“How do spaces shape the human experience? In what ways do rooms, homes, and buildings give us meaning and purpose?”[1] This review has been broken down into several parts, this post being the last of the series, Part 6.
Parts 1 to 5 walked in the words of TED Radio Hour podcast, The Power of Spaces, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi. The podcast is an insightful listen, particularly for an architect or lover of spaces. The audio walks through the spaces of a home, through hospitals, theatres and stages, sculptural structures, and places of worship. To “explore the power of the spaces we make and inhabit.”[2] And what reveals to us, the meaning of a space.
Part 6 of the review series looks and ends with the TED Fellows talk, from the Shape Your Future selection - The infinite alchemy of storytelling, by Zahra Al-Mahdi.
We look at how storytelling is shaped by spaces. And how these spaces, which are largely taken up by screens and the media, shape our understanding of the society we grow up in, and the world we live in. And ultimately, the space a country occupies.
Kuwait City,Kuwait | © Sophiejames/Dreamstime.com
Review
A house builds stories.
When the television became a normal household item, it also became an integral part of our lives. Families come together and sit together to watch a movie, grandpa watches a documentary, the kids watch a cartoon, mum and dad watch the news. Following the television, we now have hi-tech mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. The portability and user-friendly aspects of these devices have made them unsurpassable personal belongings.
These devices carry our identity, our grocery list, our to-do list, notes, our web browsing history; that which represents our interests and the media we consume in a day. Screens and the media shape our viewing of the world we live in. The televised news channels and social media channels we follow shape the ways in which we perceive the country we live in. As well as our perception of other countries, and the people who rule and live on its lands. We tell others what we hear and what we see around us. Which is why spaces shape the telling of stories. Spaces which are now very much filled with screens. They are all around us. You’re right in front of one now, as you read these words.
Al-Mahdi “grew up in Kuwait in the early 1990s, where [she] was “raised” by screens.”[3] The television and the internet were “reality windows”. They were storytelling machines. Machines that recounted contradictory tales, but which held some truth in their telling.”The Arab region knew Kuwait to be one of the leading voices in media, specifically for comedy shows and theater. The rest of the world knew Kuwait to be a small country that was located between Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran during the Gulf War. [Also, for the oil and wealth it has. All three] stories are true.”[4] says Al-Mahdi. Screens, who themselves tell stories, having the power to shape a space; a country, is a mighty thing. We think maybe we should place a finger down, change the channel, or turn off the television. Who is doing the storytelling of my country? What are they saying? If a screen and a voice can construct our reality, it conceives national identities, too.
Like Al-Mahdi and her work, social media channels tell stories from a crystal of perspectives and sources. Forwards of the president giving his most recent speech, a minority union giving testimonies, a young boy being interviewed about his experience of playing at a new park. In 4:32 minutes, Al-Mahdi places you in retrospect. We realise the influence our sense organs, our eyes and our ears, subdue us to. What do we listen to? What do we look at? That’s what I like about several TED talks, it professionally presents to you, well, ideas worth spreading.
The stories we hear, from the spaces they come from, shape our world.
Closing with the words of Al-Mahdi, “We as humans are not merely the shape of body that we occupy or the specific description of behaviour. We are a multiplicity of stories, stories that often come in repetitive patterns. Having been raised by screens that told me different stories, [I now know], that stories can be retold.”[5]
The Power of Spaces - Part 6 will be the last weekly review I’ll be posting. I’ll be sharing the reason for why I’m discontinuing in my next Post-post Sunday, PPS#89. PPS#89 will talk about the “Why?”, and about what I’ll be doing next.
Reference
[1] TED Radio Hour. 2020. “The Power Of Spaces.” National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/23/894580784/the-power-of-spaces.
[2] "Ibid."
[3] Al-Mahdi, Zahra. 2021. “The infinite alchemy of storytelling.” RED. https://www.ted.com/talks/zahra_al_mahdi_the_infinite_alchemy_of_storytelling/transcript?language=en.
[4] "Ibid."
[5] "Ibid."
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