daily notes, summer 2013

8/22/2019 daily notes, summer 2013

1/20

DAILYNOTES

SUMMER

2013JULIAWARNER


2/20

FRIDAY-SUNDAY JUNE21-23.project proposal

WHAT: investigating the possibility of living in los angeles, explor-ing un-used space, possible structures, mobility and tools for surviv-al are important in living outside of the system. the use of camou-

flage as reflection of hiding within urban context. objects includetemporary and mobile shelters/ structures, possibilities of growing /hunting /dumpstering / cooking food, utility clothing and fabrics forheat, warmth, breathability, cleanliness, utility modules for storage,sleeping, trash disposal, human waste management. use of mate-rials in creating everyday tools + spaces - clothing, food, shelter --use of reclaimed materials in self-sufficient ways. primary interestis to learn how to make things by hand, from scratch, concernedwith lack of connection with the objects we surround ourselves with- and the kinds of spaces this lack of connection creates. i hopeto create a space with a sense of empowerment and educationaltools so that others may feel empowered to learn about the sourceof their own products that they use and develop a deeper connec-tion with objects they interact with on a daily basis.WHO: people who are interested in becoming part of my collab-

orative circle. people who are interested either in trading or usingthese products/ reserach/ info. or people who are interested incollaborating in other contexts, i hope to make connections withothers who work in this way, and to collaborate in making togeth-er, creating spaces together. people of any background, who areinterested in collaborating closely, working on a larger scale than iam able to do alone, in creating physical manifestations of theseprototypes, these communities, these spaces. young - middle agedconsumers + working class of los angeles who feel time + moneypressures, working a job and having no time/ money/ energy foranything else.WHERE: the project will reside both online and in my workingspace. as a form of experimentation and documentation, allarchives will live online, while the physical work will result in an

installation for august. and hopefully other installation situations inother contexts as the work progresses + changes. objects will livein specific places based on function. ideally in an accessible areaof the city, on a location, based on the place and the communitythat accesses it/ community center system/ library/ shared toolsWHEN: summer: section for reserach, create resource guide/ bookwith explanations, info, research about these topics as well as a setof prototypes / installation/ creation of a space.HOW: experiment with various materials that can be reclaimedsuch as wood, metal, paper ,paint, ink, fabric, etc. using recycledmaterial. using approaches that are widely accessible such assewing by hand, cheap ways of printing/ binding/ using materialsthat are accessible, documenting diligently so others may try thesame or learn from mistakes, making with a sense of freedom andpersonal interest, to allow collaborators to come forth , focusing on

processes that are associated with self-sufficiency or homestead-ing in a modern/ urban context, heavy emphasis on fabrics andmethods for salvaging fabric/ reusing fabricCREATIVE LANDSCAPE:Institute of Domestic Technology, 2011swoon - haiti/ new orleans music house/ switchback seafoxfire bookscraftsmen of necessityshelter bookbragg's productsbronner's magic soapgreen hornsopen source ecologyany homesteading books/ series

monica cca - fabric pieces, visual languagepenland/ campbell/ haystack/ craft schoolsmicrobreweries, microfood anything, made in LA/ USAslow food movementghandi - spinning wheel, swadeshiglobal village, mcluhanbuckminster fullerivan illich notion of web of educationarchigram - moving city, connected nodes (villages)guatemalan women weaving collectivetetrashed

whole earth cataloguebioquip - flower pressron finley - LA green groundsspark - the moviewendell berry/ neo-ludditesadam curtis all watched over by machines of loving gracesnb recording studiocane's arcadenames project AIDS quiltanarchist libraries/ bookstoressquatsgreen hornsopen source ecologyWWOOF

free skoolswoon music housesubrosa corner in santa cruz (coffee shop, internet, bike church,fabrica)kopi squat - berlin (bike shop, bar, venue, garden, etc)

NOTES:--> trading system [economic], inclusion/ participation, education,information [research/ publication], channel for other texts, collec-tion of used pieces, trash, found objects, re-use of valuable objectsvaluable fabrics from goodwill, etc.-- visual languages which absorb all other languages, absorptionas new visual language, shingling, adding onto, as a kind of buildingstructural system + metaphor for social/ economic systems over-coming capital (post-capital)

-- absorption and overlaying as methods for fabric/ textiles-- hand-sewing// slow fabrics// slow construction// slow food// slowvillage-- slowness as metaphor for a new kind of city where time is ab-sorbed into broader goals of happiness, high-quality and consciousproductivity, mindfulness, and attention toward material, away fromspeed/ convenience/ low cost/ quick solutions.-- dirt/ seedlings growing from seed-- hand-built structures-- screenprinted fabric-- hand-woven fabrics-- spinning wheel, yarn from wool-- paper making!!!!! take paper scraps + gel medium + screen + rolin press (elle)

-- typewriting-- hand-painted signs-- away from electricity, away from shipped goods, look into localsourcing of material/ reusing local trash--> means of production - walter benjamin

strengths + concerns to address-craft, hand skill, patience, passion for high quality hand madeobjects-too broad, hope to refine idea while expand methods of experi-mentation.-concerned about being true to personal interests, hope to pursueareas of the project which offer real inspiration to me personally-hope to find a rhythm of working which can continue far beyond


3/20

school

overall interests: local production + distribution, craftsmanship, fab-ric, printmaking, gardening, food, homesteading, self-sufficiency asa model, community centers which engage urban dwellers, autono-my, autonomous zones,

WHY?what purpose to what endprojects that failto give people a sense of autonomy within a city that is particularly

dominated by commercial space, imagery, and advertising.also re-defining the perception of 'contribution to society'

grammarly.com/blog/edugrammarly.com/eduuse @student.otis.edum-f, 8-4:30 pm/ [email protected]

international art english, triple canopy, obfuscatemonday june 24 - /20/20/ final project worksheet 11:30email changes by noon thursdaysresearch: lexisnexusthesis appears anywhere in introduction

thesis = observation + opinion, economy of wordscritically address shortcomings of evidence 1. historical perspec-tive, 2. negative example, 3. this is good positiveeach chapter structures similar to essay - little intro/ little thesis/evidence/ conclusionevidence or counter-evidence -- project as case-study, failure, etcconclusion postulates further exploration/ develops new thesis/conclusion statement leads to further research

email librarian: lapl.org/about-lapl/contact-us/infonow-e-mail-infor-mation-service

5 annotated biblio entries

1. wendell berry - lecture, it all turns on affection

Wendell Berry presents his own family history, and hisreasons for returning to his family farm, in Henry County, Kentucky.He outlines the monopoly of the American Tobacco Company andits role in creating economic hardship for smaller farms throughoutthe region in the early 1900s. He describes the difference between'boomers' and 'stickers' and also between different attitudes, anddifferent ways of doing business. With a focus on financial opera-tion, and the morality within ways of creating a lifestyle for oneself,berry's professional career with this lecture and many other writingshas focused on the value of small communities, small economies,and the danger of being a boomer -- those who pillage and run,who want to make a killing and end up on Easy Street, and whichhe claims "names a kind of person and a kind of ambition that isthe major theme, so far, of the history of the European races in

our country." He seamlessly weaves personal stories with largersocial concerns. His connection to his family and the history that heknows is largely based on land, the interpersonal relationships hehas formed because of the land that he has inherited through manygenerations, and the life that he has because of it. Berry doesn'tshy away from moral judgement, determing which kind of man herespects more, and how that is connected to the way they live, andhow they do business. The point of this particular lecture is aboutaffection and money, how they are often opposed, and how theyare connected. It is related to my interest in ways of living, socialrelationships, and the kinds of communities in urban areas vs. ruralareas. Of course both have their ups and downs, but Berry makesa strong and well-founded case for the importance of balance inlife, and not forgetting the importance of family, the history of a

community in a particular place, and the benefit of a local econom-ic tradition which is based on proactive engagement, production,resiliency, and pride.

2. self-reliance, by ralph waldo emerson

3. the homestead act of 1862The text is written almost like an advertisement, 2 pages

long, open to anyone who is the head of the family, and hasn'tborne arms against the US government or given aid and comfortto its enemies. This text presents an ideal of the 'homestead' as it

was seen in 1862, with the subheading: "an act to secure home-steads to actual settlers on the public domain". It presents an ideaof home, family and the public domain, before the full-fledged de-velopment of industrial-style factories, corporate domination of public space, and car-centric urban structures in america. As I intendto trace the history of the homestead, and the meaning of homein America throughout the last century and a half, this documentshows a window into the past, a different dialect of political speak,and a more positive outlook on the contribution of 'settlers' to ourland. At a time when the majority of the american population wereimmigrants, this document reveals a different kind of country, opento contribution and occupation, with members of society looking fora place to create their own world, separate from the taxes . Theact of building up a society is very different than keeping it closed

off to more incomers, and I'm interested in this challenge to upkeepthe freedom and spirit of america's founding, while the governmentdeals with issues of filling up, loss of jobs, and global economicfailures. returning to founding documents is one method of rediscovering the kind of language, policies, and rules which allowed peoplefrom so many different backgrounds to come and feel ownership ofnew land and new lives.

