Flying by numbers is a term used in training airline pilots. During those first few important hours of flight training, a student pilot is asked to memorize lots of numbers — airspeeds, power settings, runway headings, etc. The more experience a pilot accumulates, the easier it is to control the aeroplane by feel because the numbers become, in a sense, ingrained in how we fly.

I recently experienced watching a young lorikeet learning to fly over a few weeks. The beginnings of his attempts were ruled by gravity mostly – so he fell like a stone – but as he gained strength and grew longer wings, he slowly became an acrobat in the labyrinth of trees.

I wonder how much we navigate by numbers and at what point we start developing that feel in our practice. Working with materials like clay, plastics and metals offer the comfort of physical rules, just like numbers, and give me the limit that in turn gives form to ideas that are limitless.