Question your teaspoons
Recent sketchbook drawings
Question your teaspoons
In his short essay, Approaches to What? Georges Perec writes how the daily news focuses on shocking things going against the norm, rarely addressing the daily. Nurses striking to get better pay is shocking, yet the day-to-day reality of low wages for nurses is genuinely upsetting and can be missed.
Perec continues writing, turning to the importance of questioning the habitual – examining what we do, believe, and encounter (without a second thought).
Why do I walk this way to work? What if I took the other street? How can I make the journey enjoyable? Why not buy something unusual from the supermarket?
An artist may ask, why am I using this tool over that one? Why this piece of paper and not that one? How can I make this easy for myself? What can I change?
Perec notes the more trivial the question, the better.
I’m struck by the curiosity involved in asking these sorts of questions. I can see how questioning our norms leads to breakthroughs, new ideas, and insight.