Video: Artist Jonathan Harris - self-inspiration through journaling and newer storytelling methods

There are only two video podcasts I watch religiously: Cool Hunting and TEDTalks. They never fail to impress and inspire.

In this week’s Cool Hunting video, I was inspired several times over by the work of Jonathan Harris, being drawn in initially by his beautiful scrap-books. Journaling, as a concept, is something I’ve always admired and yet have always failed to devote myself to. Half a dozen journals sit within my book collection, nearly all of them empty beyond the first several pages. And yet, when I look at what I actually have written, the memories come rushing back and I find the experience engaging.

Harris’s journals have a freedom to them I’d love to attempt in my own journaling. The pasting of travel mementos, paintings in watercolors, pencil sketches, and words, all take advantage of where his mind is at during the time of creativity. It seems somehow easier to avoid writer’s block if you don’t have to write. While I am not the painter or the sketch artist he is, I am certain that I too can aspire to create something which is at least occasionally worthy of exploration and self-review, and that seems like as good a place to start as any.

Most of my friends are creative and feel like they should be spending more time on their artistic endeavors than they actually do. In the act of creating a journal, to exploration and archival of detritis of those things that make up a life, there is a built-in review process for ideas and thoughts, all done in an environment where the intention is not necessarily to share with others. It’s a place to work out your good and bad ideas. This is freeing. MySpace and blogging somehow seem like poor substitutes.

Moving from interior spaces to exterior explorations, Jonathan’s other works shown in the video are websites focused on filtering the shared experiences of others through creative digital visualizations, automated web-based aggregators, and inventive new use of old metaphor.

• We Feel Fine - A “Global study of human emotion using large-scale blog analysis”
• Universe - The exploration and creation of modern mythologies visualized as astral constellations.

If you missed it above, here’s that link to the video.

Let me know what you think of it. Have any of you tried journaling/scrap-booking in the past? Do you still do it now? Does anyone know of any good websites which discuss this sort of autobiographical creation?