WEEK 1, DAY 1
ATTENTION OBSERVATION:
I decided during Thesis class tonight that I would start my process of attentively observing my surroundings and my reactions/responses, document what I can, meditate, and reflect and/or summarize this documentation creatively.
I originally was going to start tomorrow since I had decided to very last minute during class what I was going to base my Thesis on – My Personal Focus, but after looking at the class timeline, I felt starting today would make more sense in how our schedule is laid out over the next several weeks.
To track back a bit, last week I presented my Mood Board – which was a collage. I used a Tibetan Mandala as the base of the collage and added images on top of it to illustrate the mood I want to convey in my Thesis, even though I have no idea what form or theme or subject it would take on.
I decided to let the class describe what they felt from looking at my “mood board” before I went into explaining/describing it from my personal perspective. The words they used were pretty interesting and really reflective of what I tend to gravitate towards already. Even then, I suppose I still wasn’t quite expecting some of the words.
This is what came up:
Geometrical
Symmetrical
Exotic
Playing w/ perspective
Spiritual
Occult
Symbolic
Gnostic
Ritual
Mystical
Transcendental
Magical
Visionary
Musical
Premonitory
Centralized
The one word I don’t really know is “premonitory”. So let’s dictionary.com it.
pre⋅mon⋅i⋅to⋅ry
/prɪˈmɒnɪˌtɔri, -ˌtoʊri/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pri-mon-i-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee] Show IPA
–adjective
giving premonition; serving to warn beforehand.
Origin:
1640–50; < LL praemonitōrius. See pre-, monitorypre·mo·ni·tion (prē’mə-nĭsh’ən, prěm’ə-)
n.
1. A presentiment of the future; a foreboding.
2. A warning in advance; a forewarning.
Hmm…I have to say that I prefer “presentiment” over “warning”, but even that definition has an odd dark/negative tone. Let’s just say “seeing ahead”.
In any case, a few days ago I wrote down two important questions:
* What do I long to do that I have not yet done?
* What are my most significant challenges?
My challenges:
* Focus
* Consistency
* Creativity (or the lull in)
* Documentation
* Sharing/Process
* Practice (as in Consistency)
* Memory (not as sharp as it used to be)
* Giving myself time
I thought of daily exercises I can do:
* Vision/eye
* Meditation
* Attention/Focus (of environment & my response)
* Document
* End of day creative summary
Then I remembered the 21 Days to Form a Habit study.
So my timeline aligned with the class timeline:
2/11 – 3/3: 21 days of focusing/documenting/summarizing & making
Paper Outline
2/11 – Timeline
2/18 – Blockages
2/25 – Recital
3/4 – 3/24: 21 days of designing
3/4 – Mid Semester Critique
3/11- Mid Semester Critique 2
3/18 – 1 on 1
3/25 – 4/14: 21 days of making something interactive
3/25 – Describe each other’s work
4/1 – What’s in a name?
4/8 – TBA
4/15 – Correct each other’s paper
4/22 – In-class Final Presentations
4/29 – In-class Final Presentations 2
Mediums/Media/Tools (12-13)
Photo (Sequence)
Collage
Journal/Writing
Poetry
Audio
Video (Sequence)
Processing
After Effects
openFramworks
MaxMSPJitter
Arduino/Pcomp
Material (?)
Book
Patrick pointed out possibly having too many “tools” and constraining/limiting the projects through just a few. I figured something like dividing the 12 “tools” into the 21 days. Thought that wasn’t quite fully though out so erg…we’ll simply have to start with poetry.
Earlier today when I was researching the 21 Day Habit thing, I found this article/site online: http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2007/05/12/how-to-be-more-focussed/
Despite the typo, the author writes about uptime and downtime.
My attentive (as I can be) observations today:
* I can still manage uptime on only 3 hours sleep, including considerable physical exertion, but I do still feel tired after
* It was clear and sunny when I awoke and throughout the day
* It was slushy out
* I felt extremely nervous talking to the class about my thesis idea, though I was told I looked relieved. I found this interesting.
* I saw 2 young (possibly 20-something) women at a public phone booth on Broadway. One was holding the receiver and slamming it down on the hook several times. I guessed that she lost her quarter. It was rare to see anyone at a phone booth, especially ones in three 20s. I’m assuming most people in this age range living in the city have mobile phones.
* A homeless man accompanied by a large black trash bag was panhandling in the subway car I was in. When he passed I noticed he did not have a belt and his pants sagged low. However his coat/ top layer covered any area above that sag. I realized that he was possibly unintentionally fashionable in the ways of young men/boys who sag their pants way low these days.
——————————————————————-
My creative summary:
Started
Sleepless
Sad and scared
Finally slumbering briefly
I awakened to early morning ringing
And clear blue with shine in the sky
Outside, it was slushy and slippery
beneath our heels and our wheels
Making our way as we carefully felt our footing
See something, convey something
In transit and transitioning
Like “old phone” as a ring tone
And the phone booth as a dinosaur of modern convenience
A parlance of stance
Silly sagging would be fashion
But in this instance, fit is not an option
Neither is no fit or let it slip
* I realize there is a disjuncture in this poem and I would like to come back to it and work on it. I will leave it as is for now.
