Project One: Lost and Found



In our lives we can find meaning in everyday things and activities. Through the actions of traveling, working, and interacting with others we create our paths of life. However, we quite often fall into the trap of letting our everyday become routine, we rely on having everything planned in advance, and our schedules are repeated day in and day out, this can make life seem dull, finding pleasure in it becomes a challenge.

We spend so much of our lives trying to find the right direction; searching for that path, our path. We are uncomfortable when we lose our way and are sometimes ashamed to admit when we are lost. But who’s to say any path we take isn’t that path? Maybe the journey is the destination.

For this project we would like to get lost.

Pilgrimage is usually associated with religious and spiritual meaning. Merriam-Webster also defines a pilgrimage as the ‘course of life on earth’. It is a physical journey taken with the hope that we find something within ourselves, whether it be spiritual, moralistic, or emotional. By forcing ourselves to physically “get lost” we not only hope to confront the panic that often comes along with it, but wish to represent the “course of life“ and the meaning and pleasure we should find in it regardless of how it leads us.

Through not having a structured environment we will be forced to make the most of our unfamiliar surroundings. We will find meaning in the journey, and will create art from the objects that we often take for granted. We are starting a pilgrimage to find meaning in our lives, wherever the path may lead us, and make art through our experience.

For this project we will embark on a journey leaving The College of New Rochelle on November 16, 2005 and returning on November 20, 2005. Other than the amount of time spent on the road, this trip is not planned; the entire route will be created through chance. Our direction, miles, and time spent driving will be determined by a spinner (see scraps). We will make the first spin in the morning, and drive until that directive is complete, we will then rest. At these rest areas we will build a marker from the materials that we find located in that environment. Whether it will be a forest or a factory we will create art from the items found at the site. However, we will also leave a part of ourselves at these sites. Our own creations will be incorporated into the site specific pieces that we had started before our trip to reflect us. At the conclusions of the trip we hope to have completed at least ten pieces, two for each day that we have spent on the road being lost and finding our way back home.

At the location of the works, we will leave the address of this page so that individuals who come across the work will be able to find out more about it. The website will have information to link them to this mission statement so they can understand the reasoning behind the work and give the individual who may have found our piece the opportunity to contact us and talk to us about our work. All the locations of the pieces will be unknown until the end of the trip. We plan to keep a daily detailed journal and record all our feelings and thoughts for that day which will also be posted on the website after the completion of the pilgrimage.

The work will be documented through digital images, audio recordings and some video that will all be incorporated in the final installation of the piece. To complete the final installation we will also display items that we collected from the places that we installed our work. Since we will be leaving a part of ourselves, and we will be becoming part of the work we will also be taking something away; a memory of the piece, the place and the emotion. (see scraps for proposed installation sketch).