a kiss is just a kiss

kissing is man's greatest invention

. tom robbins .

so I've decided to take a break from my research interests for a little bit and have some fun in my Vygotsky class (those of you who don't know, Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who was one of the first, if not the first sociocultural or historical-cultural psychologists... he's also, as you can see, pretty dreamy, not least of of all because of his funny hair, brilliant theories and celebrity like status).

back to the fun. we have been assigned Studio Day 1 : Find Vygotsky. basically, we choose a place and time when we see Vygotsky at work and then we build our project. I'm stepping away from my creativity research to play around with something different :

the kiss

breaking it down, here's my theory :

• I got all metacognitive about kissing a few weeks ago after thinking about what I had thought about kissing in years past
• Vygotsky argues that we learn through cultural and cognitive tools (tools being anything from language to hammers to computers) and that you can't individually measure someone's intelligence (or creativity or what have you) outside of context
• hand in hand with that idea, Vygotsky talks about using a 'unit of analysis' instead of 'elements' when designing methodology

(for example - although this was refuted by a scientist or two, I think, for metaphor's sake, we'll still go with it - to study water and why it puts out fire, breaking it down into 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen isn't going to help. you have to study them together to understand why water puts out fire. or better, to understand life you should begin with the cell instead of breaking it into its parts - like mitochondria. the cell is a UNIT of analysis in understanding life)

• to study children, adults are in a tricky position: even when we do recognize children as a separate culture, we still feel like it's a culture that we know and understand b/c we have already passed through it. I wanted to come up with a 'tool' that everyone uses but that dramatically changes and alters over the course of a lifetime
• in Vygotsky's Speech + Thought, chapter five is all about 'concept development' and the development of abstract thinking - which relates directly to my work with kiddos (lots of people believe children generally don't or can't think abstractly... I strongly disagree)
• the kiss is abstract
• we learn to kiss with and from other people as well as from culture (after a lot of hand + pillow practice of course)

when you add it all together I'm arguing that a kiss is a cultural tool that can help us understand our own experiences, as well as concept development in kiddos.

elements of the project :

• a collection of 'kiss stories'
• the same first kiss story as told from both perspectives of the kissers (yes, mine... I can't let you all embarrass yourself alone)
• a bunch of analysis and research shenanigans that I sort of mentioned above
• kisses in culture
• most importantly, a collection of 'hopeful' first kiss stories (those who haven't had a first kiss yet)

in other words : if you've got kiss stories or thoughts

on kissing or learning,

or learning by kissing

passing them on would be greatly appreciated.

I'll get back to my regular studies in a few weeks.

xx