Space..with some memory
Yesterday I sat in one chair for a few minutes...like 5. I watched as everyone (in different intervals) around me came around the corner on their way around the 'circle' with a look of complete confussion paired with an apprehensive stroll or a determined scowl with a fast pace walk. The circle is the trek from 606 Elm St. through 608 Elm St. and covers the kitchen, store, library, back hall, fabric workshop, bathroom, back door, alley and back into the kitchen door. The flow is constant with stops along the way including the toy bind, the hardware store, and many other stations that are set up to find some order in the chaos. I thought of my grandfather, whom notoriously sets down his cup of coffee only to lose it almost immediately. (He generally proceeds to drink from an old cup..luckily they are still there from days past) This is the way I feel here. I put something down and it gets swallowed. It MAY still be in the same spot and my eyes can not locate it through all the other fasinating and changing objects. The other senerios is that someone has come along right behind you and picked up that object. People have free rein to collect, move, recollect, remove all day (and late into the night) until their hearts content. It is amazing to see things shift around the place. I will grab something and find a home for it then I will see it in a new place in the course of the day. This creates two buildings full of people constantly asking if anyone has seem so and so. It also makes me feel crazy like maybe I never really had that object in the first place.
At first, I was hording....feeling like I might need that screw driver later so I will set it in a place and make a mental note. This system is not in the spirit of elsewhere. It is un avoidable that things stay and that you rememebr all the mental notes you ahve made. It feels likthe way I image people with no short term memory feel.
Also, if you set something down, there really is a chance it will be lost... but not for always. I heard the happy yells of Sarah Lee yesterday as she found her Tammy Fay Baker book. All of this is a constant episode of the childhood game Memory... but a bit more confussion with the addition of 11 other people moving the pieces everytime you leave the room to go to the bathroom. You make a mental note of somethings placement, and someone has moved the object of your specified marker within the course of the afternoon.
The search of things is how I spent yesterday....walking in the circle and looking for my lost coffee (or scissors in my case). I did discover a beautiful little closet that I am going to inquire about today. Maybe I can fill it with these stuffed characters that are in my mind and coming to life on my desk...picture to follow. I am also still struck by these piles of clothes and have picked out a weeks worth that I think I will wash and wear next week then tag and box. My final idea is the Light Works Shelf. I am rewiring lights and making a shelf home for them to live. I was in desperate need of light in the space upon arrival so maybe a set place for the rewired lamps will help out the next round of incoming folks. I will track the time it takes inthe next 4 weeks to move and dissiminate through the space. So those are the things I am thinking about this morning.......
ps. The best part of elsewhere is that we are all operating as busy ants building the mound.
