Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin . . .

(Little shout out there to Steve Miller and his Band, in light of the quickly passing end of the semester. Where has the time gone? :) )

Today has been a busy journal day. First, I got Laura's "Ghost" journal from Amanda at our usual drop off spot (Outside/In Cafe in Moos Tower) and then I was able to finish up the ones I had on hand and drop them off at Julie's. We lost track of time (Julie, I totally forgot that you were supposed to be cleaning for your brother's arrival, sorry!!) and got to talking about design, jobs, summer, etc. It was nice to take a break and just chat for a while, outside of class.

I can't stress enough how much this project is teaching me about the design process. I just think it's amazing to see all the sorts of things that people are producing and so quickly; it's almost as though each page in every journal is the first draft of a project all its own. I'm glad that I'm documenting my own entries, because I think they will serve as 'creative food for thought' when I am brain-blocked -- and even better than looking at some commerical design journal, the work I will be looking at will be my own (copyright free, yeah!). I know that none of my pages are gallery worthy (yet), but I think they show how much creative energy is bottled up inside of me (and the rest of us).

We need to lessen the pressure on ourselves to only produce things when we're sure they will be "perfect". The truth is, even when we think something's "perfect", there will be a dozen people ready to critique it and tell us how it could be better. So why not get used to producing drafts? It takes the edge off and produces some incredible work. And the less time you spend perfecting an idea in your head, the more time you have to make it better in reality.

Time to do a book or two

I definitely have had plenty of time this weekend to be working on journals. And I definitely have not used my time wisely. Since Thursday, when i got them from Amanda, I've had Jenny's "I Heart Minneapolis" journal and Cynthia's "Impossible Things" journal. I'm not sure how to follow up Jim's "it's not a playboy bunny" bunny print . . . (which, by the way, he entered in the journal out of turn, because he was so dang anxious!:))

Books received Thursday, 9pm
Room B3 McNeal Hall
1985 Buford Ave

I had some more thoughts about "time" this weekend, but can't think of them right now. I'll have to post later.

Get 'em done

Last night we had class time to work on the journals and everything seems to be working out well. We're about half way done, which will work out perfect as next week is our last class. I finished Kristin's and Carrie's journals, and got two new ones to do this weekend. The day was sort of a double-dipper, as I got journals from Amanda, gave journals to Julie, and got two more from Amanda. How to keep up?!

To the (top) right is Carrie's Body Parts [modified] with a screen print of my body and my thumbprint for my face. I contemplated adding a tongue print in there somewhere, but the possibility of toxic paint was deterring (thanks for the advice, Carrie) :) Kristin's book's
require that we use a mechanical process to add to them. I tried to photocopy my addition to the front of the pages, but (story of my life) they printed on the back side. That's ok though, the directions say it's fine ;)

Meanwhile, I think I might be improving (a bit) at my photography skills. Granted, I have Andy's sweet camera to use, so that makes things a lot easier, but I still think that I'm getting more confident, if nothing else. Maybe that will be a summer project, to continue to improve my photography skills. We'll see. Now that I have no steady job, I'll have plenty of free time on my hands :)

Grab 'n' go

Moos Tower
Outside/In Cafe
12:40 pm

Yey! New journals from Amanda. Didn't have my camera with me and no internet service on my camera phone (i'm poor), so I'll have to post pictures later tonight.

Intercepted delivery

Yesterday I ran into Carrie in McNeal . . . she was looking for Kristin so she could deliver Jenny's journal to her. I intercepted the delivery and gave the book to Kristin in class. Seems like yesterday was the day of "Ange Delivers". Maybe I could make a business, sort of like Simon did. This also got me thinking about messenger bags, and how they started cropping up in the past 5 or so years . . . Funny, because we aren't really delivering anything, yet are we so "on the move" that we feel like messengers? Or delivery people? I don't know. I'm about to have a stressful meeting at work, so I can't think straight. Cut me some slack.

Backwards drop off

We all new this plan would have some internal flaws or need some tweaking, right? Today I picked up journals that James had and delivered them to Amanda (we work near each other, so it works out great). However, in the meantime, I'm still waiting for more journals! That's ok, I have plenty to do in the meantime.

Waiting . . .

Maybe one of the other things I will learn during this process is patience. I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of new journals, but none have come all weekend (I know, I know, it's only been 2 days.) Luckily, I heard from Julie and she received the journals I delivered without any problems. Phew.

My first drop off!

78 degrees Fahrenheit (so says my dashboard widget)
3:50 pm
Holton and Hoyt, St. Paul, 55108

Stopped at Anchor Paper for some special paper for the Bombay Transitions project that I'm working on, then to Target for $79 of necessities (really, i'm serious. Toiletries add up!) Decided after trying to email and call Julie (Julie, answer your email for cryin outloud! Do you think you get the weekends off? ;)) I decided to trust GoogleMaps and find her house myself. Rang the bell, dog barked, decided to leave the package in the front door, old school delivery style. Remember when people used to visit other people unexpectedly? What happened to just 'dropping by'? I think it's great. I'm going to try to do it more often . . . so what if people aren't home? :)

Find the drop off location on the Flickr map. I should've taken a photo of the package in the door. Whoops, next time.

Living type [modified]

As designers, we pride ourselves on our communication skills. Yet, sometimes we get so caught up in the medium that we forget to communicate the message. Have I made myself clear?

.

A Process | Not a Product [modified]

what is a process? well, hell, I don't know, is it a journey perhaps, or could process be simply static?

DAY 1: The first drop-off

71 degrees Fahrenheit
5:14 pm
Northeast corner of Oak and Essex

Met Amanda to pick up her book [living type] and Jame's book [a process | not a product]. Beautiful day. Was on my way to meet Kristin at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown for a GAPSA dinner. Really we were there for the raffle prizes (a Tom Tom and 30 GB iPod! two things we don't need). We didn't win. I went to Robbinsdale to meet Jim Hagen and get my glass panels printed for Jasper's class. Got home and started this project, feeling really energized about the whole thing.

Find the drop off on Google Maps. (Hint: use the tags for this post to search the map.)

My book: Time and Process

My book (I wish it was here right now so I could take a photo, or that I had taken a photo last night, oh well) is all about what people wish to (re)present. All semester we have focused on representing concepts (self, urban/rural space, and now time/movement) in visual mediums. This time, I posed the question: "What do you wish to (re)present" and encouraged people to "embrace it" -- it being the book, the question, the process.

This blog is part of the chronicalling of this process in order to achieve the overall result of representing time and movement. It will be integrated with a mapping of these books as they move through the hands of myself and my classmates. I hope that my book itself, as Alain de Botton says in Status Anxiety, will "evok[e] the passage of time as effectively as the rough, worn hands of a fisherman;" in other words, my book better not be in perfect condition when it returns to me.

What speaks even more to me about this process is Bill Viola's understanding (in Between How and Why) that we have long focused in the art/design/science fields on the "development of the material." Today, we have long passed perfection in terms of the "how" (the medium) and what this technology enables us to do. Therefore, Viola suggests that as artists and designers, we are in need more than ever to help relate the "whys" of life and "illumate the pathway" for the recipients of our work. For this reason, I think that it is crucial that we return to a deeper understanding of process and representation, in order to perfect that part of our craft and better relate messages to the public. In a sense, this understanding of process is one part of the larger process: to communicate ideas, themes, information, etc. to our audiences.

Here's to process. It's about time.

Prepost: the concept

Last night began the process of the traveling journals. Not quite sure how this will all work out, our class decided to embrace the challenge and put our efforts into making this idea work. The concept is simple: Ten journals travel to nine people in under 21 days. Each journal, while initially personal to the individual creator, will quickly become a product of the collective.

While concepting the idea, it was essential that these journals travel over time, rather than be created all at once, during a collective work period. Understanding the concept of time and how it relates in design is something we all seemed fascinated by, in our own ways. Using these journals as a vehicle for understanding time's importance seems like a great idea. Now let's just see how it works.

On a personal note, these journals symbolize our desire to embrace our handicraft and return to our roots as craftsman. So often we rely on technology to simplify our life and perfect our craft; yet, there is something to be said about creative work that relies on our hands and other more traditional materials. The perfectionist that I am (darn Virgos), I enjoyed the opportunity to be less than perfect and live in the moment while making my book. I wish I had a picture, but alas, it's on it's journey. Perhaps I could have others take a picture as it travels. I will look into that this evening.

Thus begins the process of the 10 traveling journals (not quite 1001) I'm excited to see where this takes us and what turns up at the end.