Ordinary Aura

A favorite of mine. The whloe notion of Atlas in its traditional sense is so compelling... personal collections of pictures. Adam's got an incredible book that ought to be published entitled "Beards and Mustaches II". That "II" stands for either "2" or "11". Personally, I hope it is an "11" and somewhere out there exists at least 10 more photo albums with pictures of nothing but, you guessed it, beards and mustaches.

In terms of "Ordinary..." this acitivity of collecting is what I would call a flattener. If you can cast your nets and find endless images of just about anything, things begin to lose something of their individual identity and meaning and it is the larger categories and the resulting arrangments that assume significance. (I don't know about my word choices here, but it would be something like reproductions/images/records of famous paintings made the same way (printed) as Sunday newspaper inserts of roast beef sandwiches exist on the same level. It is by the "curator's", that would be the person clipping them out and arranging them, that they are plucked from the universal pool and made personal and meaningful by the author of that scrap[book.(

Matmos and sound curation. The source may be significan conceptually, the result is something other, more multi-layered.

I am glad you posted the image of the G.R. Atlas project.
CT your comment, "this acitivity of collecting is what I would call a flattener. If you can cast your nets and find endless images of just about anything, things begin to lose something of their individual identity and meaning and it is the larger categories and the resulting arrangments that assume significance." is intereseting viewing the images in a micro and macro sense.

I guess my newspaper project is a type of descendent of the Atlas. Although mine does not have the "collection" so immediately at its core.

Here are two thoughts I have about newspapers in general. This goes back to my daily subway rides and reading the paper.

Thought #1. Newspapers may be the most moving human narrative I come in contact with each day. Containing the catastrophic, grand accomplishments, and of course the mundane. But it is all there in one ephemeral document. It may not be always the most artistic of writing, but it achieves its purpose of relaying this information to connect other human beings.

Thought #2. This is more of a wish. To pick up the newspaper one day and as I begin to read one story after another to begin to see how they all relate (even the adds for washers and dryers).

The Aura of the newspaper.

i love it. could the newspaper serve as a companion to, or replacement for, the cardboard element. collage, wallpaper, carpeting, tiling, 3d models, the city,...?

should we tote as many local newspapers as possible to GR? diasporic aura.