Imbas Forosnai and the beautiful magic of art

To make art that connects is a beautiful magical act. You make something out of nothing, an illusion embodied in reality and alive in the imagination. To make art is to struggle with many tensions.

Standing back to observe a subject and immersing oneself in the experience. The ‘aha’ of inspiration and the slog of getting an idea across. The hours and years invested in developing skills that add up to nothing if there’s no connection. Maintaining creative independence and needing an audience.

I struggle with the seductive qualities of smartphone experiences that leverage ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence and persuasive design, and their potential for creative inspiration. I explored this theme in A Gift and a Curse. My latest drawing is an attempt to balance that tension. Imbas Forosnai (pronunciation) is an old Irish term that roughly translates as ‘Poetic Inspiration’ or the vision of a seer.

I was wrestling with a concept for a drawing that could present a hopeful outlook on these tensions. It refused to come together on the page. It never would have but for a series of happy accidents.

Machine Minds and Irish Mythology: Imbas Forosnai bridges two worlds

Imbas Forosnai was a Celtic ritual that involved sensory deprivation to enter a trance and receive answers or a prophecy. The legendary Irish hero, Fionn MacCumhaill gained his visionary foresight by eating the Salmon of Knowledge. The Salmon of Knowledge features in the Fenian Cycle of Irish myth. It is associated with Fintan mac Bóchra (The Wise), who transformed into it. 

Fintan swam to the Well of Wisdom in salmon form, where he gained all the world’s knowledge by eating the nuts that fell from nine enchanted hazel trees. Today, we access the world’s encoded information (the what) as well as stories of experience (the so what) and inspiration (the what if?). We do this via our smartphones and networked data technologies.

Imbas Forosnai and the pen as a divinatory tool: a creative journey

I have two approaches to sketching. One is to develop an idea or to refine a detail before committing to a final work. The other is to dive into the creative subconscious to fish for visual hints. I divide a blank page into smaller sections and then draw or scribble notes. I’ll often meditate for ten minutes or so beforehand. Sometimes images and questions appear on the page.

What if smartphones accessed the insight of the Salmon of Knowledge?

The world continued to spin on its axis while I turned the question over in the compost heap of my imagination. Images featuring people controlling cybernetic salmons with displays fused to their skulls appeared in my sketchbook. The rider takes the salmon for granted because they are so intent on the screen, unaware of the marvels that make access to this addictive knowledge seductively simple. 

In others ‘users’ carry tanks bearing live salmons on their backs. Insight is downloaded from fish to person via the smartphone. Who is using whom? ‘User’ is a term that refers to the people who consume smartphone-enabled, data-rich experiences that are designed, built and delivered by primarily commercial organisations. The users are using the salmon. The creators use the user. 

A call to artistic self-exploration

We are influenced by the images and words we experience. I strive to make art as a positive, encouraging and optimistic influence. Critical thinking is necessary for self-determination and as a tool for creative growth and innovation. It’s like a protective, fertilising coating on a seed. 

I also recognise our goodness and inherent potential for betterment. This emergent imagery was just too dark, dystopian and pessimistic. It’s easy to say, ‘Damn these technologies and the conspirators that seek to enslave us!’ without offering another way. It’s also hypocritical. 

The ghost in the machine: Irish Mythology encoded

Like many of my creative friends and collaborators, I use these tools daily. They provide access to a cornucopia of stories, knowledge and connections to communities and people that inspire and educate. Some examples include;

• Day One: a journalling app I use to capture ideas and images
• Airtable: a database for keeping track of my projects
• This blog and my newsletter
• Dreamstudio: a generative AI tool for making images. I use it as a sort of intern or sketching tool. I have yet to learn how to ‘control’ it. The surprises it generates are part of its intrigue
• Chat GPT for playing with words (it’s still not as intuitive or immediate as a pen and paper. Another tool to generate perspectives I might not otherwise consider
• Social media: LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook to find creative collaborators and community connections   

How to create an image that is critical and empowering? 

Poetic inspiration: an accidental discovery in the pre-dawn

I’m an early riser who enjoys physical exercise before work. Physical health is the base of the pyramid of needs, a foundation for a good life. One morning, I ran in the pre-dawn and made my way to a point, then turned around to head home. Across the road, I spotted an older lady walking a tiny dog. She was hunched and gnarled like a wind-buffeted hawthorn tree. Our eyes met. She nodded a greeting over a sagely smile.  

‘Iarmhaireacht’ is an Irish word that means ‘the loneliness felt at dawn’. Running through the streets in the pre-dawn darkness of mid-winter or walking your dog can be a wonderful time of solitude and reflection. It can also be lonely. Seeing the companionship she shared with her dog and her wise smile unlocked a new direction to pursue with this drawing.

That accidental confluence and connection was a moment of serendipitous poetry. There was a way forward: an image of symbiosis and mutual growth, not naive but offering something more satisfying than the earlier dystopian perspectives.

Exploring Imbas Forosnai’s liminal Magic

The work wasn’t done in that instant. It never is. What emerged in the weeks that followed were images of the salmon as a totem, swimming in companionship with this woman who is just as comfortable in the modern as she is in the ancient world of myth. Yet, they were not in concert. The imagery still did not speak to inspiration, to collaboration in another way.

That arrived when I explored the ‘meaning’ and origin of Imbas Forosnai. It’s hard to determine what Imbas Forosnai was or how it was practised in any meaningful detail. Or at least, a reliable, accurate description has proven elusive to me. It seems to be a ritual practised by the ancient master poets of pre-Christian Ireland, or Filidh as they would have been called. 

Imbas Forosnai: one of three skills of the Filidh

From what I can determine, three skills were required of the Filidh;

1. Imabas Forosna: a kind of wisdom or ability to see into the future, a form of otherwordly knowledge accessed by poets. 
2. Teinm Laida: which seems to be a form of divination and possibly an overlap with;
3. Dichetal do Chennaib: ‘Chanting the Heads’, a particular way of chanting or composing poetry ‘in the moment’.

My interpretation is that all three overlapped and reflect the concept of ‘making something out of nothing’ by speaking something into reality or bringing a vision into the world through inspired poetic improvisation. In other words, a revered creative act that seems to be surrounded by or possibly enabled by some form of ritual. Of course, that could be a fanciful notion I concocted (too much imagination…).

The feathered cloak of the Ollaimh

The Filidh were feared and respected for their influence in a predominantly oral culture, wielding the power to tell stories and recite poems and genealogies that could cement or destroy the reputation and status of a noble. The highest order of the Filidh was known as the Ollaimh (ol-live). They wore a cloak of feathers.

In the final work, a wild woman, who wears a cloak of feathers and a crown of twigs, works on her smartphone – perhaps composing a poem. She cradles the Salmon of Knowledge, taking care of it as her revered totem, while standing in front of the split trunk of a charred gum tree. The tree trunks are adorned with Celtic spirals and represent a gateway, a liminal space that’s the threshold of many worlds.     

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