A conversation with Amos Blanton
Rough notes from an informal remote meeting: exhalations that form a cloud, the Diamond Sutra, Olafur Eliasson — and designing for an adjacent possible that people can lean into.
We scheduled an informal remote meeting with Amos Blanton, whose work sits between tinkering, constructionist exhibits and collective creativity. What follows are the rough notes we took during the call, rather than a tidied-up account.
Clouds made of breath
- The theme music of Midnight Diner, where someone’s exhalations become part of a cloud.
- Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation of the Diamond Sutra, and interbeing.
- Olafur Eliasson’s Beauty: a dark room, mist and a single beam of light.
Tinkering and “scenius”
Amos talked about projects like Sun Flowers, Potato Bug and Playing with the Sun: construction sets without computers, where different categories of creation emerge from what people choose to make. He talked about Brian Eno’s idea of scenius, the collective genius of a scene, and about tinkering spaces like the Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio.
Two principles we took away, especially for a future workshop:
- Design an adjacent possible that people can discover, lean into and make their own.
- Offer multiple entry points, so the work is open to many more people.