Following

This is Strawberry Cookie Dough. Of course, this is not her real name. A matter of fact I don't even know her real name. This was the nickname I gave her because she was wearing a red jacket. And i decided that my subject would be some sort of cookie dough flavor. However, SCD(shortened) became my attention for an hour and a half crusade on Saturday leading from College Ave student center all the way to the ARC on Busch campus, and then the LSM Library on Busch.

After picking this lady for the project, I did my best to stay out of sight. Not even knowing where it would end, I sat in the back of the A weekend bus while SCD road along with me.

We eventually ended up at the ARC and I continued to use my Ninja-Camera skills (learned from a previous life) to document her. We ended up in LSM after a short walk from the ARC and she headed upstairs. Not wanting to be too noticeable, I did the same, but with a much slower pace. Unfortunately i forgot to bring a book-bag or even a book so I may have seemed obvious.

After going upstairs, I seemed to have lost SCD and had to scan the entire floor via sneaky isle shifting for her. Once I found her again, this time seated at the end of her journey, I took the last picture with again, Ninja-like precision and head home. I apologize for some blurry pictures as my auto focus has about a 2 second cast time.



I really liked this project because of the anonymous-ness(is that a word?) about it. It was interesting to think that SCD could have gotten off the bus and just ended up going into a dorm building, which would of lead to failure. Or she could have kept me on her trail for multiple hours if she had not sat down to study. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Put Something Somewhere, take 2.

This time around, I planned on doing my part in saving the world. Since public restrooms are pretty nasty, especially around Rutgers, I decided that I would help myself to making people think twice once they sit down to the do their business.

I looked up some statistics on public restroom related diseases (thanks, via Askmen.com), especially retaining to students. From this I created this document:

Did You Know

I then went around various buildings throughout College Ave and Busch campus posting them in the men's room (and a woman's room too with some help!), 10 in total. I tried not to place them in the same place in each stall, and only in one stall per bathroom, but mostly in the spot you look the most during your daydream*. Hopefully my crusade will get a few people to start washing their hands more often.

I plan to check back with a few of these places at the end of the week to see if any Graffiti has occurred or if they've been ripped down all together.

Questions for reading March 8th

1. We've talked a lot about History in this class and how history is made up by the "victor" (as Krzysztof suggests). He mentions in the beginning how if we were to "heal one voiceless stranger, then, [we would] heal the entire city". What do you think he means by this? Is reaching out to those who were the victims, the ones with the real stories, the real history?

2. Krzysztof goes on to talk about how strangers and nonstrangers have this separation in between each other; that the "local" is in somewhat 'fear' of the stranger and the stranger feels valueless to the society they have no entered. What is your experiences with this? For example, In class we talked a lot about how the Northeastern area (NJ, NY, etc) that we live in is very susceptible to that kind of behavior, even to other locals that are not immigrants. We talked about our personal space and how when someone tells us their experiences or 'life-story', that it becomes weird. Why is this?

3. When the author brings up multiple propositions to help mediate or mend the gap in between strangers and non strangers or the said and the unsaid, he says we need a communicative instrument. Now think for a couples minutes if everyone on the planet (yes all 90480398402482098 billion) had access to a facebook or something related type medium (possible a giant world-wide forum of sharing). If it was this easy do you think more stories would be told? New truths be uncovered? (through pictures, because we all know that pictures, wall posts, shared links etc, all tell a narrative of their own)

Put Something Somewhere.

This is President Charlie. Basically My one of my apartment-mates bought this for a Halloween decoration. As time went on, we progressively became attached to him and decided to not only name him, but dress him up with some Rutgers gear (and a hard-hat too!) The name President Charlie comes from the internet (of course), because we apparently never leave computer desk and we're not clever enough. Here is the video that the name comes from, although i don't suggest watching it in a school/work environment.

My roomates and I decided that the corner of the livingroom did not suit President Charlie too well so we decided that it would be better suited if we put him in the window. This way, people could think that they are being watched when they drive by, or walk by the apartment windows. During the night it looks more like a shadowy-figure. I dont know, maybe we're a little immature, but we like to hide behind it and yell a lot of [nice] things at people passing by.