certain linkage to be able to design the longboats, oops longships that my ancestors wildly paddled and sailed over distant horizons.
Also, surprise , surprise the vikings where known for 3 things amongst others - And you cant do the one, without sending genetic material across the known and unknown world. Enough said really. So i feel i have a certain linkage to be able to design the longboats, oops longships that my ancestors wildly paddled and sailed over distant horizons.
I term myself as a perpetual motion creative. Business, money and those ideals have never really interested me. My kids ask me what subjects they should do at school. I just say, stay extremely far away from any of the arts, do accounting. Do all the subjects that teach you to earn a living, take care of a family and survive more easily. The path of the creative is fraught with huge peril, dangerous pathways, mountainous dangerous seas, monsters, dragons and DEATH! Its only an arena for those who daydream big, imagine wide and are prepared to walk far on their own bleeding self belief stumps. The raw reality to my mind is the road of a creative is not a monetary secure one. If money is your poison, then you better drink something else. Few it seems make it in the creative arts, as the trajectory is much longer, One has to carve out a name first. This can take time and lots of no bread to bed evenings, Always abit of wine mind you. Great conversation and the gnawing imaginings of, maybe this idea is the golden nugget. We rich charlie , we rich my boy. (sorry lapsed into a fusion chocolate factory reality moment - fortunately i noticed a Johnny Depp look like scissors hand, weph, (couldive been gone for days)
So having had a life earth scare several years ago, in the aftermath of the news , i started calculating days lived if one makes it to say 60 yrs, hrs spent on the planet etc etc. The usual thing im told when your analyzing and unpacking such things in those cerebral moments. I realized we all dont have very long on this very cold rock. So i decided to purely work on my creative imaginative designs as a perpetual motion creative venture. If a like minded person picked up on them and carried one forward when im gone, then thats great, that would be the goal. With so much creative energy spent following trends and past masters and other creatives , artists and designers. I felt i had lost my own creative communicative expression and language. So wildetecture was born. An African fauvistic creative expression of now 3 African fellow wildetect thinking creative designers. Our own unique interpretation of what its like to create within an Africa context, also having ancestral influence from the rest of the world. A fervent pursuit of a unique expressive language. "wildetecture style."
Weve had a few big wildetect milestones along the way so far - we had a very encouraging email from to my mind, one of America's foremost living architects. (that has been the super highlight of our wildetect journey so far) A tip of the hat from a man of that creative design calibre. Bart Prince - wow his kind encouraging words to us really meant allot. (light in a dark place) Weve had wildetect art exhibitions, articles in a few fringe design mags and blogs. a mention in a local cape times paper (whohoo), the folk at world design capitol 2014 have been very kind to us, as well as youngblood art gallery in cape town. Isandhlwana investment has really also helped us along the way. Very powerful creative fuel events are the viral VNLT design crit files - over 1.8 million views in 5 days on a design idea. Many really funny comments on the design BTW. The Smithsonian museum storing 2 articles about wildetecture in their archives. It was like a tiny blip on an artistic mega board. Maybe we onto something here. Maybe the perpetual motion is moving this ship on future tides. Man now thats fuel. Also according to webstatsdomain this QJD site is worth over 1.3 million us$. (that must be a joke) Pretty cool for a creative from Muizenberg - Souf Efrika (must say that with a local SA accent) nogal.
But the most powerful thing is - we get to wildetecturalise and wildemagine (Band name - u see im not kidding) stuff that nobody can tell us we cant do. This is a wildetect creative journey and we dont really care much, if nobody likes it, if nobody buys anything. if living out my days imagining some kid in three hundred years time seeing a wildetect design uncovered from one of our buried time capsules and then imagines something much, much better. Then man that brings a huge smile to my face , that is better than money. Thats perpetual motion creative design - Wildetect style. Creating for self with the possibility of sparking someone else.
This now is a voice from 2025, i can do that with this blog. Interject on myself after the many years fact. The above diatribe was written many years ago. Since then ive forged ahead on my spiritual tragectory. Leaving all else in the above in perspective, now in the dust. Beyond everything else ive realised and when all things are said and done. Pursue spiritual ideals, this alone keeps one thinking less of self and more of others. Thats the best point of departure for any creative.
