Projected: This will be a lecture on writing.
Text: First I will show you a video.
There is a writer in this clip but he will not be explaining anything about
writing. He will be asking questions. And as a result of that he will be
robbed of some of his possessions. So, let's have a look/click on the link:
<iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LI6AJw5oRLE"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
[Please make sure you see this video, it is vital for understanding the lecture]
Text: Please regard this video as a metaphor.
A metaphor for what?
Yes, gaining knowledge is putting yourself at the risk of losing your
most cherished convictions… but that was not what I intended to
convey. And rest assured, my aim is not to steal anything from you, or to
teach you how to rob other people. It is quite the reverse.
What I wanted to show you was:
- The choreography of attention, trust and direction.
- A play of Show and Tell, Hide and Seek.
- The dance of a pickpocket and his victim, but also the two-step of a
writer (in this case the pickpocket) and his or her reader (the victim).
And now that I have all of you distracted I can start with my talk.
------And here I am talking about writing to students in the visual arts.
Why?
For the most of you writing is not the first or foremost tool for research,
understanding or expression. You probably came here with other things
on your mind.
But you will be asked, during your stay at the academy, to write
papers and other texts and you will all need to write a final thesis in the
last year. So it’s a good idea to get acquainted with the skills you need
to write these papers and that thesis. This first year offers 'Research and
Discourse': an introductory course into these skills, writing being one of
them.
There are many forms of writing: diaries, poems, letters, blogs, articles,
reportages, essays, papers etc. etc.. We will use some of them but the
core of the course is the understanding and training of the techniques
that stem from a scholarly practice: Academic research and writing.
The assignment for the second seminar is asking you to write a letter.
This is a genre, a way of writing that allows for a personal - subjective tone and perspective. And especially now, that you are asked to write a
letter to yourself. So feel free to indulge yourself in self reflection, self
exhibition, self exploitation, self aggrandizement or self hatred or self
whatever… Enjoy it.
Later assignments will ask you to use a more impersonal tone and
perspective, more in line with Academic writing.
<slide: ‘Academic research and writing’>
So there is this thing called Academic writing.
Well, to keep in line with what we teach, I should at least try to
formulate what ‘Academic writing’ is about. We need to do a little
research on that. Yes, first the research.
<slide: ‘Academic research and writing’ research bold, the rest light>
Now, let’s do what I suppose most of you would do: go to Wikipedia
and enter ‘Academic writing’… I think that in the second research
lecture – on research and the use of sources – you will be discouraged
to use Wikipedia as a source… but for now, here we go:
<slide: picture of Wikipedia page with highlights>
Let’s have a good look at the highlighted text.
<slide with following text>
‘Writing in these forms or styles is usually written in an impersonal and
dispassionate tone, targeted for a critical and informed audience, based
on closely investigated knowledge, and intended to reinforce or
challenge concepts or arguments. (…)
Typically, scholarly writing has an objective stance; clearly states the
significance of the topic; and is organized with adequate detail so that
other scholars may try to replicate the results. Strong papers are not
overly general and correctly utilize formal academic rhetoric.’
Well, that’s one way to put it… in an academic style. Impersonal and
emotionless it certainly is.
<slide: ‘reading’>
Before I continue: I hope you all are aware that I only highlighted a small
portion of the text. I am being selective. But reading is always selective,
even if you read all of the text – which I did by the way – there are only
parts that really interest you. Those parts strike a chord with what you
already know, or want to know.
<slide: ‘reading is selective’>
You recognize echoes of the thoughts you have, of the opinions and
questions you have and you can sense that it is important to you. It
arouses your interest and your mind starts to resonate with the text, and
before you know it you are thinking about things connected to what you
read.
<slide: ‘reading makes your mind resonate’>
Sometimes it is even hard to keep on reading because your mind
wanders off. Your imagination is activated and a train of thought is set in
motion. And this train will sometimes bring you to places you have not
been before. You will find new connections. For instance by following
the references in the text that point to other texts: these are the texts
that the writer read, the texts that informed and inspired him/her, the
other texts that resonate in the text you read. Your mind is buzzing with
new ideas.
<slide: ‘reading block’>
On other occasions you will come across words and sentences you find
hard to understand. Don't hesitate to look up the meaning of these
words, experienced writers do it all the time. But even with the
assistance of dictionaries some sentences or paragraphs will be hard to
understand. You can skip them of course, but I suggest you try to put
them in your own words.
