Projects:Urban Deposition Definition
Here's an idea I've had based on my curiosity about objects that seem out-of-place. It is in a similar vein as Found Magazine, but for items that are incapable of telling their own stories the way that letter and photos can. Buckshot 16:35, 6 July 2007 (EDT)
Contents |
Underlying issues
This project could be part of a greater science to be called concurrent archaeology. In archaeology, researchers are required to analytically determine the cultural meaning behind deposited articles. Often there is a large cultural gap between the researcher and the person who left the object behind. Similarly, there is a cultural gap (whether great or miniscule) between the depositer and the recoverer in this exercise. Urban Deposition Definition helps the recoverer try to reduce her cultural lens in an attempt to understand the meaning of the urban deposit and, more importantly, the depositer.
Sample topics
Lonely hair
Often there is a lone, long hair in the men's room. I know that no long haired men use that restroom.
- Does the custodian have long hair?
- Does the hair belong to a friend of a short-haired user of the restroom and get carried in as a stow-away on the clothes of said user?
- Have I seen more than one hair, or does this hair continually evade brooms and mops?
Jay's Potato Chips bag
There is a bag from BBQ Jay's Potato Chips in the window well of my apartment.
- How long has this been there? I know it's been there for longer than 2 years.
- Who enjoyed these chips?
- What kind of mood were they in when they ate the chips?
- Why did they choose to throw the bag on the ground instead of carrying to one of the many public receptacles (or did it blow out of such a basket)?
Discussion
at an armchair level, this could really never be more than the softest of sciences, i think. it's all so speculative! i love it. George 16:59, 6 July 2007 (EDT)
exactly. the definer could try to be as sterile/hard science as possible or as creative as possible. i feel like it works on a number of different levels, from high school creative writing topic generator to an actual social science method. Buckshot 17:06, 6 July 2007 (EDT)
how do you know that no long haired men use that particular restroom? or are there a general phenomenon of long hairs lurking in men's room's that I'm just not aware of? Ruby 21:27, 7 July 2007 (EDT)
it's kind of off the beaten path in an area utilized by only about a dozen male denizens, all of whom have shorter hair. anywhere else, a long hair is unremarkable, but in that supposed bastion of privacy, it seems out of place. Buckshot 10:12, 8 July 2007 (EDT)
On the potato chips; do you think that the mood of the chip eater and their possible choice to discard it on the ground are connected? I wonder what their general attitude was/is about litter... Was it a neglectful action, or if they did throw it in a trash can and it blew out would they have picked it up again if they noticed? Would they come back to clean it up if they knew it was there? This is fun... Ruby 11:59, 11 July 2007 (EDT)
I like your new questions. I now imagine someone who is a devoted environmentalist/macrobiotic who had a really bad day and in a fit of rage ate a bag of BBQ chips and threw the bag on the ground. "I'm fed up with it all!" she said storming off toward Mulligan's to continue the brooding streak of self-pity/-loathing. Fast-foward to a morning full of regret and foggy memories of dietary misjudgement and littering. Groggily, she walks back to the scene of her recent errors. The bag has since blown into the grated window well, out of her sight and out of her reach. She laments her actions; the phantom wrapper an intangible talisman of her actions and a constant reminder to be strong in the future. While for me, the bag is simply an ear-sore that provided a gentle rattling sound in the rain.
This is a prime example of the totally unscientific version of Urban Deposition Definition discussed above. Buckshot 09:28, 12 July 2007 (EDT)
A more objective approach could involve dating the package (probably the company could distinguish the year of that design) and find out what area stores carried it (whether or not they still do, or are even still there). The clientele of these stores could be averaged and could provide at least a somwhat realistic frame for the chip eater. The path of the chips would still be unknown, however, unless the potential chip eater also fit the profile of someone inclined to litter or not litter, respectively. But that's a lot more work than imagining disillusioned macrobiotic/environmentalists, which is also reasonably plausable. Everyone has their own unique stuggles in life, after all. Ruby 11:23, 14 July 2007 (EDT)