A friend recently asked me to describe my concept of mobility. After writing a few drafts of my ideas I realize I haven’t knocked it down to a glib one sentence witticism. I am still in the long description phase.

I will begin by saying that I describe myself as an artist who makes portable  sculptural artworks and template like formats for performance based works that are meant to be recreated again and again in different settings. I choose this way of working because I see that it mirrors the world and people in it- we move, change respond- our lives are based in change and fluctuation.

Since childhood, an interest in travel and people who travel out of leisure and necessity have been a point of fascination to me. This fascination stands as an informing contrast to humanities dueling romance between stability and the ephemeral. I have often considered the two motivations to be great rivals in the world and to manifest themselves in rivaling human beliefs and ambitions.

On one hand we have a segment of society who are driven towards STABILITY. This segment establishes homes, solid careers, cities, all shapes and forms of material construct (and emotional construct as well)  that are meant to quell anxieties concerning uncertainty in one form or another.  This impulse to me seems both logical and instinctual- serving as a nest egg of sorts that an individual can build from, and allowing for chances to be taken with a safety net below. Establishment of a seemingly stable structure in a person’s life can battle disquietude in both immediate uncertainties,(health and financial stability, comfortable housing) and abstract uncertainties ( well-being of the soul, happiness, love).

On the other hand, there is a segment of society who either by force or choice embrace change and fluctuation in ideals and lifestyle. I see this segment as one which mimics nature and CHANGE which seems to me a constant in the world, as we can know few other constants to be.  Those who accept this mode of living have largely become comfortable with living situations that involve renting (you can always go somewhere else), work that determines where one will live, the assumption that health will take care of itself, and that financial well-being does not need very much regulation but will be a matter of consideration as employment issues present themselves.

I think that many people partake of bits and pieces of each of these approaches, but for most, an over all observation of approaches to the world could be made and could accurately describe how a person has chosen to place themselves in relation to the world.

These two approaches to lifestyle, a change based approach and a stability based approach exist independently, but are each informed by the others existence. It seems that many people have chosen one approach and before describing what they believe in, will take the time to describe to you what they do not believe in.  It is mysterious and perplexing to me to try to winnow out what’s nudged people to live the way they do.

Perhaps a third approach to the world, APATHY, indulges a bit in both of the approaches I have described above, but is generally neither and may accidentally, but only accidentally lean towards one of the two dispositions in the end. I am unsurprised to find in many cases that choices are not so much decided on as they are happened into, accepted as integral to ones identity and defended against change if a person is confronted with an alternative.

It is disturbing to have pointed out to you the ways in which you have not so much given thought to an issue as you have immediately experienced or responded to a proximate concern and created  a history of experience with an idea rather than a consideration of an idea. More plainly, the absence of consideration does not prevent the development of something, but rather sets the atmosphere for something unanticipated to take place.  I think of these unanticipated responses as psychological and physical places. In the mind and personality they are bold beliefs based on assumption or opinion, in your house they are the closet you fill with scraps and junk, in a city they are an abandoned building or a trash littered empty lot. Something could be done with the space, and something has definitely happened in the space anyway.

And so, my series of writings concerning “mobility”  and my relation to it, begins with the declaration that I am most interested in the segment of society that embraces CHANGE. While I believe many people and places to be the mix of tendencies partaking of change, stability, and apathy, I find individuals who actively embrace change to be most fascinating to me. In change is housed the possibilities of innovation, progress, improvement, relief- new learning, new understanding, and the like. I am interested in change as a vehicle for the realization of human hopes. It is an element which ensures that something new might happen, and I personally think that something new might bring something good.

This drive for something new, something that I subsume optically or through some other sense is what I gauge as the drive behind mobility in many circumstances. I apply this reasoning for mobility in relation to work environments,  technologies that allow for steady and frequent short-range mobility, travel,  and new ways of seeing(imaging of place as a surrogate for going to a place)as a way to travel in a cerebral sense. I include in my definition of mobility any physical or intellectual relocation that allows for new information and sensory experience.

In my next writing I will further describe the what I mean by physical and intellectual relocation and walk through some examples of how and why this takes place.

Like everyone else I have about a million commitments. It can feel like a complex equation is necessary at times to determine what route towards time management and priorities will keep things in balance. What will help? More self-discipline? More free time? I have a feeling the answer is something like a well designed life- figuring out a way to structure the use of your time so that you derive the most enjoyment from your work and even your menial daily tasks.

Following a few days where I thought I might try to do a juice fast (and didn’t) or get up and out to work early (and didn’t) I started trying to figure out what was missing. I found myself thinking of a book I had read, Tying Rocks to Clouds, in which the author tells a story about being in a meditation camp and being asked to pledge reciting a mantra. Others around him are asked to pledge and they choose to dedicate themselves to an outrageous number of repetitions in hopes of awing the monk they pledge to, and really beating themselves into some “superior” state of mind. The author chooses to repeat his mantra once a day. People around him laugh. He tells the readers he has held true to his pledge for seven years now and is pretty sure the people who pledged 300 repetitions a day are having some problems keeping it up. Good man. Something to think about.

A blog I came across, Steve Pavlina.com- self development for smart people- suggests conditioning the subconscious so that the conscious mind doesn’t run through annoying loops in an attempt to reason the best solutions. Steve suggests we make a few decisions about what’s in our best interests and train ourselves into reflexive cooperation with our set goals.

Hmmm. Interesting idea in terms of getting up on time, but once you get up how do you stay on task and use time wisely? I suggest checking out Mind Tool’s Activity Log template to record your use of time. Though I personally prefer simply jotting down what I’ve done with my time throughout the day, a template, or the idea of one, might be useful to you. Last year I kept a journal of my time usage for a week and realized I spent tons of time commuting back and forth from school to home. This understanding pushed me towards more biking rather than busing, and to figure out how to stay in each location longer, i.e. spend some days working from home, pack meals to take to school, don’t over schedule commitments for the day.

I’m including Randy Pausch’s lecture on time management because I’ve heard excellent things about his turkey-sandwich technique. Enjoy!

Blake Stimson delves into the mind of Edward Krasinski in his essay I am the Social.

“I do not know whether it is art,” states Krasinski, for example, sharing a taste for ubiquitous and ultramundane form with Buren. “But for sure it is Scotch blue, width 19 mm, length unknown.“