Expressive Arts Week 1 Blog
This was the fist week in the expressive arts module, this module was an option module and I chose to take it over others due to the interest and love I have for some of the arts. The arts I love are visual art such as drawing and painting, but mainly dance. I have danced since I was 3 and I love going to my dance classes and exams right now I assist my teacher in taking the younger classes dance lessons and I am currently now training to be a qualified dance teacher.
As this was our first week it started off with an introduction to the course and then we as a class read WHAT MAKES AN OBJECT EVOCATIVE? From the book Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle to get a feel for what we are going to be focusing on. Through the reading of this I realised the importance of everyone having evocative objects even if they don’t mean anything to someone else if they mean something to you and bring back an emotion or story. “The meaning of even such objects shifts with time, place, and differences among individuals.” (Turkle, 2007, p.307) It also explains that the object may become of an even greater importance over time due to the passing of relatives for example.
We then went around everyone in the class while sitting in a circle and everyone explained what their evocative object is and how it makes them feel. My object is my birthstone ring. I explained that my ring was a birthday present that I got for my 18th from my best friend and that I also got her the same ring for her birthday unintentionally, as our birthdays are so close. We never take them off, so it has become a kind of friendship charm and Goodluck token that we always have. I explained that when I think about my ring it makes me feel lucky to have such a close friend and that it makes me feel loved and close to her as we may not always be together, but we know the other always has a bit of the other with them. When everyone else was talking about their objects it made them feel emotional and it also made me feel emotional as people were talking about how much they loved the objects and why. Overall I feel that this activity was very useful as it brought out a lot of emotions that could be used when creating art as this can bring out a more reactive and personal feel to it.
Reference
- Turkle, S. (2007) Evocative objects: things we think with. Mit Press.
