For my "earthing"

"Earthing" Exercise

My "earthing" exercise was designed to minimize elements of my existing practice. Given verbs were separated into two groups. One was an 'action' category and one was a 'thing' category. These were placed into numbered lists. Three darts were shot from a blow gun into a piece of wood. After the first shot, distance was increased to increase indeterminacy. XY coordinates of each shot were measured with an engineer's scale using the lower right hand corner of the wood as 0,0. Scales for each axis were chosen specifically so that the range of units existent on the piece of wood was roughly analogous to the number of entries in each list ('action' and 'thing' respectively). Each set of coordinates was corroborated with word from the lists generating these pairings. 

20,7 

20- individuate

7- break

31, 7

31- fall

7- break

33, 13 (no 13, value for 11 used instead)

33- vary, kciking, , self-centering*

13- cadence"

*note that during copy and paste operation these ended up as one entry. In keeping with the theme of indeterminacy all three were kept as one coordinate point.

As I looked at these combinations I came up with several ideas but these were all related to current notions of my practice. The closest I came to any sort of idea was in the fall and break category; I thought about break dancing. The others were baffling or led me back to things I already did. For instance, the third combination would easily get me back to playing the drums. I decided that since I could not, as the assignment asked, forget who I was or what I did, I would follow Iain's advice and ask a stranger. I found a scrap of paper in the recycling and ripped it into a few pieces. I ended up with four; again I was trying to remove my bias here, so I tried not to have intentions in the number of slips I ended up with. On these four slips of paper I wrote pairings of words. 'Break' and 'fall' went on one. Note I reversed the order that they came up. This was because the combination, 'fall break' seemed to me too loaded for those that I would be asking. Although this was decidedly a conscious and contrived decision, it was done with the intent of getting further from known territory. 'Individuate,' and 'break' went on the next slip. Finally for my last pairing, that featured multiple words for its X value, I scribed on the remaining two slips the words, 'kicking, cadence' and 'self-centering, cadence.' I did not give much thought to the words.

I walked around and asked for help from people on campus. For each I generally explained my goal then had the person pick a slip from my hand without being able to see what was written. Participants then read the words and I asked them what kind of art they thought should be made about the words on the slip. I intentionally picked people in locations where I would not expect to find art students. I did this specifically to distance myself from notions of art present in my life. I asked roughly nine people. Most suggestions tended towards visual art; people described imagery representing associations with these words. For the pair, "self-centering, cadence," one person suggested a mobile with a number of fragments arranged like 'exploded views' of the human body she had seen at the 'body worlds' exhibit. For, 'Kicking, Cadence' another mentioned the idea of a veteran with one leg. Another person said something that I interpreted as pieces falling away from some material to reveal a form within. Finally in the last group of people I queried a girl chose a slip bearing the words, 'break, fall.' She said that she wanted to say 'tree' but that was something she always defaulted to. I thanked her and explained that her response was good because it was hers and it helped me get past my own defaults. She similarly suggested the notion of waves  breaking for the word 'break.' I was delighted, as this was an association to which I had been totally blinded (before asking other people I was thinking about break dancing or breaking physical objects). As these suggestions were visual in nature, and because I couldn't  sculpt them in an hour, I decided that I would sketch them out. This also keeps with the theme of forgetting one's practice as drawing is not a medium I would have otherwise used for this assignment.  

My favorite part of the assignment however occurred with the first person I asked. She was a girl at the information desk in the Union. The slip she drew bore the words, 'individuate, break." She told me she did not know what 'individuate' meant but that she thought of an ice-breaker. This was perfect! The excercise was in fact an ice breaker. I have long been bothered by my inability to talk with strangers. When I was younger I used to use a nicotine addiction as a means to converse with strangers but cigarettes are problematic in their own ways. I have noticed that often without some kind of premise, interaction with strangers is often awkward. By introducing the notion of 'art' and 'homework' I was able to have comfortable and friendly conversations. This technique appears useful for social artistic practices. 

"Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler"