DAY 006 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY
Establish Your Narrative
We must tell people who we are and what we care about, particularly in what can be an isolating modern world. Very few people are regularly coming up to each other and saying, “Hi ya, bub. What’s your deal?” I try that on occasion, often badly. Just a month ago I was at a conference, saw a colleague’s wife standing uncomfortably by as her husband and another talked shop. It was loud, so I said hello to her back very loudly, which was...admittedly...weird, and she clearly signalled that it was weird as she turned around. A couple questions and responses back and forth, “no, I wasn’t one of his students” I say and I quickly moved away as I fail to establish the narrative that I’m not some creepy guy trying to pick up a colleague’s wife at a bar.
But for every one of those, there are at least a couple conversations that are pleasant, where real information is exchanged, and I get a sense of who this other person is inside these bodies we carry around. I had a director several years ago say, “you’re pretty quiet for a sound designer.” Yes, yes I am. If I’m interviewing for a gig via telephone, I now warn the other side that if I go silent, it’s because I’m thinking about the question they’ve posed. As long as I set the expectation, most people don’t mind, though I think a few probably still assume I’m simple. Regardless, my duty is to give them the information, and it is theirs to do with it what they will.
To establish our narrative, like any story, we need to know who we are and what we want. Character, given circumstances, etc. Doing that work with ourselves is serious stuff, and if we’re truly doing a proper analysis, we might come to some uncomfortable or inconvenient conclusions regarding who we are and what we want. If we know what’s within us, we have an opportunity to reframe and adjust one character within this story. We can change the way we discuss ourselves to better fit reality. People respond to authentic narratives, so make certain yours is true today. Tomorrow may shift. We are nothing if not variable creatures, but if you shift you can pull out the eraser, edit, and revise.