http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/ I wasn't sure how to upload individual photos, so I encourage you to look through all of this stuff- really intersting. The one of the doctor in her commisson section really gets to me.
These photos are extremely intense to me. They make me nervous, a little bit. I would like to continue my thoughts about space. I cannot take credit for finding these photos on my own, but I spent a long while looking through her whole website and found some pretty intersting stuff. Combination of too much coffee and inspiration caused my thoughts about my concept to come in waterfall mode tonight. I apologize if this is slightly jumbled.
Space limits us. Quite an obvious comment. But the space we are in, the space we interact in, limits to how we interact with ourselves and eachother. For example, since we were little we have been placed in specific areas to conduct specific behaviors. Going off Chris' comment about classrooms: they are meant to be an inviting area, but everyday of the week I feel intimdated and slightly hindered because I'm uncomfortable expressing myself to others in the classroom environment. The apartment building I live in looks and often feels like I'm locking myself up. That is an intersting concept in itself: people are so paranoid of outside invaders that they lock themselves in a room. I understand safety, I just think it's slightly odd that we take those sort of measures to ensure that we are "safe." The literal walls that surround us become physical/emotional barriers of how we interact with our environment. We are taught to interact with the kitchen in a specific way, the bathroom in a specific way, the classroom in a specific way, and everywhere we are. I am fascinated with the idea of disconnect. I think that our abilities to connect with one another become limited due to our environments and the way we are expected to act within them. How would a completely outdoor community act differently? Where there are no walls.
This is why I am so intrigued by prisons. This is a space meant to hinder the people inside. Their interactions become limited and they are expected to act in a certain way within that environment. I know that I am so obsessive with posessions that having them around me makes me really comfortable. I am much more comfortable when I can personalize and organize my space/environment. But can you come to realize that a plain white wall can be just as beautiful as a highly decorated wall? Or do we need those things to feel comfortable? Or can a plain white wall BE just as beautiful as a colored/decorated one? Is there something beautiful about being able to decorate a wall of your own?
How do we define freedom? Is this something strictly related to physical space? Is it the ability to personalize and express yourself freely in a space? I wonder if the incarcerated can feel free at all. I know that I get depressed quickly in a blank room, with minimal posessions. I think that if you are in a space for a certain amount of time, you become numb to what is around you and the way you are interacting in that space. Ignorance is bliss? Are the incarcerated more free than the general public? Weighed down by our posessions, do we actually experience our spaces or only interact numbly?
My biggest question is how the incarcerated interact with their space. How do they view the space they are in. Is this truly any different than the spaces that we, as students/society willingly place ourself in daily? Are the incarcerated numb and accepting of the space they inhibit? The thought of taking away every posession and placing a person in an uncomfortable space is meant to be punishment. I want to talk to as many people as I can. I desire to know why they interact the way they do and how they feel about their spaces. I feel so weird speaking about space, because I have dualing desires about how I wish to interact with my space. I love decorating and making an apartment the way I want it to be. But I also want to be able to pack backpack and go wherever the world leads me (there is something truly magical about travelling!). The closest feeling of freedom happened to me in Ireland. I would say it is being able to close my eyes, breathe in the salty, windy ocean air, feel the warmth of sunlight on my face, and feel like my spirit is connected to the world and others, in shear appreciation of my life, finally feeling at home; posessionless. What is your freedom?
February 3, 2010
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2 comments:
I am most of the time VERY intrigued by your questions, Jacki. I think you draw on such a interesting topic and such a large problem in our society. I think, in response to your question that we limit ourselves SO much. Like, I might (if I could) rather pick an apartment that I could paint and pay a higher rent, then a place I wasn't allowed to nail things in the wall or couldn't paint either. This is YOUR space, this is how you are supposed to make it. I think the ability to see the world, or to travel is allowing you to bring back pieces of yourself, just from different spaces. Broadening your knowledge of the world, I think changes the way you look at your personal space. I am sure if you went to France after decorating your room in WI, you would want to come back and add a bit of that place to, what is already your place of security and safeness.
Freedom is such a hard thing to come by, because we are so bogged down by everything around us. We have cell phones, email, bills to pay etc...No wonder our world is ADD, and we are giving out pills to solve it. How can we NOT be ADD?! We are required to do multiple things that we just have enough time in the day to accomplish, and so we aren't allowed, or we don't choose to allow that bit of freedom into our lives. My freedom is being able to comfortably sit an read a book, or go camping for the weekend, without my technology following. I am required to do nothing besides exist, and then I choose what to continue to make my freedom. Writing letters to those I love, because the written letter is such a large part of our communication. It speaks through not only words, but a physical part of us. We touched the paper, we smudged the pencil markings. The pencil markings have made their way to our faces...Then it is going, a piece of us, to those that mean the most to us. That is how I see "my" freedom. To just be able to be, and to exist on no one else's level, but my own.
Good post...
Awesome! I can tell that you pour a lot of emotion into what you write, or type, for that matter. I thinking some of the same things as I am hoping to say. I agree with you that writing becomes a part of us, and that is one of the most beautiful things about sending a letter. The person who received the letter can see exactly how your hand was moving, and how your words were connected to your body. This is why I enjoy writing letters also. I think that there is a general disconnect between people, despite our overconnectedness with each other. But there is something so much more precious about receiving something in the mail. I think it shows effort.
The more I think about spaces, the more it intrigues me. I like your comments.
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