June 22, 2011

Positive Signs #31 & 32

by Christine Wong Yap

Positive Signs is a weekly series of interpretive diagrams, quotes, and speculations on creativity, optimism*, and the lives of artists, published every Wednesday through June.

positive signs: an example of a supportive symbolic ecology in the home. reminders of who you are, what you have achieved, and what you are likely to achieve (joy and agency). signposts of what you might do in the future (purpose and agency). past to future. essential traits and values. cherished objects remind us of our goals, make us feel more confident, and focus our attention, mihalyi csikszentmihalyi. creativity.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #31 (An example of a supportive symbolic ecology in the home), 2011; glitter and neon pen with foil print on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

positive signs: a thing can be domesticated by man even if it rolls out of the factory on the most impersonal and technologically advanced conveyors. since it nonetheless ends up in someone's house, where a person assimiliates it into his private way of life, endowing it with numerous general, practical, conscious and unconscious meanings. mikhail epstein as quoted by allan mccollom, allen ruppersberg: what one loves about life are the things that fade.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #32 (A thing can be domesticated), 2011; glitter pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

 

*Notwithstanding brief forays into the nature of space, stuff, experience, and cognition.

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Next Wednesday: Positive Sign #33: An Assortment of Symbolic Knickknackery.
See all Positive Signs to date.

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