<slide: ‘translate / paraphrase’>
It will take time, but you are now also making new connections, gaining
knowledge and forming your own understanding. When translating, and
especially when paraphrasing - putting it into your own words - the
reader already turns into a writer.
<slide: picture of a second hand book>
You can sometimes see this in secondhand books or books you take out
of the library. People have underlined lines or passages and even wrote
comments in the margins of the text.
You can see how they read and developed an understanding of the
text. By writing. And a lot of writing starts while reading. It just comes
natural, instantaneous. This is what you see in these books. They could
not help themselves…
<slide: text: ‘We are all selective when we read but while we read we
form new connections, enlarge our understanding, and we start to write
- even without a paper or a screen’>
Let’s go back to the Wikipedia text. I will be even more selective and
concentrate on what is said about the audience.
Academic writing is always for an audience. That is true for us as well.
You are not writing in your diary, your text will be out there for others to
read. Just think about the seminars.
<slide with text>
The text says: ‘Writing in these forms or styles is usually written in an
impersonal and dispassionate tone, targeted for a critical and informed
audience' and it 'is organized with adequate detail so that other scholars
may try to replicate the results.'
Well, here you see a difference between academic writing and what we
do in this course. You are not scholars but aspiring artists. You are not
expected to write scholarly papers, but the techniques used by scholars
can help you with your writing. And your writing can help you with your
work.
<slide: ‘As a reader you are the audience’>
Be critical and get informed.
When you do your research and come across a text you read all of it,
not just the summary, you check the credibility of the writer, try to
understand from what point of view the writer starts, what other texts
and research he or she is referring to, which arguments are important,
and to see if they these arguments are strong or weak you try to come
up with counterarguments. And – very helpful – you make your own
summary to see what you understand and want to incorporate in your
text – in your own words. This all takes time, but it will be worth it when
you start working on your own texts.
<slide: ‘As a writer you address an audience’>
Then there is the other audience, your readers. They are supposed to be
critical and informed as well… brrr.
You really have to know what you say, have to be prepared for
questions and to answer these you need to have your sources
accessible. People can ask things like: ‘In your text you state that it is
proven that Picasso was clearly influenced by cave painting. Who says
so and where can I find the proof of that?’ Well, now you really need to
know where that came from. A reader may ask for the sources of your
text, to see if he or she comes to the same interpretations and
conclusions when examining your sources.
So be prepared and keep notes, be sure you know who said what
when, how and why. ‘Academic’ writing is about research, keeping track
of your sources and testing your arguments, so that you can join the
discussion. Just like our discussions in the seminars.
This Wikipedia text is only one of the many about academic writing. It is
only one source. In true academic fashion we need more sources of
course. Well, at least one more…
<slide with following text>
‘Beginners in college need help in distinguishing what they already
value – sincere expression- from what we must teach them to value – the
communication of reasoned belief.’
Elaine P. Maimon [et al.], Writing in the arts and sciences, Cambridge,
MA : Winthrop Publishers, c1981.
Academic writing is ‘The communication of reasoned belief.’ You have
to give reasons for what you believe and these reasons should withstand
critical and informed questions. Like the ones we pose to each other
during the seminars. In a friendly way.
It is not about stating the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you
God. You are not on trial and you are not preaching. During the
seminars you are part of a group of people that shares mutual interests
and beliefs. Reasoned beliefs. And these beliefs are discussed.
Reasonably. The members of the group inform each other and try to
come to a common understanding, common ground.
<slide with following text>
‘But liberal learning does not permit us to hold on to any single answer
for too long. A soon as you find one answer, you discover that that
answer leads to other questions. Liberal learning can be unsettling.
People like certainty, the right answer, the only way. Because of this
desire for certainty and security, people can find themselves living with
answers that other people have imposed upon them. In a free society,
people learn to cultivate inquiring minds. They see that in broad areas
of life there are no single right answers, that knowledge has a peculiar
way of generating more questions, and that the world is more
ambiguous than it appears.’
Elaine P. Maimon [et al.], Writing in the arts and sciences, Cambridge,
MA : Winthrop Publishers, c1981.
In this line of thinking developing academic skills is needed to keep our
society an open and free society.
So now that I outlined the conditions and goals of the ‘academic’ in
academic writing, let us quickly turn to writing, that powerful intellectual
activity.
<slide with following text>
‘Writing can help you to illuminate ambiguous situations, not to find
certainty, but to find better ways to exist without certainty. Writing is an
intellectual activity that helps you to develop flexibility, to create ways to
test your own response and ideas, rather than merely to accept the
ideas of others. (…) Writing can mean power.’
