It is always very frustrating when something doesn't come together as easily as you would like them to. This is ESPECIALLY true for this. I thought that eventually some great idea would come to me! But, unfortunately, it has not. This makes me question the reasons why I even decided to choose this direction.
So why did I choose it? Because I was interested in the mechanics of the mailbox. I like the look, I like the way it opens. I think it would be great as an object to interact with as an installation. But this doesn't give me a good concept, which is important in art, unfortunately.
I originally proposed an idea to bring the apartment community together. We all live together in these cookie-cutter apartments, side by side with other people, generally the same age (at least in this college town). We share walls, and sometimes even can hear evidence of life through the walls. You are constantly being made aware that you are not isolated.
However, we are all striving toward a similar goal. We are all after the "American Dream" - house with a lawn and a white picket fence (see David's project!). These houses that we are striving for are much more isolated. You do not share walls with neighbors.
Even the mailboxes are different, and often reflect the living situation. The mailboxes in apartments are sharing "walls". They look exactly the same, just like the apartments. Individual homes, however, have individual mailboxes, separate from their neighbors, which they can customize to look however they want.
This is why I want to combine the two. It would be referencing the future, or at least the ultimate goal, for a majority of the people in the complex. But the house mailboxes would be confined in the same way the apartment mailbox is. And they would be sharing "walls".
So I guess I have begun to stray from the directly communal and interactive piece I had originally intended it to be. I want to set up the mailbox next to the official apartment mailboxes, so that the piece would be visible once people went to retrieve their mail. The installation would be activated with either motion sensors or pressure sensors on the ground. The sounds coming out of the mailboxes would tempt the person to open it and see what was inside. There would be video reiterating my concept.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Look
I am also considering using silver spray paint to coat the outside of the wood and mailboxes. This will give the illusion of metal (like the apartment-style mailboxes).
Revisions
The proposal went over pretty well... the general consensus is that there is a lot of potential. Though I was hoping to get a more solidified idea. The main change that came out of the proposal was the redesign. Originally I had pictured a row of household mailboxes that would be interactive. But Wes mentioned stacking them on top of each other. This allowed me to think about combining apartment-style mailboxes with household mailboxes. I am still searching for the ultimate implications of these ideas. It may lead me away from the original community-interactivity I was originally going for, and maybe the installation will be triggered by range sensors. I am (unfortunately) still working on this...
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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