I leave tomorrow and head through Southern Utah toward Vegas.. did I mention I was spending a day in Vegas? A friends birthday. Anyways. I will - hopefully - be arriving in Las Vegas before it gets too hot outside and spending the night there. I will be leaving - hopefully - early the next morning to head toward Escalante, UT. Along highway 12, the only all weather road in the area, I will spend the day exploring parts of the grand staircase and of anasazi ruins in the boulder area. Depending on how late I get there, what I find, and how the weather is I will either find a place to sleep (car, tent, motel or otherwise) or drive back to Park City that night (another 5-6 hours). If I leave the next morning hopefully I can make it fresh into work by 5pm. Ha.
I have no idea what I am going to find but going from Never Never Land (AKA Park City) to Vegas (enough said) and into the last mapped region of the United States should at least bring some interesting questions to mind. I have my sketchbook, journal, maps, clothes, and lots of water packed and ready to go.. oh and I camera! Finally I have a camera. Again. That will come in handy. Talk to you in a few days. And don't worry, I am still reading parts of Camp and thoughts on Dwelling/Heidegger/ect.
Wish me luck, my rear wheel drive Supra is not made for this adventure. HA.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!! It will be an amazing trip.
I have to apologize for not being as communicative as I need to be. I have been very overwhelmed organizing the graduate trip to Chicago (a major pain), and have not been able to dedicate the necessary time to your project. This comment is a beginning of a block of time I have set aside to get completely caught up to you. So, be prepared.
Also, I am glad you are still muscleing your way through Camp and Heideggar. If you are interested I have two other suggestions that may help you in your understanding of what it means to dwell... or erhaps rovide a counterpoint to the position you are developing. They deal with the issues of place versus non-place. In its most simple manifestation; the question of the difference between a house and a home. Are these Tents or tent cities places, or merely a pragmatic or non cultural response to some other extrernal condition?
Anyway, the two books are by a French guy named Marc Auge (an accent over the last "e" can't make that happen in the blog). The first is "In the Metro," the second and posibly more important is "Non-places: an introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity." I think you will be interested in the last one more than the first. Essentially he is going about the exact same process that you are excpt his subject of study is not the ancient forms of habitation, but rather the extremely new ones. He also comes to some conclusions you will find interesting in the way he juxtoposes these "Non-places" such as bus stations, automobiles (think about that as you travel!), and airport terminals with those older forms that housed the human being.
JE