Micki will erect a make-shift home fashioned out of cardboard in honor of a playhouse her father built for her as a child. She will sit outside the hut and smile at every person walking by, until a passerby’s curiosity gets the best of him or her and they approach her cardboard memory incubator. The hut contains her hope chest, filled with vials within which she has collected; grass clippings, ocean water, wet dog hair, old spice cologne and a variety of other scents of her choice. Should it arise visitors may be asked to donate or exchange memories during their visit.
Date: Dec 5, 2008Start Time: 12:30pm
Duration: 3 hours
Location: Library Walk
Tags: affect, memory, notes, scent, sensation
3 Comments
Notes was a fascinatingly subtle intervention into a public space that brought to mind the type of feelings that arise when entering into another individual’s personal space, such as a home, an office, a car, for the first time. Children often use ‘cardboard houses’ as a first foray in defining personal space and creating a space where that child is in control of who or who is not allowed to enter. By using the cardboard house of childhood the viewer/user is reminded of this, which was evident by the interest that kids took in the box situated along library walk during the SOMETHING is HAPPENING event. This childhood structure seemed to be an effective way to affect responses in the viewer/user that would assist in the recollection of memories that the contents of the box was supposed to invoke as well as create personal intimacy between Micki and her guest. This allowed the guest to feel more comfortable in discussing the memories brought to mind by scents presented inside the box.
-David White