Are You Talking to Me?
We Hear More, We Listen Less
In a niche driven media culture are we losing our ability to listen? I don’t mean we aren’t hearing each other, we just aren’t discerning that what is being said is relevant unless it is packaged for us. The more direct our diet of media and entertainment content is laser focused on me, or is in a perceived conversation with me, I think we dull the interest in ideas about us
I am seeing this more in my drawing classes and it is exacerbated by my increasing class sizes. Last semester, I would see some drawing issues that multiple students were challenged by—drawing the edge of the body without any of the internal muscle or bone markers that quickly help to situate the aspect and structure of the form—and I would announce, as they draw, that just drawing the edge was like getting an empty plastic container for their lunch—it’s not the container but the contents inside we care about. No effect. I didn’t tap an individual student on the shoulder, ‘Umm, that last comment, that was for you.’
I think part of the problem is the strain on attention. In the studio, visual thinking needs active participation. John Vervaeke uses the term the imaginal, he describes it as... ‘a way to create and discover at the same time, such that creation and discovery seem like identical acts…a way of reaching into the world so it seems to reach back.’
The drawing studio is engagement with the visual that asks us to look inside of ourselves rather than swipe the surface of the screen, which takes us out of ourselves and is a release from the demands of being present. Our passive media consumption blurs what is relevant to us. ‘We know what we like’ and ‘we have strong opinions about everything’, is reflected in all social media and the algorithms that satisfy and direct our engagement. It narrows the road we travel on.
I am trying to fight back a world of inattentive drawing when the visual culture surrounding my students is designed to distract, delight and dim their ability to draw connections, see patterns, and value the peripheral, the marginal, and the things left unsaid. I don’t get out over my skis,(this week I was trying to explain how velocity in a drawing is controlled like a skier turning their skis in opposition to the slope of the hill—blank stares of course—not one of my students ski) my students are in their 2nd year and I understand where they are in the process of learning.
The government of Ontario’s Labour Minister believes students in the province shouldn’t be in 4 year College programs, because 4 years is too long outside of the labour market—-seems our only role is to create useful cogs for the labour machine—the 4 year path is really critical IF the education is laddered and designed across subjects and levels. I’m glad I teach in an Illustration program as there is an expectation that we are developing visuals with a purpose and meaning. The vocabulary of visual design thinking and drawing as communication in Years 1 and 2, provide a foundation for the following years as the student builds their own voice and portfolio.
Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel and information literacy expert Mike Caulfield look at social media is this article, (paywalled, I read it in the Apple News app) The Internet is Worse than a Brainwashing Machine.
The justification machine… has made the process of erasing cognitive dissonance far more efficient. Our current, fractured media ecosystem works far faster and with less friction than past iterations, providing on-demand evidence for consumers that is more tailored than even the most frenzied cable news broadcasts can offer.
Warzel and Caulfield suggest that the Orwellian fear of brainwashing is the wrong metaphor, it isn’t the thoughts we can’t have, or the thoughts a diabolical regime inserts into our heads that we should worry about. It’s the thoughts we have no room for because we have closed all the doors and windows. It’s not even certainty, it’s worse —-a lack of curiosity, not making room for difference or discomfort or unease. We can have skin deep experiences of horror and risk, and when the credits roll select another movie. We aren’t interested in reaching into the world, we would rather hold it at arms length.
I have to change how I teach. I will have to direct my observations to each person and hope that the me they have constructed around their drawing will see the utility in opening a few doors and windows and letting the clear breeze of curiosity in.
Thanks for this, Joe. I teach in a different discipline, but your words to this teacher always ring true.
Your writing is always so good. So relevant.