BrainRainStorm

Some project ideas and thoughts I've been having, though I have not yet come up with any specific locations...

“spaceplacelife”

Public library: Free to All (location, problems with language, class and access to "free" info)

natural dyes (flowers, plants, gunk) of NB, drawing and staining

(impromptu?) found-garbage sculptures

long poem down the sidewalk, up and down objects on street, relating to location

censorship and the war in Iraq (lack of technology/connection)

video streaming from different parts of NB into others (collapse of space, classed locations)

post online: “blank canvas” locations, people go and add things (art, stories...), documented on website

I will add as the ideas come...

Cyberplaced

So I just finished annotating my google map (link to the right under "Cyber Alex"), adding pictures to many of the places. My eyes feel a little glazed, but it's kind of exciting. So here I am now existing in cyberspace in a way I wasn't before. And a lot of the places I marked and annotated certainly never really existed in cyberspace the way they do now, with images and all. Are they now cyberplaces? I'm not sure that's a term. Until now, I mean.

It was kind of difficult to decide which places to mark on the "map of my life," but I started with places I had lived/live and where my relatives live that I feel an affinity with. Then I expanded to places I had visited and places I have been recently in my travels (that I had pictures of). My digital collection of pictures had a lot to do with what places I annotated.

As for my Delicious link (also to the right), you'll find a small collection of websites that I find amusing, intriguing, and inspiring, though I'll admit my favorites are the two short animated films, both of which are worth watching for sure. Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and for a picture of a beautiful cat, check out 224 Lancaster Court...

more like... emotional mess

My emotional map/compass...

In progress:

Now finished:

And, yes, she moves...

I wanted to visually illustrate the ways in which emotions are fluid, not bound by our words for them, and influence one another. In creating this map, it was important to me that some parts be able to move and overlap and change the landscape. I included a few poems/poetic fragments throughout the map because I often find it difficult to find one word to explain the way I feel. Also... sometimes it is hard to tell which way is up.

Revamp

This week's project to "change the vocabulary of my room" has become a very refreshing experience for me. After reading about French writer and Situationist Guy Debord on wikipedia, I was intrigued by Debord's ideas about breaking out of routine patterns of movement and how rearranging my room completely changed the way I moved around it.

Yesterday I moved around my furniture and some decorations and generally straightened things up and organizing some things that I realized were living in very unpractical places (such as my blank cd spindle). I finally hung my paper lantern over our previously bare bulbs and put up a small star hanging in the doorway. I relegated some of my sweaters, jackets, and some books that I have been trying to get rid of into the closet across the hall from my bedroom door. The move also entailed reworking almost all ofthe electrical components in my room. To my surprise, I have found that the room seems to work better this way and is spacially and aesthetically more appealing and friendly. Having my bed in the middle of the room, for example, is more condusive (especially if I make it) to people sitting on it to socialize. In addition, my desk now hides the unused door at the far side of the room, which I found to be a bit of an eyesore before.

I did not impose my rearranging on my roommate, and so her side of the room remained the same.

As an experiment, I also rearranged my drawers, pulling them all out and putting them back in random order. I only have four drawers in my little dresser, but I had an interesting time with it this morning as I tried to get dressed. My morning overall was altered by the design of my room. I had to walk around the space differently. Even sleeping in the middle of the room instead of in the corner felt different and more exposed. Significantly, I could not as easily see my clock from where I lay in bed unless I picked my head up to look up and back to my nightstand. And so I just didn't look at my clock as much throughout the night and morning, which I enjoyed.

So here are some before and after pictures...

and begin the new arrangement...

view through stars