"We are often asked to tell our stories according to
someone else’s standards of what counts, but we are not necessarily asked about
what matters to us, what we value, even if it can’t be measured."
So begins the first challenge for Digital Writing Month (#digiwrimo).
It's a 'what if' question that asks us to introduce ourselves, not using
the standard and limiting CV format but in whatever creative means takes our fancy.
CVs are indeed limited; they lay out our lives under
standard headings, in sans serif font (naturally); they condense the most
exciting of happenings down to one line and MUST BE ON TWO SIDES OF A4 ONLY.
And as for the hobbies and interests section... if you say something
remotely interesting you are probably lying and if you are honest you are
possibly the dullest person in the history of the universe.
I've been looking at maps as an alternative way of expressing and
exploring personal journeys and tracking my own thinking. In her book,
The Post-Human, Rosi Braidotti uses the term cartography to describe the
process of examining where we are, now:
'A cartography maps what it means to live at this moment in
time. It is a theoretically based and politically informed reading of the
present.'
Cartographies, according to Braidotti, examine power locations, are non-linear in
time; they de-familiarise and challenge thinking. Braidotti associates
them with critical theory, but I like the idea of applying the principles to
lives too; a map can show complexity, contours, colour and be multi-dimensional
in a way that CVs cannot. A map will show the mountains we have climbed,
the rough patches we've overcome, the scary bit where there be dragons... it
will be coloured by the stuff that's influenced us, show where the pain has
been but allow us to move on through it, not making that aspect any more or less important than what else appears alongside it.
This blog for me, is my cartography. I doubt it is
what Braidotti intended, but nevertheless I've realised I'm applying similar principles. There's theory which I use to inform my
thinking; I unsettle myself through the use of unfamiliar writing styles
and methods; there is politics running through the heart of it all. Most of
all it is value-based; so that everything I write
comes from the examined and explored ethical measures that form my basis
for action.
Some parts are sketchy and hard to navigate - a back of a fag packet job (often literally). Others are more detailed, filled in with coloured inks, pored over and written out a few times. Braidotti often talks about the need to 'get over ourselves' so I try (usually) to infuse them with the hope and affirmation that she talks about as a post-human way of being in the world.
My blog isn't a CV; it is subjective, biased, and rough around the edges, but it tells you much more than those two sides of A4 ever could.
I might still add a hobbies and interests section though.
- Braidotti, R. (2013). The Posthuman. Polity Press.
