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Week 1 - Getting Started
Welcome to the course forum area for Story Telling as Inquiry , a College Seminar at Bryn Mawr. This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to, but we hope you'll come to value it as much as students in other courses have.
The first thing to keep in mind is that its not a place for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts". It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're not worrying about "writing" but instead that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking, so you can help them think and they can help you think. The idea is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours.
So who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in both sections of our course. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. That's the second thing to keep in mind here. You're writing for yourself, for others in the class, AND for others you might or might not know. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of LOTS of people. The web is giving increasing reality to the idea that there can actually evolve a world community, and you're part of helping to bring that about.
We're glad to have you along, and hope you value/enjoy sharing the an exploration of Story telling as Inquiry. To get started, what's the "story" of the picture on the cover of our course pack? It's copied below (click for an enlargment). Post some of your thoughts.
Looking forward to seeing where we go with this and ...
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Going back and reflecting
Understanding.
To me the picture shows that the more we understand the less we understand. When I first looked at the picutre I had no doubt that the pieces were falling down. It fits my understanding of the world, however as some pointed out they could be floating up. That well could be. The thing is that I thought I understood the picture yet maybe I was all wrong. We only understand things in our point of view.
On the net the other day I read that you have to praise your children the "right" way. They said that you don't tell your child he/she is smart you tell them that their work shows a lot of effort and they did a good job. It reminded me of a time sitting at the table working on homework with my daughter. I was telling her she was smart and could do this. She was saying that she wasn't smart because she couldn't do it. What I said and what she understood were two different things. What I said was that her brain is able to do the work and that if she tries she will make it. What she understood was that if she was as smart as I thought she was she wouldn't have to work that hard to get it. We each thought we understood what was going on but neither of us did.
Again I say that the more we think we understand the less we do understand.
Understanding
Storytelling As Inquiry
Blog Entry 1
Having been in class during the further discussions of Sharon Burgmayer's painting and dissections of her intent and message, my post is going to be slightly biased. I have always had a very pragmatic mindset and so I tend to find overly simplified visual (or other) representations of such intricate and complex issues as "understanding" to be frustrating to say the least. I have been known to get deeply involved in the philosophical debate or two, as well as having proudly played the Devil's advocate, but in general, I shy away from philosophy. I think learning should come from some methodical approach. I like to start by taking baby steps, proving little bits of information as best as possible and then moving in. I like taking all of the little pieces and putting them out in front of me so I can see patterns and shapes forming. Sometimes people jump too quickly into making conclusions and summaries, leaving a significant amount of information out of the summation just because it doesn't' fit the hypothesized or ideal model--a great risk. I don't think it is possible to have one painting present any accuracy about understanding as a concept. I can certainly understand the desire to do so, and the convenience, but I believe it is verging on "dangerous." I would never say an approach or conclusion is incorrect or correct, as every mind has its own way of sorting through information, but in my opinion, this cube and sphere just don't cut it for me.
Moving away from argument, simply looking at the image present I see two basic forms: a red, blue and green cube, and a multicolored sphere. There is great dichotomy between the cube and the sphere. The cube is hard, solid, rigid, opaque, and certain whereas the sphere is significantly more free-flowing, adaptable, variable. It would appear that the pieces of the cube's puzzle are falling down toward the sphere and not the other way around, just because of my personal cognitive associations. You read from right to left, down the page and thus in general, I follow this path of motion as the "normal" or "expected."
Initially, that is before viewing the video, I thought the message of the painting with the "??????" on the base was saying Understanding is supported by something, some x factor. Seeing the video explanation or, story, behind the painting kind of intrigued me. I don't really understand why rational thought is breaking down and breaking away to fit into the sphere, which is supposedly representing "Life, the experience of life ". If one is using a visual to explain something, then I would expect it to be constructed using terms and associations found most familiar with whatever group it is intended to be shown in. Why aren't the cube and sphere closer in size? I don't want to be nitpicky, but since we are compressing a huge area of study, the basic substance of life, a large part of what we are trying to accomplish by education, then it is a big deal in terms of the intent and message of the painting.
I think it would make more sense if either the cube were significantly smaller than the sphere, or if there were two shapes, one represent rational thought and one representing abstract thought both emitting material to a common third party.
I don't agree with the idea that Understanding is the booby prize. There can be understanding stemming from the exploration of abstract thought as well as from rational thought. Understanding cannot only be achieved from rational thought.
Understanding Chaos
The Truth about Understanding
The ball of information on right hand side of the picture consists of all sort of information we take in every moment of our lives. Then on the left hand side there is the tower of understanding. We process information from the ball, and then break it down into pieces of concepts, theorems. That’s the green, red, and blue, which represent the three most fundamental believes in our mind, whatever that maybe. It could be love, desire, and justice; it could be question, intuition, and power. It could be with any set of values and believes that’s important to that individual person. Then according to those basic believe, we sort and put the pieces into where we think they belong. Then we reprocess them. But do realize the information that we took in will no longer be what it was. It would be what we think it is. It will be encoded with our opinions and personal feelings.
