When you begin to share, really share and mix and blend and mash it all up, you begin to loose the thread. It becomes difficult to remember how everything is connected. Who owns what? Who created which piece of the tapestry becomes less and less important. It is at this moment, knee deep in creation, when you look around and find yourself immersed in an unnameable magic. I have been riding a wave of unprecedented creativity since the beginning of the year. Here is what some of it looks like.
A few weeks ago, I created this mash-up and wrote this post about it. The post created one of my favorite exchanges in the comment sections about art and life and openness. A few days later, Keri Lee Beasley shared this amazing Ted Talk with me by Brene Brown I encourage you to watch it in it’s entirety:
I was so moved by her message that I had to give it life in my new favorite medium- the mash-up. This time I used music from Noise Professor. Who had created the music for another project of mine- a musical, photography/poetry thing I am doing with Zach Chase.
I hope to write more on her talk and ideas later, as I see her research as validation for my entire philosophy, but for now, I will let her words and the music sum it up.
Last week a friend sent me this link to a video of the late night breakdown by one of the pioneers of blogging Justin Hall. I had never heard of him, and still no little about his story. The clip has haunted me for a few days, as I have watched it several times, but it wasn’t until tonight that I heard my remix. Throughout this week, I have also been obsessed with the latest single form the new Iron and Wine album Kiss Each Other Clean. I had mentioned before that the song makes me feel like flying. I strummed it on the guitar today and felt very empowered, but back to tonight- I was listening to one and thinking about the other, cant remember which was which, when I realized that they mirror each other well. There is a sense of hope and desperation in both pieces of art, and I wanted to capture that juxtaposition. I felt a sudden sense of urgency to get this project done. I hope to re-do in a few days, with perhaps me singing the song instead of the recorded track, but will see how that turns out, or if I run out of energy.
It is this dialectical relationship and tension between hope and desperation I find so fascinating. This relationship is seen in everything we do: art, work, the web itself…
Whenever I speak with people about openness and sharing, I feel the need to preface my philosophy by saying, “Well not everyone will feel comfortable sharing as much as I do.” It is almost as if I am doing something wrong, and to be honest I am not sure if sharing my every thought on the Internet is the best idea. I too struggle with my own demons, and I am not so naive to think that I am impervious to a break down, much like this, at any time.
That’s the thing about all of this; we don’t really know where we are headed. Those who say they do, the experts, publish article after article presenting research to prove which ever side suits their argument best. Each of us needs to take inventory of our privacy and intimacy and weigh it against openness and community. Is what you consider to be private more or less valuable to you on the inside or on your sleeve? There is not right or wrong answer. All I know is that I have had some amazing experiences over the years by being open and having faith in the goodness of people and trusting in the power of creativity. I have written about the Heart of the Internet, Trust and Community,and Peaking Out From The Edges; I have spoken about Life as an Open Book; others have written about stalking me, or shared stories about my work at conferences. Even after all of this, the connections seem to be becoming more complex and sophisticated. After four years of living online, I am still surprised on an almost daily basis by the generosity of the human spirit and our need to be creative collectivity.
For every paranoid news story about the Internet that forces parents and teachers to cry privacy, I feel the need to populate the web with a story like this one- I recently discovered a great site called SoundCloud, which is a great portfolio for my music. I use the word portfolio, but my music is not anything that can be classified as professional, but it is mine and it makes me happy. Each song, like my photos, my films, my blog posts is an illustration of my journey. I am not concerned with value judgments like good or bad. Like I tell my students, learning is not about success or failure, it is about growth and change. Learning is at the heart of evolution. I suppose we could grow and learn and evolve in privacy and in isolation, but where is the fun in that. We could be scared or insecure to share any aspect of our creativity for fear of being judged, but I choose bravery instead.
Sorry. Back to the story, I have begun to upload my small catalog of recorded music. Why? Because experience has taught me that if you share yourself with honesty and passion and love, the universe will send back echoes and reflections that remind you that you are not a single lonely self, but a pixel in the larger picture of humanity. I don’t write too many original songs. I am not good at it, and I find it extremely difficult. I can take a decent photograph; I am getting better at turning a word or two, but when it comes to music- I am weighed down with doubt. I know what music does to my soul, and I know that my singing is awkward and insecure. I can hear the doubt and tension. I play with apprehension, which ironically is the opposite of what music should do.
Sorry. Back to the story, I upload music anyway. I guess in a way I want to set an example. If I ask my student to express themselves online, I cannot with a clear conscious not do the same. It takes a lot of guts to allow the world into your heart and by singing online, I am able to assuage my fear.
