Friday, November 6, 2009

Practice Theory: Bricolage - Found Object

My found object is the word. This class has given me so many found objects I hardly know what to do with myself. If fact I don’t – I sit in silence and hoard. So incredibly greedy, it’s slightly embarrassing

I have a fascination with the written word.
Actually, screw the sugar-coating:
I have an obsession with the written word.

I have enjoyed this class, so much that I do not say anything and write everything. I have written every word that has been released into the air. I have captured the words and given them a new home – my notebook.

There is no “logic” or sense to their new home – instead there is an utterly delightful chaos. The words have arranged themselves based on our discussions – and the difference in the spoken word versus the written word not only intellectually puzzles me, yet also amuses me. This chaos and nonsensical word arrangement has allowed breath in my thoughts.

Bricolage – I ripped out every page of the notebook and taped them all together in one long strip. One side has the even pages and the other side as the odd pages.
56 pages.
I then decided to line the strip with a tape measure.
143 inches (11’-11”).

It is the idea of taking a physical measurement/means to indicate a non-physical thing. The connection between the words and numbers measures our class. As broad of a statement this is, the connections made between the words and numbers are to each their own.

It is the idea of redefining a measurement. In this concrete world of ours, one inch equals one inch – universally accepted statement. However, what if one inch wasn’t always one inch? What if one inch – based on this tape measure – was a moment of monumental epiphany traps? For then one inch would feel like one hundred miles! What if measurement was defined by time? By memory? By what the word at that measurement means to you?

It is the idea of bricolaging the abstract to concrete. Or the concrete to abstract. The idea of allowing a bricolage to blur that distinction – and fully allowing one’s self to define the meaning of the measurement through the word(s).

I feel as if I’ve grown up in a place where I know what words mean and what numbers mean. I know how to count. I know my ABC’s. However, the thought of taking such “known” substances as the object of my bricolage – almost seems like I am staging some sort of revolution in my mind.

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