ideas flowing ~~~~~~~~

robin writing here:

so, I’m loving where this is going!

it’s so hard to wrap my head around the shaft space and the hallway/staircase, etc… even with photos and descriptions to go along. maybe an nyc visit is in order some time soon…

in the meantime, the ant farm idea and the image of the children’s museum climbing gym go to the same place my imagination went when looking at carolyn’s long shot of the hallway and stairs. there’s so much height to work with… what can be done!? would be really great to create an experience of visitors really moving through and relating to the space in a different way…

yes, I totally agree, carolyn, about engaging visitors more than just through documentation on the walls. I think my initial proposal is a step toward figuring out – how does the work of creating spaces out in our respective cities translate to the museum? i’m thinking that making the museum one experiment among many will bring the museum down a notch in a way. and help establish a context in which an immediate experience in the museum will help viewers identify more closely with our experiences out in the city. perhaps there are a variety of spaces created vertically that people can enter and in each there is a video of documentation from one of our out-in-the-city actions?

ally was right on with my thinking about the “unnoticed/unquestioned” thing. for me, if i’m actually thinking about creating a living space, how does that become a feasible situation? there has to be a level of personal security. one way to acheive a certain sense of security is to know you’re sort of invisible. another is to know that popular sentiment will support and protect what you’ve created. I do appreciate questioning of these assumptions though. it’s similar to a conversation we had among the howling mob about how much attention we wanted to bring to the signs we put up. bringing attention to them would garner a broader audience for the information and ideas we were trying to promote through the signs, but at the same time, it could endanger them with the increased likelihood of their removal.

in this case, if we want to bring attention to opportunities to live in different ways and relate to space in different ways, going stealth might not serve that purpose. however, my initial thought was that the museum is a space in which to contextualize action and open conversation around it. we can think about the spaces inwhich we work as having different skill sets in a way—each type of space has something different that it’s good at. so we can be selective about how we use each type of space and where we obscure our actions vs. where we open them up to share and discuss.

upon second thought though, i don’t know that this point about going unnoticed or unquestioned is a terribly important one to make as a basic principle for our proposed actions. perhaps these are just tools/approaches for us to keep in mind as we design and build, one approach or the other might be appropriate for any given circumstance.

as for the list of potential uses, they were just things that came off the top of my head – possible examples of “needs and desires” in relation to spaces we inhabit or pass through on a daily basis. they could change, become more specific, etc. i wanted to keep it open to the possibility of thinking about and creating structures for different purposes. though i’m sort of focused on a living space, you guys might not be. john mentioned to me the other week that he’d been thinking about ways of parasitically syphoning business off of some larger entity by setting up a miniture version in immediate proximity that offers similar services for less, or something along those lines…

by the way – i’ve talked with both john and sara, who are psyched to be involved but have a deadline in January that is consuming their brain space, so they’ve both said they’d like to jump in after that. I think they’re both available to meet up in January, somewhere in or around or just after the retreat though, so we can all talk then. i’m hoping they will chime in here to update directly about this scheduling consideration (nudge, nudge if you’re reading!!). But i think it makes sense for us to keep the ideas rolling and let them jump on board in whatever way makes sense when they free up.

so let’s see.. i really like where this is going, as i said. one thing i’m wondering about and i’d love to get confirmation or thoughts on from you guys… how are you feeling about the basic premise of multiple “experiments” in our respective cities that can be undertaken independently and then a more unified collaboration in the new museum space? in my mind the new museum installation contextualizes the others and allows entry points to think about/experience them. so, are you guys interested in doing independent site-based work over the spring/summer? are you interested in then developing a collaborative installation at the new museum?

it seems like there is still a lot of openness and possibility to that framework, but it would feel good to me to know if you guys are in agreement about a basic structure, or are we still at a stage where we need to hash that out?

what i’ve been thinking about a lot is using this as the impetus to actually take the leap and construct a dwelling for myself upon return to chicago in the spring. it feels pretty daunting to think about at the moment, largely because i don’t know chicago as well as i do pittsburgh and don’t quite know where to start her, as i might there. but i like the idea of a museum opportunity being the nudge i need to act in the world outside the museum, art being the context inwhich i develop a practice for living…

oh, and that reminds me of the question about “experimentation” vs action, etc. i think it’s largely a matter of wording, and could shift, but words do have force and are chosen for particular reasons, so… experiment to me means it’s not a final or definitive gesture. i imagine there’s lots of potential for failure in these initial efforts. and short of failure – we’ll probably learn a lot of things that we’ll want to do differently in the future, or each structure will inform the next if we undertake multiple. or our urban space interventions will inform our new museum installation. basically, it’s a matter of thinking about all of this as “practice” in a really encompusing way. we’re working at something, but in a way we don’t even know what the desired outcome is exactly. we can experiment and see where it leads us…

oh, another thought i had in relation to being visible/invisible, noticed/unnoticed, etc. and in relation to experimentation and research – an initial idea i’d had was to do research into building code, zoning, ect. so one way to do that would be to slog through offical documents or visit some city office or the library, etc. but an other way is just to go out and start doing things and see what kind of resistance is put up against these actions. if the police come and tell me to take down the thing i’m building, i can ask them what law or code it’s violating and go research it. a much more direct and experiential form of research i think…

ok, sorry this is a bit all over the place. it’s very flow of consciousness. that is what i have for now. thanks for all the posts so far carolyn and ally! i’m excited about where this is going and about sitting in a room together (just a month from now!) to talk in person. we should plan a time to meet about this during your visits for the retreat. have you made travel plans yet? is there any flexibility afterward for you? Ally, i know you can’t be here before, right? The retreat proper ends with lunch on Sunday, so maybe sunday evening if sticking around for an extra day doesn’t work??

ok, more soon…

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