October's Creative Quest theme...
Issue #32 🔆 It's new month, it's new theme, it's a new Quest! We have lots of inspiration for you...
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Hello Quest Digesters,
Sam here. This week we kicked of Quest #11!
We have 72 curious humans in 8 countries joining us for this collective exploration (including our first Questers in Iran and Kenya!). We are just 4 days in and the energy in this group is infectious.
This is our first Quest where the theme choosing process was completely decentralised. From dreaming 100 themes as a community - to whittling down shortlists - then eventually putting 3 themes to the wider vote.
One emerged as our winner…
It illuminates us to tell you that October’s Creative Quest theme is Light.
The Harvest Moon in the northern hemisphere saw us into October - a celestial signalling that our days are growing shorter and nights longer. We are Questing in sync with the seasons.
Light is somewhat hard to explain.
A complex, invisible ingredient that permeates our every day; from the moment we open our eyes and perceive our reality, to the moment we close them and darkness takes us to vivid, imagined places.
Luminosity has fascinated us throughout time. Art, science, religion, philosophy all united in one big, torch-lit search party toward a deeper comprehension of light’s role in our lives.
Yet - in a world more illuminated than ever - have we somehow darkened our understanding? Has our connection to the rhythm of sun, moon and stars been overshadowed by perpetual digital glows, fluorescent cubicles, and screens that never sleep?
Throughout the next month our collectives mission is to channel our curiosity in the same direction, refracting and reflecting each other’s creativity a long the way.
Together our collective will share golden hours, trade ideas and stories over virtual campfires, and perhaps even some real ones.
A Quest is all about learning to ‘see differently’.
In this Quest we dive into the wonders of seeing itself.
👁🗨 🔆
p.s - inspired by my recent experience joining Lonely Writers Club by - this theme announce was co-authored by October’s Quest research crew. Ariana Cohen-Halberstam, Leah Hammerman, Sam Furness (me), Vera Janke.
We each spent 10 minutes free writing on the theme of LIGHT and what stuck with us from the research process. Then, out of curiosity, I put it all in CHAT GPT to see if it could edit together something convincing. It could not. It was bland and cliche.
So I pulled it together myself with feedback from Ariana, Leah & Vera.
A small but significant win for human creativity.
Over the course of the next month The Quest Digest will be themed in line with our current exploration. We’ll be sharing our creative Light learnings and makings with you.
You will hear from some of our Questers on their experiences too.
🔆 We invite you to share your LIGHT knowledge and associations with us!💡
Ideas / Books / Podcasts / Films / People / Communities / Culture / Art
Help fuel our worldwide creative collective and leave us a comment!
A round up of illuminating Light-themed discoveries from our Questers so far this month…
✍️ This months Quest Archivist (who keeps our Communal Journal bountiful and tidy) Melanie Knight is writing a Substack about her Quest this month. It’s ace!
😊 Immersive art installation hospital lights help improve mood of patients.
🔮 This week, Irish rock legends U2 played the first show inside the Las Vegas Sphere which contains the largest LED screen in the world
💙 How to make your own cyanotype prints. A form of early photography (which is quite simple to do) which develops rich blue impression prints from daylight.
🌟 ‘In the age of distraction, honouring the light within’. An incredible piece of writing in Atmos Magazine by Ruth H Robertson on indigenous perspectives of light.
📒 For the past decade, Lemn Sissay has composed a 4-line poem as dawn breaks each morning. Let The Light Pour In is a simple and moving collection, well worth a read!
☯️ Why Light needs Darkness a Ted Talk by Rogier van der Heide
🕯 How to do a candle gazing meditation
💡 Is Artificial Light Poisoning the Planet?
“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”
- Terry Pratchett
Finally…
We had such a blast at our REMIXER event in collaboration with Future Strategy Club a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned for more live events!
With Light,
Sam x
🥾 Quest Guide / Founder
📲 @saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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love this recap and all the themed resources you've already come up with! I wish I could dedicate the time to participating this go round!