vanderwal.net

Can I See What You Are Writing

The medium for thinking and consumption is something I continually consider. I don’t consume audiobooks, they don’t work for me and I have too many foundational problems with them. But, I do enjoy podcasts, but that is a naturally spoken medium. For consumption of fiction and most non-fiction I have a strong preference for print (physical and/or electronic). Non-fiction text gives the opportunity for illustrations that help augment and anchor the meaning. Video can work for many concepts if they are done well and illustrate concepts.

Reading fiction my mind slips into vivid depictions of the story and scenes (if the book captures me). Being able to see characters in my head helps keep the storyline sorted. I really appreciate authors that are crafty with languages that trigger the visualizations as I am reading. With reading fiction my mind may also drift (if the book is good, but this also happens with non-fiction as I am framing where this new information sifts in with other things known). When my mind drifts I may still be “reading” and flipping pages, but when I snap out of it I can flip back to where my mind drifted and continue on again (as a couple of my college professor encourage this is a really good and engaging way to read). Most often the drifting is related to something in the book triggering ideas and it gets my mind going. Audio books have my mind drift out from a of lack of interest, but more problematic is there really isn’t a good way to go back and pick-up where my mind drifted (oddly podcasts my mind will drift from them triggering ideas and also from a conversation the podcast triggers, particularly when they run adjacent to things I know well or they mis-state something).

The visualization in my mind is really helpful to keep engaged and it is great for recall as well. But, when a book turns into a film or tv show it sometimes helps (when there are many characters) to anchor the “whos”. The reading of plays I find difficult, unless I have seen the play or have photos or sketches of who is playing the role and then I fully connect. But, if it a book with illustrated characters, like the Moomins (I read a lot of Moomin books when I was a kid) and that turns into tv or a movie it breaks things my mental image of the illustrations through the stories are not in alignment. The Moomins were quite off (at least in the US series). But, Paddington worked just fine. With the Moomins becoming semi-popular in the US with young adults, I’ll ask about a person’s favorite Moomin or story and I find we are talking about Moomins from different universes it seems.

Seeing is Understanding

The mental images and visualizing ideas and concepts also drive explainers in presentations and the use of animation in presentations. That same principle for my engaging also goes outward when explaining things for others. Creating images and animations, for complicated or complex ideas, models, or patterns allows for pulling them apart, seeing things interact, and also provides the ability to point and talk about something specific and makes things less abstract.

I’m thinking about text and visualizations as I’m working on creating small videos of some of the core concepts and ideas around folksonomy, Model of Attraction, InfoClouds, etc. Listening to words is a thin and ephemeral representation of the ideas. Seeing the words is a bit better. But words and seeing relationships are key to communicating far better. I’m mindful not all minds are alike nor process the same way, so having many paths for engaging works quite well.

Religion in Literature Made an Impression

When I was in college at Saint Mary’s College of California I needed to take a religion class to graduate. I chose Brother Micheal Meister’s class, Religion in Literature as it covered a book I knew which I wanted to read (Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). There were three or four other books to be read in the semester.

The first book up is one that blew me away. It was Chiam Potok’s book My Name Is Asher Lev which focusses on a coming of age young adult, Asher Lev, who is an artist in training and wanting to become much better. He is in a Hasidic Jewish family and his father is very conservative and aims to strictly abide the framings and limitations of the faith. The book moves through Asher’s trying to learn to be a better artist (with the assistance of Jacob Kahn a successful artist) and grow in his faith.

The book and the class are a wonderful dive into the art world, a myriad of artists, and works of art. The class became not only a discussion and deep dive into the book and its connection to religion, but a great discover into art appreciation and art history. Brother Michael used about half of the class to give background on the artists and the works mentioned in the book before we’d focus on the text. This focus on art was a great bonus for this course.

The Framing of the Art

Coming into this course I was playfully dismissive of impressionist art, particularly Claude Monet. Posters of Monet’s works were on the walls of many (if not most) of the women’s dorm rooms. I called impressionist art “far away art” as the farther away you got the more it looked like something, as well as “these artists could benefit from a good pair glasses”. But, in the time we spent reading the book and the background presentation on art my perspective changed a lot. I gained an understanding and appreciation for Monet, but also many more artists. To this day I have paintings I enjoy seeing and spending time with that are works of Monet.