Elaine P. Maimon [et al.], Writing in the arts and sciences, Cambridge,
MA : Winthrop Publishers, c1981.
<slide: Academic research and writing>
Well, some or many of you probably sat through long hours trying to
write and experiencing all kinds of feelings, but the feeling of power was
not one of them. Your mind was buzzing with ideas or completely
deserted, you started typing like crazy or you suddenly froze, Later you
read through the text you have written and see nothing there of what
you had been thinking, and what you see is without structure and
direction. Or you still sit there, waiting for something to happen. These
are the extremes, but I suppose you recognize some of it.
Of course, most of you are not skilled writers, so maybe these are
beginner’s problems and practice will help you to overcome this initial
anxiety or loss of concentration and meaning.
Yet, even highly experienced writers report similar experiences, all
through their working and writing life. You will probably have to learn to
cope with it.
<slide with picture of manuscript with a lot of doodling, little drawings>
Have a look at this manuscript. It is not by a ten year old, doodling while
he or she is trying to write about his or her love for pirates or cats. This is
one of the original notebooks that were used by the Nobel Prize
laureate Samuel Beckett for writing his novel Watt.
You see his imagination flourishing, while his writing chokes. The least
you can say is that he has a lot of time on his hands because the words
don’t come easy… I see the product of hours and hours of waiting for
the words to come alive… and to be sure, the words came alive with a
penetrating force.
And he wrote many more novels and plays in this way.
There is something odd about the moment you start to write.
<slide: your mind can be fleeting, hazy, ill-formed, fanciful, irrelevant
and inconsequential’>
The thoughts in your mind can be ‘fleeting, hazy, ill-formed, fanciful,
irrelevant and inconsequential’, all that and more. Their meaning can
change, even without your consent. But you are intimate with the
meaning you intend, you are sure you know what you mean, although
the words may sometimes fail you or lack the power to encapsulate all
the meaning you sense.
You can think and reason without writing, keeping in mind what you
are thinking of. You can discuss without writing,
<slide: ‘objectifying thoughts in visible language’>
Writing, by objectifying the thoughts in visible language, is giving these
thoughts another kind of solidity and durability. They can be transmitted
in a form that more or less preserves their meaning. They can travel
through time and space.
<slide: ‘’>
Writing suddenly transforms your thoughts and feelings into words that
are not longer inside of you. They show themselves for possibly
everybody to read at moments and places very different from where and
how you are right now. And you will not be there to make sure that your
words are properly understood. You can have the sense of loosing
control. You can even experience feelings of mourning. What was inside
of you, was alive and growing, moving you, moving through you, now it
is without nourishment or movement, lying there, dying.
<slide: ‘’>
When written down in graphic form your thoughts become part of the
world they describe, analyze etc. etc.. And they need to be read, to be
understood. Reading is not just looking at the graphic signs. Reading
opens up the signs to understand the meaning. Written, that is visible,
language is the sheet music / the score for thinking. Reading is the act
of performing the score. The music is what you hear in your mind’s ear
when you read: the inner voice. It’s the first reader, reading out loud…
But reading is also interpretation, and reading is, as we saw earlier,
always selective.
<slide: ‘As a writer you are suddenly at the mercy of the reader’>
As a writer you are suddenly at the mercy of the reader.
And there is one particular reader that I want to introduce to you now.
Just suppose you have a lot of the research done and already have the
structure of your paper defined: begin / exposition, middle
/argumentation and end / conclusion. And yes, you have been thinking
hard about the pro’s and contra’s of your thesis, taking into account
what others have mentioned during discussions. You have asked
yourself all the hard questions and are ready to go. Now all you have to
do is sit down and take that piece of paper or open up your word
processor… What happens next?
Even before you start to write you will meet two readers: one very close
to you, namely you, the first reader, and one imagined, in a distance,
waiting to be addressed: the projected reader… it can be anyone. And
before you can address your public – the projected reader – you will
communicate with yourself, with that part of yourself that is looking over
your shoulder. Some of you also have to wrestle with feelings of
uncertainty, low self-esteem, panic and disbelief. And rest assured, even
experienced writers have these feelings.
