Of course sometimes our thoughts frighten us � would we write them down always in a diary such as this? Perhaps not � or if we were to write them down it would probably be in a form which anaesthatised them or put them safely into a box.

Today I did some work on leadership � using some of the material from the Automotive Summit I constructed just under thirty statements about what a good leader might do � the sorts of action that (apparently) seen as charcteristic of leaders. I found a couple of comparators � the top 10 of a list compiled from research by the Industrial Society into what people like to see their leaders do � also some slightly New Age analysis from a foundation selling self assessment and coaching techniques. Crudely speaking this stuff was more humanistic whereas the Summit material put a lot of emphasis on giving a sense of direction. Anyway I showed it to Stefan and Stephen and Stefan decided to use it at a meeting tomorrow. Just as well that I got a suit cleaned for this meeting.

I sent an e-mail to someone I met on Friday who is working on future skills needs in the Learning and Skills Commission.

I worked on a short story which hovers between Gm and Bb � the core of the material is a guitar improvisation over a syncopated riff pretty much in the here and now. Around this a clavinet works through a structure so that certain commenting figures emerge � the mood is slightly quirky while a guitar off to the left adds a touch of Gothic � trememlo and reverb. A flute romanticises vainly but doesn�t push the point � the argument is pretty circular and the end point is not far removed from the beginning � the situation has not developed.

I was quite tired when I got in from work and dozed for a couple of hours before waking up to do this piece. There was an e-mail from Gilbert to say that he has been working on some of my pieces. I replied and sent him a couple of mp3s � one in B major with percussion and a heavily processed flute. I like the depth in the occaisional bass on this one and the deceptively long lyrical one.

An article about Jaspar Johns � about the challenge he poses to interpretation. Maybe he is a Symbolist, like Blake perhaps or Odilon . I would be happy with this interpretation � if you paint flags, numbers and targets then its obvious you are working with symbols � and quite likely that you think that something deeper is lurking in the mundane ones. I�d rather think of him that way then producing very oracular works about his personal relationships. They can�t decide whether Rauschenberg or Johns is the greater painter and I don�t think I�d be in a hurry to throw in my sixpennyworth on that one. They are both pretty decisive figures in shifting from the classic period of Abstratct Expressionism to what we have now � in complicating the issue and getting away from grand certainties � they are early post modernists in the way that Minimalists are late modernists.

I listened to Bartok�s Music for Percussion Strings and Celesta � impressed yet again with the first Movement � in a way that not every bit of Bartok grabs me. I am neglecting a writing task I really need to get to grips with..

I started to read an interview with Dan Graham � he opened a gallery in NYC with some friends in late 1964 and the initial idea was that anyone who jut walked in could exhibit. The first person through the door was Sol LeWitt.

DG mentions how influential the films of Jean Luc Godard were on his artistic circle � particularly with the idea that art might be found anywhere. � also that art should be transient and that any on-going entity that might be a store of value should be avoided. Godard was a big name I first encountered when I went to Cambridge � the only other person in my College doing philosophy was very into films � and Bruckner. I remember being shocked by a Godard film with a lot of car rcashes. But I wasn�t shocked some years later when I discovered Warhol had also done car crashes.

Graham took photographs using a cheap camera emphasising the symmetry and seriality of housing estates � this is now seen as a step beyond Minimalism � Min in a social context. He also read Pierre Bourdieu � someone who certainly changed the way that I see the world � I bumped into a volume of his in a sale in the Army and Navy store in Victoria St � there is some irony in this.

DG explored the interface between art and architecture. Like many artists at this time he wrote about art before doing very much of it � this is a big change compared with the previous decade where artists would do art and critics would get a big reputation by explaining it.

Sorry to mention it again but this is what Wollheim noticed when he wrote Art and Its Objects. It�s a clever move to re-etsablish the autonomy of the artist. He also wrote a lot of rock criticism. He liked the Byrds and was interested in their attitude to time � the mythic utopian future and the mythic recent past captured in the present as pop/rock. This linkage between past and present was given an artistic outlet when he did stuff with tape loops in video inspired by what Riley and Reich were doing with sound .

He emerged as an early installation artist in the 70s � one such piece is called Intention/Intentionality. I am breathless with admiration at this concept and I am strongly tempted to steal it. It�s the use of media to explore subjectivity that puts this work apart from Minimalism and Conceptual Art which are about contronting objectivity and structure � he took idea from Sartre (actually from Hegel) about identity arising through a reflection from the other � a dialectical process - and used that to shape installations.

I am listening back to the short stories - there are nine of them � wondering if each has an identity and if so where it might come from.

I need to practice some long notes � I think that getting-up time might be a good time to impose minimal aggravation on my neighbours with flute noise. Also I think long notes are very broadly beneficial � they might even do something for hypochondria. A gig tonight hopefully.