Liminal Geography: A Psychogeography Project

When I first got this project, I was very confused. In-betweenness? Transitions? What was this supposed to mean? Since I was very confused, I asked for a bit of help from my dad, and googled the subject. From what I gathered, liminality was the threshold between 2 places. Sort of like a boundary line, or an interface. At first, I wondered how I could possibly photograph such a thing, but after a walk with my dad, I found it was more common then I thought.

These interfaces were everywhere. I visited the High School and I examined the road that leads off from the side of the back parking lot. The road was like a portal, leading from the school straight to an area filled with houses. I photographed these situations, where it seemed like you're in one world, but then suddenly you enter another. Examining my surroundings in this way makes it seem like I can teleport, almost like I'm not even on earth, but in a mythical place. It's quite interesting.

Inside vs. Outside

Nature vs. Man-made

The Beginning of Life vs. The End

Land vs. Residental

Commercial vs. Residential

Baskin Robbins vs. Dunkin Donuts

Land vs. Water

Land vs. Residental

Ground vs. Underground

Nature vs. Man

Post #3

Opinions on The Village

It's been quite an interesting week. The game is finally over, and I no longer have to hide in paranoia. Nobody's going to kill me now.

I don't think the game went quite as planned though. In the very beginning we were barely able to get our teams together (it took about 2 days), and in the end, everyone was bombing each other's school bags, chasing each other around the room, and faking kills. How did it get to that point?

I think one of the biggest flaws in the game was the fact that their wasn't a particularly clear end goal or purpose. Sure, we had the puzzle to solve, but other than that, what were we supposed to do? The other things left were finding out all the members on another team and killing them. It just became a game of murder until the last man standing.

Sure, it is fun to kill people, but if everyone's just killing then the game will end almost instantly (like it did on Friday). If there's nobody left, then the game can't go on. In addition, if the goal is to kill everyone, nobody's going to take the time to think of a clever kill. They're just going to want to get the kill done with and win the game.

Maybe if we were given an end goal, the game would've turned out better. Unless the purpose is to just kill people. In that case the game came out fine.

The Clutter Cronicle: A Psychogeography Project

In my psychogeographic quest, I have decided to analyze some of the clutter in my house, probably the biggest hinderence in my enviornment.

When you look at these pictures, I want you to keep in mind. This is what my house looks like on a regular daily basis. My family's not moving, or cleaning any areas out, or organizing. For as long as I can remember, it's been like this. Stuff, just piled all over the place with no end. For those who's never lived in a house with hoarders, it's hard to understand the story behind it. It just seems like junk, but in reality there's so much more. I can think of so many times when I was a child when I lost things that were precious to me, like my favorite toys, parts of craft kits, just disappearing out of nowhere into the piles, never to be seen again. As an energetic kid I would run around my house. That is until I'd trip over a random box and fall onto the floor and injure myself.

You know the mess is really bad though when your dad is sneaking out late at night with a garbage bag right before the truck comes because he knows that if he leaves it out even a day before, you mom will try to delve into the bags and retrieve the stuff that he threw away. At least thats what my dad used to do, before he would just throw even more stuff away when my mom did that so she couldn't keep up. I know that parents argue quite a lot, but I'm pretty sure that's a lot more aggressive than what's healthy.

In my photos, I demonstrated this paranoia often by viewing one or few objects close up (in the rule of thirds of course), showing individual clutter, and then showing how all this individual stuff piles up as the background. This shows how a lot of small objects can end up making a huge difference, in a negative way.

I hope you guys enjoy my project.

Post #2

More Prisoner, Poem Time, and STAC Art

You know I thought I was understanding what was going on in The Prisoner. Of course I was wrong, because nobody can ever understand what's going on in The Prisoner. This week's episode: A new resident joins the village (another resigned agent) and she and Number 6 once again attempt escape.

The thing is though, in the village, everything's a circle. When you try to leave, you end up circling right back around again. I'd have to say the moment he opened the doors of the spy office to discover he was really just back in The Village was true hysteria. It's like the village is clinging to him; you think you're out, but you just end up right back where you were again, like a never-ending nightmare.

Another thing I noticed, you always seem to see the same 2 residents over and over again. One of them had a white and orange striped shirt, and I don't particularly remember the other one but I know that they were shorter. Number 6 would see them when he started walking, and then when he was at the end of the street, they would just appear again out of nowhere. It's like the circle, they just come right back around again.

Enough about the prisoner. It's Pantoum time! The Pantoum poem pretty much writes itself, by repeating 2 of the lines you wrote into the next stanza, and then taking those 2 new lines and putting them into the next stanza. I think this poetry form is sort of like Madlibs. The way that the lines are shifted and randomly put together, you're never really sure of how it's going to sound in the end until you read it all, and it usually ends up pretty random. It's so much fun!

I was finally introduced to the STAC t-shirts, a huge tradition. A lot of those t-shirts I would've worn myself, even though I wasn't in STAC the year they came out for. Personally I kind of liked the charactertures (sorry Luke). I can't wait for this year's t-shirt!

Post #1

I begin this blog, we watch The Prisoner, and tracing some pictures

And so it finally begins. I walk in the STAC classroom and I don't quite know what to expect. What I do see though is everyone rocking out to Ballroom Blitz. I'm optimistic for this class. I know that it won't be like any other.

First we watch a show called The Prisoner. In my opinion, it was quite clever, and creative to the extent where it became completely random. At first it seemed simple: A spy who resigns is kidnapped and taken to a small town with no escape as he is questioned about the reason for his resignation. Then it starts getting weird. For example, some man screams something on a megaphone and everyone suddenly stops in place. A large white bubble comes and it seems like he attempts to eat somebody. I'm still trying to figure out who this bubble is and why he attacks random people. 

There's also a lot of symbolism. The main character is given a number (number 6) and is only referred to by his number, not his name. This seems to imply that they view the citizens as objects and not people. Also, if you listened carefully, the citizens always said "Be seeing ya", which implies that being stuck together, they see enough of each other they don't even need to say goodbye. I can't wait too see more episodes.

The next day (being today) we learned the art technique, a little thing called copying. I have learned that there is no cheating in art. We live to get as much money as we can, to survive. Artists have always copied little things from other artist. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, they all did it. If they can do it we can too. This makes me more optimistic about making art, considering the fact that I not the best drawer. So with the help of pencil, a ballpoint pen, a picture of Lotte Lenya, and some watercolors, I created art. I feel accomplished!

By the way Luke, I agree. I don't understand how cigarettes could ever have been attractive.