WEEK 33 - take everything online with a grain of salt
I’m not sure I have ever taken a trip without my laptop until a few weeks ago when I went to New York City. I was visiting friends I hadn’t seen in real life in almost two years so I left my laptop at home on purpose.
Just want to say, that was an excellent decision.
After many months of learning new things and storing them away for the “someday” of creative dialogues, it felt so fucking good to exchange a bajillion thoughts with my creative friends.
I don’t think I even realized how much I missed those conversations until I had a few under my belt in NYC. I started to feel like I had been storing away all these nuggets of information and thoughts for the last 18 months and I was finally able to share them.
And many of my friends had been doing the same thing!
One of the realizations I had as I talked with my long-time friend and collaborator Lauren Ronquillo is how much my mindset has been affected by the short, sticky, easily digestible ideas I often see on social media.
The context and nuance of live conversations, in real time, made me realize that I needed to re-adjust the way I have been “receiving” and processing information so that I’m giving those simplified social media messages a little less of my time and attention.
Talking with another human who has empathy and context is such a different experience, and information hits so differently. I want to do more of that!
Your assignment: Create art inspired by a recent conversation you’ve had with someone you have a close relationship with.
Thought starters: This can be a convo you had in-person, online, over the phone, etc. The point is to think about things that occurred to you when you had that back-and-forth magic happening.
Here are a few ideas for parts of the conversation you could use as inspiration:
An insight or realization you had during or after the chat
A joke or funny moment that occurred
A new perspective you offered or received
It doesn’t necessarily need to be related to creativity, either. This assignment is about celebrating the magic of engaging in dialogue with others, whatever the subject.
Caption ideas: Encourage people to chat, connect, engage in real dialogue. What I noticed was that my brain has been like a wine cellar, collecting and storing information for many months.
Talking with people (especially my creative friends) is like aerating those finely aged vintages! For me, conversations bring out the subtle notes and complexities of ideas in a way that’s simply not possible when they’re just bouncing around in my own brain.
Engagement tip: It’s not lost on me that this message is about the value of active dialogue (vs passive social media consumption) and I’m posting it on social media! Please use this assignment and your own post as an encouragement to connect with someone in a real-time dialogue :)
Important note: Don’t share someone’s sensitive info on public social media without their consent! Be aware of sharing too much about others in your public spaces - change names or identifying details so no one’s privacy is threatened.
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Don’t forget to tag me @homsweethom and use the #HOMwork & #HOMwork2021 hashtag when you post on Instagram. I love looking through your excellent creations and sharing a few of my favs every week in my IG Stories before the next assignment is posted.
