2. Lebbeus Woods. Architect. He designed parasite buildings. Structures that attach themselves to office blocks and suck the lifeblood out of their support systems - gas, electricity, air con etc. A mind-blowing concept. His drawings are inspiring too. Dreaming with a pencil.
3. I've always liked the idea of poetry. I just never liked poems much. Shakespeare still doesn't do it for me, although I'm hoping I will "get it" one day. But I do like this gem from John Giorno, son of the Beat Generation, called DEMON IN THE DETAILS. It's pretty long, so here's a short extract. I love the stream of consciousness. The passion. The strange visuals. Jackson Pollock comes to my mind. I don't know why, but he seems to fit.
4. Franko B. Visual artist. He uses his body as an image-making tool, sometimes a canvas of flesh and blood. If you can get past the shock, there is real beauty here. Then again, I probably won't be ripping this off. www.franko-b.com
5. I saw a photograph by Rankin. It had been blown up and stuck in the window of Selfridges. Something to do with plastic surgery and perfection. Some geezer in the street was selling those flippy-floppy sticky things that tumble down walls. This simple act completely changed the original meaning of the picture. I stood there for about half-an-hour snapping away. The one of the kid placing a flippy-floppy sticky thing on the girl's bum really made me smile. Rankin? Schmankin.
6. The Andromeda Galaxy: 2.2 million light years away. Which means that light, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, takes 2.2 million years to reach us. Which means it may not exist. We're actually looking back in time. Mind-blowing. When I was 14, I built a telescope and spent most nights out in a field staring at the stars, questioning my existence. The experience still remains humbling.
8. It can take me hours to walk down a street. This is where the real art is. My holiday photos largely feature bits of walls or pavements. Torn- down posters make abstract shapes that Kurt Schwitters would be proud of. Flaking paint or cracked tarmac resemble Cy Twombly at his best. Graffiti is always interesting, but I prefer the natural markings that occur. I have thousands of images, but here are a few from various streets of the world.
9. La Jetee. Cinematic landmark, made in 1963. The short film that inspired Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys. Set in a Paris devastated by nuclear war, experiments are made to allow time travel back to the pre- holocaust world. One man volunteers to go because of an incident he sees at Orly Airport. It changes humanity. The whole thing is shot entirely in black-and-white stills. I remember shaking with excitement whilst watching it. The music is mesmerising. Just don't rip it off before I do. Although I suppose Terry beat us all to it.
10. I believe in "Never Before Moments". Picasso had them. So did Jimi Hendrix. The guy who invented the drum machine had one. And closer to my world, Helmut Krone. Moments where, years later, people in documentaries say: "Never before had anyone seen (or heard) anything like it." Dylan was another who created NBMs. Dylan was one of the most influential, inspirational and groundbreaking musicians of our time. Martin Scorsese proves this time and time again in his film No Direction Home. The film also includes never-before-seen footage.
11. Dave Trott's blog. I don't know how he manages to find the time to write these every day. They are brilliant. Inspirational. Insightful. Inimitable. Pure Dave Trott. http://cstadvertising.com/blog/
12. Richard Dawkins poses an interesting thought in The God Delusion. He asks us to think of a childhood memory. Making it as vivid as we can. The colours, the smell, everything about it. Now here is the amazing thing. Not a SINGLE ATOM in our body now was there then. We are not our thoughts, we are not this body. So who the fuck are we then? As Dawkins says, if this doesn't make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, think about it again, because it is important. And on that bombshell, I bow out.
- Graham Fink is the creative director at M&C Saatchi.