General Knowledgespeaking topic
The birth of Cubism: how did Picasso and Braque redefine reality by breaking objects apart and reassembling them? Let's talk about the shattering of the single viewpoint.
— Cubism
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- When buying a gift, practical or sentimental? The giver assumes the practical one is the 'valuable' one, but the receiver usually prefers the thing they actually wanted. Why does this gift-giving paradox arise?
- Let's talk about the birth of jazz and the freedom African American culture brought to music. Why was improvisation a form of rebellion?
- In Japan the numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky because they sound like the words for 'death' and 'suffering'; many hospitals have no fourth floor. A number's badness has nothing to do with mathematics, only with sound in that language. If numbers are supposed to be universal, why does fear of a number change from culture to culture?
- When the potato reached Europe it was scorned; then it exploded the population and may well have fed the Industrial Revolution. But when Ireland became dependent on a single potato variety, famine killed millions. One tuber can both multiply crowds and destroy them. Is relying on a single food a source of power or a trap?
- Why do debates about the origin of language still rage on? Did the ability to speak shape human thought, or did thought give birth to language?