I wrote yesterday about worldbuilding. Well, here’s an anecdote that built a world:
Some time in the 1960s, artist Norman Daly created a tall and narrow sculpture. Daly taught at Cornell University, and so he placed his sculpture, without any fanfare, in a faculty dining room.
Daly expected his tall and narrow sculpture would spark commentary. Provoke emotions. Engage viewers.
But the sculpture didn’t spark any commentary or provoke any emotions. As for engagement, it did prove to be mildly engaging:
Faculty members interpreted it as a hat rack and treated it as such. Hats hung, they didn’t give Daly’s sculpture another look.
It was then that Daly realized he has to create a whole lot of supporting documentation to make sure his art is interpreted as art.
Point being:
It’s popular to say, “Show, don’t tell.” But that’s profoundly foolish.
You have to tell ’em, and tell ’em again, and tell ’em still some more. At least if you are after a given outcome — provocation, status, sales — and if you’re not okay with spending time and effort to create something that can then be dismissed as a hat rack.
I said the story above built a world. And I ain’t foolin’.
The story above was one of a few formative experiences that led Daly to create a whole new, made-up, Iron-Age civilization, including physical objects, works of visual art, music, as well as volumes of scholarship, commentary, maps, and even art catalogues for the whole thing.
Daly exhibited all this in art museums. People came, flipped through the art catalogue, nodded at the curious artifacts, and walked away feeling enlightened about a milennia-old civilization that never existed.
If you want to find out more about Daly’s project, you can do so at the link below.
It can interesting on its own merits.
It can prove useful if you are after crafting your own worlds.
And if you read just the section describing the other formative experience that led Daly to do create all this, it might be valuable if you yourself write or create content.
In case you’re interested, here’s the link: