Life in the Media Cave

One of the things that has most surprised me about my new job as interim documentarian is the sheer number of photographs that get taken at Elsewhere, and how few of them are available anywhere except on Mimeo (our computer)  inside of the tech cave. I'm a bit obsessed with photos of myself (I mean, who isn't?) because I'm very interested in the way that people use cues, both visual and aural, as openings into their own memories of events. I've been working on a project for a little over a year now that takes the form of monthly playlists, where any song that I hear which strikes a particularly strong emotional chord in me, or one that someone suggests to me, or that I hear during a particularly memorable time, gets placed in a playlist. The only rules are that I don't re-use songs (otherwise the point of recreating a specific moment when I rehear that song would be lost), I try to keep it to one song per group per month (otherwise it would be, yes, I was obsessed with High Violet in May, I knew that), and I don't go out looking for songs to add, they have to come to me.


I think it has actually been quite successful-- I can listen to one of them and remember exactly what event or series of events a song was added after. Some of them actually cue emotional responses in me that have nothing to do with the content of the song, but more to do with what it reminds me of. The memory is very specific, however. For instance, I know that in July, the song "Stars" from Les Miserables is on there in the 2nd slot because on one of my very first weekends here, having consumed the better part of a growler, there was some spontaneous singing of a significant medley of show-tunes in the kitchen. There may be video but I really hope there isn't. I don't have the range for Javert.

Similarly, going through the catalog of photographs on Mimeo has ordered some memories for me in a way that wouldn't have been possible without so many visual aids.

For instance, here I'm about two seconds from getting a massive amount of white latex paint dropped on my face. Some of it's still in the joints of my glasses. I had totally blocked out this happening.

I remember this, it's from my first CITY, when I built a submarine and hunted down squid in the sewers of 608.

However, I don't remember there being a camera in the room when I was building the sub. This reminded me of the original design for the submarine, which I had totally forgotten about. This piece of chair backing was going to be a torpedo launcher at the front of the ship, back when the plans were more like a segway with torpedoes and a periscope.

And these were my first volunteer squid for the evening! Their job was to advertise the squid watching tour business, and they were paid a button for every four customers they brought in. I'm pretty sure they quit before they ever got paid, but it was good for business, having squid mucking about in the building.