Recess

Soul Searching

By Amanda Dagg

What does your soul look like? That is the question that Edward Clapp, Ed.M.’07, and his colleague Robert Blackson have been asking people around the world for the past 10 years. In 1998, Blackson approached Clapp with the idea of asking others to illustrate their souls using only pencil and paper. “From the start, it was hard to talk about why we were doing this,” Clapp says. “Mostly, it was just to see what happens when we ask people this question.”

Together they have collected hundreds of drawings from more than 50 different countries, published a volume of select “souls,” and scheduled exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Africa, Bangladesh, Japan, and England. The first of these exhibits took place at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Gutman Library in February.

Although the initial goals of the Soul Project may have been “fuzzy,” as Clapp describes them, the pair quickly discovered that the project could have an impact on multiple levels. The prompt alone invites serious reflection on the self and the concept of the soul, which can be a powerful tool for self-education. The act of viewing the pieces can also be a valuable experience. “I feel like one is being educated in just the experience of looking at these drawings and seeing the connections, or the diversity of responses, or the surprises in how people interpret the prompt,” Clapp says.

As for the future of the project, both Clapp and Blackson know they would like to see it continue. “Where it goes is unknown — there isn’t much of a strategy — but we would like to get the drawings in front of as many eyes, and the books in as many hands, as possible.” They hope the project will inspire readers and viewers to connect psychologically with individuals across the world and reflect on their life experiences.

When asked about his favorite Soul moment, Clapp highlighted the weekend he spent at Blackson’s gallery in England selecting souls for the book and exhibitions. Once they had laid out all of the drawings on the floor, they were surprised by the similarities they saw in many of the pieces. There were recurring themes and images from individuals on opposite sides of the world and opposite ends of a lifespan. “I like the idea that you have people in India, New York City, Canada, and Africa doing similar things when asked to respond to this prompt and seeing where we are the same when we are so geographically, culturally, religiously, politically different. It is a very unifying project.”

To read more about the project, and to see all of the images, go to www.drawyoursoul.org.

— Amanda Dagg is an undergraduate at Harvard College studying European history.

About the Article

A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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