how to be a realist

Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl speaking in 1972: “If we take man as he really is, we make him worse. But if we overestimate him, idealize him, … see him as he should be, we make him capable of what he can become.”

pipe or not to pipe

Martin Klasch: Controversy: Ceci n’est pas une pipe!.

How fascinating! I guess, we may safely assume that Magritte’s idea goes back to the time of his early reading experiences. Who knows what kinds of traces primary textbooks leave in the minds of children.

romance

Quitesparkly makes paper roses from romantic novels.

pledge

That is one promise I should be able to keep. Read the Printed Word.

making things

YES – The Big Art Project.
Campaign concept and creative direction for broadcaster Channel 4’s initiative ‘The Big Art Project’. The series set out to create six pieces of art across Britain with the input of the general public. A 15ft typographic sculpture was designed and fabricated to represent the art that would be created throughout the series. The identity was used in print and and for 20, 40 and 60 second TV spots directed by James Griffiths.

Which reminds me, David Gauntlett has posted excerpts of his new book “Making is Connecting.” Looking forward to this.

field of dreams

by Jason DeMarte.
click to enlarge

educational action figures

Recently I found out by accident that I have far more subscribers to my blog than I ever imagined. I have not posted for a while, because I have been busy at other sites, but I was so touched when I found out, that I decided to keep posting at least once in a while some of the things I come across, even if I don’t have much time to write thoughtful comments. So here without much further ado a few things related to the educational potential of actions figures, all from a very different perspective. Im my research on superheroes, actions figures played a part, of course. Now here are a couple of videos: firstly, the Brontë Sisters Power Dolls, a must for anybody who loves Victorian novels!

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

Secondly, Henry Jenkins on “Toying with Transmedia: The Future of Entertainment is Child’s Play” talking at length about actions figures. Jenkins argues such toys served children and young adults as “authoring tools” in stories that grew increasingly elaborate and technologically sophisticated over the years, spawning new kinds of play in our own time. Transmedia is not about “dumbing down popular culture,” Jenkins says. It involves complex mythologies that kids and adults can throw themselves into, with large casts of vivid characters in complex plots rivaling those in Russian novels. Transmedia storytelling also encourages children to “play out different fantasies,” Follow the link to see the video of his talk.Toying with Transmedia: The Future of Entertainment is Child’s Play | MIT World.
This was, kind of, what I wanted to get at in my MA thesis, but of course Henry Jenkins takes it a lot further and much more eloquently than I ever could.

Thirdly, here are David Gauntlett’s actions figures of famous theorists –Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault – Even though they are almost ten years old, they still makes me smile.

And did I say, that I recently dug out my son’s box of action figures and matchbox cars? (He had wanted to sell them on e-bay last year, but I got upset and I insisted to keep them myself if he did not want to. This summer, I started playing with them and my other new toy, the camera on my iPhone. I might post some of the results soon.