Professor’s Personal Notes : )

Do you ever get tired of this word and just want to throw it away? I often do. I think we need to discard our previous ideas about what “should” be done in our writing and get on with immersing ourselves in writing as Process.

Writing isn’t all just-putting-words-down-on-paper. A lot of the time, writing is about finding something that’s hiding inside and behind and below all the words you’ve already said. Here’s a few more verbs to consider; namely, what if, instead of calling writing “Writing,” you called it:

SHIMMERING;

PANNING;

DISCOVERING;

UNCOVERING;

AGITATING;

REVEALING.

What if, instead of thinking of writing as a problem you have to solve, you think of writing as a way to create awareness about a problem or a challenge you are facing? What if you used writing to help other people in the world see and become more aware of the large problems facing them? What if you just used your writing to Uncover what is truly, really, truly happening in front of you?

Okay, now that your mind is open…What if your paper wasn’t blank paper?

What if your paper was a piece of masking tape that you left face up, on the table in front of you, and all your ideas were like pieces of dust in the air that just got stuck to it?

What if writing is really the catching and harvesting of thoughts?

What if writing was really only just lots and lots of notations or note-taking on Truth? And eventually, you put all that note-taking together?

Then writing would be an action that feels natural and inevitable like walking and thinking and talking and singing. It would be something you do…and that’s it.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:

I’m increasingly interested in learning styles. Here are some examples of tests that we can easily take to determine ours. This is one Kolb exam:

Kolb exam pdf link.

And some articles on learning styles:

Kolb graphed out in x and y coordinates in an article;

Kolb and other indicators 1; research pdf of its approach 2;

ON ANOTHER, ANOTHER NOTE:

Here is a link to the film work of Charles and Ray Eames, Modernist Designers, and a bit about them and what they’ve accomplished.

Here is a short homage film made recently that was inspired by “The Powers of Ten” called “The Powers of Time.”

We also like the Charles and Ray Eames film “Topology.”

And here is another film, “The Powers of Time.”

Here is a link to artist Martin Wilner’s monthly works, recorded at Hales Gallery in London. In this link, he explains a bit about the collaboration between himself and his subjects. I was one of his subjects, in January, 2013. An image is reproduced here and below.