"It took time to realise that what matters is a path, not a goal"
- Tove Jansson, in a letter to her friend Eva Konikva, October 1944.
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes, and dream"
Tove Jansson in Finn Family Moomintroll
"When we confront silence, the mind reaches outward."
"Silence can exert a positive influence on our individual lives and out relationship to the world."
"The pursuit of silence is dissimilar from most other pursuits in that it generally begins with a surrender of the chase"
- All three quotes taken from In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik
"For him (the introvert) self-comunings are a pleasure. His own world is a safe harbour ... His own company is the best ... His best work is done with his own resources, on his own initiative, and in his own way"
-Carl Jung, on the nature of introversion, in Psychological Types and the Self-Regulating Psyche
5 people of note:
-Carl Jung, influential psychologist who first established the model of introversion and extroversion
-Tove Jansson, writer and artist
-Susan Cain, author of Quiet and self-proclaimed "champion of introverts"
-Vincent Van Gogh
- Contemporary illustrators, such as Lizzy Stewart and Gemma Correll
5 locations:
-Nordic countries, such as Finland and Norway, where solitude, quiet and introspection are prized.
- The countryside
- 'The city' (London?) Are busy city environments counter-productive for introverted personalities? Too much stimuli? In the words of Lizzy Stewart, "London is the place where people go to grow wiser, more tired, and sadder"
-America, the home of extroversion and "personality"
-Schools, universities, (art) colleges?
Does the genesis of extroversion lay in school? Do personality patters emerge in 'art-school' types?
5 artifacts/objects:
- The sketchbook/artist's easel
- Mobile phones, laptops, communtication devices
-Books + letters
-Televisions, traffic, other people, THINGS THAT MAKE NOISE!
-Maps.
5 moments in history:
- Carl Jung publishes Psychological Types, first establishing his model of introversion/extroversion, in 1921
-The world wide web goes live in 1989
-Susan Cain publishes Quiet in 2012. Quiet then goes on to top The New York Times' best-seller list, being described as "the most important book published for a decade"
-America undergoes a cultural shift, from a "culture of character" to one of "personality" in the early 20th Century.
5 images:
 |
| Both from Lizzy Stewart's "Hard Wood & Heavy Water" |
