Dumb thoughts about communities
I just watched the first part of this video essay on the A MAZE games festival. The whole video is great and touches on a lot of subjects around video games in a very hopeful way (it also has english and french subtitles \o/).
One part of the video makes me think a lot, because it presents a path to solve one of my great problems at the moment. See, I usually gravitate around groups of friends, coworkers, or people I meet from time to time, but I never quite feel like I engage in meaningful things around those groups. I feel like a spectator most of the time, seeing things happenning, but not really engaging in what’s going on, very far from the steering wheel. The most meaningful moments I live are usually in small settings, with one or two close people that I like, when we converse about deep-ish subjects.
Actually engaging in a group, doing meaningful things is something I don’t really do, and is probably something I’d like to do more.
In the video, the author talks about how great art is depicted as coming from a few artists, that are working alone; and how this vision is usually not very close to reality, where artists are usually part of communities of other artists and like-minded people. And because these people share ideas and thoughts and work together, exchange material, tips, etc, that artists improve and thrive and become the best at their craft. Ultimately their communities are the source of the great art that they make.
And I feel like this could be what I’m missing. Not necessarily artist-centric kind of communities, since my hobbies are usually not arty, but something in that vein for the things I like a bit more. Or I feel like I could also help around in spaces that are interesting, even though I don’t engage in their primary activity.
Taking a step back, it feels obvious, and a bit dumb to have a conclusion this simple. Maybe I’m just living the step of formalizing it, and putting it into words.
We’ll see how it goes. I guess I just need to search for cool people doing cool stuff now.