The magic of the blank page
25.8.2023
I had the pleasure to participate in Emilia Karjula’s creative writing workshop called The magic of the blank page today. It was part of the programme of Aboagora with the theme Void.
In the workshop, Emilia created a safe space and led us to free our mind with a meditation exercise where we imagined something vast, then we focused on feeling our head, and then we replaced the image of our head with image of the vast. The experience of the exercise was reflected with creative writing. The main exercise was free drawing, inspired by an exercise developed by Eero Merimaa. I’m very insecure about drawing because I feel that I just don´t have expression skills with a pencil. The blank paper is scary. But letting go and drawing whatever was liberating. Different lines and styles of using the pen came naturally. It was surprisingly easy to be kind to myself of what came out and how. The critical voice saying that others do it much better was silent. Then we chose five words while looking at our images. They were crossed over. New five words. And again crossing over. The five words from the third round were the ones that we were encouraged to use in our longer creative writing exercise. It is not only drawing, but I have feared writing and disliked it, feeling very insecure if I have the expression skills. But this writing exercise was inviting, fun, and not scary at all. I felt inspired, happy, confident, creative, curious, and grateful of this chance to explore my mind and let go and express it in a written form in whatever genre.
This exercise resonates perfectly with my current postdoc research project Imagining sustainable digital futures funded by Academy of Finland. I will experiment with various methods and explore how we could imagine different futures and liberate our mind from what is now and what we are used to.
If creative writing is inviting and interesting to you and you would like to explore and participate in this kind of workshop, please drop me an email (minna.vigren at aalto.fi) and I will keep you updated on the schedule for my research experiment.
Here is my writing using the sets of five words. I included all, eventhough the focus was supposed to be in the last words. The words with bolding are from the last round, the second set is underlined, and the first set is with italics.
We are in front of unknown vastness. There is togetherness and separation, unity and loneliness. Connection and disconnection. To ourselves, to others, to other species, to the earth. There are nets and webs we recognise and enjoy. Others that remain in our unconscious. Nets and webs we hate. In front of them, we sometimes feel powerless. A resigned sense of agency. The imaginary seems to be determined by others. Sometimes the unfairness and unacceptablility creates a sense that we need to fight. Personally and with others. The complexity around us is breathtaking and paralysing. Or an opportunity and source of willingness to understand and know more. To explore and play. A hole as a symbol of the void. Is the void scary or a possibility? A glitch that challenges us to see otherwise. There is beauty and imperfection in a hole. It is a space. A space that is open and inviting to new. An invitation to be free and not to care of what has existed, what we think that needs to exist, what we believe that cannot change. How to be creative and trusting in our values in the process of filling the hole? How to recognise a hole in the first place? A blank. A gap. How to have courage, time, and energy to reply to the invitation? How to find support and companionship in this mission? How to move from individuality to collective? How to apply our imagination to create new imaginaries? To fight narratives that trick us. “Narratiivit narraa” as Paperi-T rhimes in his song Yli. They fool us to believe in them. They are powerful. And the ones in power don’t hesiste to reinforce their position by repeating narratives and creating new ones. Where is the blank space for new narratives? Who has skills and strenght to create them? We need love, kindness, and care. Love for all. Polyamory.