The Pinnacle of The Line Journey

The final project.

Everyone you know, everyone you knew, and everyone you will meet- whatevever you know about them, and your entire relationship, began with an introduction. When I realized this, I began to look at the word “Introduce” not as the field, but as the door to get there. An introduction is the first step, the surface layer that leads to a deeper, fuller, and more substantial knowledge of who a person is (or what anything is, for that matter).

With that in mind, I set a collection of boxes out along the line. Each one had a question written on it, with paper available for people to answer. The questions were; “Tell me about your day,” “What is your greatest dream or ambition?” “What is your favorite thing to do?” “Make a quick sketch of yourself” “Decorate the paper however you want” and “Write a quick memory.” Most of these were placed in Harder hall or Cohen Studio, however, one unfortunate box got placed in the engineering building, and thus got no answers. What I draw from this is that Art students are undeniably and irrefutably better than engineering students, and that engineering students as a whole are boring.

However, I took the answers I recieved and recorded them, and projected them through a pot turned upside down. I decorated the inside of the pot with the sketches and decorated paper people put in the respective boxes, as to put faces to voices, as well as lend a more abstract introduction to each person’s own self-image, and how their mind works. As a whole, I wanted the project to show how the quantity of information and experiences that can be gained through something as simple as an introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YghJzJY5y0A&feature=channel_video_title

 

Final Project Proposals

My first idea (and also the idea I’ve chosen to run with) is something of a dome.

Introductions to new people, to new things, to new places, and new ideas are very surface-level. In an introduction, information is displayed, and given. It’s not coded, or analyzed, and it’s not more than the tip of the iceburg. But an introduction leads to all those things; an introduction to something is the baseline for getting to know it better. In order to delve into the mysteries and secrets of something, you first have to meet it. I wanted to capture this duality in reference to the line: what, after all, IS the line?

The outside of the dome (which I am using a large planter for) will be covered in photos of mundane, superficial sights on the line. Something that anyone could see walking down it; a basic overview. On the inside, however, will be representations of all the things it’s possible to learn about if you dig a little deeper: If you work with, and expand on the introductions you witness on it (And thus, be introduced to even new things). The people on the line, the things on the line, the places: they all have stories. And to tell them, I’ll use everything from paintings to ideas collected from the people themselves.

Idea #2: My second proposal was an installation. Two chairs, and little more than that, besides a set of instructions. I would set them out, and have people sit in them, and simply introduce themselves to each other. Weather they continued the conversation after that is up to them: the simple act of introduction letting the minds of the victims being to work, and process what the true nature of an introduction is.

Idea #3: My last idea is something of a Line-Cross-Over. There are so many different parts to the line: I would introdice one half of it to the other. For example, the polar opposite sides of the line are forest, and a parking lot. Following the idea, the parking lot (Cars in the form of hotwheels, and possibly cardboard/tin foil automobiles) would be introduced to the forest, where trees, leaves, and foliage would be inroduced to the parking lot, and so on with the corresponding parts of the line. The contrast would highlight how much environments so close to each other (Inside vs Outside, forest vs parking lot) are still such utter strangers.

The Line: As Defined by “INTRODUCE” Exploration #6

Another interpretation of “Introduce” is to bring something new in to an environment, life, or place.

Here, I photographed things I found that had to be introduced by a human presence.

 

The construction means a new building is being introduced to the Alfred State Campus:

The Line: As Defined by “INTRODUCE” Exploration #5

For one exploration, I took pictures of a name-tag with my name on it, and introduced it to the Line. The name tag, something that eliminates the need for an introduction on one side of an interaction, with the chipper phrase “Happy to Serve You” printed underneath, changes in meaning as it’s placed in different spots.

For example: the name tag with the sun behind it in this picture may make it seem sincere and helpful,

While in this picture it’s coming across more sarcastic, and possibly commenting on the idea of service people being treated more like a means to and end than people.

