Why is curiosity without the ‘u’ and curious with the ‘u’?
The journey to cultivate my curiosity with the help of detailed inquiry and research.
At the beginning of my inquiry, I was tasked to select a door that appealed to me. The decision to choose a door was an easy one. I simply went to the door that drew my attention first. Which made me reflect on the way I make decisions. If you spoke to a younger me; me freshly out of high school, you would have met someone who spent a lot of time overthinking. Teenaged me would analyse a plethora of details linked to the decision I needed to make, forcing me to never make a decision at all. Tony Robbins’ research details this standstill as paralysis by analysis, in which you make no decision at all (“7 Strategies to Stop Overthinking Everything”, 2020).
After years of beating myself up regarding the multiple alternative decisions I didn’t make and the conclusions I never got to witness, I stopped overthinking and started listening to my gut (don’t worry, I didn’t do this when buying a house! I reserve this for decisions such as choosing a prompt for a master’s module to inquire about). This led me to inquire what a ‘gut instinct’ is and why some people trust it.
In G. Shawn Hunter’s work, he explores the research led by Richard Wiseman when wanting to understand what it means to be lucky. How does this relate to gut instinct? Hear me out. Firstly, Wiseman noticed lucky people tend to harness the power of curiosity (Hunter, 2013). In working with 400 individuals, Wiseman concluded curiosity as a trait linked to luck. The individuals that described themselves as lucky were also likely to make good decisions without consciously knowing they did it; they trusted their gut (ibid). Clearly, there’s a link between luck and gut instinct. And luck and curiosity.
“Curiosity is really the well-spring of creativity,” (Diakomopoulou, 2015)
Was it luck that drew me to the brick arch-framed door with the ivy climbing around it? Was it my gut instinct that led me to something I was meant to see?
The reading led me to a wonderful poem by Walt Whitman that can be found towards the end of his work Leaves of Grass.
“Here is realization
Here is a man tallied — he realises here what he has in him.
The past, the future, majesty, love — if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.” (Popova, 2020)
What is majesty? Impressive beauty? To me, the combination of film language and mise-en-scene is a magnificent art and beauty. Which got me thinking; how would you explore the meaning of life through film languages? Who decided how we interpret camera angles, shot sizes, camera movement, and the other subtle symbolism created by camera technologies? Why do we subconsciously understand low angles to enhance power and if a person is running right to left, it means they’re running away from something? Is this something we always understood or did early filmmakers continually use these unspoken rules frequently enough that we have learned to read these texts in this way without us being taught to? I teach high school film and television and one of the sayings I frequently tell my students is that they’re lucky; for the most part, all of them have engaged with film or television most of their life. They subconsciously already understand film languages and mise-en-scene, they just don’t consciously know the terminology and how to effectively use these techniques.
So, at the point of writing this, this is what I want to explore: How would you explore the meaning of life through the technical and symbolic codes of film?
Ian Sanders explores a variety of methods that can cultivate curiosity (Sanders, 2014), one of which is to ask what if? I’m fortunate I work in a profession where asking this question is part of my professional practice and constant reflection. After each lesson I teach, I ask myself what if? What if I reorder the sequence of teaching? What if I replace this boring stale activity with a more hands-on learning experience that redirects their energy into something more productive, consolidating their understanding further? What if this year 8 class learns differently to the other year 8 class, even if they’re learning the same topic? What if I get rid of this dated unit completely and replace it with something like short-form video production, being cool like all the cool TikTokers.
Here is my plan to cultivate my creativity over the next six weeks.
Step one
Break down the hypothesis into as many ‘what if’ questions as possible, no matter how silly. I will harness divergent thinking and deal with the convergent thinking at another stage (Harvard Professional Development, 2016). Divergent thinking will allow me to create questions without the restrictions of things such as a criterion or a rubric. The fewer restrictions I can give myself, the more free-flowing my thoughts will be and ideally, the more creative my curiosity can go.
Step two
This step comes from Ian Sanders again, in which he suggests becoming an idea collector (Sanders, 2014). One of the things I teach my high school film prodigies is to abuse their access; do they have access to an amazing location, do they have access to amazing film equipment, do they have access to a celebrity they could interview for their documentary? Well, I have access to students. Some of them younger and thereby arguably less likely to have lost their childlike sense of wonder. Not only can I capture my own thoughts, but Sanders suggests noting down other people’s stories and ideas. Quotes that inspire you (ibid). A lot of strange ideas are considered in an average story development lesson, but I could also start asking open-ended questions to students to force curiosity out of them and as a by-product, spark my own curiosity.
