Listing
Listing
TAoN No. 173: A guest prompt from the awesome Kate Bingaman-Burt! Plus a new Icebreaker, and more
It’s been a while since I offered you a guest prompt, so I am super-excited to share one today from Hero of Noticing and all-around A+ human Kate Bingaman-Burt.
An artist and educator, Kate has too many cool projects for me to go over in detail here, but I first became aware of her work through her daily drawings of everyday purchases (some later collected in her book Obsessive Consumption) and a related series of drawings of her credit card bills that I wrote about in my old Consumed column. That was a while ago, but I knew immediately that the way her practice was grounded in paying attention to the everyday, and taking material culture seriously, made her a kindred spirit.
Since then we’ve kept in touch and I’ve kept admiring her work (and even got her to contribute to Lost Objects, and create the art for one of the Significant Objects series). Her work is a great example of how voracious curiosity and determined attention can fuel endless creativity.
So I asked her for an attention prompt! Obviously, she came through with a great one:
Write down all of the things you do in one day. Make a simple list. Document your daily events. Note the weather. Note what you eat. Note what you buy. Note who you talk with. Note what you do. Don’t try to make it exciting. Just notice it, write it down, and then stash it away. You will be glad that you did.
In her newsletter — which of course I highly recommend — Kate gives some background on this prompt.
Back in college, she was once assigned to write down everything she did over the course of the day, and create an “illustrated map.” While she no longer recalls the map, she kept the list of “the day’s events from when I woke up (7 AM) to when I went to bed (1:30 AM),” she writes. “I clicked with this process of recording things.” Kate’s list from college sounds like a day-in-the-life time capsule, from lunch details to a K-Mart run. She adds:
Yes, it’s like journaling, but for some reason, the list form makes it more clinical and removes the need for me to make anything exciting or interesting happen. I also think that because it’s more clinical, you end up recording details you would never journal about.
I love this idea; try it out, and see what you notice! And of course check out Kate’s site and subscribe to her newsletter. You can also follow her on Instagram. Thank you again Kate!!
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THE NEXT FREE EDITION IN TWO WEEKS
Noticing is about other people, too. The Icebreaker series aims to help with that. There’s a central collection spot for all the icebreakers to date, here.
Today’s icebreaker comes from reader Abra McAndrew:
“If you could live inside the world of any piece of art for a day, which would you choose?”
A great one — and very in line with the recent art-museum posts! Abra’s Substack is The Booktender: “Monthly themed reading lists and book conversations from the Executive Director, Tucson Festival of Books.” Thank you, Abra!
Please send your favorite icebreaker (whether you made it up or found it elsewhere) to consumed@robwalker.net. If I use your icebreaker you’ll get a free three-month sub to the paid edition of TAoN (or some other fun prize if you’re already a supporter).
IN OTHER NEWS
From the comments: Sarah Farley shares her post about a museum walk paired with an ekphrastic writing exercise.
“Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds.” The “infinite monkey theorem” is “not plausible,” researchers say. I love that someone actually studied this! I giggled through the whole article.
LOLcats of 1911.
“I ask a chemist who works for a 192-year old paint company, ‘What is a color?’”
Your Life Is Not A Story. Interesting read.
School names building after longtime custodian. Pretty cool.
The Whippet returns. Great throughout, but check out the Unsolicited Advice column at the end: “You should give your loved ones a funeral instruction, as an act of kindness.” Happy to see this always unpredictable newsletter back.
Reminder: The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has published a book of 20 of my columns for them on cities and technology. City Tech is for an audience interested in urban policy and planning, so if you or someone you know might be into it, more here.
Vote for a hopeful future.
OKAY THAT’S IT!
As always, I value your feedback: suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, etc. Constructive insults may be directed at me, not at anyone else. I also welcome your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers, at consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.
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And thanks for reading …
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Love the idea of a list. It feels like less pressure and commitment than journaling.
Thank you ROB! Appreciate you endlessly and thanks for the opportunity!