The world, as it exists, is made entirely of narratives.

The SBS tagline ‘6 billion’ stories and counting may seem like a corny attempt selling diversity but it is not far from the truth.

There is not one person who can communicate who hasn’t told a story at one time or another, no matter how small and it is through the collection of these stories that we begin to see a creation of one’s self.

The symbolic meaning involved in the dissection of one simple question and answer statement is astounding.

George Herbert Mead’s approach to the creation of meaning was through ‘symbolic interaction’ with other members of society in which complex methods of understanding are created from gestures, body language and the greatest symbolism of all, language. For what is language if not a mediated form of comprehension designed to reduce ambiguity in communicative processes?

So in theory we create meaning in social settings and the self as a function of the way we react to others perceptions (external narrative) and our own perceived representation (internal narrative). These narratives will often clash simply because no one person can have the same perceptive experience as another.

Meaning, understanding and comprehension is impossible to recreate because the the self exists in mediated isolation. No one will ever comprehend occurrence in the same way because their mediated self experienced a completely different set of social structures.

When discussing editing it is understandable that people can become emotional about the process because it takes not only a story created by an individual but often also the individuals self perception and corrects it.

If we are not careful editing can be viewed as an attack on the internal narrative rather than on the work created because self perceptions are often entwined with output rather than in built acceptance.

Having been asked a few times in the past to provide feedback on the work of friends and family I have found the process to often be just as harrowing to myself as to the author of the work. The reason is once again one of outputs, criticism is one of the most important part of any artists work because it enables artists to evolve, to create work that exceeds the standards which they have set themselves.

Having the ability to separate criticism and self worth is difficult but necessary for any artist, particularly those that put so much of themselves into their work.

(Busy week this week so only a short one)