if you were there last night, you might remember me saying that i created a nice, pretty keynote presentation that went along with my shpill. you might also remember me saying that much to my chagrin, vino's doesn't have a connector for a computer... so, 15 minutes before my presentation, i had a very momentary freakout....but fortunately moved on pretty quickly. :)

so, i thought i would post my presentation here. you don't get all the fancy transitions and the crazy bells and whistles, but you do get the cold hard facts. you can view the presentation here or you can download a pdf of the presentation by clicking here.

also, everyone in attendance got a little visual booklet that abstractly followed along with my presentation. to get the full impact, it's best to have it in your hand and follow along, but if you want to subconsciously channel vino's backroom and me talking, you can download the booklet by clicking here.

be looking out soon for an announcement about next month's shindig!

sunday night (july 19), we'll be having our second ever public eikon gathering. specifically, it's an informational meeting at vino's at 6 p.m. it's really the must-attend event if you've had absolutely any interest in what we're doing with eikon. if you're teetering between going and not going, let me tell you about the 90/10 principle

in the late 40's, a dutch mathematician named hans freudenthal developed the 90/10 principle. in response to the world wars, mathematicians from around the world scrambled to make sense of global dynamics in terms of equations and numbers. his numerical theory set off a chain of events that put into motion a chaotic freefall into global anarchy.

ok, so maybe i just made all that up... :)

but if it makes you feel any better, the 90/10 principle is also just made up. sorta. let me explain.

for those who are, in fact, teetering on whether or not to attend, let me offer this principle that i've come up with to express the importance of attendance on sunday night.

whereas the first gathering we had (the cookout) was simply intended to be relational, introductory and informal, this meeting—while incorporating some of the same elements as the cookout—is intended to be information-driven. this meeting will tell you the who, what, when, where, why & how of eikon. everything you could possibly want to know (for the most part) will be discussed in some way at this meeting. additionally, we'll be having a q&a time at the end just in case we didn't answer the questions you might have.

so, what's the 90/10 principle and what's it got to do with this?

this is the kind of meeting that even if you're 90% sure you don't have any interest in eikon, it's worth it to come with your 10% "maybe" feelings to hear what we're doing. a meeting like this will do one of a few things. first, it could confirm your 90% disinterest. it could tell you your suspicions were correct. second, it could reverse your feelings. the 90% disinterest may become the 90% interest. finally, it may not completely confirm it or completely reverse it, but it may simply change the ratio. maybe your 90% becomes 50% or 25% or 70%.

any one of these things may be the case, but you'll never know unless you come. :)

so, hopefully we'll see you sunday night at vino's! if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email (eikon [at] beingryanbyrd [dot] com).

ryan has blogged a few times about it now and plans on at least one more post in the coming days. you can read the first post here and the second post here. in addition to ryan's thoughts, many bloggers in attendance have offered their reflections (some which are much more thorough than ryan's). you can find a comprehensive list with links here.

if you'd like to hear more, in this post, you can also see a list of words, phrases and thoughts from his notes. from this list, he's taking recommendations for one last post on the conference. so, if anything strikes you as intriguing, leave a comment.

there's two reasons you might want to come to this meeting:

1. if you've ever wanted to know anything about this whole eikon thing, you don't want to miss this meeting. during our time together, we'll talk about the who, what, where, when, why & how of eikon. whereas it's difficult to distill the totality of information into an hour or so, we really think this meeting should give a very clear picture of what we're trying to do with this new faith community.

OR...

2. if you really love calzones, pizza and pale ale from vino's, this meeting's for you. :) even if you couldn't care less about this church thing, you can certainly just come hang out with us, grab some pizza & a beer and meet a few new people. and who knows, maybe while you're there you'll hear something that resonates with you.

either way, it's a great time to come hang out with us. if there was ever a time to jump in on this eikon thing, this meeting would be it. whereas the cookout was very laid back and cookout-ish (you like that?... cookoutish...), this meeting will be very much information-driven (although we'll definitely take a good 45 minutes or so of just hanging out and eating dinner together).

we'd love for you to help us spread the word. there's several things you can do:

1. tell your friends about it.

2. email a link to this blog post.

3. direct them to our facebook page and/or the facebook event page.

4. tell them about our twitter, where there will be updated information.

5. tell them to call or email ryan to hear some more about what's going on.

6. send them to our website. while it's not much right now, it will give them a launching point to other relevant information.

we hope to see you there and hope to meet quite a few new people. see you in a couple weeks!

must/should art be accurate?

must art be "correct"? must it be definitional in nature? must it be factual?

i came across a group called B.A.S.I.C. (brothers and sisters in christ) who are based in ireland. whereas i've yet to learn a lot about this group, i certainly connected with their "who we are" statement, proclaiming,

what lachapelle did do, though, was create an evocative and stirring depiction of the last supper that is, quite frankly, my favorite of the three.

i love the diversity (in spite of only males being represented) and a sense of the sordid company that jesus often kept. there's also a sense of exploration that engages the viewer. i want to look at this depiction over and over and each time i could find something new. it's also something that evokes a different story based on what mood you are in when you approach the piece. i can see excitement or confusion or mystery or curiosity or claustrophobia or suspicion or scandal or social engagement. it certainly isn't accurate, but it makes it no less "true."

so, ultimately, my answer is "no." art doesn't have to be accurate. art evokes something much more truthful than the truth. it presents a reality deeper than reality. accuracy doesn't make or break a piece of art.

so, must/should art be accurate? what do you think?