User:Clara/Thesis

Library of morals

The animals, objects and plants that teach us how to think…

Collection

• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein
• If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura
• Mr.Men a collection by Roger Hargreaves
• Le lion abattu par l’homme by Jean de La Fontaine

Question

How can generated short story workshops be used as a method to express and deal with an issue?

Structure and Design

My idea is to structure the thesis in the same way I structure the books for generative story workshops. You will at first only read a short sentence that is supposed to state something about the chapter but all the content and context is hidden inside the pages, such as this. It's about slowly revealing the story and playing with the idea that little can say a lot and the hidden messages behind words.

So the chapters are based on the story structure of who, where, what, why and how. I want to be playful with the sentences that are shown before you rip the pages open and see their context. My idea is really to have this short story with a thesis hidden inside of it.

Prologue

500 words
~Context and introduction of how I came up with the generative workshops The books of Mr. Men and Little Miss are the short stories that impacted my view of children’s books. I will always remember their simple square shape with a white glossy hard cover and a simple colourful drawing of the character and their name as the title. Mr. Happy, Little Miss Trouble, Little Miss Whoops, Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Clumsy… They stood out from other children’s books of my childhood. They were simple and clear. Other children’s book covers were filled with colour not allowing blank and unused space. They’re mixed in my memories and leave only the impression of colour as they overwhelmingly tried to get my attention and stand out in their similarities. Mr. Men and Little Miss however stay clear and I can always remember what the cover looked like and how the book felt in my hands. They were books with a specific character that had it’s own trait and would have a simple moral. Mr. Happy helped Mr. Miserable find happiness. Little Miss Trouble learns that the misery of others is no laughing matter. Small morals which are sometimes funny and sometimes meaningful.

As I grew older I also became more fascinated by fables that I had dismissed as a child. I remembered how the talking animals would talk and have problems like humans. I also found it interesting that they were written with complex language and yet addressed to children. The adult perspective and input really marked the construct of fables. The talking animals appealed to children. (finish off)

That was where this started. And it only kept going from there. I started my own short one liner stories called “Tiny’s Adventures”, where Tiny a yellow heart character takes on daily life. At the time these came about I was struggling like many others with the restrictions of the pandemic. Being stuck inside and only seeing people digitally made my anxiety worse and I was looking for an output. So I gave life to Tiny. A character that brought me happiness and made me smile. Tiny would make everything sound light no matter how simple or heavy the topic was. Tiny was relatable. And so in a way Tiny was created to appease my anxiety. The inspiration behind Tiny was clear to me. I wanted to play with the construct of a children’s story book. From the simple white book with an illustration to the short moral. The important element in “Tiny’s adventure” is the simplicity. It was about having a one line story and one illustration, that’s it. It’s to the point one look and you’ve read it. It plays with short attention span because that’s something that everyone behind the screen struggled with these past years. I wanted to be able to give something quickly and allow for the rest of the story to be up to the reader. One line can say a lot. One illustration can say a lot. I felt that would be the strength of Tiny’s Adventures. I didn’t need nor want much to convey a lot.

-talk about children’s imagination?

Intro

1000 words
~Setting a historical overview (Fable — Wikipédia, 2021), (Besson, n.d.)
~An intro in types of short stories, from fables to children’s books to social media one liners (instagram, news headline, clickbait)

Who

1000 words
~The characters, shapes and objects of my childhood
~Talking animals, plants and shapes that educate (Brinkman, 2020)
~Them shaping our morals and ways of behaving within society (Brinkman, 2020)
~who is the audience

Where

1000 words
~From classrooms to reading to children at bedtime to social media(where the imagination is)
~Where we learn imagination (Lucas, Bridgers, Griffiths and Gopnik, 2014), (Inovation Hub, 2015)
~the short attention span generation
~setting of the workshop: taking people back to the where (to trigger children's imagination taking us back to the classroom and bedtime stories)

What

1000 words
~types of workshops that have been done i.e, Serious Play(Wheeler, Passmore and Gold, 2020)
~about my workshop
~the method

Why

1000 words
~Why do we relate to them (characters and objects)
~The psychology behind us feeling empathy for imaginary characters (researching resources)
~why do we bring things that don't talk to life
~why these workshops can be a form of therapy

How

1000 words
~How little can say a lot
~the hidden messages (Farokhi and Hashemi, 2011)
~Children's drawing psychology (Quaglia, 2015)

Ending

500 words
~how these workshop can help with triggering creativity and new ways of thinking (Surrealist automatism - Wikipedia, 2021), (Wheeler, Passmore and Gold, 2020)

Bibliography

1.Besson, A., n.d. De l’aristocratie aux cours d’école, une brève histoire du conte | Fantasy - BnF. [online] Fantasy.bnf.fr. Available at: <https://fantasy.bnf.fr/fr/comprendre/de-laristocratie-aux-cours-decole-une-breve-histoire-du-conte/> [Accessed 21 November 2021].
(Besson, n.d.)
2. Blair, S., Rillo, M. and Dröge, J., 2020. Serious Work How to facilitate meetings and workshops using the LEGO® Serious Play® method. 3rd ed.
(Blair, Rillo and Dröge, 2020)
3. Brinkman, G., 2020. TOTO TO TOTORO Can talking animals save the world?. Masters. The Royal Academy of Arts The Hague.
(Brinkman, 2020)
4. Di Leo, J., 2013. Interpreting Children's Drawings. Routledge.
(Di Leo, 2013)
5.Fr.wikipedia.org. 2021. Fable — Wikipédia. [online] Available at: <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable> [Accessed 17 November 2021].
(Fable — Wikipédia, 2021)
6. Farokhi, M. and Hashemi, M., 2011. The Analysis of Children's Drawings: Social, Emotional, Physical, and Psychological aspects. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, pp.2219-2224.
(Farokhi and Hashemi, 2011)
7. Inovation Hub, 2015. Kids say the smartest things. [podcast] Available at: <https://soundcloud.com/innovationhub/kids-say-the-smartest-things> [Accessed 12 November 2021].
(Inovation Hub, 2015)
8. Lucas, C., Bridgers, S., Griffiths, T. and Gopnik, A., 2014. When children are better (or at least more open-minded) learners than adults: Developmental differences in learning the forms of causal relationships. Cognition, 131(2), pp.284-299.
(Lucas, Bridgers, Griffiths and Gopnik, 2014)
9. Quaglia, R., 2015. THE USE OF DRAWING IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. International Journal of Developmental and Educational Psychology, 1(1), pp.465-472.
(Quaglia, 2015)
10. En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Surrealist automatism - Wikipedia. [Accessed 17 November 2021].
(Surrealist automatism - Wikipedia, 2021)
11. Wheeler, S., Passmore, J. and Gold, R., 2020. All to play for: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and its impact on team cohesion, collaboration and psychological safety in organisational settings using a coaching approach. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 12(2), pp.141-157.
(Wheeler, Passmore and Gold, 2020)