all together now

i know this is a somewhat far-fetched connection, but i like going back to things and finding unexpected facets that give it even more depth. (one of the reasons why i’m ok with harping on yellow.... even though i am promising to resist the urge to pour yellow concrete color arbitrarily into my mix for any sculpture this semester.) plus, i realized i never posted this assignment from gd 1. (marketing the mica gd mfa program.)

when i made it, the idea was quotidian design. but tonight i put on my “open city” lenses and cracked open some good old jane jacobs. in urbanism it was drilled into our heads that, according to gerald frug, cities are defined by three things: size, density, and homogeneity. that last one is key. here’s jane jacob’s take on it in the intro to chapter 7 of death and life: “the generators of diversity”. (i promise the connection to the yellow pages is coming. it's actually about to hit you in the face...)

"classified telephone directories tell us the greatest single fact about cities: the immense numbers of parts that make up a city, and the immense diversity of those parts.... ‘i have often amused myself,’ wrote james boswell in 1791, with thinking how different a place london is to different people. they, whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. but the intellectual man is struck with it, as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible.”

which, on another tangent, reminds me of an article i read in the new york times today about how the humanities are at risk during the recession. ("in tough times, the humanities must justify their worth.") the assumption is that college students will look to college as just a vehicle for obtaining a job (growing more and more elusive by the minute) and the accompanying salary/security. in that pursuit, the act of merely contemplating and comprehending (or attempting to…) “human life in all its variety” gets lost as unnecessary.

i hope that never becomes the case. i hope that we never become numb to all that is overwhelming around us. that is where all the excitement is.