ARTiculation: Can you feel it?
Tortured political
Prisoners
Pedophiles
Tsunamis
Mayors doing drugs
African children starving
Photoshopped women
Before I've even had my morning tea, I've been exposed to all of these things. Modern media is rooted in the mastery of the manipulation of human emotion. It's harnessed the ability to dictate how you're going to feel at many moments throughout the day.
But media isn't the only thing that infuses emotion into our day. There are also stories told to us by friends, relationship problems, bullying, babies being born, eating good food, job promotions. We go from feeling angry to sad to happy to fearful to empowered, depending on what is being presented to us.
The list of things that affect our emotions is literally endless, yet at the same time we're exposed to all of the emotion of our lives, we're also ironically expected to hide it. When a friend starts crying to you because of something her boyfriend said to her, she apologizes for crying and says she knows she's being ridiculous. When a man talks to his friends about something he's struggling with, he's less masculine.
We're expected to go through the motions of our daily obligations without impediment. We complete our assignments, meet with friends for coffee, work part-time jobs, cook dinner, pay our rent, all while constantly being loaded on with emotional baggage. If you put on a tough face like you're encouraged to, it isn't long before you're walking around tired and stressed, and when you see a picture of a dog missing a leg, you lose your shit in the cafeteria. You're a blubbering puddle of tears on the floor and you have no idea why.
It is imperative that people find an outlet to express themselves in our emotionally suppressive society. Many turn to art.
Artists are notoriously emotional — particularly sensitive receptors to the drama of modern life. We're the ones who take in all of these things like everyone else, but our dams aren't as sturdy, and we burst.
As I've written before, there are many different types of artists. And all of these many types of artists create in their own, unique way. But as varied as creativity is, I believe there to be a succession of nearly mandatory events in the creation process that string us together like beads in a necklace. The first of which is Emotion.
Emotion is the most powerful catalyst for creation because, naturally, it is the things we care about and are affected by most that we cannot ignore and push to the side for long. They're the things we end up acting upon. It's even the reason many of us are enrolled in the programs we're in: you had a sick grandmother so you're becoming a Registered Nurse; you have little cousins you like to take care of so you're in Youth and Child Worker; you loved shop class in high school because of your awesome teacher so you're in Carpentry. Artists work the same way. We are exposed to something and are so overwhelmed with passion that we decide something needs to be said about it.
And so we turn to our blank canvas and begin to select mediums — colours, paper, pencils — instruments to create our message. Choice is something that overwhelms artists as they're creating, and it feels so good to be able to choose what you're going to say and how you're going to say it, without the boundaries of having to worry about what your friends are going to think.
You may not have a choice to be inundated with all of the emotion in your life, but you do have one in regards to how you choose to handle it.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Prisoners
Pedophiles
Tsunamis
Mayors doing drugs
African children starving
Photoshopped women
Before I've even had my morning tea, I've been exposed to all of these things. Modern media is rooted in the mastery of the manipulation of human emotion. It's harnessed the ability to dictate how you're going to feel at many moments throughout the day.
But media isn't the only thing that infuses emotion into our day. There are also stories told to us by friends, relationship problems, bullying, babies being born, eating good food, job promotions. We go from feeling angry to sad to happy to fearful to empowered, depending on what is being presented to us.
The list of things that affect our emotions is literally endless, yet at the same time we're exposed to all of the emotion of our lives, we're also ironically expected to hide it. When a friend starts crying to you because of something her boyfriend said to her, she apologizes for crying and says she knows she's being ridiculous. When a man talks to his friends about something he's struggling with, he's less masculine.
We're expected to go through the motions of our daily obligations without impediment. We complete our assignments, meet with friends for coffee, work part-time jobs, cook dinner, pay our rent, all while constantly being loaded on with emotional baggage. If you put on a tough face like you're encouraged to, it isn't long before you're walking around tired and stressed, and when you see a picture of a dog missing a leg, you lose your shit in the cafeteria. You're a blubbering puddle of tears on the floor and you have no idea why.
It is imperative that people find an outlet to express themselves in our emotionally suppressive society. Many turn to art.
Artists are notoriously emotional — particularly sensitive receptors to the drama of modern life. We're the ones who take in all of these things like everyone else, but our dams aren't as sturdy, and we burst.
As I've written before, there are many different types of artists. And all of these many types of artists create in their own, unique way. But as varied as creativity is, I believe there to be a succession of nearly mandatory events in the creation process that string us together like beads in a necklace. The first of which is Emotion.
Emotion is the most powerful catalyst for creation because, naturally, it is the things we care about and are affected by most that we cannot ignore and push to the side for long. They're the things we end up acting upon. It's even the reason many of us are enrolled in the programs we're in: you had a sick grandmother so you're becoming a Registered Nurse; you have little cousins you like to take care of so you're in Youth and Child Worker; you loved shop class in high school because of your awesome teacher so you're in Carpentry. Artists work the same way. We are exposed to something and are so overwhelmed with passion that we decide something needs to be said about it.
And so we turn to our blank canvas and begin to select mediums — colours, paper, pencils — instruments to create our message. Choice is something that overwhelms artists as they're creating, and it feels so good to be able to choose what you're going to say and how you're going to say it, without the boundaries of having to worry about what your friends are going to think.
You may not have a choice to be inundated with all of the emotion in your life, but you do have one in regards to how you choose to handle it.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
