Final Project: Direction

When thinking about just how to represent “direction”, one of the first ideas that came to mind was that of road signs, mostly because road signs are perhaps the most universally recognized set of directions. With their bright, flashing colors and larger size, they catch the viewer’s eye almost immediately- so that the viewer can follow whatever direction is given basically instantaneously. For my project, I was interested in applying this concept to the line- and thereby giving passerbys specific sets of directions about the line, in a form they would easily recognize. So, I decided to created “road signs” ( or “line signs”) that apply directly to the line, and all of it’s physical elements:

         

Word-Line Exploration

Description:

To explore ‘direction’ to it’s fullest, I decided to do so both on the line and in my blog. To do so on the line, I took nine panorama images, since panoramas show all directions from one viewpoint. I then connected this to my blog: clicking on a letter in the word ‘direction’ leads you to a new direction- one of the panoramas, which shows you another set of directions!

Word Definition

DIRECTION:

So as to best understand the word “direction”, I decided to try and find as many definitions as I could and post the best, most explicit, of these definitions here:

Direction:
noun \də-ˈrek-shən, dī-\
1. a course along which something or some one moves.
“she set off in the opposite direction.”

2. the course that must be taken in order to reach a specific destination.
“he had a terrible sense of direction.”

3. a point to or from which one person or thing moves

4. a general way in which something or some one is developing.
“They’re moving in new directions in painting and architecture.”

5. the management and guidance of some one or something. “under his direction the business has flourished”

Thought Bubble:

I thought that perhaps the best way to really understand “direction” was to understand how it relates to me. In result, I made a “thought bubble”, where I wrote down everything that reminds me of ‘direction’, and continue writing down things that those words remind me of and so on, until I fill the page, as shown:

Pictures of Direction:
              

         

Exploring the Line

Quantitative Line Exploration:
As part of my “exploration of the line”, I decided to explore the line quantitatively- both because I felt like there weren’t going to be many explorations of similar subject matter and also because I was interested in the more physical properties of the line: just how big of a space it is defining, it’s placement both locally and globally, etc. In result, I did a few calculations, and this is what I discovered:

• The line is 1 mile long and 5 ft wide.
• There are 29,100 square ft in the line
• There are 3,801,600 square inches in the line
• There are 33, 368 lines in the town of Alfred
• There are 57523,7529 lines in the state of New York.
• There are 4,0006, 423,442 lines in the U.S.
• If you walked the line 82.3 times you’d walk the distance from Alfred to Rochester
• If you walked the line 96 times you’d walk the distance from Alfred to Buffalo
• If you walked the line 2,811 times you’d walk the distance from Alfred to the west coast.
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• If you walked the line approximately 489 times, you’d walk the distance from Alfred to the east coast.
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• If you walked the line 87.5 times, you’d walk the distance from Alfred to the Canadian border
• If you walked the line 2,008 times, you’d walk the distance from here to the Mexican border.
• If you walked the line 24,900 times, you’d walked the distance around the earth.
• Approximately 3,150 people could fit on the line, lying shoulder to shoulder.
• Approximately 14,550 could stand shoulder to shoulder within the line.
• If  the line were to continue all the way around the earth, it would pass through:–Glenoran, Australia
  -Kondanin, Australia
  -McArthur, Australia
  -Karp, Papua New Guinea
  -The Bismarck Sea
  -The western side of the Marshall Islands
  -Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada

-Kootenay National Park, right outside of Calgary, Alberta, CA
-Langdon, North Dakota
-Chisholm, Minnesota
-Lake Superior 
-Lake Michigan      
-Lake Huron
-Edison, Pennsylvania
-Right outside of Buffalo

Images from the Line:

           

           

          

The Line at Night:

The stars are almost entirely gone from the sky- I can only see a few peaking out from behind a cloud, towards the east. A black sky. The lampposts guide my way through campus, glowing yellow orbs. It’s warm for September, a light breeze rustles the tree branches. I can hear cars from the highway: far away, people traveling. Laughing, coming from somewhere to my left. And a cricket chirping loudly, lost somewhere in the trees. It smells like autumn- fallen leaves, the beginnings of a frost, earth. The farther I get from campus, the quieter it becomes- my footsteps increasingly becoming the loudest sound, disrupting the nighttime, carrying me across the line.

Personal Territory Tour

A. Image of Personal Territory Boundaries:
- Personal Territory is 5 ft, in all directions, from the base of the tree trunk.

