#1 of 30 – Pattern

This is the first of a series of blog posts I am going to write on 30 topics, each derived from a simple title. It’s a technique I have seen in use in many places. Often the emphasis is on taking photos rather than writing short pieces. It reminds me of a challenge I did a couple of years ago when I took a photo each day for 365 days and posted it to a Google Plus page (why do Google close things down!) I also came across it when Andrew Dubber, who was my writing coach for a few months, used a similar technique to kick-start his blog after a quiet period. I’m not going to post these daily, but will spread them out so as not to overwhelm anyone who reads this blog regularly. The aim in this exercise will be to respond spontaneously to the title, not over-think it and just see where the topic takes me.

Today’s topic is “Pattern”.

We are drawn to pattern. It is the way we make sense of the world. We look for patterns – to figure out what is going on, what is safe, what to do with the things that we see in front of us. Patterns are also the way we build habits, ways of functioning. In music, pattern is the sense-making aspect of what we hear. When it is melodic we have a clear feel for what is coming next. When the music is in a free style or atonal it can be difficult to listen to because we can’t detect the pattern. Repeated listen to unstructured pieces can help the mind to see a pattern as a code into the music even if the composer didn’t intend one. The familiarity can create a coherence that makes the music accessible.

In poetry the pattern can help us too. A formality of verse form can give us route and structure through the poem. But the pattern of a cliche can be annoying, it can grate. It is the surprise juxtaposition of words in poetry that gives it quality. The not quite knowing where the poet is going next, the jarring of things that don’t normally fit. That is where pattern can at once be a form, a guide whilst also being removed, unraveled to encompass the new, the startling and the unsettling.

Patterns as they help and hinder, create the spaces that make sense and their absence creates another space where the new begins.

Patterns can be the limitation that creates a space for the new. A pattern within which to create can be the liberator that makes creativity easier to achieve – such as setting the challenge of writing a sequence of sonnets, the form propels the creativity forwards.

Tension of pattern and no pattern. Placing pattern against no pattern can create a tension that makes the work even more exciting. Unravelling patterns into abstraction can make for new forms that take on their own life.

Everywhere we look we are looking for patterns, and sometimes we make patterns even where they don’t exist. The tricks of the mind, the illusion of a reality that isn’t really there.