Summaries:
In the section titled "Acknowledge The Lizard," Godin states that the part of our brain (what he calls the lizard brain) is designed to keep us safe. He goes onto say that artists are afraid of the danger of being laughed at, which results oftentimes in the desertion of creative ideas and art. When we abandon our creative desires and our art for fear of being judged or punished, this is called “the resistance.” It is what tells us to follow the directions we have always been brainwashed to follow. Godin then argues that in order to resist the resistance, we must first acknowledge its presence and accept that it is an obstacle we must overcome.
Another section of this manifesto that particularly speaks to me is the one entitled “Make Art.” This section states that art is the human ability to make a difference, to enforce change and create something brand new. Godin says, “Art is the opposite of trigonometry.” It has no rules, no boundaries, and it is always uncharted territory. He goes onto say that one can be rewarded for creating art, but this journey towards reward is always risky—and therefore so is art.
The section called “Learn” is another that I found particularly intriguing. It says that the current school system used to exist to learn a trade so that you can go on to get a job in that trade and do the same thing for your entire life. But this system is not nearly as relevant as it used to be with the changing times, nor is it very appealing. What Godin wants us to realize is that “school” is everyday life, and it never ends. We are always learning—it doesn’t just stop once we exit the school system—and “school” is the cycle of shipping, failing, learning, and trying again. In order to reinvent ourselves, we must learn every day.
Do these layers relate to the MDIA203 blog?:
These layers are related to our blogging assignments on several levels. The blogs are designed to make us think creatively—they encourage us to analyze, think abstractly, and apply the terms we learn in class. However, I’m not sure if many people in the class realize that there is much to be learned by putting genuine effort into these assignments. They don’t get much out of the blogging assignments because they are used to what Seth Godin talks about—being brainwashed. School is oftentimes a chore, not a valuable learning experience. So many students shut off, enter “school” mode, and don’t open up their minds to what they could be learning from doing an assignment that may, on the surface, seem like another product of our brainwashed system.
I hope I’m not losing you here. Basically, as successful students who are also creative (AKA many, many people within the media school), we must adapt a mode of thinking where we shut off our creativity and churn out A+, cookie-cutter academic crap. So when an opportunity for us to actually use our creativity and create art comes along, we might not see it. We might not embrace the chance to really learn because we automatically assume that we are not going to. After all, that’s what we’re used to.
I’m sure you’re going to get plenty of blogs from people in this class who argue that the blogging assignments are useless. I understand this view, yet I disagree. I have enjoyed these blogging assignments (some much more than others, I admit) and I have most certainly learned and made art from doing them (and those aren’t the only layers of Godin’s path to reinvention these blogs have touched on). As a writer, maybe this is easier for me to do through blogging than it is for non-writer students. But I believe there was something to be gained for all creative media kids via these assignments—they touch base on all aspects of the media school and therefore all students’ possible fortes.
This is made unapparent by the fact that we are still within the school system that we’ve grown to sometimes despise, yet still feel pressured to be a part of. We assume that every assignment where we have to apply terms and do slightly tedious work is completely useless to our learning process. I get this, but I believe you must be resourceful in using your creativity. And if that means you have to be creative through “boring” blogging assignments, so be it.
Personally I like MDIA203 (and the Scripps media school in general) so much because of the way it crosses over the line of the boring brainwashed system we’re used to. It is often a contradict of the system, yet it works within it; this makes it progressive. And a little bit ironic.
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