No words could express how amazing it feels when something that you put into the world so tenderly could sound like this:
and Leslie took it and made it her own. I am not sure what this means. I am not sure I know. I am not sure if I can articulate it. I am not sure you need it explained, but there is magic in what has happened here. There is beauty in these acts. There is love. There is community. This sharing and connection and creation brings me joy, and honestly that is all I have ever wanted. Please take these songs, the photos, the films, the text, the pieces of me and make them a part of you. We are echoes and refections posing as individuals.
Update: (This was written a few days after original post)
Of course this story didn’t end there. Once Keri Lee got wind of the project she added her own brand of loveliness.
Assignment #3 for #ds106 crept up on me, so much so I almost missed it. I will keep the text short and get to the actually product? Assessment? Art? Whatever we are calling it for this course. I think someone was calling it “awesome sauce.”
* Share (a.k.a. blog) your initial thoughts about the above readings and their relationship to one another (tag: web20readings ) and prepare to discuss in class (if applicable) and online in post comments of your classmates—so you best have setup aggregation by this point!
I chose to skip the blogging part of this assignment, as I don’t see the need for me to add more noise to the already existing conversations. I am coming into this course thinking that I want to deconstruct what is already out there and give the ideas new clothes. I did the reading, however, and would highly recommend reading the O’Reilly article. It is a manifesto of sorts for what the term Web 2. 0 actually means.
I took notes while I was reading and chose to skin the text again and see what was at the core. Here is what I found:
the voice we hear in all of our heads
traditional stories trapped in beginnings, middles, and ends
a head, not the tail, a center, not the edges.
open-ended stories freed by,
collective intelligence,
reflection of conscious thought,
the global brain as powerful effects.
free exchange fundamental to the common good.
branching out,
a tail, not the head,
edges, not a center.
hyperlinked, cross-media, participatory, exploratory, and unpredictable.
gets better the more people use it.
built-in cooperation,
stronger synapses through repetition and intensity,
connecting the edges
The “echo chamber” as amplifier.
bring your own resources to the party
blur the boundaries…
Then what? I wanted to push myself and move beyond another poem. I wanted to give the words some life, so I opened up Garagband found some Creative Commons licensed music from Trent Reznor, watched Alec Couros’ Ted Talk, grabbed some gold, and started to play.
Part B: Playing
After you have read and consider the above essays, distill a few key points and use one of the well over 50+ tools from Alan Levine‘s “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Digital Story” to try and communicate those ideas in an experimental way using a Web 2.0 tool. Make sure the tool you use lets you embed the project in your blog.
My mind is on fire. I am in the flow. I can’t stop thinking. My body tingles with learning. I am awash in artistic and intellectual juices. A bit much? Sure, but I am loving this feeling. I am drunk with the excitement generated by my mind and its connection to so many things, ideas, places, and people. Let me quickly walk you through my morning. Warning there will be many links. Do not be lazy, take a second and at least open them and skim around.
I woke up around 5:45 am as I do everyday and took a quick inventory of my online life. Checked some Tweet, read some emails, and followed up on comments and links to my posts and of course checked to see if anything exciting is happening on Facebook. (Not really by the way. Why is Facebook always the dullest part of my online life? Facebook friends, one of you, if you are here by some fluke leave a comment, join the conversation. Jump in please I beg of you!)
I was so excited to see a few Tweets and links to this post by Brian Lamb, in which he and a few other members of #ds106 had taken the poem I had written using Gardner Campbell’s talk and turned it into a song. Read the comment thread for my thoughts on that.
I then moved on to a few blog posts by Alan Levine and D’Arcy Norman that had me in a fog of thought for most of the day. Again follow the comment threads for my attempts to articulate my ideas.
Finally, once in school, I got into a nice little discussion about the usefulness of PowerPoint as a tool, the philosophical differences between telling stories and sharing information, and the general state of the perpetuated stench of habitual teaching.
And that’s all before lunch. I have already taught a class, pushed into another, and tried to wrestle about ten different ideas into this post. It is exhausting, but also very exciting. I would give my left foot if I could ever generate this kind of enthusiasm about learning with my students!
That’s it huh? The big question: How do we get learners excited about learning? Rather than pontificate or pull up research, let me just share some stories about how and why I am so excited today:
Sorry about the audio. Apparently photobooth not only doesn’t play nice with Blogger, but Youtube as well. Lesson learned.
As I was saying, I am also excited by the fact that I am actively involved in a differentiated environment. And by being so, I am able to understand better what it feels like for my students….
Sorry about the audio. Apparently photobooth not only doesn’t play nice with Blogger, but Youtube as well. Lesson learned.
Whoo! I think I got most of it out. I needed to jettison that intellectual weight; I feel much better. So what do you think about anything I said. Jump in, let’s keep the flow going.
