© 2008 – 2024

Assembling an Eastern Sun

a personal manifesto, written and performed by Mia Azar
January 2008

I might be here by mistake,
but I am here now;
For a reason.
And I should not be overly consumed.

I am a designer,
a communicator,
a problem solver.

I don’t design for an environment much saturated with commercial messages
I challenge the consumerist world,
which has become a global commercial culture.

I won’t complain.
I will express my existence,
directly.

I trust myself.
I can see the Great Eastern Sun.
Look, it is right there.
Open your eyes wide.
Wider.
And constantly look for the brightest.
I will create my life without compromise.
I claim full responsibility,
and infinite potential.
I will jump fences and cross fields.
I will be brave,
I will be fearless.

Yes,
I am tender and sensitive.
I cry.
Crying is a good thing
Real fearlessness comes from letting my surrounding tickle my heart.

What I have is natural goodness.
I should appreciate that.
I appreciate that now.
I want to be like a child with my work.
Actively exploring.
Trying.
Working with materials:
food, fabric, utensils, throw-aways..
Experimenting:
printing mistakes, colors seeping..

They become beautiful iterations, attempts, trials, and errors.
Not to please others.
Not to please teachers.
But to satisfy myself,
and to enjoy taming my work.
Making it my rose.

I want to be constantly questioning,
why? why not? what if?
Constantly attentive and observing,
constantly open-minded to all that surrounds me…
I will restlessly ask questions,
willing to engage the invisible and secret mysteries of the universe.

The process of my work is more important than outcome.
When process drives outcome
we may not know where we’re going,
but we will know we want to be there.
I will keep trying to find the solution.
Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far,
been up too long,
worked too hard.

I will keep moving,
keep designing.
I will take an unbiased approach.?
I will reconnect to the nowness of reality,
So that I can go forward without destroying simplicity,
I will begin anywhere.
I will drift,
Allowing myself to wander aimlessly.
My interventions will be ¿cultural/universal/complex/simple?

My work will be organized,
But at the same time,
I will break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

It’s rays hits me
and charges my batteries.
So I am constantly expanding.
Experimenting,
learning,
and growing.
I am growing to become a conscious designer:
a responsible warrior.

I am willing to grow,
without shyness,
without resistance.
I am open to experience events and prepared to be changed by them.
Whenever growth happens,
I will allow it to emerge.
And learn to follow when it makes sense.
I will face the world.