Monday, December 15, 2008

commencement.

good good; i suppose that is enough of a response.

ok.

theme: boundaries.
deadline: i don't want to make this too quick so as you don't have enough time to work, especially because some mediums (i.e. painting) take longer than mine. but i also don't want to give you so much time that you're lazy and you put things off and then do something shitty. what with the holidays and all it seems silly to make it january 1...so let's say we give it a month. january 16. expect an email.

brainstorms are welcome as far as what you're thinking about the theme. i think it would be sort of neat to work in a void, but i don't want us to be out of contact. i am excited about mulling this word over, drawing it out, sucking it back in again, seeing what happens. go crazy.

12 comments:

  1. oh jeez. not sure how feasible that is for me, considering i'll be out of the country from dec. 31 to jan. 18 and lots going on before then. i'll try my best and would love to contribute to this issue, but my life is somewhat out of whack for the next month. if i had any say, i'd say push it til the end of january... but that's clearly me being biased about my own personal life.

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  2. Being a geographer as well as an arteest I have to throw out the idea of geographical boundaries. including both physical and cultural boundaries. This could spark debate and new thought on international relationships and conflict as well as local boundaries between groups of people based on the common differences between us. This could unveil micro boundaries between people; depending on where you are from and experiences.

    That's my two cents right now while I'm trying to find a place to live, preparing for an interview, and mentally preparing myself to say goodbye to my fellow interns at the end of the week. : (

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  3. sorry i've been a.w.o.l. for a while--finals week meant grading eighty portfolios--so i don't know that this has been said, but i've been considering the boundaries we use to define ourselves--that we define ourselves both by what we identify as "us" or "similar" and what's on the other side--what is "other"...but that both require a degree of proximity and contact--that the border is never farther away than our own skin, in a sense, and therefore neither is the other.

    maybe we don't all find this to be true, and it does admittedly place us always very close to the surface of things, but that's what i'm excited about considering, complicating, rejecting.

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  4. The Dictionary: a terrible way to start a paper, a perfect way to start thinking.

    our word "boundary" seems almost certainly to have its root in early capitalism. origins appear to be 1620's, demarcation of property edges perhaps?

    always the economic motivation. always.

    i'm going to incorporate the 'unseen' theme into this as well, and go with the general idea of 'unseen boundaries.' this super-concept could produce some really interesting ideas in the context of geography, and i'm thinking specifically about the geography of my own local, urban landscape.

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  5. doug, that is what i'm doing. idea thief.

    though, then again, could be interesting to see how different people take the same word and interpret it in different ways, even in the same context of interpreting your local urban landscape.

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  6. p.s. any other thoughts on the due date? am i the only one who will be struggling to produce something worthy by then?

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  7. wait - i need to place a classified here: i want to collaborate. i want to be working with someone else... as strange as that is. i tend to be kinda barnacle or loner when it comes to art, and i'm feeling a little barnacle-y - do we have any poets on this?

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  8. poets: doug, mark w, matt c., potentially layton, maybe sadie (although she is artist too), definitely gabriel.

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  9. let's stick human interest in there, as well.

    some of us aren't poets or artists (me) and want to find a place to be involved. i suppose i could grab meg on this train, maybe megan?

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  10. i am not a crook!

    what's your medium, robin? er, what are your media? what is your mediumses? come to think of it, i'd like to know that for everyone (i only know 25-35% of you folks. hi. i'm doug. i write.).

    you know, combining robin's accusation with laura's plea could produce a really interesting result. we could have two people kinda "pair off" for each issue/theme and agree to set their sights on basically the same subject matter, but using different media. could be a two-page spread somewhere in the magazine that we give a nifty title, something like "blind collaboration" (hearkens back to the 'unseen' idea, yeah?! yeah?!)...or "unseen(:) relationships."

    laura, you interested in finding a partner and kicking this off?

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  11. well, doug, why don't we partner up since you're a writer and i'm a cartographer? we could use our different media to portray our local, urban landscapes.

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