Birds Nest

If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

I currently see my work as kind of like a massive birds nest of ideas all tangled together and difficult to unravel. Its frustrating, every time you think you've found a way forward, another knot gets in the way. But enough with metaphors, Iv found recently that I'm finding it difficult to stay concentrated on something. To really get my teeth into what I'm doing. I just end up going back to the books to find out more interesting nuggets of information (which co-incidentally adds a few more knots to my nest) but Id rather have it this way than have one route. Id just end up with a linear process. But my problems currently lie with the investigative process, and how to clarify my ideas. How to extract the intersects of thought and how could a project be spun from my threads.

Having began with Agriculture and Traditions, Iv been analyzing why, and what it is I find interesting, and as a consequence I have moved my focus back into the living space. The domicile. Iv been reading a book by Akiro Busch called Geographies of the Home; her perspective on the domestic relations within the home are inspiring, thought provoking and almost offer me a glimpse of the gems that I could base a project upon. The areas which stand out in my mind as I write this, are her observations on the way modernization has changed out impression of the Kitchen. In Victorian times, food smells were considered vulgar, and therefore isolated from the rest of the house (and having attempted a slapdash omelet tonight I can thoroughly sympathize). The kitchen was a place for servants to cook, an industrial place for routines. In modern times, the kitchen has become the central hub of the home, and as we bolster our collection of gadgets, utilities and appliances, our time in the kitchen has shifted in perspective.

Culinary commodity is stocked on our supermarket shelves as both hyper-instant and DIY, one day you may buy a ready made sandwich, the next you may bake your own bread. We choose to both consume the ready made, and invest time in home production.
"While mechanization has surely diminished the drudgery of household chores, it seems that when we are able to choose which chores to do, and when we do them, they can give us profound comfort"

Busch references her statement with note to her acquaintances and how a person such as a barrister will bake his own English muffins, as a method of therapy.

I guess the argument is that, once you know a process, it becomes easy to do without really thinking about it, and although if every task you did in the day was similarly without stimulus it would be dull, for those who feel fatigued with their stresses find relaxation in the act of doing something such as cooking, a basic need. But it almost reveals that this is their only motive for doing so. The hard wired act of cooking for survival, for nutrition has been superseded by the need to relax.

Another similar strand of interest is our love for new time saving appliances, but never at the expense of traditional looks. While we shroud our dishwashers, fridges and washing machines in faux cupboard fronts, the Aga sits quite proudly within its own island of importance. While probably being the least responsive or reliable appliance, its nostalgic charms of a simpler life give it an elegant charm, but that isn't to say we don't have a gas grill tucked away nearby, or possibly even a microwave skulking in the recesses of a cupboard. These objects almost shame their owner, especially within a traditionally designed kitchen, but like many things that shame us, we still rely on their presence, even if we seemingly try to block them out of the kitchen "scene"

I guess the whole of my research stems from nostalgia. The intrinsic nostalgic values which we embed within our homes, which may run at odds with the actual way that we live. In the same way that the barrister bakes his muffins as a mental retreat to a simpler existence, his place is in the present, and I very much doubt that after careful thought he would personally regress to the role of a farmer or a servant.

When the automobile became popular in the post war climate of England, the daily commute was stretched, people could live outside of the city, and seeing the quaint villages, the city folk restored farm buildings villages, however now the occupants lived in a hollow myth. They believed themselves villagers, but their occupation was one of a dormitory, the once working farm building has been improved, cosmetically at least; but the effect was one of taxidermy. The point of the building had irrevocably changed, and soon the working communities became empty all but the commuters. This in the same way represents our nostalgic struggle with the domicile. We have in place traditional elements that have no rational (or at least honest) place in our lives. and speaking from personal experience, Aga ovens are crap.