Last Thursday, in addition to creating pieces inspired by spice, we wrote MacGuffin pieces. What is a MacGuffin piece you may ask? Well, it is defined by good ole' wikipedia as, "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction." How one typically uses a MacGuffin is to introduce an object, a letter or suitcase perhaps, in the begining of a piece and let it propel the action. Questions such as "what is in this?" "where did this come from?" should become the driving force of the piece. For our pieces, no information about what was inside the object should have been provided. Only physical descriptions of the article could be used. Here is an example by the lovely Kaisa Cummings:
The size of a music box but no evidence that it sings
A chipped gold and mottled red but no sign of a circus
The worn edges of a memory box of trinkets hidden, squirreled away by
a child or a child-now-an-adult but no air of forbidden love.
The size of a bread loaf--perhaps covered with a gingham cloth--but
no scent of honey or wheat or oatmeal or maple.
The size of an infant sized coffin pulled forth from the arms of
mother earth but no remnants of whimpers or milk smell
Under the floorboards
Under my pillow
Outside on the grass below the post box
Frozen to the tiles of the front porch
In the attic
In the cellar
On a train: forgotten, discovered, left-alone.
The above photo is not my original work, as the others are, but is the work of a talented young artist by the name of Christian Grey Hawkins.
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