This is the moment where you start to make your mark and at this
moment the word processor takes it’s toll.. Just think about the times
that you typed the beginning of a sentence and immediately erased the
words because they just seemed wrong to that part of yourself that is
looking over your shoulder – the censor. Again and again. When writing
with pen and paper at least the crossed out words remain, with the word
processor the screen is empty as hell. For many less experienced writers
this is the moment they implode and retreat. The censor is just too
strong.
How to deal with that part of yourself that is putting so much weight on
you that you find it hard to even begin writing?
1 - Keep in mind that the censor gains his strength from the pressure of
public performance, the expectations of an imaginary or internalized
public. Some people learn to live with their inner censor by writing
strictly for themselves. Diaries, evaluations, short essays or stories… The
censor stays relatively quiet. In the safety of this form they learn to write
before they judge.
2 - If that doesn’t work, because the censor always takes control, you
need to stop communicating with that part of yourself and start typing.
Take a deep breath and make the words and sentences appear, don’t
bother about structure or direction.
All that you know, all the research will help you and will use you to
push the words onto the screen. Don’t erase any text, save all the drafts
you make, if necessary in tranches in different files. Don’t inspect what
you write, go on until you find yourself without words.
When you are finished with this uncontrolled writing the censor will
strike back, with a vengeance. But now you know that it cannot hold you
back and the writing has begun. You need to pass that threshold. The
words are out.
3 - If you are – like me – waiting for the first sentence to take shape and
are unable to sit down and just type, then you need to learn to be
patient and let the tension build up. Refraining from writing becomes a
more tedious task than writing, you just wait and wait for the first words
that have that tone of voice that you were looking for. It always
happens, but the waiting can be a torture. When the writing finally starts
you will see that all that time you have been organizing en reorganizing
the structure of the text. Now it found a voice, the voice in your head
that is fit for the text. And the voice is strong enough to withstand the
censor.
And you will need that censor, you will need the assistance of your
censor when writing, it is the first reader that will help you understand
what you are writing and have written, it will help you revise your texts
and make them presentable for a public.
Only when you learn to cope with your inner censor can you address
a public and write for an audience. But it can also stifle you, so you need
to learn to write before you judge.
I only described three writing strategies, but there are many more.
Here is one that first makes a distinction between Planners and
Discoverers.
Planners experience language as a tool that they use only as a
deliberate means to an end. They see themselves as fully in control.
‘Words should be employed as the means, not as the end, language is
the instrument.’ A neutral tool for communicating about an objective
world, writing becomes problem solving. By force of reason you solve
the problems that stand in your way. Language comes second to logical
and scientific reasoning, it is the dress of thoughts that can be translated
into different words without losing its meaning. Writing is the
transmission of information. Planners are concentrated on the product,
not the process.
For Discoverers writing is a way of knowing. ‘None of us knows what he
thinks till he sees what he writes.’ By writing you discover what you can
and want to say. Language is an expressive medium and forms our
thoughts. You cannot translate a text into other words without losing a
lot of meaning. The meaning of what you write depends on the
resonance of other words, not on the objective world. We learn from
language how to understand the world. Discoverers are not fully in
control and are very aware of the process of writing.
Planners will think that the Discoverers mistake the means for the end,
Discoverers will claim that the Planners are too short sighted and reduce
their possibilities.
I hope it is clear to you that these are two extremes and that we all have
some of both.
So we all have to cope with mixed strategies and see when it is fit to be
more of the one than the other. Academic writing favors the Planner,
Poetry or Creative writing favors the Discoverer.
This kind of stereotyping is not completely without use. It helps you to
see where your preference lies, what your first reaction is. And what you
have to practice more.
Look at this simple scheme of the writing process:
Plan > Write > Edit
Planners will tend to put a lot of effort into the first phase of this
process. They will structure their research very orderly, work step by
step and in such a way that they are able to already find a solution
before they start to write. They will write an outline, a summary in
advance, and will perfect that outline up to the point that writing is only
needed to connect the dots. For them writing is the conclusion of this
process and they will hardly revise what they have written.
When you recognize a lot of yourself in this description you need to take
time for the ideas to incubate in your mind and practice writing for
yourself, for no practical reason. And when writing a paper, take time to
revise the text, put the text away for some time and try to read it again
with a fresh eye.
Discoverers will do their research in a less orderly way, when reading a
text they are tempted to follow all the leads and dive from one text into
the other, when they do write an outline it will usually not be a scheme
but a text, and the text is vague, unstable, and not meant to be
structuring the final text. The research is not about problem solving, it is
a feeding frenzy. They will swallow all that they can. They need to write
to solve the problem. They need to write to even recognize the
question. They will normally not say ’I solved a problem and then started
to write' but ‘while writing I discovered an answer’. It is not unusual for
them to produce a lot of text that needs a lot of editing, and they will
enjoy that process ever so much. A deadline can be a problem.
