Alex Makes Prints

I was chosen to lead (solo) the seminar discussions in both of my seminar reading classes. The good news is I got the responsibility out of the way, it’s a once a semester thing. The bad news was not getting much sleep doing all the reading and preparing outlines and discussion topics.

First up was David Graeber’s “Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology” for my class Spaces of Hope with Andrej Grubacic. A few things stuck out to me: the similarity to open source software projects, the theory of exodus vs violent revolution, and the anti-evolutionist attitude, which I would almost call anti-progress.

Next, for my Art & Urbanism art history course, we read about Rome (Zacher), Istanbul (Pamuk) and Tokyo (Barthes). I was most struck by the various interpretations of insider vs outsider, the question of whether an outsider can ever know a city they don’t belong to. I also had a lot of fun with these readings because I’ve lived in Rome and visited Tokyo.

All this, along with a weekend trip to LA, some screen printing and drypoint for my two studio classes, my first taste of critique at SFAI (not my work, I’m next week ) and trying to stay on top of work.

And of course looking for an apartment with Erika. We saw a beautiful place (that we can actually afford) today, but I may have blown our chances by saying something completely stupid to the landlord. Sometimes the most moronic, insensitive things just dribble out of my mouth when I’m feeling the pressure. D’oh!