CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 13

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:


“Human movements,
but for a few,
are Westerly.
Man follows the sun.

This is the last place.
There is nowhere else to go.

Or follows what he thinks to be the
movement of the Sun.
It is hard to feel it, as a rider,
on a spinning ball.

This is the last place.
There is nowhere else to go.”

― Lew Welch, excerpt from THE SONG MT. TAMALPAIS SINGS

An Action:

Day 13: LTLYM Assignment #66: Make a Field Guide to Your Yard

“This assignment is for people who haven't spent much time with the land around where they live. So if you have planted a big, beautiful garden, that is terrific and you should go do another assignment. The rest of you are people who may not even really have a yard - maybe you live in an apartment and the yard is maintained by someone else, or maybe you just have a parking strip that seems to belong to the city. Maybe you live in a dorm and the "yard" is in the quad.

Leave your home with a camera and big piece of white cardboard. Look around. Each time you see a new kind of living thing, put the white cardboard behind it and take a picture of it against this white background. This will be easiest if you have a friend who can hold the cardboard up. Take photographs of every single different growing thing that you see. Notice grasses, weeds, flowers, trees, insects, birds, cats, dogs. You don't have to identify what anything is, just take a photograph, as if you are a scientist on an island that no human has ever set foot on before. “

D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  Make a series of 3-7 photographs. Send to friends@stoveworks.org

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A Brumby

Austin, Texas USA
From Original LTLYM Assignment

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 12

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

“In both instances, [people] have become entirely private, that is, they have been deprived of seeing and hearing others, of being seen and being heard by them. They are all imprisoned in the subjectivity of their own singular experience, which does not cease to be singular if the same experience is multiplied innumerable times. The end of the common world has come when it is seen only under one aspect and is permitted to present itself in only one perspective.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

An Action:

Day 12: LTLYM Assignment #68: Feel the news

“Go to [ https://www.pbs.org/show/newshour/ ] and watch the current show. When the segment is over, choose someone from the news who made an impression on you. Imagine that you are them, and act out a moment of their day today. Choose an ordinary moment, one without dialogue, when they are alone - maybe the moment after they hang up the phone, or before they go to sleep. It doesn't matter what they are doing, only that you try to feel what it feels like to be them today, given what you know about their life right now. Take a picture of this moment, with the help of a self-timer or a friend. Don't bother dressing up like them, don't worry if you aren't the same race or gender as them. (And don't choose going to the bathroom, everyone else will do that.) Send the caption for the photo in an email - it should include the relevant news, for example:
  
Monday, August 13, 2007: After Resigning as Presidential Advisor, Carl Rove Looks into The Refrigerator
Or: Monday, August 13, 2007: Kim Kyung-ja, One of Two South Korean Hostages Freed In Afghanistan Today, Takes Off Her Shoes  

D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  Make a photograph and give it a descriptive, concise caption.” Send to friends@stoveworks.org

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Natalie R

Portland, Oregon USA
From Original LTLYM Assignment

30 May 2008- After speaking out about high global food prices and their relevance to biofuel development, Kemal Dervis fixes himself a bowl of soup.

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 11

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

“People are just other things rearranged”
-Alan Watts

An Action:

LTLYM Assignment #5: Recreate an Object from Someone’s Past

Find someone that you don't know very well. Ask them to describe in great detail a significant object from their past. Write down the description. You can have them draw the object or you can draw it with their direction. Recreate the object three dimensionally as accurately as you can using only cardboard, paper and tape. Do not use colored paper, colored tissue paper or colored tape. Give it a title which includes the name of the person whose object you have recreated, such as "Nathaniel's Left Shoe." 

 D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  Take a picture of the object. Send to friends@stoveworks.org

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Tam’s First Guitar

Catherine Forrester, Brighton, UK
from the original LTLYM Assignment

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 10

charlotte caldwell ·

A thought:

"The premise that a photographer is a voyeur by the nature of photography is just not true. The people who have been photographed extensively by me feel that my camera is as much a part of their life as any other aspect of their life with me. It then becomes perfectly natural to be photographed. It ceases to be an external experience and becomes a part of the relationship, which is heightened by the camera, not distanced. The camera connects me to the experience and clarifies what is going on between me and the subject. Some people believe that the photographer is always the last one invited to the party, but this is my party, I threw it."

- Nan Goldin, Interview with Mark Holdborn 1986


An Action:

LTLYM ASSIGNMENT #23: Recreate this snap shot

Work with someone else and try to photographically recreate this snapshot, to the best of your abilities.  

D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  Send us your recreated photo. friends@stoveworks.org

Gallery Assignment #10: Laughing, Crying

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 9

charlotte caldwell ·

A thought:

I am Universal, I burst;
I am Particular, I contract;
I become the Universal, I laugh.

- Rene Daumal, Pataphysical Essays

An Action:

ASSIGNMENT #9: Draw a picture of your Laughing

Think of a time you laughed so hard you cried. Think of the people that you were with and where you were. Draw a picture of the moment that made you bust.

D O C U M E N T A T I O N > Take a picture of your drawing. Give it a title. Send it to friends@stoveworks.org

Discover & share this SBS6 GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 8

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

“It’s easy to sell an empty large package or fake items, but what we are thinking is totally different. Most important thing is emotion and soul, things on the inner side. If I said “I will share this with you”, I really share with you. If I said “I’m working with this mountainous village”, I’m really working with that mountainous village…. We would like many people to have this mindset “don’t compete, share” even if it takes a long time.”

