Territories Map

This is the map i created for my map of my project so far. It is pretty much a glorieifed spider diagram- 25 words which can be linked most ways and any random 5 would create an interesting relationship and project. The map is firstly an illustration of my territory- this is the words. On the other side are various shapes of various sizes. The tool part of it starts when the viewer is asked to pick a set of 5 cards- do they pick all the cards of a certain shape, all the cards of a certain size ones, or the diagonals, the most aesthetic pattern or randomly. These choices then corespond to the words on the reverse creating new groupings. (The words on the reverse are also ordered (by shape) into 5 categories Curation:    labeling, criteria, rhyming objects, display.

Frames and Boundaries:    gaps, proximity, storage, horizontal space

Accumulation:        repetition, gathering, acquisition, copying

The Collector:        sequential, completion, validation, context abstraction

The Artifact:        taxidermy, scale and proportion, typologies, sets and groups, specimen

At the moment these are also functioning as chapter headings for my context report but im pretty sure ill  need to hack these down to a more managable size.

Freud's House

freuds-house-1.jpgfreuds-house-2.jpgfreuds-house-3.jpgWent over to Freud's house in Finchley at the weekend. He only lived there for about a year of his life (he died shortly after leaving Nazi occupied Austria, in 1939) But importantly it houses his library, furniture and collections. His passion for collecting ancient artefacts, was second only to his addiction to cigars apparently- many small figurines were housed cabinets, shelves and noteably filling approximatley half of his desk- i'm going to refrain from talking about fetishism here or suggest that a historical item from some egyptian burial chamber is an absent phallus. Freud used his collection as a metaphor for psychoanalysis using it to show how conscious material wears away whilst the unconcious is relativley unchanging- i.e. in being buried, the artefacts in the room were preserved. There are very few things connecting Freud's collection together; the fact that the great man owned them is probably validation enough as to their criteria for being a collection, however they were all very old some up to 4500 years old, of either ancient near eastern, greco, egyptian, roman or chinese. The most interesting thing about this carefully accumulated, kept and displayed 'museum' is how subjective it is. Anyway, I think he's an interesting guy with an interesting collection- i hope i can say more later about it but this might be it.

Tutorial No.1

I had my first tutorial today with Laura, it went well and hopefully i need to just carry on. Laura asked us to send her a brief overview of our territories to get to know what was going on and one of the things was listing 3 weaknesses and 3 strengths with the project- this was interesting as it helped me get out some of the things i was thinking about but hadn't externalised- some things were: that i think people outside of a design context (and of course within it) will be able to relate and engage with the project, i reckon everyone collects something- (this is something i need to come back to and explore more- i think a questionnaire for the moment would suffice with a follow up 'collection of the week' book for some of them to be photographed and displayed.) Mini projects are good. I need to get more people involved- collectors, curators and people who might be interesting. I've been wanting to do this but my to-do list is finally getting shorter and so i should be able to get involved on another level next week- interviews, by either email or video will be good. I also want the time to do some drawing- bad Luke- draw all the time.

Seizure

A great temporary installation in a condemned flat in Elephant & Castle by Roger Hiorns. The whole flat was filled with copper sulphate solution and as a result (I'm missing out alot of time and process but this is the jist) crystals formed on all the surface- baths, light fittings- very special and everyone should go see it before the close on the 30th Nov.seizure-1.jpgseizure-2.jpg

Cigarette Cards (from some tea)

Another internet facilitated collection. I liked that i could collect both the cards and indirectly the moths and butterflies- two collections in one. Beautiful tiny tactile objects- i don't really like tea but I'd probably buy more of it if sweet little cards like this came in it. (probably not- maybe if they were total sets- then definitely- i guess the thing, as advertising or incentive hangs on the need to complete the set- do they expect you to get 25 boxes of this tea and then change- like one of those shit magazines? probably not- i guess they change the cards then- ahhh cunning- anyway it's all about sets and completion and how I've payed £2 and acquired it real easy and no tea- more fool you tea bosses- or more fool me because it was free to begin with and I've just payed for it, maybe i could get some comments on this one- i think it's more interesting than i first thought it was). cigarette-card-1.jpgcigarette-cards-1.jpg