B. 50 Things:

1. In the center of my territory is a maple tree.
2. The boundary of my territory is 5 ft around the trunk of the maple tree.
3. Hence, my territory is a circle.
4. The maple tree’s leaves have started to change color much earlier then that if the surrounding trees.
5. My territory is at an incline, at about a 45 degree angle.
6. There are many leaves in my territory.
7. The leaves aren’t just red or brown, but have shades of yellow, orange, green, black, grey, white, vermillion and even magenta.
8. There is a small bed of moss right at the base of the tree.
9. The moss is prickly, not like the typical “soft and squishy”
10. The tree trunk is rough and scaly.
11. The trunk is covered with an almost sea foam green fungi, that actually looks similar to kelp in shape.
12. There is also a small patch of thick, green moss at the base of the trunk.
13. Dried grass, probably from a lawn mower, has stuck to the trunk.
14. The bark splinters from the trunk easily.
15. There is also a few small spots of a white, lumpy fungus growing towards the base of the tree.
16. Besides grass, there are also dandelions, clovers, little white flowers, little purple flowers and tiny yellow flowers growing in my territory, along with many other plants.
17. The vermillion of the fallen leaves and the green grass make for complimentary colors!
18. The trunk is large enough that you cannot fit your arms around it.
19. The tree is actually at a slight angle, leaning into the hill.
20. The trunk itself isn’t just brown, but has shades of grey, yellow, light orange, black and even some pale pink.
21. You can circle the tree in 8 steps or less.
22. On one side of the tree, there is a brightly colored, almost golden fungi growing
23. Near the golden- yellow moss, at the base of the trunk, there are about 5-6 mushrooms: small, light brown, “umbrella” shaped and smooth to the touch.
24. There is a very small offspring of the maple, a few feet away from it’s base.
25. The roots branch farther out on one side of the tree.
26. My territory smalls like dried leaves, grass and (faintly) laundry detergent.
27. From my territory, I can see across the way to Alfred State.
28. There presumably an anthill in my territory.
29. If you sit at the base of the tree and look up, it appears to be a much larger tree then from farther away.
30. They say that a tree’s roots are just as intricate and developed as it’s beaches, if not more so. In that case, my territory is situated upon a very intricate system of roots.
31. My territory is in a fairly open area, making it receive a fair amount of sun.
32. You can see about twelve buildings when looking out from my territory.
33. Pieces of bark are starting to splinter and break off from the tree.
34. Towards the side facing Powell, about 5 ft from the base of the tree, the roots “resurface”, almost making it look like a tree stump.
35. Because my territory is an an incline, it is probably pretty difficult to mow.
36. If you listen closely enough, you can hear the highway.
37. As my territory seems to be in a windy areas, it reminds me of lines from a Sylvia Plath poem “From between two hills, a sudden wind funnels at me/ Gaping it’s phantom laundry in my face.”
38. If you look up at the tree from it’s base, it looks very similar to a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, “The Lawrence Tree”.
39. The tree is probably too high to climb.
40. Many branches of the tree look like they’re no longer producing leaves; the tree is probably 80-100 years old, so perhaps it is starting to die?
41. If the tree is 80-100 years old, there have probably been many Alfred students who have sat at it’s base, in “my” territory.
42. There are many bugs crawling around my territory- it probably serves as a life source to many organisms!
43. If you look out from my territory, you can see a mile away, if not more!
44. If the tree is a maple sugar tree it produces sap…I wonder if my territory has ever helped to make maple syrup.
45. When the tree was smaller, it was “climbable”. I wonder how many children that are now adults, if not elderly, have climbed this tree.
46. There are many discarded sticks around my territory, probably a result of the wind.
47. A few small patches of my territory are just dirt, not plants growing.
48. There is a leave build-up at the back of the tree.
49. If you look closely, there looks like a bird’s nest at the very top of the tree.
50. My territory makes for pretty good people watching, since you have a direct vie of some of the main campus pathways.

C. Explorations:

1. Exploration #17: Instant Sculpture (Adapted)
   “Consider that everything around you is a source for sculpture.” I used all materials found in my territory to create a sculpture: 
2. Exploration # 37: Time Observation
    

   
   

D. Images of Tour Guide:

    

Exploration # 44

“Alternate: Go to the library and create poems based on the titles of books.”

