Zoom Session 23

How to Read a Book & Other Ideas –

This week was all about reading and getting the most from it. Apparently Kevin Kelly the founder of Wired magazine had said that we are now in an age where we are moving from book literacy to screen literacy. As part of this we discussed the F pattern of eye movements when tracked across a screen. I always enjoy our group sessions and find the information from them really useful. I discovered that that there is something called ChatPdf which I would like to explore further. I would also like to try out ‘Voice Dream Reader’ and ‘Speechify’ which are text to audio generators.

We also looked at the ‘Pomodoro’ technique as a way to approach the research for the research paper. An outline of how this technique should be used is summarised in the slide selection below. I intend to try this as I think it will be very helpful as both a time management and motivational tool.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me this week though, was the notion of: ‘I feel’, ‘I wonder’, ‘I think’. I’d never ever thought about something in those terms before and this week we really were given the opportunity to experience this first hand. This came via a video performance by an artist called Zhang Huan.

Having been introduced to the work of Zhang Huan I feel this is an artist I would like to further investigate, mainly because I found his work both thought provoking and powerful.

Zhang Huan – My New York

Below is the short film that we watched together while considering, ‘I feel’, ‘I wonder’ and ‘I think.’ My thoughts initially revolved around the gratuitous use of meat. However, having had time to reflect upon the piece, my overriding thoughts have turned to a sense of ‘ambiguity’. There are many ways in which I could describe this piece but after much internal dialogue and debate I would use the word ambiguous to describe it. Below I have included a YouTube video of the original short and below that I have also included interviews with the artist himself speaking about his work.

At first sight of the film, with no prior knowledge of the artist or his intention, my thoughts regarding: ‘I feel’, ‘I wonder’ and ‘I think’ were as follows:

‘I feel’ – Unnerved’
’I wonder’ – Why? What is it all about?
’I think’ – Ambiguity – is this someone railing against the meat industry, or is this someone glorifying the meat industry? Is this someone dressed like a superhero, or someone wearing a costume purely to shock? Is this a film about a ritual or is this a film about freedom? There are so many (without prior knowledge) unanswered questions that I have concluded that the piece is ambiguous.

Interview with Zhang Huan (Bloomberg Originals)

Focus on Zhang Huan (Discovery Channel)

A Selection of Slides

Below are a selection of slides from Jonathan’s talk this week. I like to include these as session prompts so that I can refer back to them and remember what we covered.