This is an illustration of how mind works. Mind, however, is a curious thing. We have a tendency to process information, to categorize and make connection. In most cases, we have to break down information in order to comprehend what the information trying to tell us. Knowledge is the building blocks. And they build on top of one another. The more knowledge one has, the less parts “needed” to be breaking down. Because of we would be able to decode the information in bigger chunks. The higher the knowledge tower goes, sometimes the easier to overlook the simplest idea. The more we know today, the more we realize that we don’t know. It’s hard not to lose originality in the information as it was when was first distributed.
Knowledge, however, does not necessarily give us truth, but it could lead us there. In order to understand the information, it’s as important to look at it as it is, and appreciate its complexity as breaking down and digests the information. Minds need to be opened, go back and forth in the process in order to really understand.
what do you see?
Placed on a pedestal
Understanding is forged through the interpretation and classification of information the mind gleans from the world. The colored sphere represents the world; the box, the world deconstructed and pieced into something more concrete. Understanding arises from a base of questons-- without questions we would not understand the world. We hold the product of these questions, a worldview consisting of the knowledge we gain from life, sorted logically and uniformly, and place it far above the beautiful chaos of the world's mysteries.
Understanding is . . . .
In this picture, I see spirits of people mingled and untangled on a globe. Interactions between individuals are represented in colors. Outside the globe, there is a cube in which each side has a different color and puzzle piece. Each spirit is shaped and carved as puzzle pieces, and then is projected into the box where our definition of 'understanding' is defined. The red puzzle piece in the picture fails to get into the box, whereas the blue piece smudged with red color successfully goes up toward the box. In fact, understanding is acknowledging the fact that we are all connected to each other. Here, people who made blue piece are too narrow-minded to integrate any other color, and could not reach the box of understanding.
I've finally figured out
Story of an image
reading/revising one's understanding ....
Maybe its not "complexity" that precludes complete understanding but rather the notion that the process of inquiry inevitably (and desirably?) expands the scope of things to be understood?
Anyhow, for those interested, here is a link to Sharon Burgmayer's several accounts for the story of her painting. Notice, among other things, that the image you were given to respond to wasn't quite the image that Sharon originally painted. Any thoughts about why?
"Simplify, Simplify, Simplify."
agreed
I do understand. And we will never understand understanding itself, for it is, as you said, incomplete. One couldn't possibly ever wholly understand their best friend or even oneself for that matter. We go our whole lives trying to figure ourselves out, and perhaps some of us succeed in the slightest, but everything is far too complicated to be understood.
Bernard and Glenda.
They had been high school sweet hearts. He liked chess, she liked to paint. He enjoyed building model ships and she sometimes sang in the shower. They melded together like ice cream and pie. Every day they would wake up together and feel the morning sun light. It would seep into them, removing the darkness, the thoughtless things said earlier, and the inhibitions to the unconcious.
As much as she tried to admire his ships and he her not always on key voice, they didn't always understand one another. It's no surprise that not everyone thinks the same, for we each have our own thoughts and feelings on everything, therefore our own understanding. But this is not our story, it's Bernard's and Glenda's.
She was always so shocked when he raised his voice at a comment she made. Even watching certain channels on the TV could raise an argument. Sometimes it was those "damn" sour cream commercials. She just couldn't understand why he didn't enjoy that cute jingle. And he didn't understand why she had to sing it in the shower.
But every once in a while, when the fighting and seething had ended for the day, they would lie in bed next to each other. Bernard on the right and Glenda on the left (she liked the view of the window). And on those nights, when none of them were thinking about it, they would share stories about their day. He would listen and she would nod, and they would understand. Never knowing and never fully realizing it, both of them would release and hold their sorrow, their thoughts, their feelings and their love.
In my opinion, the picture
Exchange of Information :)
When I first looked at this
When I first looked at this picture, my eyes immediately focused on the red face of the cube. By focusing on artistic techniques, one can see how the artist used the edges of the red part of the cube along with small white diagonal lines coming from the missing puzzle piece in the red part of the cube to lead viewers to the sphere in a downward motion.
The sphere reminds me of a bomb waiting to explode when there are too many puzzle pieces in it. If the bomb explodes, then people will lose all sense of understanding. It is already about the size of the cube with many puzzle pieces still left to fill the bomb. As puzzle pieces continue to fall into the bomb, people lack understanding. The question marks at the base of the of the structure show that we must ask questions in order to create understanding which would bring the pieces of the puzzle together creating equilibrium.
The Vibrant Distinction
The colorful sphere in this
Human Attempts at Understanding
This image shows a block with sides of different colors with puzzle pieces falling out, representing the inevitable gaps that are revealed in human understanding when we analyze, as our analytical minds tend to do, in a grasping way, in order to gain an understanding of the world. When we allow the pieces to fall away, the boundaries that exist in our minds fall away, and we are able to open to the light of understanding. The universe would be boring if the pieces fit; nothing could change. And what I believe the picture is showing is that the universe is conscious of itself. We are part of the universe, and as such we are constantly exploring and manifesting the universe as being conscious of itself. New realities, new understandings, evolve through us. Our task is to let the pieces fall away, to let go of linear thinking in order to open our minds to a solution beyond our normal mental operations. If we look at things separately and isolatedly, we can't understand. But if we use a truly conscious way of thinking, we are drawing on a larger source informed by the the workings of the unconscious, represented by the magical-looking orb, an order in which everything is infiitely interconnected and inseparable from everything else, hence the prismatic array of light and colors. It is then that we suddenly get an understanding out of what appears to be nowhere. The orb is fluid, flexible, and reveals divine creative intelligence informed by our consciousness, whereas the pillar of separate colors is rigid and fixed.
