Making the Familiar Unfamiliar

Jan 21, 2016 | Uncategorized

 Making the Familiar Unfamiliar

Like so many other people today, I am on a David Bowie jag. Listening to his music, remembering who and where I was when I first heard each. Being somewhat younger than he, I didn’t get real time with him until the 80’s. As I moved through high school, I worked backward through his catalog.  I got Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars just after Let’s Dance. I got Diamond Dogs before I got Space Oddity. My sister even gave me a strange Spanish label LP of his. In high school, I was obsessed, but it never occurred to me to think about HOW he was being so awesome. I just sat back and watched him be. Would I ever have the courage to get dressed up like a clown like he did for Scary Monsters? I could never carry off those form fitting satins he wore so well.

Of course, his art wasn’t just his clothes. His art was his ability to be open to all kinds of influences, to let those saturate him and and then spin these influences around and make something of his own. As we talk about art around the house (like you do) that’s practically the definition of creativity we use — taking different ideas and bringing them together in a new way. Here’s a video where he discusses his process for this approach with writing lyrics, taking words and bouncing them off of each other to create new ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1InCrzGIPU. They are the familiar decontextualized or re-contextualized. From music riffs, to images to even clothes (did you expect another leg on this pair of pants?), Bowie questioned it all.

I have heard that it is the writer’s responsibility to take the familiar and make it unfamiliar or to make the unfamiliar familiar. These kinds of activities, like Bowie’s cut up, are a great way to take what we think we know well and to make it new again.

What other activities do you use to make the familiar unfamiliar? Try this process on today, with your own journal, newspapers, pictures or music. Let us know what  happens in the comments down below.

Rest In Peace, David Bowie. A 16 year old girl in 1985 in a small town in Northern California still listens to your words and dreams of a bigger, more complex world.

This week’s podcast with writer/ director Florencia Manovil talks about collaboration, inspiration, and overcoming lack of self-confidence! http://www.storymakersshow.com/ or check us out on Stitcher or iTunes–and please, if you are enjoying the show, take a minute to rate us! Thank you.

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