It's The Process

I have shown the PBS documentary Between The Folds to students a number of times. While I find the whole exploration into paper folding engaging, my favorite moment occurs when origamist Paul Jackson shows his folding technique. Why does this moment stand out? It's all about the hands.












When I see his fingers, I know I am looking at a creator. I am looking at experimentation, knowledge, curiosity, and passion. Those smudges of green, yellow, and blue confirm Jackson's desire to be active and engaged with materials, with the world. Those are not the hands of a passive consumer.

Speaking of process, Jackson explains that "making [something] is the point of it." I could not agree more. In my own experience, creating, even if just for myself, provides an experience that is hard to replicate elsewhere. Whether it is messing around on guitar, figuring out how to carve and print a woodblock, exploring ways to use digital tools to make personally meaningful media, or even crafting a blog post, these activities give me deeper access to my thoughts. A quiet, singular focus replaces the noise that daily competes for my attention. What I hear instead is my own breath and its rhythm, sometimes held at a key moment. Now exhaled.

This physical nature of work can not be overlooked: the senses, the heartbeat, the feel of my fingertips on the materials, whether an exacto knife or keyboard. Together these make the aesthetic experience unordinary. At another point in the documentary, folder Chris Palmer demonstrates a lengthy process of creating a flower/tower. I see how intent he is. But I also hear it--his breath mixing with the sound of the paper being manipulated.

After spending four hours on his work, Palmer says that "the process is 2/3rds of what's special about something that got made." I think I saw this documentary for the first time almost 10 years ago. Since then, I have worked to become a creator. Now I better understand why Palmer and Jackson celebrated the process itself.  And now I wonder if this could be the most important lesson for students in my classroom.