Mark, wrote a comment on my last blog, some of the comment said
"(this) has made me realise that there is till hierarchy because sites like Google control what information is most available to you and they are given vast amounts of money to promote particular companies or pieces if information. In terms of professional practice it has made me aware that I should be much more cautious and also more thorough when looking for information, to make sure I get a balanced view"
Yes, this is really interesting because we have come to feel that things in print are true. Sites like wikipedia are really useful but also can be quite misleading if they are used as a sole source of information. On another note however being aware of the motive (or drive) behind a source of information can allow you to find information in unexpected places. For instance I look for books in on-line libraries but sometimes I only have part of the information I need to find the book. However if I look on Amazon (whose motive is to find it for me so I can buy it) I can type in half bits of information and Amazon finds an assortment of possibilities. Then I can find the book and get all the details and sometimes read a part of it on Amazon then find it in the on-line library of the university or where ever I was looking before.
I come from a school of thought where your feelings and sense are also important in assotaining what is 'true' or 'real'. As a dancer 'knowing' is more than a set of thoughts, I need to interact with environment to find meaning. I am writing about this because I think it is important to have your own personal way of 'knowing'. This course is saying it is not about finding someone else's 'right' answer (out there). As a professional person how are you going to decide when you are doing 'good' work? In my career I have not been able to rely on other people to decide this for me. (I got told to give up dancing on a daily basis at school!!! but I turned out ok) Then this became less about a fight to do the thing I loved and more about how I become the artist I want to be. Then it is not fighting to carve a place for yourself but about see who you are. What is your artistic vision?
During the campus session I told one group that its ok not to know, but to keep going and find yourself in process of finding rather than a process of knowing.
Frogs in a bucket -
Two frogs fell in a bucket of milk. One couldn't see how to get out and slowly sank to the bottom. The other one swam round and round waiting hoping to come to an answer. By the morning that frog's swimming round and round had churned the milk into butter and he was able to hop out of the bucket.
My friend Suzanne told me that story I often tell myself it when I feel like I'm going round in circles.
Circles
Adesola
I love the frog story! It is such a good image to have and is a parallel to a lot of situations we face on a daily basis when we are unsure of what we are doing or trying to work something out. I find it quite hard to come to terms with the fact that everything we read on the internet may not be factually correct. When I was at school we were not allowed to use wikipedia as a research source as we were told the information was incorrect and unreliable. However, it was not explained to us why the information was unreliable and now I see that you just have to filter the information you read and deal with it intelligently. I think my thought processes have already changed since I started this course and I am beginning to think more critically rather than accepting all information as either true or false. I know there are different degrees of validity but I still believe that not all opinions have the same validity as I would always trust the opinion of a 'professional' over someone who may have made an uninformed comment.
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