thesis thinking 01

I have two ideas for thesis so far. Is it worth describing them in writing? I feel like I’m standing in my bathing suit in front of a cool body of water, unwilling to jump. Will it really make a difference if my foot is in the water? 

writing can’t hurt.

chronologically, here they are:

a drawing center in williamsburg,brooklyn.

a drug and alcohol rehab, somewhere along the am-track Boston/NY line, walking distance from the train station. On the water maybe.  

I’d like to have a third idea.  I’ll probably be asked to come up one.

Thinking of what these two ideas have in common points to what I’m interested in. Something about the body, habits and rituals, balance and how architecture can play a part in how we see ourselves, as individuals (architecture and how we see ourselves as a society is a whole other story) I very much want to concentrate on the individual’s experience and give myself the opportunity to work on a small scale. 

That’s all. I think that’s a big toe in the water. maybe.

maybe not the last post~

This was my fifth semester here at MIT and the  first one I actually enjoyed. All the courses I took seemed unrelated but they fed each other in rich and unexpected ways. This course, Sensing Place, was a major player in shaping my thinking and seeing and it influenced my approach to the other subjects both through it’s content and it’s rhythm and attitude. 

From the very beginning I realized that the work for this course was going to demand that I slow down and venture below the surface that my first two years had kept me spinning on. 

A  lot of emphasis so far had been given to quantity of production and iterations of an idea, not it’s development. Also, I had acquired some really nasty photographic habits from documenting sites without any regards for framing etc. Most significantly, I felt that since arriving at MIT I had not been able to complete a thought. Everything I had produced was either based on half baked ideas or a good idea that was hardly decipherable through sloppy, last minute presentation documents. 

The light journals were an amazing introduction to the course. Having to stop and observe the light around me several times a day for weeks not only connected me to my surroundings but also to my schedule. It forced me to work steadily instead of obsessively, a little at a time, not a bunch the day before class. The first reading assignments  also had a patient tone to them. They talked about the planning and the timing  that can be involved in getting the ‘right’ image. Throughout the month of september I had the sunrise and sundown times posted on my desk and as I continued to write the light journals these numbers on the sheet accumulated meaning: light and dark of course but also warm or cool, hazy or crisp, long shadows or short…

 I’d like to continue this essay about the wonderful experience that taking this class has been and if I do it will be later this week. My head really hurts, I’m sick today.

For now I  want to express how valuable it is has been for me to have had the opportunity to spend time on a project that had a well defined scope and wonderful professor and team of classmates to learn from and share the work with.  

I hope that I will remember this as I advance towards putting together the subject matter and the people that will  be part of my thesis experience next year. I’m thinking that perhaps continuing this blog could be a way to help me remember…