4. luddite history

5. The Case Against the Global Economy - and for a turn towardthe local, chapter title: Gandhi's Swadeshi - The Economics ofPermanence) by Satish Kumar

This text outlines Ghandi's role in the endings of Britishcolonialism in India as just one small part of his larger agenda to

empower the local villages of india, which he saw as the true India,and key to long-term survival. The text describes an economic vi-sion which entails local produce being traded within the community,and larger or farther distance exchanges made only when neces-sary and much less often. It addresses the idea of home as thecommunity, where members provide for one another, as opposed tocompetitive businesses resorting to cheap practices and control.*glossary/ taxonomy/ word redefinitions? (autonomy, economy)

prelim thesis

the idea of homesteading is now a privileged idea,??objects / places instilled with work of the hand, time / history, and

specificity to the place create a sense of autonomy, resilience, andmeaning within dense urban areas (which are dominated by corpo-rate and prefabricated objects / places). importance of slowness/ patience, personal relationships, and trust are essential in thecreation of a functioning communityobservation = obvious, opinion = more subjective, self-governing,desire, convenience

thesis: consumerism in los angeles is based on a culture of depen-dency. in the city with no center, or the "nowhere city" (cite), the ideaof home is a complex topic; with x number of districts and x numberof suburbs, a sense of community lies hidden within the abstractthoughts of each individual, or the daily routines of hundreds ofdrivers, sharing moments on their commute. in the face of depen-


4/20

dency on cars, iphones, and coffee stops, which characterizes thesingle most shared experience of los angeles, independency fromthese architectural and object-forms becomes an act of defiancewithin commercial spaces. the retreat from the cell phone, therefusal to drive a car, the avoidance of shopping centers, andeven the tendency toward natural environments becomes an act ofretreat to the point of absurdity. there is a prescribed use for everysingle space within the boundaries of the city, and action outside ofthat prescribed use, no matter how related it might be with surviv-al or peaceful existence, is increasingly perceived to be criminal.homesteading is defined as ...... by wikipedia. the last homestead

was claimed in 1980 in alaska by whatshisname. in contrast tothis ideal of free land as related to the american dream, squattinghas become more and more common since the great recession.the chronological shift from the homesteading act to the develop-ment of squatters rights reflects the increasing criminalization ofself-sufficiency within an urban context.

other thesis option: consumerism in los angeles is based on a cul-ture of dependency. homesteading is independence and defianceamidst the passive acceptance of products which we feel we need.Modern homesteading is what many would call "squatting."

observations:1) LA is defined by culture of consumerism + a dependency on

products: cars, homes, luxury2) homesteading was improving upon unused land and usually in arural setting, can be seen as a political gesture3) today homesteading in LA is what many would call squatting. wecan look at the actions, philosophy, and economics of squatters inLA as a model for a new kind of homesteading --resisting eco-nomic domination, resisting scarcity of food and products, resistingplanned obsolescence

judging projects on locality - how much are materials sourced local-ly, produced locally, and distributed locallyon economic impact/ stability - how does the project effect theeconomic health of the region - is it continuing a larger globaleconomy or a smaller local one? - making the region more self-suf-ficient or more dependent?

on result/ product - does this project address the marginalization ofself-sufficiency in an urban context? in a rural context?

thesis:If we look at the way contemporary homesteading is policed,stereotyped, and marginalized, we can see that self-sufficiency isincreasingly criminalized. there are projects that contest and resistthis to varying degrees of success. (what is becoming criminal-ized? economics of rent/ tax, selling home grown food, meat, $,health, food, health issues) include sentence about observation #3as part of thesis - looking at squatting as a new model for today.today homesteading in LA is what many would call squatting.

we can look at the actions, philosophy, and economics of squatters

in LA as a model for a new kind of homesteading --resisting eco-nomic domination, resisting scarcity of food and products, resistingplanned obsolescence

(policed = squatting// stereotyped = anarchists, communists,hippies, hipsters, home-crafts, jewelry and batique// marginalized =economically dominated)

I. introduce modern homestead -- meant to empower citizens toimprove upon unused land and-history, homesteading act of 1862-politics of squatting, adverse possession requirements, history,difference between europe and US -

Include example of where a squat or homesteading was criminal-ized / marginalized so we have context / something to comparefollowing projects tohttp://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=201102251946

Following: projects support your opinion part of your thesis: modelsof modern homesteading

II. project one: swadeshi/ swaraj, india -- resisting domination andeconomic dependence by british colonists - historical context, mod-el for being self sufficient in a local area - outside of the US

-history, meaning of words, people invovled-locality , strength-economic impact/ stability - communal harmony rather than inde-pendence from britain.-result/ product --historical evidence, success of denying britishcolonialism. legacy of revolution against colonialism, focus on thepolitical struggle, seems to be in the past, while doesnt continueinto prsent

III. project two: open source ecology missouri -- resisting economicdomination by farming technologies - people directly addressing asimilar topic in modern context, open source-locality, not so impactful on surrounding community, not so con-cerned with locality except for home base concept. sourced materi-

als aren't necessarily available ones, end goal great but beginningsout of line with goal-economic impact/ stability. super strength-result/ product, ambitious

IV. project three: LA green grounds, ron finley -- resisting lack ofhealthy food for low income families abandoned spaces, urbanfarming, to promote healthy food-locality -- strength-economic impact/ stability, strength, use of abandoned spaces -strength-result/ product, slow but steady growth, not completely self-suffi-cient, but attempting to begin skills in urban context

V. project four: bike kitchen los angeles community tool shed, shar-

ing physical tools, communal support,-locality-economic impact/ stability-result/product

conclusion

Tools, new tools, Where homesteading will go, strengths and weak-nesses of projects?

PROJECT: speculation about homesteading in a modern urbancontext, improvement of unused land, using available resources,camouflaging from threatening entities, element of hiding, self-suf-ficiency within degraded environment -- combining visual languages

of homesteaders + squatters in creating a new sense of self-suffi-ciency, methods or tools of community building within context of losangeles laws, geography, spaces, and

homesteading is a way of claiming autonomy from a workers per-spective, as working begins to merge with living or simply survivingfrom what is available. redefine verbs of homesteading and workinghomesteading was once a use of unused space, while today, it hastransformed

project: a speculation of what it might be like to 'homestead' in thecity // and to redefine what homesteading means in the context ofmodern times when renting and modern appliances are forced asthe norm in living spaces --> to claim unused land --> criminalized


5/20

--> includes an element of hiding, while also self-sufficiency in anenvironmentally abused area - abandoned spaces in the city

capitalist realism

prelim outline

"Every village community of free India should have its own carpen-ters, shoemakers, potters, builders, mechanics, farmers, engineers,weavers, teachers, bankers, merchants, traders, musicians, artists,and priests. In other words, each village should be a microcosm

of India - a web of loosely inter-connected communities. Gandhiconsidered these villages so important that he thought they shouldbe given the status of "village republics".as the concept of village shifts, there is widening gap between ruraland urban ways of life, as well as the difference in business prac-tices between local and global exchanges. homesteading practiceswithin an urban context is a way of practicing autonomy within aintroA. homestead act vs. squatting rights (trust and openness vs. crimi-nality and litigation)(building up/welcoming vs. keeping out)B. swoon -buildings in haiti based on meetings with peoplewho live there, using materials already thereC. bad example of projects made with ignorance toward place

D. failed communes from 70s - inconsistency, lack of rules

vs. persistence of the amishE. pitfalls of communist/ anarchist political thought andperception of these communities in modern society, seclusion,retreat from societyF. luddites

--- history based in textile workers destroying automatedlooms

--- effects of technology on sense of place, trust, resilien-cy, pride in work

---(effect of gmo crops in india. failure of crops, depen-dency on corporations, or effect of iphones, facebook on personalrelationships)G. open source ecology as sense of autonomy from dependenceon farm technology

- positive use of technology combined with community

empowerment. 3d printing etc.H. swadeshi --- proposal for slow domestic technologies to workagainst colonialism , envisioning of a new local economy--->wendell berry opinions on local economies, creation of commu-nity resilienceI. conclusion(how to create constant sense of building up/ creation/ place mak-ing/ change/ revolution)

** image-making as a reflection of kinds of communities which arein close connection with their immediate surroundings, immediatepopulation,within a speculative new community. the focus would be creating asystem for improving upon unused land, borrowing methods from

'squatting' in order to create more self-reliant systems and com-munities of improving upon unused land and making use of whatwe already have, to overcome stereotypes and to imagine positiveuses for spaces throughout city **

homeboy/homegirl industries

slideshow

frame my work in beginning. how to communicate my own work inthis context.

