#023 Steve Xoh - The Art of Not Knowing

On The Edge

In this episode I had great conversation with Steve Xoh (pronounced Steve Zore - and also known as Steve Chapman) who is an artist, writer and speaker interested in creativity and the human condition. He has spoken around the world on the subject of human creativity and culture and has exhibited his artwork alongside the likes of Pablo Picasso and David Shrigley. He is visiting faculty member on a number of culture change Master’s programmes and he says he is at his best when he isn’t quite sure of what he is doing.

I first met Steve for the first time about a year ago at an event called Basecamp, in something called the Tent of Not Knowing which we discuss in this episode. Since then I’ve enjoyed following his work, including watching his very popular TEDx talk about confronting his inner critic. And we began our conversation taking about a podcast series he recently completed called Sound of Silence which is an exhibition of collected silence recorded face to face with 100 guests over a 2 year period.

I really enjoyed that and was struck by what he said about:

• The intention of art being to create moments of doubt in the realities that we’ve come to believe
• The moment we start to believe something as concrete, we loose the ability to wonder
• I make, to work out what I’m making, once I’ve made it = learning by doing

I hope you enjoyed listening too and if you want to find out more about Steve then check out the links below:

Website: www.canscorpionssmoke.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/stevexoh

Dracula Interview Image: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH4_3eGMSzF/

Podcast: www.soundofsilence.org.uk Gallery: www.spongleheim.com

TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnf-Ka3ZmOM

Steve's Profile Picture Credit: Steve Marshall.

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Thanks for listening.