work desk

I didn’t have any appetite for five days since arrival. Finally got it back yesterday. It’s funny how my initial sentiment of Athens resounds with loneliness, I think it has something to do with traveling. At least it will help with one of the projects I plan to work during my time here. Taking photos makes me feel a lot better about being here for the next two months. Returning to Athens makes me long to see Istanbul again, I plan to intern there after this scholarship is over.

Also upon my return to Athens, I realized I need to pursue film in any way possible, that above all else it is my true/inherent interest behind every other hobby/pleasure I have. Everything I know about can be funneled into filmmaking – in/with/behind the camera.

I finished the first book in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, Justine. Now I’m reading the Odyssey. Seems appropriate to read in Greece, I might even get the chance to take a road trip to the Peloponnese and see Ithaca (Odysseus’ homeland).

Sketching some ideas for films/projects…

view from my apartment, mt. lykavettus in bkg

chicken gyro

souvlaki hut

souvlaki face

neon

Some samples of a final design. I used an elegant but simple border to house the image and added some adjustments to help place it into the rest of the map.

In other news, I’ve decided to use actual hands to write the journal entries. Better yet, I am having my friend write the one journal (chester girard) and I will write the journal of Bobby Chartreuse. This also means I will be making only one (possibly two) copies. I’m happy with this decision because it elevates the piece to something that is ephemeral and unique. Not only are the aesthetics improving, but also the semantic meaning, with the text being written onto the “urban fabric.”

I will post some samples soon.

In these past few days I feel as though I’ve been merely pantomiming the steps one takes to complete a long-term project such as this. As I attempt to clarify and refine some of these so-called “final touches,” I am constantly feeling as though I am polishing an ugly pathetic little turd. This metaphor is not the best as it might imply that I detest everything about my project. The truth is that I don’t hate it and that I am ardently passionate about the subject matter and the majority of the content I have produced so far. Going back to the metaphor, I believe that hidden inside this turd is a beautiful jewel. Instead of polishing the dark matter covering the jewel, I must remove this veil of feces to return my project to the shining pearl that it is partially and conceptually.

The tough part is that I am only now discovering how far out of hand my project has drifted, and I have roughly five days to bring back on track. I don’t want it to appear as though I haven’t  been reiterating and redesigning this project all along. Looking back on the progress I’ve made so far, I see each major accomplishment as another addition to something that has grown to a heaping pile. Whenever I did expand or alter something, I didn’t do enough editing to remove the residual mess of what I was trying to replace or modify, thus, the project has grown to something much larger and ambiguous than I ever expected.

I believe the skeleton of my project is venerable and hardy, but as it stands now, with so much packed into it, all the best parts are being disguised by a hazy peripheral of blandness. My discovery of this came after trying to explain each part of my project to someone after they used a test copy. This was also a great test of what I am to expect when I have the critique after the exhibition. When I was justifying each part of the map, the user could start to see the concept I am attempting to convey, but was confused by everything else which surrounds it. Once again, I am encountering the problem of over-complexity.

There are also other parts that I can’t seem to justify, such as the background of the map. I am at a loss as to what I want it to be and how it currently stands. On top of this, it isn’t very aesthetically pleasing either. I can go on about all the faults I see, but there is not enough time. Rather, I am going to focus on what I (and others) find to be the best parts of my project and elevate/expand them to a higher level. I’ve found that the design of my map is much more than a little off, and is deceiving the visceral quality to the piece. A redesign is needed.

Tonight and into tomorrow, I’m going to start anew with my map. This sounds a bit crazy but I am more just going to try and work with a entirely different design. The content will still be the same, and I am sticking with the same type of folded shape, the layout will undergo a change.

I hope to have something to show tomorrow and hopefully it will look better.

Some samples of a new direction for the rear (opposite) side of the map. This is the section where the two characters break from the grid. That’s all she wrote.

The journals are used to reflect on two important epochs in the history of constructing Philadelphia. Chester Girard comments on the early planning of the city, noting the demolition of certain geographic elements such as Dock Creek and the waterfront. Struck with a midlife crisis, Bobby Chartreuse emerges just as major planning in and outside of the city is taking place, where he finds the imposing order of the grid being used to control and dissipate the public consciousness. The manifesto section acts as a sort of narrator and director of the journals by discussing the perils of grid planning in a more theoretical and hostile manner.

The intention of the map is to impart to the reader a heightened sense of how the daily experience of the urban dweller is an act of submission to the city structure. Simultaneously, the map evidently encourages readers to reconsider their regular walking life and step beyond the grid.