Self-Organizing Man

CEPA Gallery: The Art of Photography

Deviant Bodies 2.0 received its first review here from a college reporter.

Emi Koyama responds.

The reporter apparently missed the entire point of my talk, for which I would accept some of the blame–some people may find it difficult to understand my arguments, as I tend to discuss complex and abstract ideas without "dumbing it down"–but judging from the poor writing and neologism I suspect that these errors were probably not entirely due to the way I discussed my ideas.

As a public speaker I struggle between speaking to strangers and speaking to constituents. The first group requires short, simple (NOT simplistic) explanations. The second group more robust, direct language.

Neither is better than the other.

I think confusion will happen to strangers with robust language. Directness does not usually dispel stereotypes. Strangers will glean what they can from insider language but it is often seen by the speaker as incorrect.

On the other hand, constituents get bored quickly with the 101 type language used with strangers. I check in with my audience to let them know what my agenda is and where I’m coming from. I also number my powerpoint slides. That way people can come and go through the boring bits.

I also tend it to take it as a fact that if people don’t understand my argument, then _I_ have failed to communicate it properly. This is me. Then again lack of agreement with my argument can come across as a failure to understand me in the first place.

Takeaway: Simple need not mean dumbing down. Haiku teaches us this profound point. Robust need not mean exclusionary.