Tagged: Make mistakes

The question isn’t to be or not to be

The question is HOW to be.

I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake this week with my readings and lecture posts, but they are coming I swear! This subject has caused me to stew endlessly about topics I didn’t realise I was interested in but then ultimately just re-post interesting things I find online as my thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations. (Ie, I spend too much time on Tumblr.)

I’ve been looking back over the first couple of weeks of this course, and I’m struck at how simple but profound it is to make the content relevant. In one of my typical mid-semester uni meltdowns about the future and whyyyyy is life so hard, I was brought some kind of solace in Adrian’s words from week three (possibly not verbatim, please forgive my note-taking skills): We are invited to dance. We don’t know how the dance goes; we don’t even know the first steps. But this is not a reason not to dance.

So with these words and a constructivist perspective in mind, really all that is left to do, is do. We learn by doing, we learn by making. In making we show our thinking, and fwock all I do is think/overthink. The only way to learn to ride a bike is by riding a bike. <Insert more cliches that are actually insightful and helping me with my life here>

How am I supposed to know what I want to do or at least in what direction I want to take my life and career without experimenting and trying out different things? We considered in the first week why we are at university, and I think that might be a big factor: the opportunities for experimenting and playing with different fields are almost endless. RMIT definitely know what they are doing in that regard.

The last few weeks have also seen me ask myself ‘What if’ more times than I care to admit, and outside of a design framework this question is easily applied to life. What if I joined this club, or wrote this article, or posted this clip I’ve been sitting on for months, too embarrassed about what might come of it. Embarrassment is overrated. There’s no time like now to be brave, and what is the worst that could happen? Yes, publishing online is permanent and media professionals success and failure is largely based on reputation, but who is going to fault someone for trying something new, taking a risk. There’s nobody I admire more than those willing to put themselves out there, take the fall, laugh at themselves when it all goes wrong.

I’ve had a few projects on the back-burner for a while and I’ve been inspired to bring them out. I hope you don’t judge me too harshly. What if we all just took the leap? Why shouldn’t we just do it?

Life is a mess. But I don’t think that’s necessarily, or even at all, a negative thing.

Here is a thing I did – from my current scrapbook/ideas/notebook: my original ‘blog’

Tentatively stepping into the rabbit hole of ‘Unlectures’

For once in a lecture I found myself listening, thinking, going off on a tangent or two… as opposed to the regular lecture format of frantically writing down notes and facts I need to memorise. Of the ‘unlecture’, already I am a fan.

I’ve found myself living by the phrases “You live, you learn” and “Learn by doing”, so this introduction to Networked Media already has me on side, with the prominent idea that we learn by making: through creating we demonstrate our thinking, in other words, our creations are expressions of our ideas.

I’m intrigued by the concepts of forward thinking and speculation about the future of this young industry, a playful and trusted immersion in the subject, and the instrution to take that step, trust the process and surrender my assumptions.

Alice down the rabbit hole

I’m an anxious person. I worry, I overthink, I stress about the trivial details that I can’t change. This semester I’m taking the step and trusting the process, learning by doing and learning from mistakes. If I fall over in the rabbit hole so be it – what can be created from this mistake? Where can we find meaning in the so-called failures? A wise woman once said, “If you are not making mistakes, you’re not taking enough risks.”

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

The above quote is from author Neil Gaiman‘s Make Good Art, and it’s a sentiment I think appropriate for this class, and for speculating on the future. Let’s take the leap and make new mistakes.