1. INTRO / WHAT - i want to investigate methods of living self-suf-ficiently in los angeles, explore perceptions around the ideas of

'homesteading' and 'squatting' - how they connect, and test meth-ods of both through a series of prototypes. by drawing connectionsbetween them through methods, economics, and philosophy, myproject will speculate about the role of self-reliance within los an-geles, and implicitly critique the marginalization of self-sufficiencyin urban spaces.--2/ 16. my own work as it relates to self-sufficiency in urbanspaces? newest mudthroat - field guide theme, interest in naturalenvironment and methods for engaging with in local flora + fauna.imagery developed from research into nomadism + smooth space.

2. CONTEXT - classic homesteading picture historical/ homesteadact + pioneers coming to states such as montana, minnesota, etc.the homestead act of 1862 provided that the head of a family orperson who had reached the age of 21 could file on 160 acres ofland. a fee of 18.00 was charged, 14 at time of filing and 4 uponproof. the homesteader had to be on the land and start improve-ments within 6 months from filing date. he had to plow 10 acres intocrops and establish a residence for 5 years.3. CONTEXT - publication that documents california communities+ homes 70s def. of homesteading, like shelter, lloyd khan, ordomebookWheeler's Ranch Open Land community (bill wheeler). Anyone waswelcomed to live on the 300 acres; no one was refused. Bill Wheel-

er, the man who bought the land and freed it, was co-founder of thearchetypal California commune, Morningstar.4. CONTEXT - picture of alternative living, classic squatting picture,quickly explain adverse possession + squatters handbookin the 80s, squatting was associated with punk, and today is largelyassociated with anarchist philosophies, but the process of legallygaining rights to a property through adverse possession has existedsince the 18th century.

it was drawn from english common law, and is meant to encouragethe productive use of property by providing a way to transfer title ofan abandoned property to someone who will use it.

in California adverse possession officially requires five years ofopen, continuous occupation without the permission of the owner,

the absence of a challenge to that occupation, and the payment ofproperty taxes including all years that weren't paid by the previousowner. it's also pretty dangerous based on who wants you out of theproperty, or how the cops treat the situation, and usually until yourean adverse possessor, youre a trespasser

5. CONTEXT - woodsy picture - living illegally in nature near cityat the other end of the legal spectrum is the woodsies, or peoplewho live in the woods in santa cruz. this is completely illegal, so thestructures as well as the lifestyle is all about hiding, creating struc-tures that blend in with the environment, or are camouflaged fromany authority who would be walking along the roads searching forillegal camps. so i'm interested in this spectrum between legal waysof acquiring land historically, and how those laws have changed,

what it's like now to acquire land, or live in an alternative way, andhow that's marginalized

6. kopi squat berlin, historyso i stayed at this squat for a few days in berlin, called the kopisquat, i included it to draw this connection between homesteadingand squatting. basically a lot of the stuff ive read about peoplesquatting here in california has a basis in people who have traveledto europe and experience squats in various cities throughout eu-rope = where the practice is much more established, where there'sa much stronger tradition of squats as community spaces, and au-tonomous zones within ciities, and that influencing them when theyreturn home. so this particular one had several characteristics thatreminded me of homesteading. it felt very much like the reasoning


6/20

behind living there was to life an alternative lifestyle, free from thedependency on commercial entities in berlin, they had an eventspace, a bar. a bike shop where they shared tools if you wanted toget free parts for your bike or just use tools to fix one, there was asquatted property across the street where they gardened, an entiretrailer park where people lived, and completely welcome to travel-ers to stay in a common area, etc. so it felt like a community basedaround self-sufficiency and awareness of products in daily life.7. valreep amsterdam, history - this is another squat i visited inamsterdam , an old animal shelter, run down building. established2011. on the web they call themselves a social center, constantly

having events, garden work parties, performances, free classes,etc. its also an example of how the tradition is much stronger ineurope and how a llot of former squats now have yearly contractswith the city, based on extremely low rent, or some other types ofagreement such as noise, safety concerns, etc.8. open source ecology9. set of prototypes - importance on prototyping as a way forcreating replicable models, while allowing people to adapt them totheir own desires and needs. rather than giving people products,or kits, i'm interesting in creating conceptual tools, ideas, methods,approaches, attitudes, and intellectual property that can then betweaked or re-interpreted to most effectively benefit whatever envi-ronment and audience is being addressed.10. WHO - people who want to have a more direct and knowledg-

able connection with the objects and tools which surround themsomeone who is involved in either of these worlds, and interested insharing methods, based on functionality, --11. where -- LOS ANGELES as general setting, exploring aban-doned spaces12. timeline --week1- research, start gathering content for resource guide: devel-op sections, sketch prototype ideas, develop system for document-ing process, start sketching textile designs, get silkscreensweek2 - tools, plants, plant press, plant beds in front of sidewalk @homeweek3 - clothing, overalls, utility bags, more textile designsweek4 - shelter ideas, living spaces, photograph potential sites inlos angeles,week5 - complete resource guide + prototypes + installation

13 . so i have a lot of inspiration, a huge creative landscape, i'vealready shown some inspiration, and i think these examples bothaddress how i plan on testing methods, various approaches i hopeto take, while also providing a social and visual context for how isee my project fitting into a larger conversation.how - speculative spaces - archigram/ superstudio/ hort bandspeculation of a city or environment or population, just through theuse of collage/ costume, they created a whole sense or feeling ofplace, based on ideas about juxtaposition and navigation of thecity/ of the body, user experience of a city14. how - diligent documentation - buckminster fullerHe obsessively collected his notes, sketches, ideas, life history, inwhat he called the Dymaxion Chronofile: it contains over 140,000papers and 700 volumes of every single thing Fuller ever wrote

from the age of four. The Buckminster Fuller Institute has a fulldescription of the Chronofile, which is considered to be the mostdocumented human life in history. -wired magazinefuller talked about himself like a living experiment, treated himselfas a subject to document, and there are thousands of entries abouthis history and contextualizing himself without other inventions.at the time, he wasn't documenting online, but keeping endlessarchives of notes

15. how - ron finley LA green grounds, urban farming, food hubs/production/ green horns/ planting justiceurban farming, use of abandon spaces, empowermentorganizes "digins" where volunteers come help plant edible gardensin peoples yards around south LA., fighting for food sovereignty, and

affordable health.17. creative landscape - braggs food labels and bronners soap forvisual language"Paul C. Bragg, was America's first true healthy food and lifestyleguru""In the late 1960s, soap sales started to explode, due to theunsurpassed ecological quality combined with Dr. Bronners urgentmessage to realize our transcendent unity across religious andethnic divides."18. creative landscape - bioquip, botanist tools, field guides, farm-ers almanac, connection with immediate environment

19. creative landscape - ghandi at spinning wheel, guatemalanweaving women, monks wearing unbleached cloth, nomadic weav-ing, importance in fabric in all of this, how a fabric communicates acertain identity, an allegiance to a particular way of life, or mode ofproduction.20. creative landscape - whole earth catalogue

MONDAY JUNE 24.how shall i start documenting?who is my audience? find projects that failed and find a problemwith projects that i'm finding. make the idea more complex, whatare some of my past projects that can serve as structure or con-tent? email julie 2-3sentence project statement and 5-6 objects to

make. iclude detailed schedule with more specifics , as specific aspossible. am i making a case for modern homesteading? how willmy object support that opinion? am i making a case for imaginingnew forms of rural and urban areas? am i making a case for differ-ent kinds of community structures in which we make these objects?am i making these objects for myself? what is the content i amdealing with? push yourself to think about content, why that contentis important, how is that content informing my opinion, express-ing my position, and making a possible solution to the perceivedproblem? problem: self-sufficiency is lacking in urban contexts, andengenders a culture of dependency, my solution is for people inurban contexts to reconsider how they deal with housing, food, andclothing.

tumblr seems to be a huge method of finding inspiration, ideas, sur-

prise. what is the default solution in this realm? what's wrong withthat default solution? is it because it's still about the product andnot about the attitude. think about project more in terms of processrather than result. --what was this referring to? think about the useof the thread as a political tool. - how does this tie into my politicalideals and what i'm trying to say about convenience, dependence,speed (fast vs. slow) and immediate satisfaction vs. sustained sur-vival. what is the problem? reinvest a site with something surprisingfind a site this is abandoned, forgotten, or overgrown, and reinvestwith surprising element, instill with meaning, sense of time andplace, here and now, and instill with specific purpose for specifictime. am i going to squat areas in LA? am i arguing for modernhomesteading? am i critiquing corporate dependency?

the default solution in the realm of product and corporate depen-dency is either getting angry and starting amateur revolutions whichtake over a street for a day and don't make change. the defaultsolution is to move away from the city and start a farm, to detachfrom the threat rather than address it in a thoughtful way. thedefault solution to dependency is to deplug from the city, however,how can the city become a meditative space where independenceand autonomy thrives? how will my documentation serve to help theproject? who will see the documentation? if i notice a similarity be-tween homesteaders and squatters, what's the meaning of stayingin the city and attempting to work from within the system (architec-turally) while acting as example to show self-reliance among peoplespending money and spending time. what does one spend timedoing, and how does that effect their mindset? is it about attitude?


