The Open Road

Once
On a Friday

Walking to and from
I encountered those close
and acquaintances
and strangers.

We intersected,  meeting and stopping for a moment

only to document the happenstance

and discuss later plans

Later

I came back and sat on a bench with Emily

Sitting and chatting

We encountered again

Those walking to and from

Our friend Adam joined  us on the bench

Then Michael Hoffmann

Then Sidney

Amy walked by rushing to class

And then we parted

Walking back to and from

close, acquaintances, strangers.

Lines and Colors

I visited Sachel's for the first time in winter

the bus outside looked cool and cold

amidst the rows of the left behind and refashioned

While these objects, bottle caps and disks, no longer have a 'purpose' - a use value,
The aesthetic impact is not lost, but re-purposed and re-positioned for new patterns and use.
Form over function - or - fun-form - a use value of aesthetics.

the bottle caps and plastic adornments reflected the lights strewn about

and the color clutter of the back seemed strangely nostalgic for dime store days.

juvenilia perpetated for 10 cents a pop.

We waited for pizza in a room of sonoma palate,

dusty reds, yellows, and faded greens

mixed with the bright outcasts of pearls and beads.

Framed by rectangles and lines, we ate off circles until only one triangle was left.

Retrospective Tourism

Once,

When visiting an exhibit in Boston

I saw myself

my position

refraction

reflection

all in lights...

My image was joined with others
Set to music and patterns.
The artist featured live subjects
and we were participatory voyeurs.

You stuck your head in a box, around a corner, over a ledge,
 and became part of the show
The line between artist and subject was melded, the threshold fluid.

I walked away impressed, attracted, and satisfied by my instigated involvement.

As I start to look over my aesthetic experiences and narrate them, looking for patterns and 'attitudes' I am marking my place - the ways that I position my 'shadow' through the lens and the manner through which I interact within and among aesthetics.

Another Day

And a typical Wednesday night...

Aesthetics

As we wander through Gainesville and document - I am trying to focus on experience, aesthetics - censoring the analytical background noise and attempting to just notice.  I want to take it all in and then work it out as we continue to engage place, space, visual, aural, texts and electracy.  Here are a few of my 'views':

Some typical Tuesday night...

Focus on Feet

Looking through the history of my photos a pattern emerges...As I walk and wander to various places, once there, I like to document the space and place where I am standing. 

My 'photo GPS' is configured with my feet. 

Boston (Cambridge)

New York

Cedar Key, FL

Mekong River

A Buddhist Nunnery in China

My Apartment - Gainesville, FL

Gaze Upon Me?

I have been trying to be a bit inconspicuous taking pictures around town - to not stick out as a tourist or voyeur.  Yet, I have found that, more than merely the camera reflecting my attitude or 'gaze,' I am occasionally becoming the object of interest.

For instance, while on the bus home I was trying to capture my 'daily life' and experience my surroundings.  Whelp, unbeknownst to me, my flash was on and attracted the attention of THE ENTIRE BUS.  Much like Dhana, I had a moment of panic, that 'don't look at me' - nothing to see here folks - kind of moment.  I was foreigner, the object of the 'gaze.'  People were looking at me and returning my curiosity with their own.

In some cases, these moments have sparked conversation, forging connections between strangers that otherwise might have merely passed each other on the street.  For several of my friends, it has made them envious of seminar with a creative component and prompted them to shift their own 'gaze.'  Through the course of this project, intentional or not, I have not only defamiliarized myself, but others as well.  Perhaps I am already doing the good work of Wellbeing?  Or maybe I am just creeping people out...

Pastiche

This is the painting that hangs above my bed, the image part of my pastiche.  (I think)  I bought this piece in an open market in South Africa during a rainstorm.  Crouched under a little tarp, sheltered from the rain, I playfully haggled back and forth with the artist for about 45 minutes.  By the end of the storm, there were many people under that tarp and we were all old friends.  

And I was the owner of this painting.

What really makes me happy, or rather, gives me satisfaction, in this painting are the little pieces - the fragments that tell a bit more of the story.  The pieces that remind me of a moment, a place, and a time.

There are several bootprints along the edges of the canvas, where people in the open market stepped to get by, or to huddle under tarps.

I like that the back of the canvas is soft, worn a bit - something that was carried around, 

folded and rolled -  long before it became mine.

And there are the tattered edges, from where this painting has traveled with me, a marker of 'home' in almost every place I have lived as an adult.

Once

Once

in Gainesville Florida

I was sick.

Wrapped under covers,

reduced to the horizontal,

shaky limbs, stuffy, sticky senses, 

befuddled brain,

insensate.

It sucked.

Nostalgia

We have been playing around with the Allegory of Prudence and I am trying to consider how time contributes to the ideas of Universal Experience.  We need to understand how to make people concerned about Wellbeing NOW!  Sure, we care about the environment now that it is threatened and we pilgrimage to visit well-known tourist sites because of their fame, but in each case the site or issue or idea has been filtered through time.  Years and years of research on global warming and migration patters, coupled with a pretty famous ex-vice president revealing an "Inconvenient Truth" has finally made us sit up and pay attention, at the very least putting Wellbeing on the radar.

Staying in the same sphere as UE, let's look at art.  Most people know the famous story of how Van Gogh never sold a single painting in his lifetime, but is now (obviously) a pretty big hit.  Reproductions of his Sunflowers or 'The Starry Night' crowd dorm room walls and museum gift shops.  A simple google image search lets you know how famous these works are.  Yet, this fame is based in retrospection and reproduction, the appreciation of a work not in its moment of inception, but through years of study and contextualization.  So why was Van Gogh's 'moment' in the sun not during his lifetime?  I mean, yes, tastes change and the importance of participating or countering artistic movements certainly factors in, but if we are talking about flash reason, electracy, initiating an aesthetic experience in the NOW, then how do we use fame to our advantage without resorting to what UE terms the 'pre-cooked experience?'  How do we tap into the current attraction of Van Gogh and the concern over global warming in the immediacy of the electracy with issues that might not have 40 years to wait.  How do we tap into the currency of fame, entertainment, the known and unknown, to facilitate an aesthetic experience that works towards the NOW?

Is the answer as simple as Nostalgia? Connecting to tradition and past experience, working to find those 'triggers' that motivate and move people in the NOW?  Hmmmm....