- Virigilio Martínez, Interview Foodion.com


An Action:

Assignment #8: Plan a Virtual Dinner Party

Plan a Virtual Dinner Party. Send out an invite to 4 - 6 people. Ask that everyone has their meal prepared by a specific time, that they have their table set, and that they get a little gussied up for the occasion. Position your computer so you can capture the entire meal (example below). At the determined time, everyone joins the online hang (google, zoom, uber) and shares in each other’s company.

D O C U M E N T A T I O N > Take a screen shot of everyone once dinner has commenced. Enjoy. Email screen shot and names of participants to friends@stoveworks.org

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Framing Your Meal

This doesn’t meet the muster. Ideally, your computer is pushed far enough back to be able to capture your meal and yourself. ;)

Gallery: Day 7: Collections, The Void


CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 7

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

“How do you catalog the everyday, especially as the phenomena of the everyday is changing?”
- Theaster Gates, Art 21 Interview

An Action:

Assignment #7: Catalog the Everyday

Watch this short of Theaster Gates on Art 21.

For those of you who are more comfortable staying inside, move around your home. Think of it as the collection of your life. Choose one object of all the objects that best encapsulates the way you see the world, take a picture of it, tell us why.

For those of you who are comfortable leaving your home, walk around your neighborhood. Take notice of the homes and businesses that make it up. Think about its changing, about “black space” and about the “void.” Identify a space or a void where change has occurred, take a picture, tell us why.

D O C U M E N T A T I O N > Send the picture of your object or of the void, write your explanation in the body of the email to friends@stoveworks.org

Gallery: Day 6: POSTER

Click the image to hear song!

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // day 6

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

“We should be able to find our way back again by the objects we dropped, like Hansel and Gretel in the forest, the objects reeling us back in time, undoing each loss, a road back from lost eyeglasses to lost toys and baby teeth.”

― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

An Action:

LTLYM Assignment # 18: Recreate A Poster You Had As A Teenager

“Remember a poster you had on your wall as a teenager. If necessary, do a little research to help you remember exactly what it looked like. Then recreate it using colored pencils or pens or paint on white paper. Scale it down to make it fit on a regular piece of paper. Next, locate a piece of music that you would have listened to at the time when you had this poster. If you are currently a teenager, just use a poster and piece of music that you have right now. “

D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  Take a picture of the poster and send a youtube link to the song to friends@stoveworks.org

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Warren Hill

Montreal, Canada
From Original LTLYM Post

Gallery Day 5: LOOK AT A TREE, MAKE A LIST, TAKE A PICTURE

TreeAllie.jpg

CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 5

charlotte caldwell ·

A Thought:

"I see the people they look to me like trees that move about.”

- Sister Corita Kent, cure of the blind man, 1957

An Action:

Assignment #5: Look at a Tree, Make a list, Take a picture

“Look at a tree and its shape. Look at the part the leaves play in making the shape you see and look at the part the trunk and branches play in making the structure you see. Look for patterns made where the foliage is dense or light. Look for dark and light and other color changes that come about on the leaves, which are really all the same color but change with the reflections of the light.

Look at a tree for one hour in the week you are seeing shadows. Write every specific thing you see about that tree. Make a list of the other things that you think are related in structure to a tree: an umbrella, a lamp, a broom.

When you get past making lables for things, it is possible to combine and transform elements into new things. Look at things until their import, identity, names, use, and description have dissolved.”

- Sister Corita Kent, Assignment

D O C U M E N T A T I O N > send us your list in the body of the email with an image of the tree. friends@stoveworks.org

Today’s Assignment comes by way of Jodi Hays (Nashville, TN). Thanks, Jodi!


CONNECTED // CONNECTING // ALWAYS AND ESPECIALLY NOW // DAY 4

charlotte caldwell ·

A thought:

"You are the first person you speak to in the morning. What does that sound like? Are you trash-talking to yourself? Are you celebrating yourself? Are you creating a nervous chatter? How you speak to yourself sets the tone for how the rest of the world will speak to you; use that power to lift yourself up and set a standard for loving communication. How you speak to yourself also sets the tone for how you will speak to others. If you learn how to lift yourself up with words, you will be able to do the same for everyone else. Our world needs more cheerleaders. Start by being one for yourself."

~ Cleo Wade, Heart Talk (2018) 

An Action:

LTLYM Assignment #17: Record your own guided meditation. 

Create and record an audio-guided meditation for other people to use. Try to make it as positive and helpful as possible. Do not make a spoof version. Make the recording at least one minute and no more than ten minutes long. Anyone can do this assignment, you don't need any special yogi certification. Try to think of things to say that would really make you feel better and more relaxed.  

D O C U M E N T A T I O N >  The following digital audio formats are acceptable:
.mov .wav .aiff .mp3

Send your recorded file to: friends@stoveworks.org and stay healthy out there!!!

Today’s Thought and Assignment were selected with care by Josiah Golson ;)

Archive of Lit-rature: #1: Assignment 3

Wendy Chow, Rhinebeck, NY

Charlotte Caldwell, Chattanooga, TN

Chalet Comellas, Nashville, TN (Chalet is responding to the prompt from the Kabakovs)

Angela Dittmar, Chattanooga, TN