Here are some other situations I put the name tag in:

 

The Line: As Defined by “INTRODUCE” Exploration #4

After introducing myself to Ryan and Rochelle on A-State campus, and learning a little about how they met, I fabricated a likely possibile sequence of events that led them to go to college together. Here’s the story I came up with, it’s probably pretty accurate:

“This party is stupid.” He said, sitting on the couch next to his closest friends. Of course, he’s in college now, and this was back in high school: so he doesn’t actually remember the names of these people, or really what they looked like, or even if he liked them or not. He just really knew that they were friends at the time, and it’s all insignificant now anyway, because there’s really only one thing that they ever did for him. That he remembers. And it happened at this stupid party.

Let’s just call them Darth and Spock.

“Shut up, Ryan,” Spock said, playing some sort of video game, and apparently losing. “The girls haven’t gotten here yet.”

Ryan looked around the small-ish room of tenth-grade boys– sitting around with donuts and cheese-doodles playing video games in isolated groups around the T.V and computer– and hoped to himself that the girls would never get there.

Another twenty minutes passed. And Ryan changed his mind, he wanted at least someone interesting to talk to, and no one at that “party” was much into talking.

After yet another ten minutes, he couldn’t take it anymore. He exploded. “SPOCK! This party is stupid! You’re stupid! I hate your guts and I should never have made friends with you, I’m leaving!”

Well, at least that’s what he remembers saying, and he distinctly remembers storming out of the house and never associating with any of the ever again, but it went more like this:

“SPOCK!…”

Spock and Darth didn’t turn their heads from the T.V. Spock was winning now.

“I’m going to get like, a drink or something. Do you want anything?”

“Nah,” He said.

“Get me a soda.” Darth said.

“No.”

And he walked to the kitchen. At this point, he distinctly remembers climbing out the window, putting on his sun glasses, whipping out some sort of really, really clever pun, and riding away on his motorcycle with Natalie Portman sitting on the back.

Instead, he opened the cabinet, pulled out a glass, and winced as every other glass on all the other shelves came crashing down to the floor with it. Standing in the pile of broken glass, he peeked around the corner to the other room. None of them had moved.

So he searched the room for a broom, but could only find a dust pan. Walking around the house, stepping over guys with their faces in Gameboy DS’s, he found a vacuum. Dragging it into the kitchen, he found an outlet and began to clean up the glass. Just a few seconds after a particularly large chunk of broken glass got sucked up, the vacuum started to make some loud, crunching noises and tearing sounds. Panicked, Ryan tugged at the cord to unplug the machine. But he was having a difficult time, so he tugged harder. Before he really knew what was going on, the outlet burst into flames and the vacuum exploded. He looked into the other room, and none of the boys had moved.

Going to the sink, Ryan yelled to the other room; “Spock! When are your parents getting home?”

There was a pause. “I don’t know, like, maybe in a few hours.”

He turned on the water, and stretched the hose as far as it would reach. With sweat beading on his forehead, he pulled the trigger. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the water reach the flaming outlet, and he became slightly more anxious when the outlet sparked, fizzled, and then exploded into flames so high, the ceiling caught fire.

The door handle wiggled. Ryan froze.

Before he could so much as stop the flow of water from the hose, the door slammed open, and three girls walked in like they owned the place.

In the middle was probably the coolest girl in the tenth grade… Rochelle. He’d never met her, but he’d seen her in school, and he’d heard about her. It was love at first sight.

The other two girls went and did something. He doesn’t really remember, but it seemed like they vanished. Or maybe they were never actually there. It doesn’t matter. He also could’ve sworn she was wearing a skin-tight, black leather jumpsuit, but she always claims she was in a hoodie and jeans.

“Are we burning Spock’s house down?” She asked. And smirked. “Cool.”

They looked deeply into each others eyes for a moment, and then laughed.

“I think we should put it out.” She said, after they stood there for a minute or two. Or maybe it was longer. It was long enough to start getting kind of awkward.

“Why don’t you… try and find a way to put out the fire on the ceiling?” he asked, trying to be seductive.

“Alright,” she said, and sauntered by him. Bewitchingly.

It seemed like only a second she was gone, because he completely zoned out, thinking of the life him and his new soul-mate would have together.

