Summer Research - David Letterman, Paper Cups

One cup = one completed show

Collection of one object recording the passing of time, and a career. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/arts/television/david-letterman-reflects-on-33-years-in-late-night-television.html

Summer Research - Theories, Narrative Exposure Therapy

'Only through an externalisation of the feelings, abuse and distrust, will true healing occur'

'As narratives are an integrative part of every culture, NET is a culturally universal short-term intervention for the reduction of traumatic stress symptoms...NET is a form of exposure that encourages traumatised survivors to tell their detailed life history chronologically to a skilled councillor or psychotherapist who will record it, read it back, and assist the survivor with the task of integrating fragmented traumatic memories into a coherent narrative'

- Proves the importance and benefits of externalising life events, whether traumatic or otherwise

- Sees life in narrative structure, recording chronologically as a method of understanding and processing experiences

M, Schauer, F, Neuner, T, Elbert (20050, Narrative Exposure Therapy: A Short-Term Intervention for Traumatic Stress Disorders after War, Terror, or Torture, Hogrefe & Huber, USA

Summer Research - Ephemera

http://www.ephemerasociety.org/def.html

'Maurice Rickards, the famous authority on ephemera and noted scholar, suggested that for collectors of printed material, the word refers to “minor transient documents of everyday life". The use of the word “transient” implies that once these printed items had served their intended function, they were “generally expected to be discarded.”'

'Ephemera may be primary evidence documenting an historical event'

'Ephemera may be a way in which a particular social attitude of the time is evinced'

'Ephemera, as artifacts of history, inevitably contains facts, prejudices, and other aspects(such as language, art and social organization) reflecting their particular time and place'

'Ephemera is revered not only for its content, but also for the beauty of its presentation'


- Collecting ephemera is documenting life, the nature of them both fleeting and impermanent 

- It serves as records of past and present that would otherwise get lost and discarded 

- Each item can preserve a number of different information i.e. economic climate, travel habits, cultural icons etc 

Summer Research - Bobby Puleo, Ephemera Collector

Bobby Puleo - Clues About The Rest Of The World from Tobin Yelland on Vimeo.

'Certain people would look at it and be like it's a fuck up that somebody tossed. I'll look at it and be like that is everyday life taken out of context, and that in itself makes it interesting or beautiful or art'

- Grouping found objects, transforming them into something new through a collection

Summer Research - Mass Observation

- Social research organisation founded 1937 to create an 'anthropology of ourselves

- Recruited a team of observers and investigators to go out into the public and observe and record every day people's behaviours, conversations and lives

- Had National Panel of Diarists who kept regular diaries or responded to a number of open-ended questionnaires on a variety of topics and subject matters

- Generated and archived people's history up until 1949, the archive being held at University of Sussex

Projects such as Mass Observation are crucial in preserving social and cultural history. They offer an invaluable resource for learning about our society in the past, how it has changed over time. Without it, a lot of the information would have been lost. 

Summer Research - Liev Schreiber & Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

- Collecting objects from family history

- Three dimensional documentation

- Not about the aesthetics of the objects but their connections

- Where drawing and writing 'captures' life's history, the objects are life's history

- The objects are made into capsules of the past, their functions no longer as intended

‘Just as the function of dreams is to ensure the continuity of sleep, objects ensure the continuity of life’ - Jean Baudrillard

Summer Research - On Kawara, I Got Up/Date Paintings/I am Still Alive

- Mundanity and simplicity

- Connecting with people & sharing, social aspect

- Seemingly unimportant

- Existence

- Non intimate and objective

Summer Research - Ed Ruscha, Gasoline

-‘Travel Log’ documenting journey/space between L.A and Oklahoma

- Snapshot style, not overly-considered/labored over, just captured

-‘Reporter’

- Series, tells journey through one selected aspect

- Shows subtle differences between place and time

- How much is he actually exploring in the end? Just carrying on project for the sake of it?

Summer Research - David Lemm, Mapping Kings Cross

- Monthly

- Combines simple written observations & abstract images

- Incoherent, structured only by time (month)

- Objective

- Record of artist’s environment & relation to it

- Mapping not just a physical space but also a passing of time

Summer Research - Charlotta María Hauksdóttir, Outlook

- Series taken over Autumn months 2015

- Documents subtle changes & passing of time in single place

- Relationship between life inside/outside window & current affairs on pin board

Summer Research - Hachette Book Group, David Sedaris Diaries

Summer Research - American Scholar, How to Write a Memoir

https://theamericanscholar.org/how-to-write-a-memoir/#.W6O7PbGZNn5

'Writers are the custodians of memory, and that’s what you must become if you want to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into'

'Too often memories die with their owner, and too often time surprises us by running out.'

'Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one of its satisfactions is that it allows you to come to terms with your life narrative. It also allows you to work through some of life’s hardest knocks—loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure—and to find understanding and solace.'

'That was my remembered truth, and that’s how I wrote it.'

'...writing a memoir became an act of healing.'

Summer Research - NYR Daily, The Lost Art of Postcard Writing

'...cards require a verbal concision that can rise to high level of eloquence: brief and heart-breaking glimpses into someone’s existence, in addition to countless amusing and well-told anecdotes.'

Summer Research - BBC News, Why I Secretly Recorded my Life

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19546096

'Mark: It's not that I'm afraid I'm going to say something I will regret and you will play it for someone. It's that life is temporal and fleeting. 

Me: Doesn't that make you want to record every moment of your life? 

Mark: No! I like that my life is fleeting. Posterity is only good in certain doses.'

Summer Research - Starting Point

OBSERVING/DOCUMENTING LIFE

What to explore -

- Why people record and document their lives

- Different ways people document experiences

- Importance of preserving life

- Social and cultural impacts of documenting

- Comparisons between creatives and ordinary people