JOIN US ON NOVEMBER 26, 2021 TO EXPLORE THE THEME OF “LIMINAL”

TALK TITLE: Finding yourself in a liminal space in your creative career, and how to break through it

*ASL Interpretation is available at every CM WPG event.

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John Luxford talks about finding himself in a liminal space between knowing exactly what he wanted to do with his life and realizing he had no idea what that actually meant. How it took staying in that space for a long time in order to learn how to honestly answer the deceptively simple question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” for the first time. How that led him to discover his passion not just for making art himself, but for making creation tools to help others express themselves.Jumping from being an artist to a writer to a musician into graphic design and software development and now into virtual reality, John realized your title, your medium, and your past work can come to impose limits on your thinking and your ability to continue to grow as an artist and, more importantly, as a human.

Meet Our Speaker! JOHN LUXFORD

John Luxford is a self-taught software developer, musician, and entrepreneur who is passionate about technology as a means of social change. John’s first company, Simian Systems (2001-2011), was an open source software company that worked with clients such as Princeton, NOAA, TiVo, and Disney. After a decade immersed in all things web, John got a taste of working in virtual reality as part of one of the first VR projects in Manitoba. At this, John co-founded The Campfire Union with two of his best friends to explore the possibilities of this new technology. Fast-forward a few years, they’re now called Flipside XR and spend their time making the world’s first virtual TV studio that enables anyone with a VR headset to make their own live animated shows with their friends. Their mission is to enable anyone to bring their imagination to life and share it with the world.

November’s Theme is Liminal.When we find ourselves in an in-between place, we might call our location “liminal.” Liminal space is found at the threshold, between leaving an old life and starting a new one. When we have shed a tired identity but not yet donned a fresh one. Liminality is a state of becoming. It slips away, eluding easy categorization.Invite yourself into the cocoon of transformation. Instead of asking what comes after the chrysalis, what if, in the words of anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, we look around rather than ahead? If we learn to trust the process, we can remain curious and open. We can surrender our certainty and leave ourselves vulnerable and open to the mysteries of being. What joy and sweetness can we find in all this, in the depths of liminal spaces and times?Our Sofia chapter chose this month’s exploration of Liminal and Sevda Semer illustrated the theme.