FRINGE
CONTENT 03 The Fringe Concept 04 Creators Live On The Fringe 12 When Fringe Is Center 14 DIY Tassel Garland 16 Master Thinking Tips 18 Words To Live By
THE FRINGE CONCEPT QUESTION
What does the word “fringe” mean? Not tassels on your festival kimono or the alternative words for the bangs on your forehead, but a person on the fringe. The fringe. The edge of mainstream society. The many shades of grey area. The fringe, it seems, is a dangerous place to live and causes a whole lot of conflict, change and headaches. So why do we need this area?
STORY
I always thought I was just like everyone else. That’s how my mother tried her hardest to bring me up. Growing up in Singapore where we were segregated into four racial classes, society was always about fitting in. Everyone knew the general differences and similarities. We never questioned it until our country open its doors to foreigners. I thought I was normal. I was multi-racial but we only got to identify with one. And with it, came a sort of “membership benefits”. If you identified with Malay, you were Muslim and spoke Malay. Chinese, and you were a Buddhist and spoke Mandarin. Indian, and you were Hindu and spoke Tamil. Eurasian, and you were Christian and spoke English. I was Chinese, Malay, Indonesian and Dutch and my early days in school worked well when I selected only one of those. My mother was a Muslim
and my father was a Protestant and it was hard when people couldn’t separate ethnicity and religion and eventually I started questioning my own self when family issues started forming. From then, every one of my interest and choice just seemed to go into the opposite direction of what society expected of me. I couldn’t relate to people my age and did a lot of self-exploration. From confusion, to hatred (that I was different just because of my parents), to acceptance. I didn’t ask to be born this way but I couldn’t do anything about it except educate myself. It was ignorance, that made me realise is a massive thorn in the fringe area.
ANSWER
Fringe isn’t one group of people shunned by society. It’s the concept of living on the edge of belief and balance. Questioning and embracing all sides of beliefs (fringe and mainstream) whilst building on your personal ones. It’s also about demanding the best of yourself. Demanding that you look at life with your own eyes. The fringe has allowed us to be less ignorant but only if we choose to seek it. Today, we have the gift of fast transportation and worldwide, instantaneous networking. We are reaching an age where we get to choose our society. Our societies now live to serve us just as we live to serve them.
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The people that change the world in the most dramatic ways are the creators who are able to translate fringe ideas into those that can be accepted by the mainstream.
It takes two personas within one individual. 4
CREATORS LIVE ON THE FRINGE 5
One persona embraces the fringes of society where advanced, unencumbered, "weird" things happen where mainstream society has no desire to take part. They're able to observe, participate, synthesize and import the freshest elements of these fringe societies back into the mainstream. They get there by being unafraid of where their interests lead them. They pull on the thread of curiosity and fearlessly hold on as the thread itself does the pulling.
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The other persona is the one we're most familiar with — the person who can inspire us with visions of the future, new products, new ways of filmmaking, new stories, or new forms of government. They do the hard work for us by hanging out in the communities we're scared of, or by going places we don't yet know about, be it intellectually or physically.
Creators who change the world are able to live dual existences. 7
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TIM BURTON Burton was a quiet kid who kept to himself, more interested in art and popular culture than in school. After studying animation at the California Institute Of The Arts, Burton went to work for Walt Disney Productions, like a lot of Cal-Arts grads. As a director, Burton quickly established a style and a set of themes. Half Steven Spielberg and half David Lynch, Burton has often made dynamic, crowd-pleasing movies about people a lot like himself: misfits adrift in pleasantville. Over and over, Burton has borrowed from spooky old movies and kitschy TV shows to tell stories where losers become winners by beating away bullies in noisy final battles that take place in tall, shadowy towers. His early films in particular are obsessed with darkness, though by the end, nearly all of them round off any sharp edges, leaving audiences more reassured than challenged. Yet whatever Burton’s work has lacked in real danger, it’s more than made up in visual splendor. Over time, Burton has relaxed some of the anti-normalcy posturing of his early work, and has been willing to acknowledge that being an upstanding family man has its merits—to the extent that a lot of his later films sometimes become borderline-cloying. But Burton hasn’t relaxed his restless camera, or his preference for elaborate, unusual movie sets. Few filmmakers have ever been as consistently inventive as Burton. But never let it be said that Burton doesn’t put his own stamp on his work. Even when he’s just painting Humptys on cribs, Burton has a perspective—and a rare gusto.
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STEVE JOBS Everyone knows a little bit about Steve Jobs's story — typically citing the crazy fruitarian diets he embraced, his sensory deprivation sessions, his nuanced sense of design and tough management style. But in the early years, he became fascinated with how things worked when he saw his dad fixing up cars and electronics around the house. Learned what motivated people to buy things when he started repairing, restoring and reselling cars — and witnessed hard-nosed negotiation techniques when buying parts from local garages. Experimented with electronics and felt no qualms about finding creative ways to get the parts he needed (everyone knows the story of him calling up Bill Hewlett at home and asking for parts to finish a project). Ventured beyond the myopic focus of electronics and explored literature, classic movies, sports and practical jokes — which, at the time, were two opposing interests. (Sound familiar? Remember Apple being described as "the intersection of technology and liberal arts?"). When sampling classes at open-minded Reed College in the 1970s, stumbled into a calligraphy class. It opened up his mind to the beauty of the aesthetic.
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WHEN FRINGE TAKES CENTER 12
REFUGEES
HOW THE HELL DO WE FIX THIS MESS?
ISIS
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DIY TASSEL GARLAND OF MOTIVATION
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You will need:
x x x x x
Paper Strips Pen/Marker Scissors String/Rope fastener/ribbon
#1 cut 3 strips of paper & stack them on top of each other. #2 Fold each stack of streamers in half lengthwise. #3 Pick 1 stack of streamers & hold it on one side to keep the layers together. Cut 3 equal strips from the bottom edge of the streamer, stopping about 2 inches from the top fold. This will create 4 strands.
from center as you are twisting. Continue twisting until you have approx. 2 inches twisted at the center. #8 Fold the twisted center of each tassel into an inverted 'U' shape & place over the top of a pen or Marker.
#4 Write down motivational quotes or your goals onto each strands.
#9 Pinch the base of both twisted sections together with one hand while you use the other hand to twist the pen to create a tight tassel twist. Use a ribbon or tie to secure the twist.
#5 Unfold each stack of streamers & lay flat, keeping the edges aligned.
#10 Your tassels are now ready to be strung on a string & displayed on your wall.
#6 Fold the center (uncut) portion of each streamer stack in 1/4 inch increments, starting with the edge closest to you & working towards the far edge. #7 Holding the center of a stack of streamers with both hands, twist the streamers in opposite directions To create a tight twist, gently pull away
yourself believe tin hink pos itive thing s
breathe and smile
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MASTER THINKING TIPS
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RE PTU
AS.
E W ID
NE
CA
INTERACT WITH STIMULATIN G PEOPLE AND PLACES.
ENGAGE IN CHALLENGING TASKS.
BROADEN
KNOWLED
GE.
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WORDS TO LIVE BY
K,
THIN U O Y T A “WH .”
ME YOU BECO
“WHAT YOU FEEL, YOU ATTRACT.”
“WHAT YOU IMAGINE, YOU CREATE.”
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BE BOLD OR ITALIC. NEVER REGULAR.
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