7/20

navigation? pre-existing problem, foreboding. they're saying okaywhat's the big plan, but this is your world. you have to say no, it'ssimpler than that. it's about the objects, slowness, and resisting theeasy solution. modification of desire. the solution is not easy. alsofocusing on the but it's a foreboding problem that the economy ison the downspiral while class distinction/ widening gap betweenrich and poor is on the rise, so what is a possible solution for thesepeople to rise up. for these people to empower themselves to berich. i'm eating a bar made from dates, almond butter, honey, spiru-lina, wheatgrass, blaah!! i also had a smoothies this morning madefrom almond milk and raspberries and banana and some agave

nectar. a better audience than dinner conversation. it needs to bean audience that is hungry for this solution. who would be hungry forthe solution of growing food, spending time weaving, and spendingtime making food, spending time in nature and spending time col-lecting their own natural worlds.

am i just speculating about new kinds of navigation in the city?or am i interested in making something happen that changes theway people live? does it matter if i state an intention? large thingsstart as small things, usually. so perhaps a small gesture is allthat's necessary to make a large difference. is the goal to make alarge difference or a small difference? is time another dimensionthat we can predict how it will transform the other element? how iswhat i'm making different from everything else i showed? how will

i move beyond these projects into an alternate perspective whichadds to the conversation about self-sufficiency in the city? how doi move beyond moving away? stay in the city. how do i move beyondsquatting illegally just like other squats? elements of legality andresponsibility. cleanliness. building from nothing rather than re-usingabandoned spaces. reusing abandoned spaces. --- the survival ofthe city rests on the idea of using what it has. the thread is theelement which holds sustenance, the thread of slow, the thread ofstillness, the thread of constant movement, moving constants, mo-bility within the structure of the city. element of mobility as survivalmethod, as affordable housing. the role of love. there's the questionof audience.

how is music related? what do people in the city want? they wantto have a community of people who make things, who do things,

who have expertise, who work with their hands, who are creating abetter world. music is a reflection of autonomous expression, wanta city where people go to a place to see other people create. togo to a place to see a specific thing, a time and a place to see theband place. to have a reason to come to a house, rather than justto go out. to go to sunday revival to gather with the community andsee music and have a potluck. eat food. potluck sundays. at otis. atjulia's house. family gathering. the traditions: potluck, sharing food,sharing music, sharing drinks, sharing thoughts/ ideas/ library?/study space?/, sharing tools - studio, workshop, farm, etc. , shar-ing clothes or fabric or tools also like sewing. switching partners.(dancing, music). having common songs, song forms to collaborateon: the blues. forms to share - the meal, dinner. forms to collaborate:chicken coop. garden beds. plants. pots. sharing stories from the

past, just the act of singing now brings into the future/ contextu-alizes in the present. sharing stories, individual stories rather thanmentioning one project from the past, but telling the nuances, whatworked out what didnt. in the city - parties, shows, art shows, musicshows, garden work days, work days, workshops with a tool, an ex-pert, free skool, education, swap meet. not for me if i already knowthe information, but for myself to document and to contextualizemyself, to share with others, to leave a legacy, a collective uncon-scious memory of these patters which grow from a center.

SILKSCREENCOLLECTING plantsBREWING BEERDESIGNING BANDANAS

SECTIONS, WHICH PROTOTYPES ARE MOST IMPORTANTART HOUSE ON THE LEVEEwhat are they thinking, how will they be disappointed. there is noperfect answer. what is fun about it. it's about making things. ofcourse there will be things, but you must think critically about whatthis means. remembering historical struggles, sustaining futuregenerations. learning from mistakes which are causing econom-ic downturn and dependency. economic failure is a reflection ofdependency. independency creates production rather than con-sumption. specific production. what is the importance of specificityrather than something that can be taken and moved to any place. a

solution has to be specific to the problem. a solution has to addressthe place, the local people, the local place, the local food, what isavailable locally.but also personal experience based on the place.any of the objects must speak to the specificity of my experience.this specificity will address the importance of being .

failure of open land movement - lack of rules, anarchy, heavy polic-ing, sanitation oversightfailure of art tannery in santa cruz - beauracracy, suspicion, andlack of fluidity, lack of real communityfailure of political protestfailure of squats in california - not enough commitment to oneplacefailure of homesteading - more imaginable to move to city and get

job and outsource jobs, rather than struggle to make ends meet,deal with unpredictable climate. and changing food prices.failure of farmers market crafts - stereotyped as idealistic, doesn'tmake change, just fits into a system which fits into the city on aparticular day, with parking, and expectations/ norms. no curation offarmers, just based on money, free market, but just makes consum-er feel better rather than produce him or herself.ATTITUDES toward how one makes a living. what is to contributeto society? What is convenient, rather than what is right? why dopeople stray from moral judgement? how have values becomedivorced from real content? how to re-instill real content in forms,which produce an opinion, a striving, a struggle, a form throughwhich to produce,something that other people can use.

project statement:i want to investigate methods of living self-sufficiently in los ange-les, explore perceptions around the ideas of 'homesteading' and'squatting' - how they connect, and test methods of both through aseries of prototypes. by drawing connections between them throughmethods, economics, and philosophy, my project will speculateabout the role of self-reliance within los angeles, and implicitlycritique the marginalization of self-sufficiency in urban spaces.

objects:prototype #1: compact modular spinning wheel (for yarn) from bikewheel + gears and found partsprototype #2: overalls with utility pockets for tools, harvesting pock-ets, field guide pockets, durable fabric and hand-sewn / exhibits

unique textile design and/or natural dyesprototype #3: mobile gardening unit, planter bed on wheels forgrowing herbs, food, etc.prototype #4: reversible poncho + blanket / exhibits unique textiledesign and/or natural dyesprototype #5: small + mobile shelter based on modular wireframe+ waterproof canvas covering with clear plastic windows / exhibitsunique textile design + integration of utility straps for securing toground, and also hanging on the 'walls' from the insideprototype #6: compact + mobile frame loom or backstrap loomwhich can be taken apart of broken down even in the middle of aweaving projectprototype #7: lightweight flower press with pull-tighteners*all prototypes require more research based on site-specificity


8/20

or mobile requirements and what will be most cost, material, andtime-effective for making tests*

modular resource guide: existing online, can be printed in sections,or all at once, with explanation for how to print and bind, containingresearch, documentation, methods, drawn diagrams, inspirational,educational, philosophic texts

schedule:

Week 1

research, start gathering content for resource guide, develop sec-tionsexplore potential sites in los angeles - determine location, eithersite-specific or mobilesketch prototype ideasdevelop system for documenting processstart sketching textile designs ideas, get silkscreenswrite at least 1 hour every day, send draft of paper to tucker thurs-dayfirst version of project statement + schedule to julie tuesday

Week 2focus on plant press, mobile garden bed, incorporating plants intotextile designs

experiment with urban farming techniques, various methods forweed control, lack of water availability, etcdocument tests + results, sketches, etc.continue writing paper, send draft thursday

Week 3focus on clothing, overalls, utility fabrics, more textile designsexperiment with methods of sewing, using a machine vs. by handdocument patterns on paper, and then in 3Dcontinue writing paper, peer edit, send draft thursday

Week 4focus on shelter, living spacesexplore materials for frame + fabric covering + rain fly/ waterproofability

experiment with various ways of homemaking through unique deco-ration or personalizationcontinue writing paper, peer edit, send draft thursday

Week 5refine prototypes and final design/ purpose/ destination of resourceguidecomplete and send final version of Considering Final Project paper

Week 6finalize and publish/ print copy of resource guidefinalize show + presentation

TUESDAY JUNE 25.earthy colors inform my sense of slowness.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 26.so ghandi was influenced by henry thoreau and "on the duty ofcivil disobedience". this means he was reading american literaturewhich was interpreting indian or hindu philosophy and re-interpret-ing it back to him. he, himself, read the gita and acknowledged itswisdom, but downplayed the emphasis on war, violent solutions, andthe violent aspect of the duality of inner-self. however, thoreau'sinterpretation of hindu teachings proved to be somewhat successfulin finding the positive aspects which ghandi then carried on, intoswaraj, or the idea of self-rule. of course violence is important in

claiming one's own power of self-defense, but in any case that afight can be won by inaction or peaceful protest, this was the idea.the actions of indian at the time, when british rule was requiringregistration and threatening jail, etc, were in complete self-defense,complete boycotting of non-national products, and complete en-gagement with political powers of autonomy such as 'civil - dis-obedience' or 'passive resistance' but which ghandi rather calledsatyagraha? which translates to "insistence on truth". Someone whopractices satyagraha is a satyagrahi. he talks about the insepara-ble nature of the means and the ends. swadeshi was the economicform of this movement, and was even started earlier than the move

ment came into full fruition. swadeshi translates into "self- sufficiency" or "of one's own country". Hind swaraj means "home rule" , whilehindu literally means 'home.'Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every village will bea republic or Panchayat having full powers. It follows, therefore, thatevery village has to be self-sustained and capable of managingits affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the wholeworld. It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt todefend itself against any onslaught from without. Thus, ultimately, itis the individual who is the unit.This does not exclude dependence on and willing help from neigh-bours or from the world. It will be free and voluntary play of mutualforces. Such a society is necessarily highly cultured in which everyman and woman knows what he or she wants and, what is more,

knows that no one should want anything that others cannot havewith equal labour.Harijan, 28-7-1946

