Exploration #2 and #3

Sorry I've been short on blogging, I was sick over the weekend. How annoying. At any rate, here are the next two explorations I gave my class to do. Most of them hated #2, because apparently picking stuff up off the ground is gross but a few of them were really into it. I guess it takes all types.

Exploration #2: Daily Walk
Collect objects as you walk around campus, down town, the park, or anywhere else your daily travels take you. Look for things as you walk your dog. If you don’t go for many walks, get out there and explore! Take a walk someplace you’ve never been. Look for small changes in the paths you tread everyday. As you walk, pick up objects you find interesting. These could be leaves, seeds, scraps of metal or plastic, dead bugs or whatever YOU find interesting. Collect 30 objects, and bring them to class next week. We will be using these for a future exercise.
Alternative: If you have access to a digital camera, you may also take pictures of things you find interesting, but can’t physically bring to class, along with your actual objects. Examples of this would be patterns, or bits of architecture. If you chose to do this, you may have no more than 15 pictures as part of your collection of 30 objects.

Exploration #3: One Thing
Select an everyday object. This can be an object you found for Exploration #2 or another object that you have. Look at the top half for fifteen minutes and record everything you see there in detail. Then do the same for the bottom half. The longer you look, the more you will see.

“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
~John Cage

Keri Smith also has another book that just came out: This is Not a Book. It's more like a 2nd Wreck this Journal as opposed to the Explorer of the World book. I recommend that you check it out.

Explorations

I've been giving my Design I class an assignment from How to be an Explorer of the World by Keri Smith each week. I thought I would post them here in case anyone is interested in them. I also try to include the quote from the book that goes along with the exercise. Here's the first:

Exploration #1 Right Where You Are Sitting

On a separate sheet of paper, write or type ten things about where you are sitting that you hadn’t noticed when you sat down. Use your senses. Do it quickly. Dot not censor. If you think something you notice is silly or dumb or not worth mentioning, WRITE IT DOWN ANYWAYS. Do this for five different locations.

“The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something, because it is always before one’s eyes.” ~Ludwig Witgenstein

Quote of the Week

"My dream is to walk around the world. A smallish backpack, all essentials neatly in place. A camera. A notebook. A traveling paint set. A hat. Good shoes. I don't want to trudge up insane mountains or through war-torn lands, just a nice stroll through hill and dale. But now I walk everywhere in the city. Any city. You see everything you need for a lifetime."
~Maira Kalman