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74 | Thumbtack

Turn The Page | November 9, 2020

What actually drives human beings to learn? I think it comes from curiosity and astonishment, and that we should have an open mindset to be able to keep learning.

By wanting to know and learn more about a certain topic, we can take a different viewpoint towards other aspects, motivating ourselves to learn more about those, too. It works like a positive feedback loop, comparable to putting notes, experiences and insights on a pinboard with thumbtacks. We use other ideas and perspectives, see connections, and develop our own, unique points of view.

This curious mindset was the start of a lot of this edition’s articles. In an interview with Edwin van der Heide, one of the few conservatory graduates with a physics degree as well, it is shown that having expertise in multiple fields can actually lead to interesting perspectives and unique artworks. The Story Behind shows us the value of collaboration and cross pollination. The two founders of Filip Studios tell us how they combined two different specialties to set up a successful art and design company. An even more loaded topic is covered by Klara Bilić in the Taboo rubric, who covers our sexual exploration.

One of my personal experiences of going through this cycle of learning was the starting point of this edition’s Cover Story. Two years ago, I followed some Swedish lessons for my minor program in Sweden. I’ve become extremely interested in languages in general, and recently decided it was time to learn another: Japanese. The thing with this language was that it was so different from anything I knew, I was forced to think in a whole new way, which also made me see other languages in a new light. It brings me back to the thumbtack metaphor that I used above. Using ‘imaginary thumbtacks’ to add more notes and information to the pinboard in our minds, and forming new perspectives.

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