Archive for the ‘curiosities’ Category
Sally Mann & Creating With a Magpie Aesthetic
Over time we understand our frame of reference
Photographer Sally Mann talked about her process in Art 21 :
If I can be said to have any kind of esthetic, it is a magpie esthetic. I just go around and pick up whatever is around. It’s very spontaneous. I see a dog bone. I bring it in. I take a picture. I like the picture.
And so she ends up with a dog bone show.
Mann believes art is best made without an “overarching reference.” And yet her body of work appears to support an overarching theme that she herself embeds in it. 
This is the benefit of keeping at our work: over time we sort out what it was we were supposed to say or create.
But about Mann’s magpie esthetic: I’ve noticed the same. This flow of material constantly sweeping past me and I simply reach down and grab something. For me it is an idea, a snippet of conversation, an observation, a word spoken, even a chord strummed, any of these can be fitted together into some semblance of how I understand life.
How does creating work for you?
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Image credit: Sally Mann, PBS
Why I Want To Do What Others Don’t (Shop Talk #6)
Guest Post from Kayla Schwartz
From The conchological illustrations, by George Brettingham Sowerby, London, 1832.
[A few of us have been discussing what fulfillment looks like for a professional writer. The entire discussion was in a response to a question from Kayla Schwartz, a professional writing student at Northwestern College. Check out these six essays filed under Shop Talk: The Collision of Craft, Faith and Service for more on that. Kayla’s back with this guest post that contains a few of her thoughts and conclusions.]
“Technical writing? That’s so…interesting.”
This is the response I usually get when I tell people what I’m studying. As a professional writing major, I’ve done journalism and PR writing, but I’ve been most drawn to technical writing.
Why? I had not given it much thought. Most people think of technical writing as boring or tedious. So why pursue it? What really drives technical writers?
As I’ve thought about these questions and talked to technical and other professional writers who’ve been at it much longer than I, I’ve gleaned a few potential answers.
- It’s useful. Some people find a lot of satisfaction in their ability to help others understand things. They feel they are making a difference.
- It’s necessary. Technical manuals may not always be read by customers, but they are a necessary step in the process of distributing the product. There is satisfaction in contributing to a company’s success.
- It’s interesting. For people who are naturally curious, technical writing offers an ideal situation: learn about new ideas and products, and get paid for writing about them.
- It’s lucrative. Yes, some people are just looking for something that pays the bills.
All of these are valid reasons to do technical writing. However, none of them really expresses my motivation (although the last one is starting to look pretty good when I think about my student loans).
I’m pursuing technical writing because I genuinely enjoy it. I like creating an organized, easy-to-follow document. I like figuring out how to use words effectively and concisely. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and don’t mind spending time on “minor” details. I suppose I enjoy learning about new things or knowing that I’m helping others, but ultimately, it’s a way to do what I love.
Maybe this makes me the exception among technical writers, but I hope not. Technical writing isn’t for everyone, but for those of us who enjoy it, it can be just as satisfying as any other career.
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Image credit: George Brettingham Sowerby via OBI Scrapbook Blog
BFF Rodman & Kim Jong Un. Let’s Not Mention “Tyrant”
“I Declare” and Other Tool Tools
Dennis Rodman can declare Kim Jong Un a great guy, but that doesn’t make it so. Sadly, Rodman’s declaration will change our perceptions, if ever so slightly. Is Kim Jong Un a great guy? Well here’s what we know for sure since the third-generation has taken the reigns:
- North Koreans remain mostly hungry, so when Rodman spoke of Kim Jong Un’s “epic feast,” we started counting how many hundreds of North Koreans went without food as a result. That’s not a big logical leap: North Koreans often go without food. The Un’s great feast is just another reason.
- Prison camps are growing, not shrinking according to The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
- North Korea continues testing nuclear technology even as the US and China agree to new sanctions
- North Korea threatens to scrap the armistice that forms the truce with South Korea
Our administration takes Rodman as a joke or a tool, which seems reasonable. Perhaps the whole odd friendship is a publicity stunt, though it is unclear who won this stunt. My hunch is the winner is not Rodman.
But…is Kim Jong Un a great guy? Maybe if you overlook how he continues to starve, beat and abuse his population into submission. Maybe if you overlook how he and his family have turned the entire country into their personal economic engine. Maybe if you overlook how he seems OK with generations of injustice that perch his family at the top.
Maybe then you can see Kim Jong Un as a great guy.
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Image credit: Time
My Heart Has Broken. There is No Mending.
RIP WPR MUG
This mug…this mug….
Predates all our kids. A quantity of coffee just under infinity has poured into and out of it. Oh the things this mug had seen. And heard. Handled by decades of friends and family. This mug cast a long shadow.
Rockdale Union Stoneware, Cambridge, Wis, 1985. Who knew an incentive gift could have such staying power?
And now—an unthinking flick of the wrist in the midst of hurried coffee preparations. A tumble to the floor.
And this.
I’ll be OK. I can move on. Thanks for asking.
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PostScript
A generous reader has offered this heart-felt memorial:
I thank you, from this time of need and reflection.
Chuck Hagel: Rogue Defense Conversationalist?
Quick: Put this guy in charge before he goes back on script
Phil Stewart writing for Reuters today caught the newly confirmed Secretary of Defense in an unguarded moment. In that moment—behold—candor:
“We can’t dictate to the world. But we must engage the world. We must lead with our allies,” Hagel said in what appeared to be unscripted remarks.
It sounds like Stewart was caught off-guard as well, but maybe he should not have been, given Hagel’s record and further comments quoted.
This seems like a positive development to me. Let’s quickly put Hagel to work before he reads and signs on to our usual defense script—maybe he can work out that dialogue before anyone realizes what’s going on.
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Image credit: Reuters
Dustin O’Holloran & Wes Anderson & You
Art: To stop. To stare. To listen.
In the debate over art versus commerce (or fulfillment versus earning a paycheck), let me point out two bits of commerce guided by artists. Eric Harry Dustin O’Holloran wrote the score for this tourism commercial for Newfoundland & Labrador. The pacing of music and scene, from the first moments, present a different, irresistible world. I posted this commercial about a year again and have revisited it many times because it truly is a mini-vacation. The copy in the commercial is a let-down and a distraction: it’s expected and detracts from the persuasive work already accomplished by the score and visuals.
I’m a fan of Wes Anderson movies. Even his commercials are full of entertaining detail (Ad Age published a list of his great spots here). Here’s the famous American Express commercial, and then the Softbank commercial with Brad Pitt, which is itself an homage to another period of film-making. But it’s this Hyundai commercial that is chock full of detail in every frame. Anderson is known for his devotion to art direction and this commercial bears frame-by-frame examination to see the humor layered in: the kid in the cupboard. The kid in the white lab coat. The kid costumed for a Greek tragedy. I’m still puzzling over the dozens of robots that show up everywhere. I’m not sure this commercial sells cars, but it certainly fixed the carmakers name in my mind for a time.
If art is an invitation to reconsider what the world looks like, then Dustin O’Holloran and Wes Anderson have achieved art and were paid for it. Art is not about getting paid. But getting paid is not the worst thing in the world.
Check out this vimeo of Dustin O’Holloran inviting an audience to visit a different place, but without the pretty Newfoundland & Labrador visuals.
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conversation is an engine 