Leaves, Grass, and Lima Beans
Once upon a point in time, the world appeared to have a single color, or no color at all, to its inhabitants. They moved about (as so many seemed to do) relying on shades and texture. One day a little girl decided to play in the woods. Her favorite game was see-the-birds. She’d creep up to nests a watch the tiny feather-balls breathing in sleep. But being young she soon became board of birds, and began to examine the leaves. She wondered what made leaves, and if it was the same thing that made the birds. She wondered about their material, and came to the firm conclusion that it was not the same thing that bark was made of. As her eyes wandered in her tree top she noticed something else different, from leaves and birds, and leaves and bark.
The girl went home and asked her mother what made something special. Her mother kindly told her that shape and size were very good for making things unique. However, the little girl was sure that this was not the answer, and stored it in the part of her brain designated for “adult” answers. In time, the girl began to notice more special things in her world. She realized that sometimes that the same special ness could reside in object although they seemed different. Apples, and her bed shirt, and cars had something the same, as did leaves, and grass, and lima beans. Her child’s eye had unearthed a the unique quality of color. She soon realized that not everyone (including grownups) could appreciate the quality, but that those who did lived richer, fuller, more colorful lives.
Understanding???
The Story of the Image
My Great-Grandfather's Fingers
Looking at the sheer number of words used to respond to this image, I am reminded of the phrase 'a picture's worth a thousand words'.
This phrase immediately reminds me of my favorite baby picture, taken when my Great-grandfather Lou was very much still alive. He and I are sitting together at a dining table, with his artwork in the background and his oversized glasses heavy on his face. He's smiling: a Mona Lisa smile that's quiet and speaks of private joy. I'm sitting across the corner of the table from him, looking up at the camera with my mouth hanging open and my short, curly orange hair everywhere.
Besides painting, my great-grandfather was most well known for his storytelling. Not only was he exceptionally eloquent in his tales, but his posture was unique. When starting on a familiar story, he would lean forward towards his listeners, spread his fingers and palms into steeples, and emphasize his words by tapping or bouncing his fingers onto the table in front of him.
In this particular picture, he has his fingers spread in such a manner while I imitate him and stare at the camera.
Just mentioning stories reminds me of this captured moment. Quite bittersweet now, since I have no memories of Great-grandpop Lou remaining except what is shown in photographs.
Collaboration
The box is incomplete. Where the pieces are missing one can only look in to find the darkness of mystery. However, this box stands upon the support of understanding, and this understanding is in turn held up by the support of questioning. Thus representing the need for questioning to begin to develop an understading of that which is held within the confinements of the box.
Beside the box is a sphere filled with blotches of color. These colors represent the complex and diverse questions, ideas, and interpretations which grow from the minds of the equally complex and diverse populations of our world. Each of these colors has its own way of searching for the mysteries within the box, but its is only when the colors fall away and join together in the sphere that the mysteries of the box will be revealed to all.
People like lists. We can't
A monument of answers was
A monument of answers was built at the beginning of time. It still remains as a simple structure, with all complexities taken out. The topmost part of the monument is a puzzle cube. It continually gets rearranged because of information changing in the world.
Next to the monument is an orb of questions. The world's questions are filled in this orb. Only when an answer is achieved will the question fly out of the orb as a puzzle piece and into an answer.
Pieces are forever missing from this monument, and questions are foreer fleeing their colorful orb. Time changes all.
The orb and monument are shown as a constant reminder that the world is a series of never-ending questions and answers.
Sharon Burmayer
Storytelling as Inquiry
PRELUDE
....the primary suspect in this tale is a series a Quest/ion marks serving as a foundation [aka platform] for Understanding....thus, ergo, so understood, the cube balanced on the pole loses puzzle pieces [randomly or for a proscribed reason?]....dysolving into a prismatic world...organic, wondrous, yet amorphously.....present.....like ...... as in a tale..... waiting for inquiring minds to comment....[cf: commit?]....
chAPTer Oneness....
4thcoming.....
gc
Questions and Understanding
Well, the words seem to suggest that "Understanding is ??? (questions/questioning), but is this trying to convey that understanding is gained by questioning (which seems reasonable) or that the simple act of understanding is merely a continuous series of asking questions? My guess is it's probably both. As for the significance of the colored sphere and the block with the puzzle pieces, I don't think that whether the pieces are going up or down is really crucial to the message. I would assume that the point is to communicate that understanding is never complete and is full of diversity. If I had to sum up my guess on the meaning of the picture, it would be that there are always things to learn outside of the realm of human ability and that there are many different viewpoints that contribute to the common whole understanding.