“The words you speak become the house you live in.”
~ Hafiz
Once upon a time, in a not-so-long-ago-yet-old-time-world, there was collage. It came from the French word coller, “to glue”. Collage seems to have first showed up in European art around 1910 and its origins are attributed to the cubist artists, Picasso and Braque.
Then our digital world brought us a myriad of apps and programs that allowed us to manipulate a pixellated image. With the advent of digital collage, a new name had to be found for that old-timey method involving glue, scissors and papers and so it became known as analog collage.
Even books, our beautiful books, have to be differentiated between e-readers and old-fashioned paper. Newspapers and magazines too, are either print or on-line.
It is a choice between a virtual world or one that is tactile and sensory.
Before Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, that cyber world where we collect friends and followers, there were face-to-face conversations. These were had while sharing a drink, walking down a trail or gabbing over a backyard fence.
Does this mean we only have virtual friends versus real ones? Oh dear…
Blessedly, it does not have to be an either/or situation. Maybe it’s like anything else…best in moderation. A little of this, a little of that.
Because in spite of the many drawbacks of our viral-driven news cycle and the shady ways in which videos, images and words are manipulated, I still feel that life has been enriched through our interconnected virtual web.
I love finding new websites, discovering new thoughts and finding out about ideas that I’d never learn of any other way. I love being able to connect to people on another part of the planet simply through our shared interests in art and ideas.
And although I know all our information is for sale, I still enjoy keeping up with far-away friends and relatives through Facebook and Instagram.
However, I don’t want to confuse hitting a ‘like’ on someone’s photo with the reality of an in-person conversation. I prefer a tactile life, not one that only exists through the tapping of my fingers on a keyboard.
I like kneading dough, chopping onions, hugging my husband and walking in the woods with a friend. I like pulling a needle and thread to repair a seam or felting wool to create a heart.
Perhaps moving into a more analog existence is merely a function of my age or maybe the shine from the novelty of all that is digital has dulled. I’ve written about this before, so it’s certainly not a new thought, but it is most definitely a recurring one.
Whatever the reasons, I find myself more and more interested in the tactile and the physical. I know I was already heading this way but I think moving into something as elemental as a log home definitely helped seal the deal.
When I’m in my studio, I gather my box of scissors, utility knives, cutting board and straight edge. I cut paper pictures and words from abandoned books and magazines. I rip random chunks of tissue and layer and lace them all together to create new images, manipulated only by my hand and imagination and held by glue.
I have no intention of giving up the worldwide web with all its wonderful and random connections. But I do know this, I want to spend the majority of my time in the world of the senses.
Life is real. It’s meant to be a tactile experience.
I love my analog life.
Re-reading this blog in 2024 I also prefer the tactile world. reading books, cooking, getting close to nature, I also keep a diary, though there is one thing that I do not do is sleep with a wind-up clock. When you wrote this blog in 2019 I was not sure what “analog” meant but I re-read it and I understand the real sense of your meaning, Yes the tactile world is important but I also use the digital world – thus writing to you. I like the quickness of the Internet and corresponding to friends and family through emails. You need to have a balanced life.
Thanks for taking me back to this post Catherine. This feels even truer to me today than when I wrote it. I definitely need to be in the tactile/physicality of the world. The “hands-on” feeling of life. But yes, the trick is in the balance of it all. Without our digital world we would miss so many other great connections.
Thanks again for this reminder. And Merry Christmas to you and yours 🙂
Colleen, I am with you completely here. Keeping a good balance between the analog and digital world is really important to me. Sometimes I get a real craving to do something with my hands (besides type!) and it’s at those moments I know I’ve gone overboard with digital activity.
Love this piece and your lovely collage!
Lovely to hear from you Becca. I feel like I’m finally understanding the incredible connection between the physicality of doing things and the calming of my mind. When I’m making bread or sewing or singing or skiing or even sweeping the deck…in short, anything that is an analog activity, I find it steadies me somehow.
Maybe we need to connect ourselves to the material world, by literally kneading or stitching or vocalizing our place within this physical sphere.
I’m not sure what it is, but I know it feels great and that’s enough for me. Every time I collage or make my way down a hill, it reminds me to be in the world in a very material and engaged way. Thanks for dropping by and your kind words.
Colleen, I think you said the right word “moderation”. If I didn’t have the internet, I would not be able to share my views with you and others. It is such a quick means of information and with Facebook a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, however it mustn’t be abused. We also live in a tactile world, I love the sensuality of books, the smell of them (especially old ones), the touch of them, cutting vegetables, making a casserole, hugging your husband (why not?) are important as we are all made of flesh and need contact, not only from the end of your fingers.
Thanks for this Catherine. I love that old Oscar Wilde quote, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” It sums up everything for me.
I love all our connections that come to life through the internet but love that it is also balanced with the crack of a real paper book (I too, love the smell of books). Maybe that smell conjures up all the possible worlds that might be revealed by all those marks on a page.
Connection and contact; a recipe for a balanced life.