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Book Review: How to Be an Explorer of the World

Keri Smith Beats Boredom and Inspires Creative Thinking, Journaling

Sep 16, 2008

Book shows how to creatively observe the world, penguin group

This book shows readers and journal keepers how to use their imaginations to observe the world around them with the creative perception of an artist or scientist.

Illustrator Keri Smith’s new book How to Be an Explorer of the World encourages readers to be curious about their environment and to see the world with new eyes. With 59 explorations she tells readers how to explore the mundane with imagination.

Creative Inspiration for Adults and Children

This book would be very useful for adults who are seeking creative inspiration as well as for teachers and parents who would like to help children make full use of their imagination.

The impetus for the book was a list Smith made one night when she couldn’t sleep. It was a list of things she’d learned from artists and teachers. She discovered that artists and scientists analyze the world in surprisingly similar ways. So she decided to write a book that encourages people to explore the world as artists and scientists do.

Smith writes, “Creativity arises from our ability to see things from many different angles.” To that end , she encourages readers to collect things and create their own museum of things and ideas. The collection doesn’t have to a physical; one can collect stories, apologies, characters and smells.

Exploring on Walks and at Home

Smith shows how to truly explore the world around you. She starts with exploring the immediate environment -- a chair, a room. She also encourages daily walks for inspirations and explorations.

The ideas in the book were borrowed from others, writes Smith, and she credits and quotes many noted artists and scientists of the past and present

Explorations include:

Making a sculpture with whatever objects are currently handy, such as paper cups.
Using paint from found sources including crushed berries and mud.
Becoming songwriter Leonard Cohen whose daily meditative routine includes sketching and documenting things you use in your daily routine, such as forks and doorknobs. “I have always loved things, just things in the world,”: -- Leonard Cohen.
Fully using one’s senses by listening to sounds and mapping them out. Explore the sounds made by fruits and vegetables.
Exploring magic by collecting objects that seem to have magic potential. A pinecone can turn into a tree. Also, one can take a walk in the city and view it as a magical place. A manhole becomes a secret portal.
Seeing the life in inanimate objects. What do they do when people aren’t looking? Find faces in inanimate objects.
Explore patterns in nature and manmade objects and collect pattern rubbings.

Close Observation and Curiosity

Smith encourages very close observation of the world as a way of life. She quotes artist and author Jennifer New, "Close observation of a single subject, whether it is as tiny as Pasteur's microbes or as great as Einstein's universe, is the kind of work..that happens less and less these days. Glued to computer and tv screens we have forgotten how to look at the natural world, the original instructor, on how to be curious about details.”

The book also includes pages for documenting and research, and a creative glossary. Everyday Tourism is defined as always seeing the world with new eyes.

How to Be An Explorer of the World, Penguin Group, October 2008, ISBN 9780399534607.

The copyright of the article Book Review: How to Be an Explorer of the World in Lifestyle/Pop Culture Books is owned by Claudia M. Lenart. Permission to republish Book Review: How to Be an Explorer of the World in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.