On Monday November 7th, in class we went over Bruce Mau’s Manifesto for Growth. Some points were interesting and caught my eye. I liked them, and I believe that they would help me in the long run. First off a manifesto is a declaration of policy or points, written by one person for a group of people.
The first point that resonate with me is number 1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them. Number one resonates with me because people always change, and hopefully for the good. I know that I have changed, that I have grown. I used to be so shy and now not so much. I was open and willing to stop being shy and open myself up to people. Now that I have I am this outgoing, always making new friends type of person, and I like it. The event that I allowed to stop making me shy was going to college, meeting new people and not the same people I have known for the past 12 years.
The second point is number 15. Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout you life at the rate of an infant. I resonate with number 15 because all throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school we were told don’t ask stupid questions. How would we know what was a stupid question? I believe that no questions are stupid questions. If someone, which I admit to having doing, doesn’t know the answer or how to get them answer, they’re afraid to ask because they might be told that it’s a stupid question. So I like number 15 because it says to ask the questions. That it doesn’t matter if it’s a stupid question or not, just ask, and don’t be afraid.
The third point is number 26. Don’t enter award competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you. Number 26 resonates with me because I have entered many award shows in the past, and had some not good outcomes. Throughout high school (9th to 11th grade) I did not enter any award shows because I was afraid I was not going to do well. But then in early senior year I entered a piece on a whim, I thought why not? It’s senior year. So I entered the piece and to my shock it placed. After the art competition passed I decided to enter more, since I placed with that piece. Every art show after that I did not place and it destroyed me. I thought I was good, and then not placing again kept hurting. So number 26 does resonate with me because awards competitions suck and tear you down if you don’t place.
The fourth point is number 33.Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment. Number 33 resonates with me because I love field trips-traveling in general. Seeing places I’ve never seen before and wanting to go, or even seeing places I’ve already seen but with new eyes. Traveling or even just looking at places I want to visit one day, gives me inspiration of a new piece or artwork. I’ve always wanted to see the world and number 33 is basically saying that. Take field trips, be inspired by the world, and not through a computer screen or TV, but real life.