July 17, 2012

Positive Signs #34, 35, & 36

A Museum of the Life of the Family. Remembering the past is ... instrumental in the creation and preservation of a personal identity.... It frees us from the tyranny of the present ... to 'create' a past that will help us deal with the future. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1996) 132-133.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #34 (A Museum of the Life of the Family), 2011; glitter and neon pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

Direction of Synthetic Description. More immediate/experienced based sensations: touch, taste, smell. Less immediate/object-based sensations: sight, hearing. James Geary, I is an Other (2011) 77.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #35 (Direction of Synthetic Description), 2011; glitter pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

The Conceptual Synesthesia of Metaphorical Thinking. Abstract to concrete; metaphysical to physical; emotional to biological; mind to body. James Geary, I is an Other (2011) 23.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #36 (The Conceptual Synesthesia of Metaphorical Thinking), 2011; glitter pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

After posting Positive Signs #1–33 last year, I completed drawings #34–60. To archive the entire series to Open Space, I’ll post the remaining drawings every other Tuesday through September.

Positive Signs is a series of interpretive diagrams, quotes, and speculations on creativity, optimism, with brief forays into the nature of space, stuff, experience, and cognition. Positive Signs #34–60 include looks at flow, hope, subjective well-being, passion, and aesthetic experience.


References:

With thanks to the following authors.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. [WorldCat.org listing]

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Rick Emery Robinson. The Art of Seeing: An Interpretation of the Aesthetic Encounter. Malibu, Calif: J. P. Getty Museum, 1990. [Getty catalog (PDF)] [WorldCat.org listing]

Geary, James. I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. [WorldCat.org listing]

Keltner, Dacher. Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2009. [WorldCat.org listing]

Vallerand, Robert J. “On the Psychology of Passion: In Search of What Makes People’s Lives Most Worth Living.” Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol. 49(1), Feb. 2008, 1–13. [PDF, SelfDeterminationTheory.org]

Additional thanks to the International Positive Psychology Association and to the Jerome Foundation


Next: Positive Signs #37–39, on happiness and the conflict of opposites.
See all Positive Signs.

 

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