build it up, chip it down
coral reefs, volcanoes and making things
Happy and good Thursday, everyone! Northern hemisphere friends: are we all rolling in sunny fields or sneezing every time we walk past a deliciously floral tree?
With early summer comes the feeling of things that have been long-dormant finally starting to happen. I saw my first butterfly of the year today, the forget-me-nots in the garden are positively vengeful (I won’t forget!!! I promise!!! Please stop eating my garden!!!), and the other day I saw a magpie eating a baby starling. Ahhhh nature, never change!
But of course, despite the explosion of activity happening now, everything has been happening behind the scenes during the quieter months. The butterflies have been cocooning, the forget-me-nots have been plotting their yearly takeover, et cetera.
This play between the visible and invisible progress made me think about what it’s like to be constantly working, but not often having a lot to show for it until much later down the line.
So, with this in mind, I would like to talk to you about a volcanic stack in the Pacific Ocean. Bear with me, you’ll understand in a minute.
BALLS PYRAMID
Welcome to Ball’s Pyramid. A nightmare mountain in the middle of the Tasman Sea, the water between Australia’s East coast and New Zealand. It stands over 500 metres above sea level, and is home to gigantic stick insects (but that’s another story).
Balls Pyramid is the worlds tallest volcanic stack! Everyone, give it some applause. That means it’s cooled-down lava from a vent of a muuuuuuuch larger and wider volcano that bubbled up about 6-7 million years ago. If you could look below the water’s surface, you would see evidence of that, as there’s a large and wide shelf surrounding the mountain.
27 kilometres away you will find Lord Howe Island, a less-intimidating island which is actually habitable (but sadly not for the giant stick insects… again, that’s another story). It’s also surrounded by a large, submerged shelf, which makes it clear that it used to be a much bigger and wider piece of land (volcano!), before erosion.
Were they part of the same volcano? A lot of people think so. However there’s a very deep trench between the two islands, which some people think suggests two separate volcanoes.
But let’s talk about erosion. Over the last 6 million years, ocean waves have broken down these lava layers, and have sculpted the islands into what they are today.
Something interesting I read about erosion around these islands is that the coral reefs which have surrounded them actually reduced the impact of erosive waves. Ball’s Pyramid has coral reefs that go as deep as nearly 40m below sea level, and Lord Howe Island is the southernmost reef in the world. So a little coral reef, full of activity and colour, has helped create a monolith like Ball’s Pyramid? Very cool.
Looking at these diagrams and illustrations of just how much is going on beneath the surface, I was reminded of this:
The visible work is always surrounded and supported by the invisible. I started to think about my own Ball’s Pyramid metaphor for making work. Here’s what I came up with:
The building stage of the volcano is all your input. The writing, the sketches, the emails, the practice, the band rehearsals, the applications, the networking.
Then we have the waves of editing. They break down what you’ve made, cut away the weak parts and hone it into something sharp, like the peaks of Ball’s Pyramid.
Sometimes there are trenches! Where giant swathes of material gets cut in one go. Bye-bye!
And my favourite part of this metaphor, the coral reefs! How do we know what to keep and what to chuck away? What parts of our creations will be protected by the erosive waves of the edit? This is where your network comes in. The coral reef represents your scene — the people around you and what you make, and where their attention gathers. It’s that moment where you show someone your work and they go, “I really like that.” If you are unsure of what to keep and what to cut, show your work to someone else and see what they love, what they cling to.
So, it’s all about building it up from the bottom as well as cutting it down from the top. And don’t forget that when everyone’s showing their big ‘woohoo’ moments on social media, that you are shaping your island.
This week I want to also just take a moment for us all to appreciate the Eurovision entry that should have won:
I have maybe watched this 15 times now. It’s crazy, it’s party!
I am in a sad stage of my life where most people in my vicinity don’t to watch Eurovision unless held at gunpoint. So next year I am hoping this will change (looks menacingly at everyone I know).
Talking of Eurovision, I also found this video by Daði Freyr really interesting, about his journey to getting on to the competition:
I hope you are having a good week! If you are ever disheartened, just think, “I am building my island” and keep on going.
Be good,
Olivia 🌋 🌈
