Tag: art

Inspiration: Look Up More: The Shared Experience of Absurdity

Jaclyn8 Comments

I’ll just come out and say it, I love the absurd.  There’s something magical and beautiful about frivolity that’s not tied down to reason and rationality.  Absurdity has this detachment from the material world which makes me remember that I am not only a physical body that needs to eat and shit, but also a mind that needs to be stimulated and awed.  There’s some sort of wizardry that the ludicrous possesses which can turn even the most mundane of situations and surroundings into a wonderland.

Take for instance Christo and Jean-Claude’s outdoor art, The Umbrellas.  It instantly turns a brown, barren California landscape into a fairyland. And that’s exactly what’s amazing about absurdity.  It’s play for adults.  It’s a time when we are pulled out of daily routine and everyday life and invited to immerse ourselves in imagination and wonder.  It invites us to see the world around us not as a hard, material setting but as a playground ripe with beauty and ready for exploration.

The magic and wonder of the ridiculous is never so powerful as when it is shared.  In the TED Talk below, Charlie Todd, founder of ImprovEverywhere, discusses the power of sharing absurd experiences.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the video:

“I love this moment in the video, because before it became a share experience, it was maybe a little bit scary, or something that was at least confusing to her.  And then once it became a shared experience, it was something funny and something she could laugh at.”

“There is no point and there doesn’t have to be a point.  We don’t need a reason, as long as it’s fun.”

[ted id=1269]

This video really inspired me because it made me think about how something just a little bit absurd lends itself to an entire story.  The people who witnessed the no-pants subway ride (and all the previous ones that followed!) will forever have that story to tell — and to share.  It will be something to connect over and an experience that they can give to others through the telling of that story for the rest of their lives.

All storytelling should have an element of this.  Stories should leave you wanting to retell them, to share them.  Good stories are instant bridges between people.  They bring us together and link us in common experience.

And for me, I always want a little bit of the absurd.  I want a little bit of play, a little wink at my reader.  I want that moment when my reader and I are both frolicking in the playground of wonder and imagination and beauty that is the world we live in.

Because it’s really fun to play by yourself, but it’s even more fun to play with others.*

*Sexual innuendo absolutely intended.  I’m sorry.  I couldn’t resist.

Creative Commons love to Jon Delorey for the photo and, of course, to TED for the video!

Inspiration:Cat exploded? Make good art.

JaclynLeave a comment

Here is a really lovely commencement speech that Neil Gaiman recently gave.  It is quite thought-provoking, a little funny, and amazingly inspirational.  It got me writing for the first time in a month.  I hope it does the same for you!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/42372767 w=400&h=300]

These are a few of my favorite one-liners.  They are all the more poignant in context.

If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do.

I learned to write by writing.  

I tended to do anything that felt like an adventure, and stop when it felt like work, which meant life did not feel like work.

A life in the arts is like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will find its way back to you. 

The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down.

Sometimes life is hard… when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make. Good. Art… Cat Exploded? Make good art.

The moment that you feel that just possibly you’re walking down the street naked… showing too much of yourself, that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.

Make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.  Make good art.