Friday Creative Boost
Direct your Curiosity
This little activity is drawn from Chapter 21 of Creative Acts for Curious People.
Time needed: 30 minutes
Materials: Notebook and pen.
Now, go to a museum, a mall, a bookstore, or any place with a lot of objects to interact with and look at closely.
Walk around until one object draws your attention. Attend to that object for a moment or two. What is it about this object that you find interesting? The form, the colors, the materials, the scale, how a subject is depicted?
Write down at least one aspect of the object that jumps out at you and what you like about it. Then go wandering again and look for an object with this same characteristic.
Hang out with the new object and just be with it for a couple of minutes. Write a few notes about what is interesting to you about this one. Maybe you came because the greensward depicted in the Monet was so real you felt you could wrap yourself up in it, but now that you’ve spent some time the expression of the park-goer has your rapt attention. Now go wandering and find that characteristic.
Keep going, make six or seven jumps each time pausing to think about what draws you in. What is it about each object that calls to you?
Once you’re done, reflect.
You’ve created a mini-catalogue of visual values you’re drawn to.
Think about how you normally act in a museum (mall or bookstore), how was this different?
Finally, is this experience a microcosm or metaphor for anything else you’re navigating? A project you’re working on? A relationship? Maybe your other experience has some parallels How can your new insights about what stokes your curiosity help you take more control and focus your attention in your current situation?
This assignment is designed to give you a visceral, tangible way to learn how to get more out of an experience, not by actually cramming more in, but by being intentional.