Step three
Stephanie Vozza details what makes a child’s mind curious. The traits that stuck with me were how they are willing to be wrong (Vozza, 2015). I like to think I have an open mind, but if it’s something I have a strong opinion about, it’s harder to get me to budge. I like the idea of open-mindedness, and it’s often how I enter a lecture. I have a Bachelor in Film and teach film theory from grades 7 through to 12, which includes a lot of research and simplifying of theory. I like to think I know my stuff. However, when I sit down in a film lecture, I will keep an open mind. I’m willing to be told something I hadn’t heard before, or a perspective I hadn’t considered. I used to do aikido and my sensei told me that he is always learning. There is always something new he doesn’t know yet. Not only that, but he was always willing to adapt and change his practices based on new and updated techniques. He’s someone I keep in mind when I purposely keep an open mind. Therefore, step three is keeping an open mind more frequently.
Vozza also identified how curious people are willing to say “I don’t know.” That is definitely something that led me onto a spiral of readings after having clicked the brick arch-framed door at the beginning. Simply look at my bibliography to understand how addicted I suddenly became to Brain Pickings.
Step four
Donald Latumahina lists suggestions to develop a curious mind. These include not taking things for granted, asking questions relentlessly, and don’t label something as boring (Latumahina, 2020). I want to shorten this as always be willing to learn. What struck me the most is to not label something as boring. I find it’s easy to get annoyed and bored easily. The most mind-numbing thing I have to do at work is to supervise exams “actively.” This means I cannot do any other work other than walk around the exam room for a minimum of 45 minutes. Instead of counting how many students are wearing their hair up in ponytails versus plaits, I should really direct this energy for curiosity. As a storyteller, it could simply be “why do the students prefer plaits over ponytails? What is the best hairstyle for an exam sitting?” and create an origin story for a student choosing to wear their hair a certain way. Perhaps they wanted to do braids, but didn’t know how to on their own head?
There are a lot of resources that have inspired my journey to cultivate my curiosity. Throughout the course, the listed strategies above will help narrow my current creative inquiry:
“How would you explore the meaning of life through the technical and symbolic codes of film?”
Dear readers, what are your various answers to the meaning of life (and no, please don’t say 42, we’ve already seen a movie using technical and symbolic codes to explore that answer)?
REFERENCES
7 Strategies to Stop Overthinking Everything. (2020). Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mental-health/how-to-stop-overthinking/#:~:text=What%20is%20overthinking%3F,out%20of%20your%20own%20head
Diakomopoulou, A. (2015). RSA Brief/ Curiosity [Video]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/124169585
Harvard Professional Development. (2016). Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/xjE2RV6IQzo
Hunter, G. (2013). Out Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional Outcomes. John Wiley & Sons.
Latumahina, D. (2020). 4 Reasons Why Curiosity iIs Important and How to Develop It. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/4-reasons-why-curiosity-is-important-and-how-to-develop-it.html
Popova, M. (2020). Walt Whitman on What Makes a Great Person and What Wisdom Really Means. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/11/12/walt-whitman-song-of-the-open-road/
Sanders, I. (2014). The Art of Curiosity. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://medium.com/@iansanders/the-art-of-curiosity-de9d9a69f6ff
Vozza, S. (2015). 8 Habits of Curious People. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3045148/8-habits-of-curious-people
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Popova, M. (2016). Walt Whitman on How Literature Bolsters Democracy and Why a Robust Society Is a Feminist Society. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/24/walt-whitman-democratic-vistas/
Popova, M. (2018a). Walt Whitman on Democracy and Optimism as a Mighty Form of Resistance. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/07/26/walt-whitman-specimen-days-democracy/
Popova, M. (2018b). Walt Whitman on the Splendor of Winter Beaches and How Art Imbues Life’s Bleakest Moments with Beauty. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/01/24/walt-whitman-specimen-days-winter-beach/
Popova, M. (2018c). Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair. Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/02/08/zadie-smith-feel-free-optimism-and-despair/
