Thesis Pieces - PART SEVEN

 

SALUTE THE UNKNOWN

The foreign is an uncontrollable force the traveler steps in front of when leaving home.  They expose themselves to the potential of the unknown, good or bad.  

Once the variable of context is removed, what remains is our reaction to the exterior as it collides with our interiors.

Do we flinch, hide, duck 

or choose to face the converging forces head on?

To seek the foreign is to relinquish the control of knowing.

 A graceful surrender.

Thesis Pieces - PART SIX

THE FOREIGN

 Travel is potential.  

A malleable, ephemeral hope of change and transition.
In that, it is inherently temporary.  Uninhabitable for longer than a brief period.  Materials made for travel are often of plastic and paper.  Lightweight for function and cheap for single use. 

The temporary state requires the mind to be more alert than when in a habituated space.  In travel the mind is hyper-alert, searching for patterns and familiar sights.  It is trying to make sense of and eventually neutralize the foreign.  No mind wants to be constantly lost.  Without a few points of understanding, nothing has meaning. 

Using the language of to-go objects, souvenirs and disposables, I altered their implied use or value to create a foreign moment.  The mind can understand elements of the material or form, but the shift is just enough to create the discomfort of the unfamiliar.

Thesis Pieces - PART FIVE

The forecast.

Thesis Pieces - PART FOUR

ANTICIPATION & FANTASY

Traveling is often more for the benefit of the rose-colored daydreams we create before the trip than for what the actual place can offer.  We often find what we seek in an adventure in its anticipation while the true landscape of our destination is as humble as home.

...But maybe with a few bells and whistles attached.

The postcard became an intriguing structure of romance and simplicity.

The 4 x 6 two-dimensional box that halfheartedly attempts to encapsulate a fluid locale.  

What's included and excluded on that flat glossy plane dictates opinion and perception as far as the postage will send.

Thesis Pieces - PART THREE

 Using my new set of symbols, I began sketching scenes of restraint and release. The perceived constriction of home, work, community, etc. are often the catalysts of travel. Without the contrast of home freedom doesn't taste as sweet. And the transformation is less profound.

I also began to study the shift of perception that occurs in daily and vacation life. Depending on how you look at things, you might be covered in flowers or buried in thorns.

If pattern represents a culture as a whole, is there a way to show the individual within?

At times, I had to stop thinking and just mash symbols together.  Here, phenomenology might determine the image's meaning rather than tradition.

Thesis Pieces - PART TWO

I started researching symbols- personal, global, historical - as a way to try to understand culture. 

I looked for common icons as well as abstract ones, 

working to build a visual language.

These icons of the human network can describe the exotic, the hearth of comfort and kin, and a panorama of emotional states.  

As pictographs, ranging from the stop sign to constellations, they communicate on a level more basic and instinctual than words, towing along the history of its origins and appropriations.

Seeking or fleeing from culture is one of the great motivations of every adventurer.

Thesis Pieces - PART ONE

I have been hard at work on my thesis project.  

The theme is travel.  

Mainly why we travel and what sensations occur along the way.  

When you go, are you running away, finding home or trying on a new version of yourself?