A Little Confession –
Before I begin to document our zoom session from this week I have a little confession to make. I heard someone say that this was zoom session six. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this week’s session was zoom session seven. The reason I’m so sure is because each week I take the time to draw myself a little zentangle. I counted up my zentangles and I have seven. Therefore I think this week is week seven, but of course I may be wrong. As we were discussing ‘active listening’ I thought that now was probably a really good time to ‘fess’ up to my little ongoing drawing activity.
I thoroughly enjoy our zoom sessions, I feel it’s a time for me to learn as opposed to teaching, which as a lecturer is a nice concept. When I’m listening I enjoy drawing. Since I seem to be mainly locked in a digital world at the moment, it brings just a small dose of the physical into my weekly meeting. I also find it very relaxing and for some strange reason it seems to help me concentrate more.
I set myself a few rules for my zentangle drawings and they are as follows:
- No predefined lines or pencil marks to follow
- Any mistakes while drawing I need to ‘own’ and weave into the pattern
- Must be spontaneous and reflective of my current mood
- Ensure that the drawing assists with listening and does not distract me from it
- The line designs must be my own
Time and my relationship with time, learning and how time affects things I believe will become a more integral part of my project work. Therefore I am keen to see how my designs develop over time. Already I am starting to see a shift in the marks that I’m making. Below is what I have produced so far. I have inverted the designs because I found that white on black creates a more powerful design.
Below are some of my zentangles in chronological order.
Zentagles Gallery in Chronological Order (Newest Images First)
I will continue to add to my zentangles gallery each week if I have the opportunity to create one, so please check back here to this post if you would like to track my progress. Please note that the images are in chronological order starting with the most recent images and working backwards.
Frivolity Aside – Now to More Serious Business
The zentangle designs are just a small indulgence that I allow myself each week. However the zoom sessions are packed with lots of information and this week especially was no exception. We were asked to read a chapter of a book or comment on an art gallery or literary piece. We then had to move into groups of about 4 and present our findings. I found the presentations really interesting. In fact I learned about a number of different terms, thinkers and writers. Eventually I hope to visit everyone’s presentation as I believe that many of them have been recorded.
I looked into a book that covered Ai and the battle between the two great Ai superpowers, namely the US and China. Although I only needed to read a chapter or two, I actually ended up reading the whole book. There were some great quotes in the book which gave some fascinating insights into China’s meteoric rise to becoming an Ai superpower. I made some detailed notes about the book and these can be accessed in my blog post called ‘Elusive Taxonomies’.
I do plan to revisit this blog post and document some of the interesting things from other people’s presentations. At the moment all of my free time is taken up with ideas, research and experimentation. However, I have a catch up plan for the Christmas holidays when I intend to relax and watch some of the lectures I have missed due to work.
In the meantime visiting everyone’s presentation is firmly on my to do list and I will report my findings here.