Widening CirclesIn this structure composed of innumerable villages there will beever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramidwith the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceaniccircle whose centre will be the individual always ready to perishfor the village, till at last the whole becomes one life composed ofindividuals, never aggressive in their arrogance, but ever humble,sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integralunits. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield powerto crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and deriveits own strength from it. I may be taunted with the retort that this

is all Utopian and, therefore, not worth a single thought. If Euclid'spoint, though incapable of being drawn by human agency has animperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live.Harijan, 28-7-1946

THURSDAY JUNE 27.what doesn't work about homesteading? and why don't morepeople squat? because squats are dangerous, people get killed inabandoned buildings, they are creepy, there's no protection, theseare desperate measures, not normal measures. what are normalmeasures? they are the way people see themselves on a dailybasis, just getting by not living excessively. the default answer is togo to work and pay rent. occupy failed tremendously because there

was no end to it. the only way people really made a difference wasfind the little bit of common sense which was hard for the policeto evict them. they found public space, and so it took a while forcities to figure out how to evict occupiers. where it's hard to reasonit's hard to politically justify kicking someone off land, owned by noone. so the important critical point is that there are small windowsof opportunity for people to overcome daily burdens. it is criticallychallenging the mode through which we see our day, our placein social structures, and the way we sustain ourselves. we feedourselves and sleep, and get dressed every day, but only becausewe have money to buy things when they run out or break or rip.repairing ripped cloth is like a way of triple doing what was doneonce before. the role of the bandana serves two functions. one foremotional support. two for physical support. it serves as identity,


9/20

camouflage, surface, face, frontal section, it serves as the gateway, the eyes which receive the gaze, and it serves as the receiver ofphysical waste which is kept away from the face or hands.what is new about resource guide without being nostalgic forwhole earth catalogue. don't focus on typography of old americanproducts like bronners and braggs, but focus on process where it'sabout what the content is, rather than what the nostalgic feelingis. what is the content - and who is it for? if the content is aboutresources, is it really going to be useful? or is it just imagining whatsomething could be? if the content is about imagination, who is thatfor? why is that important? can the content be a mix of information

and imagination - in that case, how does it work and interact? whyis it important to have both? are you trying to say there's nothinglike this yet that combines practical information and imagination?how will a publication be useful? what part of your documentation/ gathering process would be useful or interesting to other people?do you need a regular schedule of how often to water what particu-lar plants? possible product labels:seed packets, clothing labels, textile designs for tents, tarps, blan-kets, clothes, etc, food labels, beer label, book covers, publications,websites, decoration of surface - table, chair, architecture, window,floor, ceiling, paper, instruments, bowls, plates, knives, fork, spoon,lamps, shoes, leather designs, wallet, phone, pen + pencil, toolhandles. chair and table legs, pottery designs, walls designs, shelterdesigns (tipi).

gather content: what type of content?philosophy, methods, and economics. how to get these materials forcheap? goodwill, second hand stores, and websitesphilosophy - follow ghandi, thoreau, emerson trailfollow zizek + badiou trailmethods - follow squatters trail (economics) - anarchist book shop,shared books, shared tools, sewing center, donation centers, shop,workshop, studio, free stores, free market, free skool, free church,etc.tools -- look to farming, look to permaculture - identification ofplants and medicinal use of plants + herbs, foraging, look to crafts-men in the trade - what do they get first, what do they always haveon them, what is mobile and cheap and the most simply tool to useBIKE TOOLS -look into what's affordableFABRIC TOOLS

PLANT TOOLS - shovel, watering methods, also jars for botanisttools - how to COLLECT. collection methods, storage methods(food)paper tools - printing, binding, bookshelves, book carrying, book-shelf on wheels??things that are heavy (wheels): planter boxes (dirt), shelves (books),clothes (mobile nomadic suitcases)SUITCASES

more potential prototypes: suitcases, bookshelf on wheels, glass jarcarrying case? or glass jars, or compartmentalized box for herbs,whatever. book for pressed plants, bag, suitcase, ***fanny pack***,bandana designs, stamps + postcard to mail anywhere on the go.prime sewing kit, home-made silkscreen, homemade squeegee,

tea bags, tea system, homemade radio, homemade broadcaster,published treatises (civil disobedience)

TUESDAY JULY 2.community center identity - weeds of los angelesfear of homeless people in wild areas.wildificationwildizationwildernizeurban forestryurban wildernesscitizen , denizen

FOXFIRE QUOTES AUNT ARIE"You see 'at little house right out there? Well, 'at's a smoke house.Well now, we'd kill high as four big hogs at one time; take'n cut it allup like this is. And we always salted ours th'day that we cut it up.Some people wait's t'th'next day, but I don't like that. Take 'n spreadit all out an' take salt'n'black pepper - not too much black pepper- and mix it all up in a pan, we always did; an' lay it out there 'til itgot cured. Then, see, that black pepper keeps th' flies off of it. An'that's preserved then; that salt preserves it..."

"I"ve made lots'a baskets...I made 'em with white oak splits, an'

I've made some with willers. Willer baskets is hard 'cause y'havet'go off t'th'branch, an' we ain't got no willers grows on this placelike a heap a'people has. Get'cha little willers, well, long as theygrow. Ain't none of 'em big as yer finger. An' y'have t'have a bigpot a'water by th'fire an' keep the willers soft in that. Didn't, they'dbreak all t'pieces. Put 'em in hot water an' th'bark just peels off likeever'thing. Gather'em when th'sap first rises on 'e, pretty good, any'can skin'em pretty welll without scaldin'em; but if y'don't y'havet'scald'em. I'd rather scald'em. They last longer I always think."

This project investigates methods of living self-sufficiently andautonomously in Los Angeles. Through the lens of material andenvironment, objects within the city become prototypes for urban living. Working with materials as resource rather than pre-fab product,

these prototypes speculate about the role of power-giving objectsand tool-sharing in the consumer-driven architecture of urban publicspace.

Focusing on weeds of los angeles as a metaphor for using whatwe already have. exploring self-reliance in los angeles. definingwhat self-reliance is in an urban context. how resources which areprovided us are convenient, but maybe not the best way of creatingindependent people with appropriate knowledge and with connec-tion to environment. when you are left with nothing, what can youuse weeds for because they will be there?lists of tools -- objects as power-giving tools which give access toself-sufficiency.

wilderness strategies

via plants/food/fabric. edible plants. medicinal plants. canning andbottling etc. saving food.process based rather than visual outcome.

WEDNESDAY JULY 3.i need to specify a location and use that to determine materialsand parameters for making. is there some other way to defineparameters for making? what is the purpose? it is to encourageurban wilderness. the purpose is biodiversity. the purpose is mentaldiversity. encouraging what i call thought diversity. urbandiversity.biodiversity and realitydiversity. ideo-diversity. politico-diversity.econo-diversity. income-diversity. cultural-diversity. socio-political,geo-diversity. diversity! flora! and fauna! urban citizen! denizen!people of the city! think outside! think outdoors! think without limits

and produce something within reality. we must create criteria that isexternal to ourselves. we cannot just think within our own bound-aries. we need ways of designing our environment that include theenvironment, itself, becoming part of the process. the idea of urbanwilderness, itself, becomes part of the process of living in one. anurban and wild way of producing, embedded into the thing, itself.how can i include wilderness into the clothing, itself? how can iinclude wilderness and weeds into a spinning wheel and loom? howcan i embed wilderness into the local system? embedding wilder-ness into a prototype of a plant press? how can i embed wildernessinto a system of self-reliance? is self-reliance wild? how can iembed biodiversity into a self-reliant system?

how can i demand consistency in a system which is forced to break


10/20

its own rules? window for political change - but i am looking for awindow in design change. what does it mean to use design as ameans of change? design is a word which many people associatewith advertising, art, and predetermined control of a system. i am in-terested in looking towards the design of nature as a model for thedesigning of the city environment. what exactly is nature? well, wecan look at the history of nature as far as we know. nature includesall living things - perhaps it's all things which exist without humanintervention. nature could be everything. i define nature as systemswhich continue to surprise us, as humans become more and moreitertwined with our own built environments, particularly dense urban

areas. what are these surprising systems? they are the plantswhich grow in the cracks of sidewalks, the greening of copper as itages, the hurricanes which destroy cities because of unpredictableweather patterns, the overgrowth of forgotten buildings, and evensometimes the spontaneous protests which overtake a population,even when a country could be thought of as succeeding in thegeneral scheme of global capitalism.

demand consistency with the land trust place. demand consistencywith design of los angeles eco village. demand consistency withinlarger systems' stated goals. local governments. local communitycenters. the reinvention of democracy is an idea which persists inprotests and but "freedom" and "democracy" are also what occupyis protesting. so what is the difference between "freedom" and "de-

mocracy" and freedom and democracy? what does it means to em-bed freedom in a design practice and in the products, themselves.the designs, themselves. is a design something conceived of by asingle person? a single collaboration? a single project? is a designsomething which pervades all notions of separation? is design away of life rather than a product? what is the difference between'to design something' and to 'make a design.'? there is a verb andthere is a noun. the 'design event' as buckminster fuller would callit might refer to the way a design acts in one moment in time, butif it lasts over a series of moments, then the situation occurs as atemporary structure within the scope of infinity. what if it is meant tolast infinitely - as the land trust claims, affordable housing in 'perpe-tuity'? that is utopian vision of it, after all, is the fact that no struc-ture, no government, no policy can change the fact that affordablehousing is a requirement of citizens free to pursue well-being and

happiness as the constitution states. so imagining time as a solidblock through which we are moving, each slide of which is a mo-ment in that time block. we can look back on the past, but for somereason, there is something blocking our full knowledge of whatwill happen. i suppose there also is no full knowledge of the pasteither. there were glimpses and documentations, but the event isthe only thing true to itself, and the future is exactly the same. therewill never be full knowledge of a moment, except for the fact thatit happened, and itself is the only one that fully knows itself. in fact,it probably can't know itself fully either, because we as humanshave a hard time with that also. to know oneself fully perhaps is thebest way to communicate itself with others? if we can have criteriaoutside of ourselves in order to express what we know fully aboutourselves, then there is an expansion of meaning and connections

between selves. so perhaps in fully expressing moments in time, asevaluated by outside criteria, they can being to connect with eachother more fully - and therefore separation between moments is nolonger as important as the similarities which moments have to eachother. what is this outside criteria? the judgement of other momentson that singular moment? how it went? what it could have donebetter? but is a moment not only subject to actors within it? or doesthe moment have some sort of agency over itself? are humans notalso just moments in the large block of time which we call eterni-ty? what kind of agency does a moment have in determining whathappens inside of it? but hasn't science also proven that there isno real boundary from moment to moment, and really it is just aninfinite sub-categorization of an unbroken process. has 'process'become the ultimate word for something which can't be divided

into separate parts? it is, by definition, un-definable, and un-sep-aratable. it is not about the things which last into the future, butthe things which happen in the middle. what happens in the middleor in between two defined points? how does definition of a pointhappen? the complexity is left out, and individuals are left standing.but an individual is indeed vulnerable. by pulling together individuals,strength can grow from within. in fact, the gathering of individuals isnot just a sum of each, but something new and different altogeth-er, representing something larger, more important, significant, andinteresting. is this design - to create something which reveals all thecomplication behind?

what is the purpose of design if not to create relationships in aglobal or web like context?plant press which relates the human to the plant, as we controland study them. jumpsuit which relates humans with various jobs- construction worker, business man, hipster, mother, father, child,naturalist, doctor, teacher, student. a structure which relates thehome of a wealthy person with the home a homeless. which relatesthe urban dweller with the rural dweller. which relates the scientistwith the artist, the functional with the non-functional. creating aglobal context makes for a cohesive understanding of the elementson earth and the relationships between them.the role of design in creating a set of relationships between humanand plant, human and animal, relationships between government

and individual, relationships between human and human, humanand device, how do these things become a web rather than narrowand directive lines? in creating objects which create relationshipsbetween urban and rural in a web, in creating objects which createrelationships between humans in the city and plants in the city.in creating objects which create relationships between businesspeople and farmer people, in creating objects which reveal therelationships between wealthy and homeless people. what kind ofobject could relate the homeless person with the person drivingby? or the person at home watching television, or the student in theschool in class? a live feed on the street of one would definitelydo this. students on the street, homeless in the schools. how candistractions be used to make sense of a global or web-like contextfor each element to appear without noticing how different they are?

how do we measure different sizes of infinity?why make sentences into questions when they could be demands?

THURSDAY JULY 4.location : los angeles.imagine: a world of global like villages - but not like capitalismimagines, more like how democracy relates with occupy relateswith homeless communities relates with squatters relates withneighbors.objects - more in line with parameters determined by specificationsnecessity of creating a global-like web-like context. not revealingone-to-one relationships, but a web. the web of life ? but one inte-grated in the city. integrated in the internet. and integrated in design

the purpose of design is to subtract the differences between ele-ments. does this make relations more or less complex?

reclaiming old prototypes of clothing. clothing elements whichserve multiple functions: the vest, the loose work pants, the loosework shirt, working overalls, jumpsuit for travelers , leggings/ hose,oversuit / shortsuit/ longsleeves. layers for troubadors, pages, streekids, homeless, field workers, construction workers, travelers, no-mads, domestic tradition, child laborers, homesteaders.

to make clothes which make people feel more at home in their ownbodies. multi-use clothing prototypes which allow people to imaginemultiple actions. actually any action rather than just a single type ofaction. the effect of clothing on the attitude, feelings, and actions


11/20

of the human body. clothing as identity reveals the power of clothesto transform how people perform their role in their environment. inclothes which designate what kind of person we are, what we dofor a living, or clothes which carry significance as far as how wewould normally act, jumpsuits, or more universal clothing allows usto perform more identity-less actions, and therefore perform moreappropriate actions as opposed to forced identity.

the meaning of clothing and fabric as expression of self-identity.reclaiming self-identity through clothes that are made by hand, withfabric gotten with the utmost responsibility - meaning fabric which

is sourced locally. priorities are fabrics that are knit and prefera-bly not dyed here in los angeles. and then pushing los angeles tosource the materials as locally as possible. use fabric that's madehere. or vintage fabric which is used and will otherwise be shippedsomewhere else. the unwanted fabrics which would get shipped.

only using clothes i have that i don't wear. fabrics that exist in thehouse that i don't wear. making them into something usable. how tomake it all look better than just patchwork - silkscreening patternsonto old fabrics.pollinator havens. cradle to cradle - seed-embedded felt which getsplanted in spring, grows in summer, and harvested in fall.

imagining a suit which encourages people to engage in local im-

mmediate surroundings. using cotton from africa, jeans from woodpulp, dont grow any cotton except in africa, wool where it is, for hotclimates, just using.

looking into ideals about the universal jumpsuit. rodchenko "strivesfor an objective, impersonal art, stripped of description and narra-tive, and devoid of spiritual or metaphysical trappings". "art as anobject that refers to nothing but itself--in Rodchenko's words, theinventing or perfecting of something, rather than a reflection orportrayal""our duty is to experiment, make objects unfamiliar and formsdifficult""one has to take several different shots of a subject, from differentpoints of view and in different situations, as if one examined it inthe round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and

again" (about photography)

the constructivism movement "represents an artistic expression ofthe practical application fo art in everyday life" This is character-ized by the application of design and artistic expression into thecreation of everyday objects such as worker clothing, posters, etc.Both Rodchenko and El Lissitzky believed that art had the power toinfluence and prompt a change in society and should be used as apowerful and practical tool. the idea that objects should be viewedas comrades, associates in the struggle toward a socialist ideal,rather than as an object to be possessed and used. the pleasureof possession of items should not be replaced with austerityand renunciation, but by incorporating the material object as anactive, almost animate participant in social life (Kiaer, Imagine No

Possessions,1). Rodchenko is also represented as a designer ofclothes. Reference is made to a photo of him posing in his designerworker clothes which are in unison with the message of the useful-ness and partnership between objects and workers. (Kiaer, ImagineNo Possessions,chapter 1). He was the arranger of the Soviet partof the International Exhibition of Decorative and industrial art. Assuch he was to reconcile Pariss commodity world with its overloadof sights and sounds with the constructivist alternative of the ob-ject as comrade (Kiaer, Imagine No Possessions,chapter 5). "Ourthings in our hands must be equals, comrades," wrote AleksandrRodchenko in 1925.

ficticious component, tribal -->outrageous with graphics..designpattern and digitally superimpose textiles onto shape, unexpected

visual language? occult/sci-fi?

SATURDAY JULY 6.ficticious component, tribal marks. look at anarchist clothing anddetermine various symbols. patch language, what does it mean towear black vs. brown, vs. green. vs neon? black could be reclaiminganarchy as a politically responsible reaction to the failure of occupybut the legacy it leaves behind. if we are not fighting for a cause, ifwe are not attempting to spread a good word, a worship ceremony,or an open call for help, what is our purpose? if we are fighiting for

individuality, or collectivism? are they mutually exclusive?

the suit is for city people to interact with their immediate environ-ment. does this involve botany and science? does this involve toolswhich allow one to measure density, water volume, which way thewind is blowing, how to identify the life, and how to harvest it? whatit means, but also how to communicate face to face with neighborswhat kind of tools allow people to be more engaging members ina small community? where do small communities fail? the lack ofdiversity? in a city like los angeles, all you need is for people totalk to each other and you have the diversity manifest. tools forcommunication with other humans, as well as knowledge of plant/animal life. as well as knowledge of history of architecture and citydevelopment. is history important in this case? is consumption of

knowledge important? is production of something physical import-ant?

how can i introduce an unexpected visual language or outrageoustribal graphics into this fictitious world which for the moment iscompletely wrapped up in the reality of los angeles and urbanproblems? what kind of story could lead people in rather than keeppeople at a specific distance which leaves itself flat, lying therefor nobody to pick up? what is a riveting story which keeps peopleinterested? is it the past of a place - perhaps real, perhaps false?museum of jurassic technology presents stories as true becausethey are true in people's minds. how can a fiction become com-pletely real through alternative clothing? suits which are used totalk about prisoners, workers, and nomads.

SUNDAY JULY 7.marks which mean the object is not meant to be sold, not madeto be sold, not allowed to be sold in the market, but must changehands by other means. a built in system which resists colonizationand dismemberment from its means of production. how can oneresist being individualized and sold as a plant rather than remain-ing a weed, taking over large quantities of mono-crop fields, etc.a mark marks a fabric as separate from the market, because itcan be marked . it must be a system of marks from which ancientknowledge is passed down through generations, which can changebut altogether means that money cannot enter. not only marks butmethods of putting together. marks which mark how something wasmade, and whether it is for a friend, a loved one, a profession, an

act. marks which mark how something can be stamped and nevertaken back. if something is stamped with an x, it means it must betorn to the point of no more recognition, or completely covered, ordestroyed re-pulped and sold again. boycott marketplace. but itsnot a political boycott, it's an actual production of wealth, in whichwealth that cannot be claimed for the purpose of exploitation,but resides within those who belong to the earth, and thoxse whopledge comradery toward an alternative marked life.

turning peasants into buyers, producers into consumers. "It is themarket itself that introduces this violence through the modern/colo-nial food system in a paradigm of war." "And so, a return to a moretraditional diet of their ancestral foods was not merely some tripto fantasy land for nostalgias sake; it provided them with a deep


12/20

motivation for improving their own health by blending modern andtraditional medical knowledge in a way that made them feel whole.(Nabhan 2004: 184) (HALEH Z.)

the practice of re-publishing papers which feed into my work asa part of the work, itself. publications which don't shy away fromacademic references and background support to a wealth ofknowledge as it is passed on. publishing possibilities: Self-Reliance,The Modern/Colonial Food System in a Paradigm of War, wendellberry?, spontaneous vegetation in urban wilderness article, gracelee boggs on work

emphasis on body-awareness. role of patchwork in design, markmaking, and sign associating with hand-done or machine-donethread-work. where does the body generally need cooling? whereare the chakras? where is energy held? where does there need tobe reinforcement? how is the body connected with the planets? 1stdimension into 5th dimension.cooling the planet. cooling the body.importance of traditional or native foods. resistant to being sold.sign that something was made by hand and was not bought, butmade or bartered. communicating the importance of local languag-es,vibrant local economies, permaculture, By Design...Interactive Diversity > StabilityStability > FertilityFertility > Productivity

Productivity > Vibrant Local EconomiesLocal Economy > CommunityCommunity > Culturemarx: http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Marx/mrxCpA27.html#Part%20VIII,%20Chapter%2027

PROJECT THEORY"The aristocrats who parade as shepherds in classical or earlymodern pastoral, for example, partake of new roles not only to en-tertain themselves but to seek forms of human community that mayhave been blindly eschewed by advancing civilization. As such, thepastoral space is the perfect locale for those who believe them-selves to be in flight from a more sober and proscriptive (though noless imaginative) space, be it a nation, a fatherland, or even one'sown interpellated identity. As Andrew Ettin has suggested, in the

pastoral space one finds that a "useful disguise" somehow enablesmore natural bonds and knowledges to be recovered, reimagined,and reestablished." (RODCHENKO)

"urban pastoral" coined by William Epson (sontag). importance ofartificial role-playing. those who want to abandon fixed identities.bodies marked by communities by unique signifiers of desiredmobility. to take on the likeness of a desired otherness, bodies thattend to move through space in an alluring way, tacticaly subversivemovement through a practiced or banal routine. community takespains to recognize individuals who are most adept at making thosetactical moves through city space. semiotic shepherd? as a guidingforce for those "adventurous flocks that gathered in the liberatoryspaces of the urban pastoral" "since every geography is at base

level a cultural or literary construction --literally an inscription(graph) on the earth (geo) --it seems appropriate to investigate theway urban space gets written as a language." .barthes says..."cor-relations which can never be imprisoned in a full signification, in afinal signification"..what foucault calls "heterotopias" "uncanny spac-es of a radical otherness" "at some point, the shepherd is requiredto take off the pastoral disguise he has been wearing." to be facedwith just how other a leader has become. far-flung experienceslend its flocks new conceptions of cultural space. a presence toannounce an urban heterotopia's opposition to a dominating para-noia. "trying to juggle the contradictory components of modernlife into something like a livable space" .."upon his hyperkineticbody were dependent the collective desires of an imagined artisticcommunity" "playful...significations eagerly 'read' by an urban com-

munity that sought to understand the trajectory of its own spatialdesires" "a site of pure movement" "a decentralized and exces-sively mobile sign" a "dependable barometer in the city's increas-ingly fractured and invidious arts scene" "the poet's body becamea demarcated space made available for various people arrangingto meet". "gatheringness" "a new type of mobile figure, ready forany variety of deployments" "an outdated conceptualization of fixedspatiality" --> "barely traceable point on an elusive trajectory" placelessness where one can invent oneself . "mobile marker of urbanheterotopia" a poet's body codes a type of movement "expressesthe projected desires of a ..community seeking alternative spaces

of consciousness in the urban semeion" (TIMOTHY G. GRAY)

"But my problem is, what is democracy-today? I am not sayingEastern European socialism is better - my God, I lived there. Buttake this country. What do you, here, decide at elections? I am justsaying that something happened twenty or twenty-five years ago,with the collapse of socialism, and, at the same time, the Westernsocial-democratic worker state losing its power of sustaining politi-cal imagination. What disappeared at that point was the belief thathumanity, as a collective subject, can actively intervene and some-how steer social development. In the last thirty years, we are againaccepting the notion of history as fate. Thirty or forty years ago,there were still debates about what the future will be - Communismsocialism, fascism, liberal capitalism, totalitarian bureaucratic cap-

italism. The idea was that life would somehow go on on earth, butthat there are different possibilities. Now we talk all the time aboutthe end of the world, but it is much easier for us to imagine the endof the world than a small change in the political system. Life onearth maybe will end, but somehow capitalism will go on." -zizek.lecutre:"The Perverse Core of Christianity." (SLAVOJ ZIZEK)

MONDAY JULY 8.in the hitchcock film 'vertigo', there is subjective shot but which cannot be attributed to the perspective of any subject. the role of theperplexed gaze as the divider between subjective and objective.meeting with ari resnikoff wednesday night july 10th, 7:30.agenda: press beginnings: from substantial to subtle twists: contentform/ context/ tone/ aesthetic

I. content (+contributors) -- fiction, non-fiction, editorial, articles,research-based, art, design, poetry, creative writing, manifestosII. form -- magazine, book, online, journal, somewhat published,modular or alternative publishing methods, events, library, festival,temporary library or collections, movie, dvd, cd, audio, zine, newspaper, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.III. context -- coffee shops, events, forums, happenings, show, onthe wall, on a table, on a shelf with other books, newspaper stand,newsstand, online website, facebook, blog, youtube, twitter, email,craigslist, reddit, etsy, store, bookstore, free on floor as you enter,library, zine stand, mobile indie publishing sale,IV. tone -- free, expensive,

http://farmerwu.wordpress.com/quotations/wendell-ber-

ry-from-the-unsettling-of-america/ (excerpts from book WENDELLBERRY)community design: Francis, Mark. Community Design. JAE , Vol. 37No. 1 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 14-19love compassion tolerance, union

jumpsuit as union between human body and environment. wheth-er it be industrial environment or urban wilderness. something formovement, tactical playing through city. suit within heterotopia, ashepherd in the rye, a catcher in the concrete. to embody one'splace, to create place in the midst of placelessness. i'm startingto argue that the architecture and discourse of urban governmentof los angeles perpetuates disembodiment of individuals throughthe separation of the body and his or her local environment. renting


13/20

as opposed to owning, selling them products which they have nohand in producing. the encouragement to produce your own food,produce your own clothes - begs the question, where do theseresources emerge? they begin with waste. waste fabric that wouldotherwise be dropped off somewhere else, might as well turn wasteinto more production. the intimate cycles with waste are now disem-bodied through the globalized plumbing system, 'civilized' manage-ment of human waste as toxic to our survival, when really it's nottoxic, it's necessary.

