Here are a few things that have made me think, made me laugh and sometimes made me cry this week - some personal, some professional.
The Poetry of Science
I spent a lot of time last week searching for and reading blogs. I was preparing for some workshops I was running for groups of PhD students, and wanted to share some examples of interesting research blogs. On my travels around the internet, I found myself on The Poetry of Science blog - and I lost a good hour of my day in the process! Every week, Science Communicator Sam Illingworth finds a new piece of scientific research and summarizes it in a poem. Such a creative way to present complex, relevant research, such dedication and such lovely poetry!
[As an aside, this fab blog reminded me of one of my favourite sites of all time - Elemental haiku - the periodic table in poetry. Brings me joy every time I look at it!]
Medieval monsters On instagram
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Damien Kempf on Instagram (as have 107,000 other followers) - not only are the pictures fascinating, but his captions make me laugh out loud! It’s a great example of using social media to extend the reach of your work and share a passion - I can say for sure, I’d never normally be browsing medieval art in my spare time!
(Thanks to the Pickle Jar Communications blog for this recommendation!)
If you’re not outside your comfort zone, you won’t learn anything
I’ve been thinking about imposter syndrome a lot over the past few days, and with impeccable timing, a former colleague shared this piece from Harvard Business Review on LinkedIn. There are a couple of things in my diary this week that I’m already feeling the bubble of nerves about in my stomach - and I know it’s entirely because of this. So it was helpful reading this piece to remind myself that ‘in order to step outside your comfort zone, you have to do it, even if it’s uncomfortable.’ Because I know I’ll feel proud if I do, and I also know that the irrational fears I regularly feel almost never become a reality.
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY
I love the beautiful Pause Animations produced by students and alumni from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and released on World Mental Health Day this weekend. A series of six animated soundscapes, they are all designed to encourage us to take a moment and pause in our busy lives and are made up of recordings made during lockdown.
As an example, Songs Without Words, is a series of classical songs, “each begun by a pianist as expected, each breaking off the moment the singer should come in.”
As I listened, I kept finding myself taking a breath at the point the vocals should start - but it’s always met with silence and ambient sounds from around the world, before the next piece starts. It’s worth exploring the six creations - they are very different but I found each one so interesting.
Song Exploder
Finally, I’ve been loving the new Netflix series Song Exploder this week. I like nothing better than learning more about the creative process - I think it’s why i’ve spent so much of my career managing super creative people! It’s just fascinating watching a masterpiece come together. And in this short season (which originated as a brilliant podcast by Hrishikesh Hirway who was also behind the amazing West Wing Weekly podcast), musicians take a deep dive to tell the story of a song in detail.
It was such a joy to watch the members of R.E.M reflect on the making of ‘Losing my Religion"‘ and I just can’t get enough of seeing into the brain of Lin Manual Miranda who took viewers through the process of writing ‘Wait For It’ from Hamilton. Here’s the trailer: