So this one was fun, but I definitely didn’t go with my initial ideas…. I have been looking into pre-colonial practices and ways of knowing from the Netherlands, Scotland, and Ireland, and I keep bumping into the notion of tree beings, invisible people, gnomes, or tree spirits. It’s something I always believed as a kid, and I thought I was appropriating it from Icelandic culture, but it turns out there are similar beliefs all over Europe. So I thought I would make a film about that, still might, and definitely wish I had, but time pressures hit and I shifted into something a slightly more concrete. Instead I explored the idea of what my design practice might look like after I am done the masters program at Emily Carr, using the sketches as a speculative fiction, hoping to better understand what I am practicing for.
I started by reviewing the work I had already done in previous actions, and then pulled out a few threads I wanted to keep exploring. I got the final idea when I went back and re-read the PDF on Ways of Making from our course resources. I was struck by how forceful the definitions were. I was reading the colonial nightmare: coerce, compel, force, prevail, strong-arm. So I started making an alternate list that answered the question, what is a designer’s work if they are not making new things. Then for the sketch, I chose a few to illustrate and put together a shoot, my kind sibling mustered up their high school drama training and deserves much credit for playing the role of design client in my imaginary, futuristic, plural-versal, one-stop, design shop. aka. the 4′ x 6′ space between shelves in the living room, that is my classroom, gym, office, dance studio, library, art/design studio, which I am also sharing with the loveable kitten Nomi, and approx. 26 houseplants.
The second video I tried based off some feedback I received from Zach about exploring how I might define ritual. Originally I wanted to show several rituals, but in a way where you could see what was common, and what was unique to each of them. In the end I choose the disco workout. Mostly because I had to embed so much ritual into it, to create the motivation to shift my behavior towards being a person who works out in a steady kind of way, instead of my preferred states of either doing a lot of a physically strenuous activity, or moving very little, staying cozy, comfy and close to home. This was also an nice build off ACTION 2 – where I show both my lazy and active side through my oatmeal routine, and where I first started to realize there was a ritual aspect to my approach. Zach had also said something that stuck in my mind, that maybe I didn’t have to focus on creating a product with my explorations, but that I could focus on creating experiences for people. I guess that is something to keep in mind for future actions, how can I create actions for others to enact, and is that something I want to do, given that I want to be exploring power dynamics in participation.
When I started exploring rituals I did notice some particulars that were in all of them. For example, I usually had a type of clothes I would wear that was suitable for the routine – workout clothes for sweat, loose drapey old clothes for gardening that didn’t matter if they got dirty, kept the sun off my shoulders and included a belt for holding tools. There was an element of external cueing I would use to start the action – timer for the lights shuts off indicating bedtime routine. Bill’s March birthday indicating planting time. My October birthday initiating the closing of the garden and the bringing in of houseplants. There was a seasonal element, a knowledge of the indicators from other plants and animals, forsythia are blooming, put out the mason bee cocoons, the countdown till august when the bindweed really takes off, unless I pull all spring, then it never gets too crazy. Or how to extend the weeding season of the buttercups by ripping off all the flower heads every few days, giving me enough time to dig them out by the roots before they spill seeds everywhere making my entire weeding effort moot by the following year. There is also the kitten factor – Nomi initiates most morning routines with first a cuddle, but when that’s over for her a scream in my face, not because she wants food, but because she wants to ensure I will get up and walk her out of the room, and if I go back to bed she will return an hour later to scream again until we have kitty playtime before morning class!
Finally, I wanted to include here a bit about the soundtracks for my videos, they are both by the artist Sylvester, a gender-fluid, black man, immersed in San Francisco’s queer nightlife scene. Sylvester’s music is for celebration and is a tonic for trauma and dark days. So dig in and enjoy.
Thank you Sylvester. So grateful for the music you put into the world.