Several years ago I took an art course in creating memory boxes in the Joseph Cornell style. I was lucky to be able to attend a Cornell exhibit in Washington DC around the same time. His work in using found objects to create vibrant memories and metaphors still intrigues me today. Check out this unique website that captures his life and art in a metaphorical box.
During week 3 of the #edcmooc class, I was trying to think about what image I would put up on Flickr. I always have many images and metaphors floating around that make me think of learning and networking, but I was stuck on the future images and metaphors that I saw in weeks 1 and 2. They seemed so harsh and hard – the machine – the robot – the borg of the future. I may have missed it but I did not see the tremendously exciting future that may come into being with the marriage of biology and computing where the results are more natural – green – growing – connecting like neural networks or trees and vines. And that reminded me of my future memory box – it has no real name but I think of it as the future urban city where plants and machines are interconnected. When I created it, I tore apart an old computer and intertwined it with the beauty of growing plant life and the mysteries of the universe. It is interactive in that there is a transparent gate to the city and the metal hand that moves around the box to welcome and perhaps confound visitors when compared with the funky green hands that represent humanity in the city. In the picture below, the gate is down and the path is open for all to enter.
I have found new meaning in my nameless box. But now I want to pull out all my found objects (the flotsam and junk of an urban society) and create new boxes based on what I have been experiencing in #edcmooc. That will not happen before the class is over – I need time to process and touch and move and group the found objects into whatever comes out of my experiences. But what fun to relive the #edcmooc experience and learn what I missed as I create new future memories.
Future Memory Box
Thank you for introducing me to the work of Joseph Cornell! I’m looking forward to seeing what the edcmooc box will look like. What “objects” you could use…
Sara, I’m so glad I could introduce you to Joseph Cornell. I had forgotten about the box website and it was such fun to relook it based on the new experiences in edcmooc. I think it puts a lot of the human back in the harsh futures we’ve been thinking about. Also check out the events. If you ever get a chance to see his work in 3D, you should go. The dimensionality and the completeness of the art on all sides is a key part of what brings it to life.
wow, what a stunning website, to represent such terrific work – thanks so much for sharing this Kelcy, love it to bits
What a nice way of doing this. I love the picture and the story behind it, the human side.
Agree with above posters. I felt calmer about the future after reading your post! Having had our heads in dystopias and cyborgs and so on, it was refreshing to think of the ways we can use technology to be in harmony with the world rather than it creating tension or anxiety. I really liked your Fuutre Memory box too.
Chris