When you recognize a lot of yourself in this depiction you need to
understand that planning is already writing, putting thoughts into a
structure, and outlining will not interfere with your creativity. Document
and archive your research and make it accessible for others as well, in
this way you already prepare yourself for the moment that you have to
engage with the reader.
Keep the reader in the back of your mind while writing, put him center
stage when editing.
Before we concentrate on the writing of a text it is useful to tell you that
my perspective is that of an editor. I put a lot of weight on revision and
that will probably show through in my explanations.
My first suggestion to you is: that you research like a Planner and write
like a Discoverer.
My second is that you learn to let things rest for a while, without turning
your attention to it. Let the ideas incubate in your mind. They will form
connections without your conscious effort. They will grow and change in
a way that I like to illustrate with a quote by Shakespeare.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Let’s say you want to write a paper.
When you start to write, try not to be judgmental, write before you
judge, put it on the paper or the screen. Don’t worry about the structure
or direction. It can be a block of text, even without proper punctuation
or grammar. This is for your eyes only. It is the raw material that you
gather from your consciousness and sub-consciousness, that is, from all
over your mind.
Do this several times and save all the drafts or efforts, don’t erase, make
one file or sheet with several efforts (put enough space in between the
efforts) or make a new file for every effort.
Continue in this vein until you think you have covered almost everything.
Now you start to read. And you cast a cold eye. You will soon see that
you need to break up the text to make it accessible for a reader, even
for yourself... Use paragraphs to cluster sentences that belong together,
you sometimes have to drag the sentences from different places in the
text, or take sentences apart because you need some part elsewhere.
Put spaces in between paragraphs to stress that they are separate parts.
You probably have to drag the paragraphs as well and put them in
another order. You will also erase text now, words, sentences and whole
paragraphs.
Save the end result under another name, but also save several stages of
this editorial process under specific names. Put what you think is the end
result away for as long as you can. Then read and edit it again. Look at
punctuation, spelling, grammar: all the formal aspects of the text.
In your research you developed ideas that you want to present to your
readers, in the first stage of the writing you have to translate these ideas
in text. Now you try to make the text into a coherent structure that the
reader can easily enter. To direct his attention you will use a title, and
subtitle, you will introduce the question you want to answer and put
forth a possible answer, then you demonstrate your opinion and the
reasoning that supports that opinion. And finish with the conclusion:
your answer to the question.
So there it is: your text, it can be an essay, a review, it can even be an
academic paper.
---While writing such a paper you have structured your thoughts,
This is what writing does, not just academic writing.
And by the way, you offer these structured thoughts to the reader,
with the intention to structure his or her thoughts as well.
And where I previously said that the writer is at the mercy of the reader,
the opposite is also true, the reader is willing to believe the writer and
ready to be convinced.
There are many types of text, making it possible to structure your
thought in many ways. And different structures are needed for different
audiences and topics.
---You now look at a formal representation of a text. Blocks of color
instead of words. I want to show the structure not the content. I choose
to do so because during this course you will not be asked to write a full
paper or thesis, you will practice using 500 or 1000 words, and going
into detail would take another lecture. And yes, during the seminars the
teacher will go into more detail, using your own texts, so that you can
understand and respond immediately.
-----In the coming seminars we will practice some of these forms of writing.
We will ask you to write...
- A letter to yourself
- A subjective and an objective text about a work of art
- A review of a work of art
- And later you will be asked to write an interview, a personal statement
and some small essays
For the next seminar we want you to write a letter to yourself, so be
passionate, subjective. Use your imagination!
In later seminars we will ask you to write dispassionate, neutral,
without mentioning me myself and I.
For the third seminar we ask you to write both a subjective and an
objective text about a work of art.
Subjective <> Objective
If you want to explain how you came to know this work and why this
work is so important to you it is best to use subjective writing. You can
describe the space where you first saw it, your first thoughts and
feelings. For this you need to use your own memory and imagination.
Maybe it turns into a little story with two main characters: the work and
you. It can be like a diary, or like a picture card you send to your best
friend.
If you want to convince the reader that this work is important for all of
us, or that it has influenced many other artists, then you best use a more
neutral tone. Use quotes from reviews or articles, keep your self out of
the picture and address a distant reader who needs to be informed.
