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| My cultural probe box greets me |
A few weeks ago, a student at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (yes, it's a long name for a place to work - we call it DJCAD) took to the email listserv asking for volunteers for his senior project on Wonder. His methodology was the cultural probe, which, to my knowledge, is a little bit like anthropology in a box or an envelope; no ethnographer doing interviews, but a variety of materials to think about, and to respond to through various means. I got a disposable camera to snap pictures of everyday wonder, a wee diary to record information about my "wonder camera" snaps and other thoughts, an instruction to write a letter to my childhood self about wonder, and a set of postcards with images to which I was to record my responses. The last bit, which I want to share here, asked me to put together a collection of images related to wonder. The instructions for this were very object-focused, and as I tried to collect the images, I found out that I am not a terribly object-focused person (though Paul would disagree, given my pack-rat nature...I hang onto things but I don't really
care about them, I guess). Below are the images I chose, with the prompt in the caption:
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Evokes a sense of wonder (2)
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| Evokes a sense of wonder (1) |
The object on the left is a glass block commemorating the christening of a ship at the Newport News Shipyard. My dad gave it to me when I was 4 or 5. It is also a prism, and is currently on my daughters' windowsill to make rainbows when it's sunny. The object on the right is a partly finished sock monkey. I make sock monkeys for babies - if you know me, your child may have one! This one is being co-sewn by Audrey and I for her teacher who's set to go out on maternity leave in December.
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| Environment that evokes a sense of wonder |
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East Sands beach, St. Andrews. I like it because beaches are sources of rocks and shells (see later picture) and also because of the St. Andrews Cathedral in the background - wonderful architecture.
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| Object you do not tire of exploring: rocks and shells! |
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| Object that brings you joy |
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Paul made this for Valentines Day one year early in our marriage, a little sculpture with our initials.
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| Object you find beautiful for its aesthetics: part of my egg collection |
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| Object you find beautiful for its intrinsic qualities: one of Claire's first recognizable drawings |
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Drawn just a few days before her third birthday, she says it's a bug eating an apple and darned if it doesn't look like that.
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| An object that inspires joy and discovery: books, of course! |
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I didn't include these in my image collection but they are a few more wonderful things:
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| Audrey trimming the Christmas tree, December 2013 |
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| A rainbow that ended on Magdalen Green near our house, October 2014 |
I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my Wonder Blog. Please leave a comment about the things or environments you find wonderful!
