Friday, July 12, 2013

“Memory Song” by Meredith Monk - reflection

“Memory Song” by Meredith Monk

The fading in and out of spoken and sung language reminds me of the duality of forgetting and remembering. It makes the abstract become concrete in some transcending way.

The creative use of words in other languages makes me think of memories that we can no longer grasp because they are too far back in time, perhaps from before a time that we even existed - an echoing from our ancestors to remind us of who we are and from where we come from.

It is good to be made uncomfortable at times, as this is when we know we are out of our element and can learn something new.  I think this is often how students feel when talked at by adults all day about concepts they are expected to apply and analyze, yet do not comprehend. How do we make these abstractions more concrete for them to understand? How do we remind ourselves that discomfort and being lost at times are great opportunities to remap the way we see situations and to make ourselves aware of skills that we do possess, yet that we just forgot we have? In a sense this is also a remembering, a  human remembering of how we need  to wade through ambiguity, to collect our observations, to synthesize this with what we already know in order to formulate a new hypothesis, to move forward and to learn.
J.Wheeler-Ballestas

7/12

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