“Storytelling from East to West”

I read an interesting article about the expectations within storytelling and how that changes based on culture. It is a bit of a long read, but well worth looking at. In it, the author considers how storytelling has evolved and some of the modern demands of books and popular culture. There is also the wonderful promotion of cross-cultural storytelling.

Also, if you’re a bit of a nerd like me, you’ll appreciate this interactive map of Middle Earth and the other offerings from the LOTR project. It’s just a fun look at the series and a seriously massive compilation of information from the books. If you want something Middle Earth related, this is the place to look.

Finally, have some fun with the rules for an evil overlord. My personal favorite was number 12: One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation. It’s kinda funny and makes you think about all tropes we expect from a bad guy.

~Annalyse

(Phylogenetic) Tree of Life

I was cleaning out some old notebooks this weekend when I tripped across an old phylogenetic tree diagram (possibly from invertebrate zoology?). The one I had to memorize was much less complicated than the one below.

These are so cool. It’s basically a map of how biologists think every species is related, beginning with a common ancestor in the center and working out. It was something originally conceptualized by Darwin. The final visual effect is beautiful. It reminds me a lot of a nautilus shell, or maybe some fancy piece of sci-fi tech.

This one comes from a site hosted by Texas Citizens for Science. It is a rather charged article, so read with a critical mind if you’re going to. You can view and explore a high resolution pdf version too. If you zoom in at the perimeter, you can see every species known at the time this particular tree was drawn.

~Annalyse

World Languages

Today I found this diagram of the most spoken languages around the world. It’s a beautiful breakdown of the variety that exists in the way we communicate. And this is only a fraction of the total languages that actual exist.

I also found it interesting that, as the article mentions, even though Chinese has the largest number of speakers, it falls behind both English and French in the number of non-native learners.

It really puts into perspective the difficulty in trying to transcend culture in our efforts to communicate with an ever widening audience.

Visions of Light Review

Visions of Light was a nice look at how lighting has affected the course of cinematography and the ways in which it can be used to tell a story. I was particularly interested in the discussion of the transition from black and white to color in film. It was also amazing to hear how specific lighting sometimes was to each performer. It was often more of a science than one might expect.

~Annalyse

2 For 1: Ambedo and Sea Sapphires

Since I was snowed in and couldn’t get anywhere to post something last week, I’m doing a double post this time.

 

1. The Sea Sapphire

It always amazes me what sorts of creatures we turn up, even now when we’ve been exploring the Earth for as long as we have. There are so many more mysteries out there than we could ever imagine.

Plus – admit it – invisible creatures are just cool.

Scientists have figured out that it’s basically the physical structure of their bodies. In certain lights you get the iridescent blues and greens. In others, the reflection is actually pushed up into the ultraviolet spectrum, out of our ability to see.

 

 

 

2.   The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a project by John Koenig. He comes up with terms for emotions that are otherwise unnamable. It’s really interesting because he actually builds the words through an etymological process. He describes it as an attempt “to fill a hole in the language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.”

While the project is intriguing, the words themselves are beautiful. There’s just something about them and the way he defines them that tugs at your emotions. I read through his site and it just makes me want to create … or cry … or meditate. I don’t know. I feel like they each deserve a poem, except the videos he does are so well done to start with.

Check these out. They are awesome.

~Annalyse

Lighting Events

Have a link to my lighting events folder.

 

~Annalyse

The Human Library

I tripped across this article in one of my writing groups today. According to their website, “The Human Library is an international equalities movement that challenges prejudice and discrimination through social contact.” The idea is to be able to sit down with someone and listen to them tell their story. More importantly, because it’s an actual person, you get to interact and ask questions. You connect to the stories and they become real in a way that might never happen otherwise. You are talking to living history.

Then you realize that you have your own stories and that in some way you are part of a bigger narrative. The most powerful thing about this for me is the idea that our greatest resource as artists – as human beings – is each other.

They are currently reworking their main website, but have a facebook page and the UK site is live if you want to take a look.

~Annalyse