By Nathaniel Whitman October 18, 2013.
How storytelling and "round thinking" will reform us to superior design, thinking routines and action in education, our workplace and the world.
The human body is not a flat place. Inspect any body, healthy or un, and you find valleys, crevices, crinkles, deviations, and a pulsating bulwark of cells, cornices and nautiline holes. You could say we are the platonic ideal of curves - a curve’topia. I propose that if form relates to function, you could say we prefer round or curved things- things like mushy foods, soft pillows, dishes, flowers, horse mains and holding hands. We are designed to receive and give information that comes in little curved packages.
What do I mean when I speak of “curved” or “round” information? I am referring to the concentrated information delivered to us in in the form of stories. When being told a story, the sound of the tale travels from curved lips to the catacombs of our eager ears. The teller, takes a risk, looks into your eyes, and communicates emotion, spirit, joy or sorrow. It is this interchange that, I believe “curves” information to fit elegantly into our memory, and shared experience. Curved information is easily digested and assimilated into our body
So, that is why I am baffled by our panting obsession with all things flat. What I mean by this is that most technology, must essentially become flat. Only a few computer screens curve and they are truly no more stimulating than bending a piece of glowing cardboard around your suffocating head. Flat information is PASSIVE. Waiting for you to attend, vying for eye time and cloyingly ringing for you to answer a phone call, text of post.
And information? What could truly be more flat than the stale contents of yet another amateurish You Tube video, or bored presenter purveying a dull staccato of images on screen? Many smart people in their passionate pursuit of technology let a screen become a straw-man. he passive, chimeric flickering of technology will never best a storyteller, and their audience building a narrative and emotional reality together.
When it comes to purveying information the medium is truly the message. so why go through the trouble of putting electronics between you and those needing to hear your message? Curve your message and make it fit into the minds of those needing to hear it. Tell your story using your mouth, don’t hide behind a screen. Show your students and listeners that you take risks, speak directly, tell your story.
I’m no Luddite!
Please don’t think I’m not cheering technology on with the rest! I depend on and love my Flatware -PC, iPhone, iPad. Computers are a miracle of delivery, a device honed for compilation, distribution, visual creation and calculation. Wonderful, and baffling they are a miracle of ease. Don’t get me wrong, there is a massively important place for stories told well using screens. I love movies, television, Vimeo, screen casting, Vines and even overhead projectors.
Yet I’d argue, technological devices are only as good as the spit with which we polish them. Dull, trashy, boring fakery, sneaky spying and spanned matrices of organized copyright infringement characterizes much of what is given to us by our Flatware. The real message of the computer revolution is simple.. garbage in, garbage out. I like computers, but my passion springs from good information. When the power goes out, all we are left with is our small voice telling a story well told.
Why is oral storytelling better?
Stories and storytelling require a certain amount of risk taking for a storyteller. This emotion, and risk combine with information presented in narrative form to make a real impact and actual connection with an audience. This audience responds, with laughs, nervous glances, repeated phrases or wonder. And a teller to listener dance begins, where a new world of understanding.. This 360 degree world exists solely for the duration of the story but has lasting impact.
Contrast this with the screen. Static and unyielding. The creator hides out clicks their button, interjects and can always blame failed communication on the visuals.
(END of PART ONE)
How storytelling and "round thinking" will reform us to superior design, thinking routines and action in education, our workplace and the world.
The human body is not a flat place. Inspect any body, healthy or un, and you find valleys, crevices, crinkles, deviations, and a pulsating bulwark of cells, cornices and nautiline holes. You could say we are the platonic ideal of curves - a curve’topia. I propose that if form relates to function, you could say we prefer round or curved things- things like mushy foods, soft pillows, dishes, flowers, horse mains and holding hands. We are designed to receive and give information that comes in little curved packages.
What do I mean when I speak of “curved” or “round” information? I am referring to the concentrated information delivered to us in in the form of stories. When being told a story, the sound of the tale travels from curved lips to the catacombs of our eager ears. The teller, takes a risk, looks into your eyes, and communicates emotion, spirit, joy or sorrow. It is this interchange that, I believe “curves” information to fit elegantly into our memory, and shared experience. Curved information is easily digested and assimilated into our body
So, that is why I am baffled by our panting obsession with all things flat. What I mean by this is that most technology, must essentially become flat. Only a few computer screens curve and they are truly no more stimulating than bending a piece of glowing cardboard around your suffocating head. Flat information is PASSIVE. Waiting for you to attend, vying for eye time and cloyingly ringing for you to answer a phone call, text of post.
And information? What could truly be more flat than the stale contents of yet another amateurish You Tube video, or bored presenter purveying a dull staccato of images on screen? Many smart people in their passionate pursuit of technology let a screen become a straw-man. he passive, chimeric flickering of technology will never best a storyteller, and their audience building a narrative and emotional reality together.
When it comes to purveying information the medium is truly the message. so why go through the trouble of putting electronics between you and those needing to hear your message? Curve your message and make it fit into the minds of those needing to hear it. Tell your story using your mouth, don’t hide behind a screen. Show your students and listeners that you take risks, speak directly, tell your story.
I’m no Luddite!
Please don’t think I’m not cheering technology on with the rest! I depend on and love my Flatware -PC, iPhone, iPad. Computers are a miracle of delivery, a device honed for compilation, distribution, visual creation and calculation. Wonderful, and baffling they are a miracle of ease. Don’t get me wrong, there is a massively important place for stories told well using screens. I love movies, television, Vimeo, screen casting, Vines and even overhead projectors.
Yet I’d argue, technological devices are only as good as the spit with which we polish them. Dull, trashy, boring fakery, sneaky spying and spanned matrices of organized copyright infringement characterizes much of what is given to us by our Flatware. The real message of the computer revolution is simple.. garbage in, garbage out. I like computers, but my passion springs from good information. When the power goes out, all we are left with is our small voice telling a story well told.
Why is oral storytelling better?
Stories and storytelling require a certain amount of risk taking for a storyteller. This emotion, and risk combine with information presented in narrative form to make a real impact and actual connection with an audience. This audience responds, with laughs, nervous glances, repeated phrases or wonder. And a teller to listener dance begins, where a new world of understanding.. This 360 degree world exists solely for the duration of the story but has lasting impact.
Contrast this with the screen. Static and unyielding. The creator hides out clicks their button, interjects and can always blame failed communication on the visuals.
(END of PART ONE)
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