Maple Harvest:
It comes at the end of March, usually
But it depends on the frosts-
How long the biting winter will linger in Huntington,
How long until the snow will slowly inch back up the hill side,
White flag up in surrender.
We wait for it a good five, cold moths.
And so when it does come,
We can feel it-
A static, low vibration coming from the big maples by the river,
And smell it-
Sugary, earthy caramel.
And almost taste,
Taste that which will become the maple syrup.

Starter Vegetable Gardens:
It was the vegetable garden,
The starter vegetable garden,
That was best this year.
Cucumbers, sticky and prickly,
A plant like tangled yarn,
Yellow blossoms busting.
And the tomatoes,
Popping, drooping,
The plant so overburdened with fruit,
It is about to collapse.
And Nana’s acorn squash,
Silky, smooth, cool, green
On the outside,
But all golden sugar in the inside.
And the carrots,
Sweet, earthy savor,
Candy.
And the peas- a green, cascading waterfall, 
Violet blossoms,  
Crisp, snapping.
It was the starter vegetable garden that was best this year.

Alfred ’55:
They lived about a mile north of the library,
Up the hill past the Shaker farm,
With only a handful of neighbors.
In a small house the children had bought for them,
After they could no longer afford their own farm.
Max and Martha,
They were seventy-seven, both.
Martha still painted some, and gardened, playing bridge with Edith from down the road. .
Max worked on the house and gardened,
He’d started bird-watching last year, but had gotten bored.
The two had met 59 years before,
Freshmen year,
Alfred ’55!
Back then, it had all been a rush:
Martha painted wild pictures,
Using globes of vivid colors.
And danced,
Wearing cherry-pink lipstick,
To highlight her blond curls.
And Max had dominated the football field,
Quarterback.
Engineering when he could find the time.
Lights and glitter,
Athletics,
Arts and music,
Purple and Gold!
Now, they sip tea and do house chores,
Fretting that the grandchildren are being raised incorrectly.
But sometimes,
Here and there,
Martha puts on her cherry pink lipstick,
Max puts on the records,
And they take out the yearbook,
Remembering
Alfred ’55.

Exploration #16

“Create a simple survey of at least 5 questions. Give it to a sampling of people. Document the answers in a way that is interesting and readable.”

Questions:
1. If you could have a super-power, what would it be?
2. If you could have lunch with anyone, who would it be?
3. What is your favorite book?
4. If you could time-travel, where would you go?
5. What is your favorite smell?

• Respondent #1: 
  1. Flying
  2. My Grandpa
  3. The Truth About Forever
  4. Dinosaur Ages
  5. Freshly cut grass
• Respondent # 2 
  1. Telekinesis
  2. Andy Warhol
  3. Ender’s Game
  4. Woodstock
  5. Lilacs
• Respondent # 3
  1. Green Lantern
  2. Jeff Bridges
  3. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
  4. To the point where human beings have become extinct.
  5.  Cocoa butter
• Respondent # 4
  1. Telepathy
  2. My Aunt AE
  3. Fight Club
  4. NYC, in the 1900s 
  5. Gasoline
• Respondent # 5
  1. Telekinesis
  2. Erwin Rommel 
  3. Crash
  4. Medieval Ages
  5. Freshly cut wood
• Respondent # 6
  1. Ability to breathe anywhere
  2. Warren Buffet
  3. One Fish, Two Fish
  4. Ancient Greece
  5. Electric heaters
• Respondent # 7
  1.  Super strength
  2. Amelia Earhart
  3. Harry Potter Series
  4. Ancient Greece
  5.  Freshly made Creme-Brulee

Exploration #1

“Write ten things about where you are sitting right now that you hadn’t noticed when you sat down. Use your senses. Do it quickly.” 

1. It is a sort of “organized mess”- everything in this space is messy and cluttered, yet organized into piles of ‘junk.’

2. There is a faint, high-pitched humming noise, probably coming from the fluorescent lights.

3. The ceiling looks like plastered spaghetti.

4. There are 14 green objects within the room.

5. If you look at the rug long enough, it looks like an ocean, with the braided patterns portraying waves and the small pieces of paper and trash looking somewhat like boats.

6. There’s a faint fruity smell, probably coming from hair products.

7.  There are 23 different types of containers in this room.

8.  The ceiling is made up of 26 squares.

9. You can easily hear conversations coming from outside.

10.  There are seven clocks in this space.