Don’t say ‘I think’ but use phrases like ‘it is being regarded by many to
be’. Mention important exhibitions and prizes. Find a publication about
the work or the artist, like a monograph, and paraphrase passages from
that text.
Review
The next assignment is to use these texts, both the subjective and the
objective to write a review about the work.
First decide for what kind of publication your review is intended. A
newspaper, a women’s or a man’s magazine, an opinion magazine or an
art magazine etc. etc.. You may decide. Have a look at such a
publication to see how they review. And yes, it can also be for your
personal website…
A review will at least contain a descriptive part and an opinion about
the work. But first you start with arousing the interest of the reader for
this work.
People read reviews to know if they should know this and to be able
to engage with others in talk: small talk or a heated discussion… So try
to get them interested and even try to get them to go and see the work!
Interview
Later you will be asked to interview another student – who will by the
way interview you.
Well, where to start? Professional interviewers need hours and hours
to prepare for an interview, reading all kind of previous publications and
interviews, talking to people connected to the person etcetera. Yes,
they do their research! They will prepare questions of course, but will
also rely on what happens during the interview.
I think the teachers should announce the couples that will interview
each other in the seminar before, so that you have time to prepare.
Ask your fellow student to send you a mail with background
information. And also the review he or she wrote for the fifth seminar.
Prepare three good questions.
Use a recording device.
Start with small talk about the teacher and the course. Have a good
laugh.
Then talk about the review. Now you are already in his or her domain.
Distract your subject by offering some tea or by telling him or her
something about your work or interest. When you think that he or she is
off guard, pose your first good question – listen, don’t talk - and then
the second one. Now you need to really listen and see if you can come
up with some new good questions. Don’t make conversation, but
question. Then you make conversation and wait for the good moment
to pose your final good question.
Take home your recording and don’t listen to it, Start writing down what
you think you heard, then listen to the recording. Feel free to skip the
questions and put some answers in a different order when needed.
One thing is certain. Now that you all know this… you all know how the
interviewer is trying to get you to speak frankly and say things you are
unsure about and maybe will regret.
But hey, when you do the interview, remember the video clip with the
pickpocket. Dance around the spotlights and work in the dark… ask
questions to direct the attention and gain the trust of your subject by
telling something about yourself, slip into their pockets and find what is
there...
What I just said is metaphor and metaphor is what a lot of you use in
your work. Speaking in images. Like in the poem by Shakespeare.
Let's have a look at it again.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
One way of looking at it will be consoling: we all are made of the matter
that also surrounds us, we all will be part of nature after we die and we
will change into something rich and strange. Somebody will look at what
we have become and marvel about the beauty of it all. So do not waste
your time and be that person, looking at what has become of all that
came and went before.
You can also see this as an image of the sub-conscience: leave it to your
brain and the matter you have been made of to process and develop all
that you have seen and read into something that is ready to be hauled
up and shown... by writing. You will have to dive en delve into yourself
and it will not always be easy to do, but what you find will be worth the
effort. It will enrich you and amaze you and still be strange. It will be
there, for all to see. And yet… it is impossible to explain it completely.
Show and Tell
I introduced the phrase Show and Tell in the beginning of my talk. Let
me explain something about that couple. The phrase is commonly used
when talking about literary writing. When working with an author on his
or her text it is not uncommon to advise the following: Show, don’t tell.
Meaning: in this text or this part of the text you just tell too much, you
need to leave more to the imagination of the reader. The reader needs
to be engaged and not instructed. It can be a novel, or a literary story. It
can be a journalistic reportage, even an essay. The advise is still the
same.
The point being, that you want to engage the reader by inviting him
to use his or her imagination.
I would like to propose the phrase Tell and Show. Academic writing is
about Tell and explain, not Show and suggest. I think that within the
confines of academic writing you can understand Tell and Show as the
advice to engage the readers, by speaking to their reason but also to
their imagination. Remember, this is an academy for the visual arts…
Advice
Use your imagination now and reverse the video that you saw when I
started this lecture. So, put it in reverse and what do you see?
Instead of taking something away the pickpocket / writer is putting
something in the pockets of the victim / reader. And this is what I would
like you to do as well.
While talking to the reasoning mind of the reader, you should also use
imaginative language, a more personal tone of voice and metaphors,
because that choreography of attention, trust and direction should make
it possible to put something valuable in his or her pocket that was not
there before – a gift you should treasure.
Thank you.