Lecture 5 - Storytelling
This lecture gives us a wide scope of the history of story telling and the philosophies of different cultures. It's good to learn the fundamentals, so that us as artists can work in and outside of that framework. Like Aristotle's 7 elements of narrative. I really love stories and film that rejects or subverts this cliche.
Also, like how Joseph Campbell explains, I love thinking about the way humans tell fiction. I started thinking about this when reading Sapiens and it never left me.
Pedro Oliveira on designing your own card deck
Someone raise a point about the deck functioning as a prompt generator for designers, the way writers have writing prompts. I think this is an interesting function for the deck, but I find it unrelatable. I don't know if I've ever felt design block. I think this leads us in to the territory of creating problems to create solutions, but it could be useful just for exercise.
Sherry Turkle, Evocative Objects
Eden Medina, Ballet Slippers
This object represents a whole other life that the author had. This is a coming of age story, as the author approaches her fears as someone new, and overcomes them.
Caroline A. Jones, The Painting in the Attic
I really enjoyed the perspective of an art historian looking back at her own painting. My stomach dropped when she mentioned why the created a restrospective portrait, I thought it was pretty sad.
Elizabeth Chin, My Life With Things
I think it's important to recognize our relationship with consumption. I think today is the most disposable time to live in. The scale and persistence of companies, and goal of constant and infinite outward expansion is so unsustainable.
There's a diminishing return with purchasing. Unfortunately, I do feel happier when my needs and some wants are met, and things bring that comfort. Yet I know that any purchase past that point is a fleeting feeling of excitement, because an object can't make you who you want to be.
Harness Your Memory (Chapter 4) from The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
The second Odyssey mention this week, nice.
On pg 55, the author says that creativity is the synthesis of our experiences and feelings, and that is metaphor. It connects the theme from this week, to the theme from last week.