Welcome
Neuroscience shows that juggling assists the development of white matter, the nerve fibers that carry electrical signals and connect different parts of the brain. I’m a mediocre juggler, but I’ve become quite good at keeping a number of different creative projects on the go. Having multiple projects in progress means that I can jump between projects when I get bored with any one of them. It also allows me to reflect on resonances and connections between projects, from which I find new ideas can emerge.
Juggling projects is a creative act in itself. It takes agility to slip from project to project, shaking-off the problems and preoccupations of one while adapting to the demands of the other. This process calls for constant self-reinvention. I find the most satisfying aspect of the process is that it enables me to get free of myself, to an extent – shaking off the person, or persona, that I’ve cultivated to engage a certain project, while working on a new persona to engage with another set of projects, tasks and challenges.
Exploring this site, you’ll discover three Tim Rayners: a philosopher, a teacher, and a change agent. These personas, like different parts of the brain, are linked by a network of paths and impulses. Viewed from a distance, they converge into a coherent whole. I find that it facilitates the creative process to keep them as divergent as possible.