Marumarum is a publication focused on sending Positive Messages Into Negative Spaces.
We share biweekly, brief articles on a variety of topics aiming to shed light on a new aspect of life.
-Parker at Marum
Ingredient lists contain everything you need to know about what is going into whatever food and drink we have. Our name contains a semblance of an identity. Our gut contains food processing capabilities and a connection to our brain. Cabinets hold plates and dishes. Brains hold information. Computers hold coded information.
In all areas and aspects of life, we have bounding walls that hold content together. These morphic forms can become flexible tools for us to craft and implement at our daily crossroads. Condensed into a single idea this concept is called: containment.
Everyone has his or her own organizational system. Mine is a box, the kind you can buy at Office Depot for transferring files. I start every dance with a box. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece professes I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance. [page 80]
Twyla Tharp is one of the greatest American choreographers. She has created over 130 dances, won two Emmys, and has been a recipient of many other awards. In the 5th chapter of her book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life, she explains how she starts with all of her dances. For Twyla, the real value of the box is that it allowed her inspirations to be grouped without restricting her creativity. In addition, the process of labeling a ‘box’ type form allowed her to commit to the project.
Too often we have an ingredient or undeveloped idea that we need to explore, but fail to give it the support to freely explore it. This is where using a box method like what Twyla uses can be helpful. If we have different types of physical, mental, and emotional containers, we can take that next step in our growth journey by being prepared for different life experiences.
Typically, when someone says container we might think of a plastic bin, a jar for food, a banker's box, or a water bottle. All of these forms are physical, rigid examples of a container having a specific form and purpose. The form of a container allows for the objects being contained to be transported, acknowledged, seen in the context of other objects, and reorganized. While physical containers like a banker's box or cabinets in our kitchen might have specific purposes, we decide how we want to use containers based on the object we are containing. Meaning we have the freedom to create mental, emotional, and physical containers how we would like because containers go beyond the simple physical plastic bin we typically think of.
Any problem, idea, process, solution, and so on has a set of flexible “containers” that allows us to set a foundation, a starting point instantly ensures that we 1) have started in a direction and 2) will have something to look back at. Containers could be a physical box, a note-organizing software like Notion [I am 100% biased toward Notion], a breathing technique for stressful situations, or using art to explore emotions or experiences. There is no limit to how we can contain and explore.
If anything, containers give us set boundaries that lead to endless opportunities when we are able to commit. And for those who have current containers they use daily, I challenge you to rethink them. What if you did something slightly different next time or change the order of operations? Containers can be as constricting and freeing as we want them to be. As a practice to understand containers, the next time we go to the grocery store think about the carts, food containers, and ingredients. See how all of these forms interact and hold form, yet can allow for beautiful recipes to be created.
More free mockups!
We now have two free mockup packs in our shop for your design needs. Download for free and share your designs!
🪨 Weekly Rocks
Weekly Rocks are reminders of significance meant to support and build the foundation of who we are becoming and being. In this space, you will find quotes, articles, links, ideas, and more.
[+] Article from Vox How companies sell you on the promise of “community”
[+] Article(ish): if you are having a hard time getting ideas out from your brain, try drawing. How to draw ideas is a great article showing how anyone can use drawing to move from idea to action.
[+] Song: Come Along by Coco:
🎨 Creative Resources
[+] Tool: Spacetype Generator
[+] We released 10 free mockups recently! Check them out here.
[+] Flim.ai: “The search engine for creative people”. The free version is pretty limited but a very cool project to keep tabs on and poke around on too.
Marum Resources:
[+] Projects on Are.na
[+] Information on Instagram
[+] Free files on Gumroad
I just revamped my project “containers” set up in Notion. It’s interesting to do an analysis of how well things are going every few months.
Also biased toward Notion!!