Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Metaphor Collection - The Intangible Collection

My intention was to do something predictable. Write a stuffy academic boring paper on why the construct of the metaphor and rhizomatic learning are often connected. I would explain the history of metaphors, I would try (and fail) to understand A Thousand Plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia and the metaphors in that text. I would connect the rhizo metaphor with Dave Cormier's vision (probably a fail too). Then I would take the amazing and complex examples of metaphors used by the rhizo community and come to some significant and poignant understanding that we can't see everything but figurative language is the key to unlock ideas that are otherwise intangible.

Maybe I will still do that.

And then #digiwrimo entered into my world. I don't want to figure this all out right now. I want to collect metaphors (original and cited) and what people think of them. I want people to add their vision to the collection. Isn't metaphorical interaction subjective, like reading, like interpretation? In Rhizo15, it felt like we were using the metaphor to dig and cast new ideas that didn't have names yet. And the more we pushed our metaphorical experience forward, the more we drew closer to naming and giving shape to what we couldn't find.

My passion in writing is always capturing or even moving around something that we can't quite collect into a term or a definition. And when we try they vanish or change.

Questions:
Can I collect metaphors?
Why am I doing it?
What if all the things you collect becomes an index to things unknown?
Should I look at the rhizome collaborative?

What output would this project create? Collaborative document, book, or paper? Database? Or is there something more to be done. Maybe a digital notation of each metaphor would make sense?

I am not sure. I know I've written and discussed some really important connections in rhizo learning and digital writing conversations, and somehow - why the metaphor becomes such an important tool in that process needs to be investigated. I would love some feedback, ideas, connections, and collaboration if anyone is interested.


1 comment:

  1. Hmmmm .... Maybe I will pick my fave metaphor and remix it diff ways each time. You have got me thinking.

    ReplyDelete