Saturday, November 22, 2008

information

Anyone who has visited my home is aware of one thing. I've always wanted to use the walls as a source of information. When I moved in a few years ago, the entire house was this ugly shade of sea foam green. Every room was this putrid color. Hell, even the carpet is all sea foam green. Normally, I don't care much about trivial matters like this - "Ooohh, what a lovely shade of burgundy. Yeah, that lavender really accents your toilet." Stuff like this means absolutely nothing to me. So I embarked on a mission. Try to use the walls of my home to convey something relatively meaningful.
The bedroom is still under construction. Other than the ticket stubs, commentaries and Dead info, I've been considering going with a mural but can't quite seem to come up with a solid concept. I'll probably just go with the sports logos and band names and keep it consistent.
The wall of corks in the kitchen has exceeded my expectations. The abundance of different contributors have provided an inclusive feel. And the cross of purity offers an ironic twist. Embrace the absurd. Why not?
The recreational rooms offer plenty of scorekeeping. The garage walkway now has the equa-distant 50 U.S. license plates. The refrigerator maintains its interactive status but is getting a little old.
Here's what I'm thinking - the hallway downstairs. I want to do free-handed (preferably traced) drawings of all the continents - including the countries, capitals, bodies of water and possibly historic monuments (Great Wall of China, pyramids, etc.). They actually sell these overpriced wall maps at Ikea, but that would be pretty uninspired. Plus, I wouldn't necessarily be drawing each continent to scale. Is it really necessary to have a huge Antartica. Australia need not be overly complex. Anyway, it wouldn't take that long. Knock off one continent per week. Probably skip North America and focus on a more universal theme. This idea is still in the formative stages. Any input would be appreciated. Hopefully, "anonymous" will not suggest an anatomically correct nude drawing of the entire Obama family, but is well within his free speech internet rights.

7 comments:

michelle cook infantino said...

see, this post definitely needs pictures. cork pictures, etc.

hmmmmm.......the continents....you could make it educational in some way. Population, climate stats, etc. Would be interesting.

sonofsaf said...

Education was the idea from the git-go. I like the population idea - maybe stats for cities with the highest percentage population increases and decreases. Might help people comprehend the masses of places like New Delicatessan (India) and Islamafascist (Pakistan). Maybe I could make up fake names for the cities and then you have to figure out their true names. This idea could be construed as possibly lame, gay and/or pathetic. That's why we're still in the developmental stages here. I still want the educational angle. Maybe just list the capitals and have people identify the country. Or maybe just go with an overload of all kinds of information - like the main export of Ecuador is bananas.

Anonymous said...

"anatomically correct nude drawing of the entire Obama family"
---that hurts

I think a mural of "The wimp" Avatars would be something to consider.

Also, if you do the world, perhaps you could focus on the countries that Angelina Jolie has adopted children from.

The Dub said...

Huh... I agree with Anonymous. Hell = frozen over

sonofsaf said...

I've pretty much decided to do a map of the world which features military & civlian deaths as a result of terrorism since 9-11. Since 9-11 was the watershed event it makes for an interesting starting point. I'll do all the totals through the entire Bush administration - that gives me a few more weeks. The trick is coming up with a universally accepted definition of what consistitutes "terrorist" since the definiton can vary to the extremes (Fox News vs. Al Jazeera). Fox likes to refer to things differently - For example, when our AC-130 gunships "clean-up" Fallujah or the Israeli military takes preventative action in southern Lebanaon.
Why only through the Bush administration? Is this some kind of Michael Moore tribute? perhaps.... I just think it would be interesting. Will it be enlightening - possibly. Will it be morbid - of course. Is it my wall and am I allowed to do whatever the fuck I want with it - definitely.

Anonymous said...

Good luck----------use lots of color------Although I think "Bond" movie bad guys would be more fun.

Maybe you should pick another wall and map out something positive. You know there is yin/yang. There are many good people out there doing positive things. It would help if more people took notive of them. You included, for your own well-being. :)

But it is your wall....

sonofsaf said...

I might decide on doing a map of the hometown area. Complete with local nicknames (pig path, chicken neck hill), bad restaurants (Ernie's Esquire), rowdy bars (Mac's), etc. I want to make it interactive - I want people to share their experiences of what tranpsired at certain locations. For example... I saw a haggard hooker giving an old man a blowjob in the Green's Donuts parking lot. Maybe use sticky notes, but I don't want it to look like shit. I think I'll use markers. I can basically make a free-handed copy of the new Wheeling map that's available at the city county building.
All in all, I think this would have far greater "curb appeal" and relevance.