BENCH
“We are always attentive, depending on what is taking our attention. It may seem others have become de-sensitized but their attention is just elsewhere. We only value what we attend to. Our senses create this transaction of value and shape our experience. Effecting the nature of our lives.”
The Bench was made from walnut, with traditional Sashimono joinery. A classic mortise and tenon with wedge connection for the support beam. Tongue and groove joints for the backing connecting down to the seat with another mortise and tenon wedge connection.
I have taken satellite view imagery of the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands, some of the largest agriculture farms in the United States, located in Texas and Oklahoma using Google Earth’s online tool. I transferred the imagery onto the bench using an Acetone technique. I have also transferred the same imagery onto a public bench. A metro stop bench. The imagery of the grasslands is meant to appear as if decaying. Meant to bring attention to the industrialization happening in our agriculture industry.
These grasslands are still in use, growing and changing but working with the environment, rather than abusing it. I want to bring attention to this symbiotic relationship.
The purpose of presenting this imagery on both my bench and the public bench was to first create an awareness of how objects and patterns orient our experience, then by bringing attention to our own daily spaces and how those have been created and affected overtime by our attention.
Our involvement with objects depends on the situation and our perception of that object. The bench is a structure built and categorized by us for a place of rest, to sit, wait, to feel content.
As we experience this object we naturally assume it’s purpose and act on that. What if we stopped and thought about what directed that decision?
By becoming aware of the signifier, meaning, physical object. In combination with its signified context; this extraction from the experience gives insight into our perception of the object. We can use this awareness to understand our perception in order imagine another.
The ability an object has to direct a person’s experience relies on both the individual and the objects historical and contemporary affordances and perceptions.
The Field Study booklet provided, Is there to create awareness of the objects in these environments that help create our experience. The materials, timeline of the structures and unstructured objects. Through detailed imagery and annotations.
08/15/16
36°5710.56 N 101°58°54.40 W
10/03/16
36°46’50.24”’N 102°09’18.12” W
10/03/16
36°46’50.24”’N 102°09’18.12” W
eye alt 13.05 mi