"He has not the power to provide himself with anything but money,

and his money is inflating like a balloon and drifting away, subjectto historical circumstance and the power of other people. Frommorning to night he does not touch anything that he has producedhimself, in which he can take pride. For all his leisure and recre-ation, he feels bad, he looks bad, he is overweight, his health ispoor. His air, water, and food are all known to contain poisons. ".-wendell berry-.

suit as space of radical otherness, uncanny space, the moral orderof production, consumption, and return. a kind of energy communitythrough which elements die into each other's life. a healthy soil isfull of dead plants, animals, and bodies.

WEDNESDAY JULY 10.jumpsuit for political prisoners freedom and re-embodiment/ cottonsafari suit + hat for local tourguide, flax/ canvas/ linenhigh-waiste crop-top suit, jereseysystem for grading, a lot of torn fabric. first design in detail. sewnexplorations. system of shapes from which to choose for otherdesigns. ---which shapes am i using in this first one? and why? whois the specific character for the first one? second one?

THURSDAY JULY 11.what is my vision for the future? dont set goals too high,friday present: imagining each in his own suit, present shape pic-tures, rip more clothes and photograph. think about plants and theirnames as an educational aspect toward encouraging engagement

with environment. how does the suit address individuals' needs andtheir engagement in a community. perhaps it's a community-orient-ed preparation for an event, the suits allow each to show his or hercolors, while also showing off functionality and value added to thecommunity. for a parade, the group gathers the night before to sewtheir costumes and parade their fears, their anxieties, their ambi-tions, the sins and their joys into the air, so as to prepare for thetime ahead, would the government issue the suits upon gradua-tion? would the suits be made at a certain age? would they speaka certain language? the suits are created in order to celebratethe under-celebrated members of society, how do they celebratemembers who make less money - political prisoners, referenceto prisoners, homeless, how is homelessness addressed throughcelebration? the jumpsuit as solidarity with members of society

which are under-appreciated - prisoners, farmers, outdoor workers,construction workers, beekeepers, doctors, people who do physicallabor. jumpsuit uniform, hyperkinetic bodies which. uniform for thehyperkinetic body, eternally ready deployment, which reflects itsimmediate environments both through reclaimed fabric and printedmaterial which educates about locality. system for re-finishingseams. seam-ripping locally recycled clothing and reprinting localissues, histories, and biota. system of shapes based on specificneeds/ preferences of whatever individual. attached to waste oflocal vintage/ thrift stores. system of receiving donations, selling atdetermined price, legalized-localized gleaning, turnover of "rags",donation of direct local communities, seam ripping action, isolatingshapes and determining how to change shapes based on prefer-ences, methods for sewing in a professional looking way,

useful functional imagery based on the role of the trade.baking rulesrecipesmeasurements for carpentersconversionsbanjo chords.overalls/ jumpsuits/ heavy duty for physical work/function-oriented/active-wearfashion: event once a year, event that's outdoorsy that requiresthem to be durable. everyone makes it themselves, you use sec-ond-hand material, home-based, the aesthetic isn't bought, propos-

ing alternative world in which there's a tradition that ostricizes youif you don't have one at all and encourages certain norms in how itcomes out.old school field day, event day, homesteading games, teaching peo-ple valuable skills, jumpsuits allows for the success of the activitiesrecognition of importance of basic skills - homesteading event.tradition in the society.tradition - confirmation, event, fashion. how a functionality of acertain homemade type becomes fashionable. post-apocalypticclothes. unique. mixed with local food movemet - converged infashion.post-apocalyptic heterotopia.fashion.animal-share. take-apart animal , learn how to butcher interactively.

engaged lifestyle suit. very personal elements -- tattoos, secondskin.family tree, smething obviously specific.very personal , every one makes their own design through geomet-ric form + embroidery.functionality + symbolic meaning/ ceremonial. specialness of something because it's so essential to daily use.rather than selling product, a new experience entering the

a cube of clothing, tools of the trade, imagined bodies in suits inplace (proposed visual community photo collages), suits, attach-ments/ pockets, bandanas *(fabric components? online and inperson?), screens + examples of imagery in context, TOOLS andresulting imagery on paper/ fabric, interaction with environmentand importance of local knowledge. histories of runyon canyon

+ portraits + suit + native camo + prisoners suit homelessness,squatting, occupy, native plants, weeds, proposal to create one'sown jumpsuit, materials needed, simple sewing techniqeus, repli-cable, teachable methods. branding based on plants, animal parts,human parts, occupations, clothing shapes.

object-as-comrade, objects in my life that are beaten up but verysymbolic and functional at the same time. very best books,RETURN// RENEW LIBRARY BOOKS....

black pants.clothing shapes - educational contentplant shapes with namesclothing/ rag bailsgrade system

functionality vs. fashion vs. symbolism/ tradition / meaningsystem for re-finishing seamslocal issues, histories, and biotapost-apocalyptic heterotopiatattoos, second skinexperience rather than productarchetypes: urban gardener/ beekeeper---> urban api, urban builderurban seamstress/ tailor, urban cook/baker, creation of a jumpsuitfor the keeper of urban food forests and pollinator havens - arche-type of the new world, focused on the urban pastoral, providing animportant service to the community, with aims of strengthening locabiodiversity and engagement with local surroundings.a jumpsuit for the local fabric cycler + redesign studio - archetypeof the new world, focused on innovative techniques, repurposing


14/20

textile designs, materials, techniques, and re-mixing fabrics whichare seen as waste. protection of wildlife, pollinator havens, urbanpastoral, local biodiversity

papers: tactical embodiment, urban pastoral, adventurous flocks,desired mobility, liberatory shepherd, hyperkinetic bodies, a place-lessness in which to abandon fixed identityclothing shapes: i've started to take clothes apart, and these arewhat i've come up with, as a way of simplifying the construction+ deconstruction process of clothing. i'm interested in repeatingthis process and documenting various versions in order to create

a language of shapes, resulting fits, and what my personal prefer-ence would be in terms of movement, as well as trends in currentclothinglooking at fashion (junya watanabe) as a lens, through which peopleare moved by choice, expression of identity, and constant change,interested by the fashion schedule looking an entire year aheadand the context in which fashion is placed today.

urban fabric cycling and neo-archetypal fashion. -->archetype 1: urban nature interpreter + educator, biodiversity expert,spontaneous and intentional perennial vegetation, knowledge aboutlocal plants, native / non-native, medicinal, herbal, potential uses fortoxin absorption and natural dyes, natural fiber, connection with var-ious fields for repurposing of these plants -- travels by fourwheeler

or golf cart through city, tending sidewalk life and city edges.-AA--urban plant naturalist, herbalist, growing, finding, harvesting,foraging herbs, making salves, medicinal and herbal weeds +spontaneous + volunteer urban vegetation, caring for those plants,finding the plants, knowing where they grow-BB--bodyworker, helps an active community stay proactivelyhealthy, healer, holistic doctor, yoga, therapeutic stretching, re-storative health things, compresses, tying methods for braces, thescientist part, low key holistic health guide, holistic health expert,teach stretching + yoga, and preventative, accupuncture, makingsalves,-CC--doctor-DD--spiritual guide: texts, chants. traditions. occult methods, worldlyknowledge, theologist expert

archetype 2: urban gardener, food forester, connection with mar-kets, restaurants, etc, toward cycling of plants onto local tables,caring for / harvesting foodarchetype 3: apiary and aviary haven protection expert, connectionwith markets for honey, connection with urban planners towardcreating more edges + homes for pollinatorsarchetype 4: unused, abandoned, and improvable land use coordi-nator and/or location scout, in connection with homeless shelters,urban gardeners, reports on unused space and theorizes betteruses -- travels by four wheelerarchetype 5: sustained urban mobility expert - knowledge of road-ways, bus systems, improvement of access to safe bike lanes +running lanes, theorizes better uses/ organization for pathway, withaim of decreasing car use and increasing human-powered move-

ment --- travels by bikearchetype 6: homelessness rehabilitation, communications, infra-structure and contribution expertarchetype 7: materials, resource, and waste cycling. facilitatorsarchetype 8: de-incarceration, exoneration, and post-prison hospi-tality guideshalf-made silkscreen designs on fabric - as a visual communicationof 'in

daily notes, summer 2013

Documents