Tutorial Notes

- "unnecessary labour" pieces would work if I were able to put in more time than I actually have
- the other side of the idea (i.e. "refusal to work") would fit better if the piece has to be created in less time
- reclaim laziness - efficiency, fight against the idea that work is necessary

"Art"

YES:
pain
labour

NO:
feeling okay
efficiency

11/12/2014 2

While I have nothing to say, I guess other people do.

11/12/2014

I think it's difficult trying to make something that moves on from the first piece I made this term, because it says exactly what I wanted to say. And I think the point was that I had nothing else to say. I might recreate it without mounting it, since it's about the action of making it. I think it needs to be presented while it is being made, or giving the impression that it is still being made.

Ideas

- first piece - remake without mounting, leave needle in - make it clearer that it refers to the process of its creation, possibly display sitting on a surface so it's clear that it's a piece of fabric from afar - essentially this piece worked best if you saw it while I was making it, so mounting it and making it look flat and finished detracted from it
- dates piece - remove embroidered "title" and replace with something else that hints at the need for "productivity"
- Translation show piece - needs to be more polished and/or elaborate, make it clearer that time was invested

Shower Log Idea - Practical Problems

- I was intending for it to count as a "yes" for the day even if the shower was technically after midnight.
- This would have been the same even if it were several hours after midnight, as long as I hadn't gone to bed yet.
- This presents a problem: today I have decided not to go to bed since it's starting to look too daytime-ish.
- I guess I'll have to count things between whenever I've decided the day should start/end, so a day ends when I go to bed for the night (regardless of whether or not it's still technically night-time), and begins when I wake up. Naps do not end or start a day. A new day begins if I decide to scrap the idea of sleeping.
- However, I'll run into a problem if I get tired too early today from the skipped night of sleep, and as a result have a nap which ends up being long enough that on waking up I decide that I should treat it as a new day. This will confuse things, as it will be ambiguous - does that nap count as a night of sleep or a nap?
- I could log sleep AND showers, but then the work starts to drift away from my original intentions.
- I could just log the showers based on the actual date, but then it feels inaccurate if I shower a bit past midnight then go to bed (it will count as a skipped shower).
- I could start my log again and plot it on a timeline.
- A timeline would be less appropriate since it is not about number of showers over time, or about how spread out they are. It is more "all-or-nothing." Did you shower? Yes, you win, or no, you fail.
- Conclusion so far: if I decide to finish my day and I haven't showered for that day, I tick "no," and if I have, I tick "yes." This is the case whatever time I decide to finish the day and whether I decide to finish it by sleeping or by deciding not to sleep. I will just have to record this over a period where my "days" do not get dramatically out of sync (i.e. my sleeping pattern can be shifted badly, but I won't have six twenty-eight-hour days instead of seven twenty-four-hour days).

Notes On Next Piece

- log of whether or not I shower each day
- overemphasis of certain rituals
- rituals as having an impact that is larger than just the obvious physical consequences
- rituals which have temporary consequences being seen as significant to the point of having consequences that are not temporary (if I do not shower today, the physical consequences such as discomfort stop existing if I shower the next day, but the idea of "being a person who does not shower every day" matters to some people)