Sarah's automatist exercise

Many of the drawings on the 4 squares are simple and straight to the point. It is easy to understand what each square is trying to represent weather through words or images. The content is all connected through the simplicity and amount of detail used to express the images. Also I found little connections through the placement of the squares, for example, the injury square is right above the medication square which plays off of each other. Also, on the next side, I felt as though some of the descriptive words could just as well express what is drawn in the square above it. The theme of my particular sheet is very medicinal because of the hospital scenario, the medicine, some of the words, and images of stitches and unpleasant markings. The whole idea of having 4 different contributors was very effective because it added a sense of variety. However I am remembering what I had drawn for every category and my drawings were almost exactly the same as the ones I am looking at now. I feel as though the squares are flowing into one another and nothing seems out of place except for the word “soft” and “lucky charms.” I get a very sad feeling from the images. 

         In discussion last Tuesday we talked about our interpretation of the word “cult.” I feel as though it is somewhat negative just because one definition says that it means having excessive admiration for something in an unhealthy way. I don’t think this exercise was related to a cult in any sort of way. I do, however think it has to do with our society. We were asked to do a simple task, and all of our papers look very similar to one another. I found it odd that we are all creative people, yet we came up with these minuscule drawings without much detail or expression. Also, we were told to do it very quickly; the first thing that popped into our heads. I think if we had more time, and were able to think for a while about how to really express what we were asked to draw, the images we would have came up with (and words) would be more thoughtful and interesting. This exercise also shows how most of us think alike when it has to do with objects and how to get a point across or express something In a simple way. This reminds me of symbols you might see on a bus to represent handicap seating, or a symbol on a wet floor sign. Sometimes simple is good. Another observation I had was that most of the objects people had drawn weren’t natural things, but items like bowling pins, medicine, ice cream, a chair, and a clock. On my particular sheet there was only one natural drawing of flowers. It was interesting how we can relate more to consumer items than we can to nature or things that are a necessity to us. To a certain extent, I think Lasn is right when he says we are unaware of our actions/ choices and are being manipulated.  This is true when it comes to consumerism and how we live our lives today. We listen to advertisements and other forms of persuasion and give into them. I don’t think this connects to the exercise we completed though because we were not giving into anything, we were simply writing down the first thing that came to mind. I think it would have been more effective to have us write down the things we each need/ use the most. I guarantee that there would be more consumer items on the paper than anything else.