Symphony:
I know that this is an early posting of this chapter but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh in my memory. This is my assigned Pink Senses group therefore requiring me to read it before the rest of the class. So I guess this serves as a preview to anyone that reads my post early!
This was a hard concept for me to understand because of the
word itself. I keep reverting back to a Symphony. A major work for an
orchestra, instruments, usually composed in four movements, at least one of
which is in a sonata form. So music. That is what I think of. Although, Pick
refers to an orchestra in this chapter as a reference to his point, that is not
what I think his meaning of this sense to be.
When Pink refers to Symphony, he is talking about the
composition or seeing the big picture. He refers to symphony as the” linkage”
of elements to create something new. It’s the way we view things to make a
harmony or agreement of sounds, like in an orchestra. The winds, strings, and percussions must work
individually to create a sounds but also must work together to create the
masterpiece of the entire musical piece. They see the big picture.
As an artist and art educator I really enjoyed how he used
the example of drawing to be his way to explain Symphony. He stated that one of
the best ways to understand and develop the aptitude of Symphony is to learn
how to draw. Interesting right? He went on to explain positive and negative
space. How as people we don’t really pay attention to the negative space around
things. If we pay attention to the entire picture we may be able to see and
learn more. He used the example of the FedEx logo. How in the middle is the
arrow. I use this example all the time in my classroom. It always surprises me
how many students has never seen the arrow before. But then again, I was surprised
last semester when we talked about the Mizzou logo having the hidden mule.
Some favorite quotes:
"We
must integrate our newly acquired understanding into a big picture" p134
"The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough idea" p 136
"Sometimes the most powerful ideas come from simply combining two existing idea nobody else ever thought to unite" p 137
"Metaphorical imagination is essential in forging empathic connections and communicating experiences that others do not share" p.140
"The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough idea" p 136
"Sometimes the most powerful ideas come from simply combining two existing idea nobody else ever thought to unite" p 137
"Metaphorical imagination is essential in forging empathic connections and communicating experiences that others do not share" p.140
Our group rocked it! I enjoyed this chapter a lot with my love of music; something that you mentioned in your reflection. It seems that I am drawn towards equating my experience with the chapter back to the idea of instruments making one sound, finding Pink's big picture as they work together to create a moment of awe. I find that I relate this chapter back to the ideas that we work into our lessons, it seems that we piece together our lessons so that our students can easily make sense of them by presenting the lesson piece by piece. At least that how i try to do it, because my students seem to get very confused if I present the entire idea up front. For me personally, however, I find that i want to know the big picture first so that I can break it down into manageable pieces so that I can perfect whatever it is that i am doing. Great post Molly!
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