DS106 on the couch

Month: August 2013 (page 2 of 3)

theds106shrink:

The First Letter

I am combining a number of things in this post. In the traditional academic world we might call this cheating, I hope that in the DS106 world we might call it creative. 

We have been reading Alone Together on DS106 Book club and it has challenged my views about how I use technology in my life. The detail of that is for elsewhere, but here I wanted to tell you the story behind the gif I created with Vine this morning.

Does it count as a gif given it was totally painless?

At least, once I had decided on the composition and yes I had to record it several times to get the effect I had in mind. So, here is the story that goes with the flow of written paper above.

The book tells us, amongst many other things, that we may need to attend a little more to the tangible. I have been having a tough time with a friend and reflecting on that after reading the book I realise our difficulties are to do with our conversations having transferred to texting almost exclusively. This has led to many misunderstanding which we then have tried to solve with more texting. It was only when reading about the allure yet inherent dissatisfaction we experience with virtual communications that I realised that my friend and I needed to reclaim the conversational frontier as Sherry Turkle, the author of the book, tells us.

Just as I was about to send a text to tell her this (No, I am not kidding), it occurred to me that one way to put into practice the book’s ideas would be to write her a letter. A letter that explained my insights from the book and how I saw them connecting to our difficulties – we have both been dissatisfied about the alone together nature of our friendship of late but have not been able to name the frame. 

It took a lot of conscious effort to choose this path. Many an excuse came to mind for not doing it and yet it felt an important developmental experiment precisely because I was resistant to doing it. 

So after coming back from walking the dog around the farm, I set out to write (what felt like) my very first letter. 

I would have liked some lovely stationary, like what I used to have in the days many moons ago when I set aside whole days just to write letters to friends and family. Paper is not an easy find in my ideologically paper-free household. I have been heard to say many times ‘Paper is so yesterday!’ as many friends would confirm. Eventually I tracked an old pad, not an ipad. Pen was simpler as I have continued to love buying them, if not using them. 

Bringing mindfulness to the process showed me that I felt very different as I set out to write a letter to my friend from how I feel typing this post. A key difference seems to be a sense of urgency and get it done here versus a sense of space and engagement with my relationship as I sat in front of the empty page. 

It was a new feeling, something I had not felt for a long time.

I understand now why architects continue to draw by hand and why Sherry Turkle says we need to be purposeful in finding these spaces where we bring up ourselves by ourselves – spaces where we are alone with our thoughts in a task prevented from clicking or ‘nexting’ to the next new shiny thing. 

I have a strong meditation practice and can sit in meditation for hours. This is different. It seems to me that this was about being alone with the task at hand, reliant only on your memories and ‘forgettings’; unable to rely on the life browser that is our computer. It felt vulnerable. It felt other. I had forgotten the experience of writing in terms of habits of mind, though I spend my life writing in terms of task. 

Vulnerable? yes. I had no spell checker, so the letter will clearly have spelling mistakes. I had no backspace key, so I had to think about what I was writing. This made the process much more embodied and engaged. The most difficult thing to overcome was handwriting itself; I have not written a long letter or anything else for a long time. The physical process of writing itself felt like a speaking a foreign language – even though I am fluent in Italian, I have to concentrate and focus on simple things like buying bread when I go back to Florence, an old stomping ground from student days, after a long absence. 

The advantage of this limitation is that all that exists in the moment is that moment. In the writing of my letter, all there was was the letter and my friend. I feel like the letter I wrote was the highest quality time I have spent with my friend in a long time; no split attention, reflecting on my reading and how our friendship may improve as a result of what I have learnt. Alone with my own thoughts, my own connections and limited memories.

I plan to reinstate letter writing day in my life. I will stop sending e-cards even if that seems easy and more beautiful. I will choose to sit with my friends and focus on just them through pen and paper…until the next time I am seduced by a new app that promises to give my friends a much better experience than my boring old letter could ever do. 

Out for a drive? Thank you Michael B. Smith! After a very frustrating day trying to make Jim dance in my kitchen with Gimp (more on that another day) I decided to go back to basics and follow a tutorial. After all, a gif a day keeps the doctor away as TT tells us. So I tried several videos and instructions. None worked. And then Michael came to the rescue. I was determined to produce a gif today. So, after many frustrating hours, I give you the Headless Drive.

rockylou22:

DS106 joins the Rebel Alliance

I managed to get Colin dog to wiggle! yes, the headless shrink relaxes with gif making most evenings….I can get him to show me his teeth on command and have wanted to take a photo of ‘mean Colin’ for a while now. Used Giffun App to generate from photos taken as suggested by Rockylou and then Gimp for the first time to edit a bit…it needs more work but sleep beckons for tonight.

No! You should not do DS106

On the matter of animated Gifs. My dear prospective DS106 students, attention has to be paid to proper pronunciation of the matter under study -it will gladden our hearts if we do. So, repeat clearly in front of the mirror JIF JIF JIF …

Will a headless shrink only speak from their heart?

What a thoughtful question, dear Cogdog.image

I can only speak from the heart, indeed. Becoming headless seemed a misfortune as we come close to a much awaited engagement with DS106. Yet, a blessing is found that will enable an offering of advise and guidance that speaks to students’ hearts as they overcome spiritual and psychological barriers to just make art, damn it! And yes, this shrink embraces the contradiction offered by the Zen master with his cane…DS106 headless shrink at work with groups

Doubts, hesitation, fear you may look foolish, new to DS106? Just stop it and make art, damn it!

Go on, you know you want to fill that box with wonder! Come and joins us at DS106 Headless 13. All your worries will fall away and you can fire your shrink, we have our own in-house DS106 Headless Shrink right here! Just ask the #Headless13 shrink.

I managed to get this far…but how do I even start to get him headless? Gimp is on the Mac and I can see all the layers on the side and now…sleep calls. 

See video on Slapping medicine man on YouTube, of course!

The Headless 13 shrink  in session – just stop it!

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