Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/937416
February/March 2018 27 art & soul BOOKS The Telling Image Shapes of Changing Times By Lois Farfel Stark John Burgos Sara Landon For full details, go to: www.GreatAwakenings.tv A fter traversing the globe as a documentary fi lmmaker for NBC news, Emmy Award-winning producer Lois Farfel Stark returned home with the burning desire to let others see the world through her unique lens of pattern and shape. The Telling Image is a beautifully illustrated account of a breadcrumb trail of meaningful shape-based clues left by humanity that Stark asserts reveal a timeline of how peoples in different eras made sense of the world. "To think out of the box, we need to see the boxes we have been in," writes Stark. The Telling Image's initial chapter, "The Web"(native peo- ples) moved me. But I think the book's true strength lies in its latter chapters that delineate "The Grid," (automats and Jap- anese cubicle hotels) "The Network," (our modern internet) and "The Spinning Torus" (the intriguing shape of the future). It's here that Stark's intellect and creativity blossom into some fascinating, original material that will have you seeing your smart phone screen and your home city through a new philosophical and geometric lens. Beautiful, thought- provoking, and undoubt- edly heavily researched, the book could benefi t scholars and curious readers alike by offering more detailed footnotes for those who would like to pursue these ideas further, especially concerning complex cultures and epochs of history. Readers who enjoyed The Mandala Book: The Patterns of the Universe by fi ne artist Lori Bailey Cunningham or Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them by cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, will appreciate The Telling Image. For even more info, catch Stark's imaginative TEDx Talk: Shape: Hiding in Plain Sight. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gPMJAWnxlW4. Her book is published by Green- leaf Book Group Press. —Thea Fiore Bloom, Ph.D.