Monet had some of the focus. But, Picasso’s Guernica played a large part and there is a lot in this large work. Brother Michael brought solid understanding of not only the Guernica, but many other works of Picasso, as well as the history of the town of Guernica that Picasso was trying to express. I had interest in Picasso’s works, but this focus gave me understanding and appreciation beyond what I came in with. Picasso’s quote, “Art is a lie which makes us realize the truth”, also makes it in.

Understandably, Marc Chagall’s works were also a focus. Going in I found Chagall’s work, odd at best. But, the framing and background in the book through the instruction of Kahn, and the professor in class framed the semi-absurd constructs and color use in a way it made sense and how to take it in. Within a few months I would be going back into the Pompidou Center for the second or third time, and one of the first pieces I passed and it quickly caught my eye was a work of Chagall. Not seeing the signage, I knew it was Chagall, which I wouldn’t have given a moment prior nor recognized it. I spent a few minutes trying to understand the painting and interpret it, but I was there to see a few other works and not a lot of time allotted that day.

The book opened up the class for time learning about Michelangelo, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Kandinsky, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Jules Pascin, and Renoir among others. This was far more than just a religion or literature course in a fantastic and lasting way.

The Appreciation

The appreciation of Monet has grown through seeing 6 of the works (may have been eight) of the paintings of the time and light studies of the Cathedral of Rouen when they were brought together at the Musee d’Orsay. This gathering of the works was stunning to see the shifts and changes captured so well. I also have spent many trips to the National Gallery in DC to see the study in time and light of the Houses of Parliament at sunset, which evokes an emotion of longing that is almost a light ache, in sort of a good way.

Having visited the gardens and house in Giverny so much more came, uh…, into focus. I didn’t expect this to engross me as much as it did, but seeing the subject of many paintings and on many dorm walls, was impressive. Yes, I squinted and unfocussed my eyes. Seeing the Japanese garden bridge made the paintings with it as the focus more tangible and not just something someone painted but captured the spirits and grace of it all.

Thank you Brother Michael for waking up my mind and giving me the ability to appreciate and experience something prior I just shrugged off. The understandings from not only Chiam Potok’s book, but Angelou, Falkner, O’Conner (my mother is a fish), and another were expected, but also opened my literary mind as well.

What to do with My Phrases and Snippets

Going back to just after I graduated grad school, when I started writing poetry (as I had time to think a little more freely), I started keeping phases and snippets. Some were in notebooks and some in text notes on my computer. Often these were things that would pop to mind and wouldn’t clear my head until I captured them. Some turned into poems (a sliver of what I wrote is on my Poetry :: vanderwal.net page). Some turned into short stories that picked up a few of the phrases and snippets, some of these were rather micro-short stories or scenes (I enjoy the output of the scenes and dialog).

Over the years I tried to pull the snippets that I hadn’t used into digital notes. Up until around 2010 I had many different note apps and each had a snippets note. In the last two to five years I’ve been pulling them into a handful of notes. But, I have taken a note I stared around 2008 with phrases and snippets and that is my live phrases and snippets note. When something pops into my head I tuck it in there. In Obsidian I keep that note open in a panel so it is easy to slide to and read through or jot something down.

When I read through them I often chuckle or laugh, and some get me thinking more deeply. Some have turned into scenes again and short pieces, which I also haven’t shared.

The phrases and snippets are brain prompts and idea fodder for creativity. Some are turns of phrase, some playful word play, others are snarky, some play with time and reality shifts, and others are just prompts for “tell a story about this”. I have over 200 of these and for a long time I’ve thought of wanting to keep them to myself for my use. But, lately I’m really curious what someone would do with the snippet as most can be taken in many different directions.

I’ve thought about a challenge or carnival a month for a phrase or snippet to see what comes back. Also thought about a postcard subscription service with a phrase or snippet a month (more than a few of the items on a postcard could get a knock at my door), but also thinking of these routing openly through the mail service for anybody to read and get their mind going in a different fun direction.

I have also considered just making them public on a page, or a page each.

What Would You Do?

If given the following snippets, what would you do with them?

“I am going to need to go to an AA meeting, as I need to understand how to develop a drinking problem, as I think that is the only way to get through this.”

Oh, I don’t cook I just make leftovers

The plague of the minor maladies

They had all the traits of being a non-conformist

beige ficus genre

I lost my site’s 404 page, which seems a little more than ironic

candle lit dinners in the McDonalds parking lot