But when she came back, she said “I turned on all the faucets upstairs. The water should come through and put out the fire down here… we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“You’re brilliant…” He sighed, and stroked her face.

“I know,” she said, smiling. And they walked out of the house together, holding hands.

They walked for a long time; all the way to the little park by the lake, looking at nothing but each other the entire way there.

“Rochelle?” Ryan said, getting down on one knee.

“Yes, Ryan?” She said, holding her heart.

“Will you… follow me to college?”

“Of course I will!” She screamed, jumping at him. They hugged each other so tightly, felt the bond they shared as if it were tangible, and heard each other’s heart beats. Or, they both remember it at each other’s heartbeats. In reality, it was a procession of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles with blaring sirens driving in the direction they had come from.

And they did, eventually, follow each other to college, after an entire high school career of bliss and togetherness. And, it seems apparent, that they continued their happily ever after in Alfred, New York.

The Line: As Defined by “INTRODUCE” Exploration #3

Because our words seemed to match so well, me and Schuyler did a collaborative exploration: where we combined her word with mine, and Dramatically Introduced me to people we met.

1. As Samantha got off the bus, she would never have suspected she would be tackled by a girl hollering in a british accent; “HAVE YOU MET MY FRIEND? YOU SHOULD MEET MY FRIEND, SHE’S LOVELY!” She took it rather well. We’ll be friends forever.

2 & 3. Next, we hunted down two boys making thier way innocently along. Shuyler again introduced me, and again, there was a real connection between me & Schuyler and Ed & Jacob. (Jacob was kind of quiet and awkward about it, but Ed played along nicely. Thanks, Ed.)

4. After feeling as though we sufficiently weirded out induviduals at A-state, we decided it was time to make an entire group uncomfortable simultaneously. As the bus pulled up to the stop, and let people out, me and Schuyler preyed on those that could not escape. We yelled out introductions (Still in a british accent) to every person that came off the bus. We got perhaps two waves in return, no names, and a plethora of odd, dirty looks.

5. After this crushing disappointment, I– in a desperate attempt to fulfill the longing in my soul for reciprocated social interaction– waved at a car full of people (A wave can be a simpler, more unofficial form of introdction). They stared at me, and drove away.

The Line: As Defined by “INTRODUCE” Exploration #2

After introducing myself to 10 people, it was time to mix it up. I asked the people I was explorating with to introduce me to people however they wanted, and this is how it affected my collection:

1. I ran into Hannah, who was also working on her “Line” project, and Valerie introduced me as such: “This is Stephanie Bahor, she’s from Ireland and loves pickles!” (Only the name part being true. I’m pretty sure Hannah wasn’t listening. And if she was, she didn’t believe Valerie.) We had a short conversation about the Line, and I ended up letting her borrow my camera to take pictures of her project (I learned that her word is “Tubular”). As before, our shared experience of Foundations significantly changed the introduction, and what the introduction led to.

2, 3, & 4. In Cohen Studio, we came across Dan, Kate, and Camille. Being over-enthusiastic, Stephanie and Valerie both introduced me as seperate people. Stephanie introduced me as an Ex-Convict (To which I got the reactions; “I can see it,” (referring to my face) and “Why’d you quit?”) Valerie introduced me as a reincarnated barbarian. But the three soon lost interest in my introduction, and moved on. (Camille escaped before I could take her picture, and Dan was completely unaware that a picture was being taken at all.)

5 & 6. To Schuyler and Belle, Stephanie introduced me as “A tree.” Because Schuyler was also doing her Line Project, and because her word was “Dramatic,” she said “A tree?! Thats BEAUTIFUL!” and then started to cry.

After this encounter, Stephanie became too shy to introdce me to anyone, because we were arriving on Alfred State campus, and I guess the poeple at A-State are pretty scary.

7 & 8: So when I ran into Ryan and Rochelle (I couldn’t take a photo of them), I first introduced myself, and then introduced them to each other. I also asked how they were first introduced: they met in high school through mutual friends at a party.