Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in King's Speech
It got me to thinking about how much I am truly not able to vocalize. Since I can remember I've written better than I could speak. There was always some disconnect between what I was saying and what I truly meant. This led to many awkward moments when people would take what I said the wrong way. I soon learned that writing was a better way to cope with this, as I could take the time to truly write what I meant. Luckily I've been fortunate to grow up in an era where technology's prime form of communication is typing-based. But I somehow feel as though our generation is missing out a bit on the one-on-one.
After watching the movie, I discovered this fabulous tablecloth by Camilla Fucili on Mocoloco.
It's a laser cut tablecloth meant to represent the communication that happens at the table.
Of course we all love the idea of sitting at the dinner table with our families, having heartfelt conversations that truly inspire. But I think about how often this truly happens in my life, and how often I shy away from it. I know it's not entirely my fault. The generations of the Internet learned a lot of communication through IM-ing and we learned it was faster and easier than picking up the phone. I find that many people, who grew up learning communication through the telephone and face to face, find frustration in the "cold" appearance e-mails or texts or Facebook appear to have. They do not have the same childhood nostalgia associated with computers that we do. I remember one of my first crushes asked me out on an instant message.
Just yesterday I found this installation (also on Mocoloco) from 2009. It was named "Signatures Exchanged for Passwords". The artist, Donna Rumble-Smith, embroidered handwriting that fell apart and became the generic text in e-mails, strewn on the floor.
This moved me in many ways. Apart from what seems to be a sad commentary on how our society is growing increasingly more generic in our communications, I think this installation can be viewed another way. I see it as showing that every e-mail we send does still come from a personal place. When we use technology to communicate, it is not a computer creating these e-mails, but a human. Perhaps seeing something typed on a computer screen can seem cold and less "warm and fuzzy" than handwriting, but the original sentiments are still the same. The intentions are still the same. And to me, the intention is all that matters.
Besides, don't we, as bloggers, prove that the authentic and special can be conveyed on the Internet everyday? Indeed we do.
Have a terrific weekend!
