How Alain de Botton creates space with thoughts and ideas
Happyplaces Stories (video)
‘I think it would be wonderful if we weren’t so sensitive to the spaces we’re in. Because most of the modern world looks quite ugly. Most of the spaces we’re in are quite ugly spaces. And I think we don’t really realize how much we suffer in those ugly places, until we come across a beautiful place. It is like a sort of annoying noise that we’ve forgotten is there. When it goes quiet, it’s a beautiful thing.’
‘I think the spaces that we need are those that will support us in being the kind of people we want to be. So spaces that make us feel cheerful, kind, compassionate, creative, generous.’
In the summer of 2013 I sent a fairly ignorant question to Alain saying: ‘Hi Alain, would it be possible to do a short interview (long is of course always a great option too)’ through Facebook. To which he instantly replied one minute later: ‘Come and hear me talk and then let’s talk more after!’ and so I was off to London to look him up. In my quest to find all the possible dimensions of space, he has to be one of my sources.
I visited the Sunday Sermon, about Art as Therapy, not so coincidentally also the title of his newest book he was releasing. These secular sermons at The School of Life are inspirational gatherings with mass sing-a-longs and a guest speaker. The School of Life is a generally and continually inspiring little place, an initiative by Alain the Botton, where you can sit back, relax, listen and give yourself space to be intellectually challenged. It is a wee social enterprise which offers these sermons, but also talks, classes and courses which can really have a profound affect on the way you live your life and the way you think and perceive your life to be. Heady kinda stuff.
It was really nice. Funny to be in a big space with over 500 people passionately singing along with Robbie Williams’ Angels before Alain started his talk. He of course shared the thoughts and beliefs about the book. But also some other interesting learnings. For example, that he sees his books as theories, ideas, concepts, that need to come to fruition in tangible projects to prove they make sense. That’s also why he started several projects like School of Life (to impact the way we actually live by developing emotional intelligence), Living Architecture (to have people experience beautiful spaces) and the exhibition within the Rijksmueum Art Is Therapy (to show that art can help us with our most intimate and ordinary dilemmas).
We met right after the sermon. He said: ‘I give you seven minutes.’ I said: ‘I only need one. To make an appointment for moment on a different day, where you are less rushed.’ He smiled and replied: ‘I would do it now if I were you.’ The great thing of Alain is, that he has ideas and instant available knowlegde and ideas. Almost like a Wurlizer jukebox. When I was still building up the camera, I shared the context of the project. You could see his mind working, like the mechanism of a jukebox, pulling stories from is endless collection of ideas and thoughts to then unleash fifteen minutes worth of knowledge in the remaining three minutes. Fascinating. Intimidating, in a good way. It helped me to want to learn more from even more people, to enable me to pull knowledge and wisdom from my memory just as easily. Alain spent a lot of time in a wide variety of subjects, allowing him to easily navigate to all those thought spaces, ‘the space inside his head’ as he calls it himself. Which in return creates a filter, or viewpoints to look at the world from different perspectives, to better understand it an see spaces that are overlooked, hidden, ignored, or maybe just seen from one perspective.
