Greetings, auditory alchemists! Last week, we transformed the persistent earworm into a symphony of our own making, finding beauty and inspiration in those maddening melodies. Was this the day you embraced the song renting out your headspace and drafted a nifty new narrative to hum on your commute? Or did you take the time to tell the story of your earworm in three-dimensional sculptures suitable for an actual desktop? Did reading this sentence cause your earworm to return? If that’s the case, here’s some news you can use to shake it loose once again.
This week, we're shifting our focus to a tangible, textured, and often overlooked medium: the newspaper. Perhaps it's ironic to have a newspaper prompt for a newspaper that is strictly digital, but let’s give the printed paper its due. Not only does it provide yesterday’s headlines first thing the next day, but it also provides extra money and rotator cuff injuries to newspaper carriers.
Once a daily staple, now a nostalgic relic for some, the newspaper holds a unique multisensory appeal for creative types. The rustle of its pages, the inky scent, and the visual limitations of text and images – no hyperlinks or zooming here - all combine to create an experience that's both familiar and, increasingly, novel.
Beyond its function as a sharer of news, the typical newspaper lives many lives. It's lined the floors for countless housebreakings, protected tabletops during messy art projects, and even served as impromptu insulation. Some housekeepers swear it delivers a streak-free shine to mirrors superior to a paper towel. It's a testament to the newspaper's adaptability, and its ability to morph and serve in new ways.
But today, we're reclaiming its original purpose: storytelling. Only this time, the story is about you. Let's use the newspaper as a divinator of self-expression, a medium for shaping our own narratives and perspectives with one or more of these creative exercises:
Headline Haiku: Scan a newspaper for compelling headlines. Cut them out and arrange them to create a haiku. Let the headlines tell a story, evoke an emotion, or capture a tale worth telling again.
Extra! Extra! Retrofit: Use newspaper clippings – images, words, textures – to create a collage self-portrait; retell a recent mishap with your own media spin.
Time Machine Typography: Using sections of the paper, create a time capsule that represents this moment in your life. Add in found objects, writing, drawings, or anything that feels important to you. Seal it and put it somewhere that will not be disturbed, like those old metal newspaper dispensers on the sidewalk. Or toss it in your trunk and forget it for a while. Set a date a few months out and see how your perspective shifts.
Not Just News: Transform newspapers into a three-dimensional sculpture. Roll, fold, twist, and weave the pages to create a form that represents your personality, a memory, or an abstract concept. Add a splash of color with the Sunday comic strips if you can find them.
You’s News: Write a news article about yourself. What's the headline? What's the lead story? What are the key details? Use the format and style of a newspaper article or editorial to slant your own story.
By transforming the newspaper into a canvas for self-expression, we become the editors, the reporters, and the artists, crafting our own narratives from the fragments. In this act of creation, we not only express ourselves but also gain a deeper understanding of who we are. The newspaper, once a chronicle of external events, becomes a chronicle of our inner lives, a testament to the power of personal storytelling.
Let's rediscover the newspaper's power to tell stories - using its familiar format and textures to create something new. With a few minutes of creative distraction, we’re doing more than repurposing a discarded object; we’re reclaiming an entire narrative form. What stories are waiting to be told?
This column was written with the help of Google’s Gemini Advanced a powerful generative AI writing tool.
