Mapping the Territory 1

I am starting this project by exploring and debating with myself some resistances I have to it. I actually like the brief and think it is interesting and valuable, but what I dislike about it is the mapping, and the mind mapping ideas. I have my own listing and research systems which have evolved over years - not to say I don't always look for additions and amendments. However, the reasons I have such systems must be linked to my dyslexia. I dislike mind mapping in many ways - it is a mismatch to my way of thinking, and I find it scattered and confusing. If I try to analyse it further, I guess that I dislike and cannot process things being in different formats within the same sphere. Although of course I am free to approach this project in any way I want, I find the suggestions immobilising.

When I have thought through this project I have come up with an idea of a piece of work I would like to make, involving mirrors. I have the piece quite clearly in mind, as clear as it can be before actually making it and modifying it in reality. The problem, if problem it is, is that for the assignment I really don't think I can leap into this piece without going through and documenting the actual mapping and processing. I have to go backwards.

It is hard to pinpoint my confusion with this. This is a familiar challenge that in a way I quite enjoy. I consider making it a purely visual exercise, like a visual essay, but I do not want to confound myself by having to translate it in words. If I cannot see another way round it, I will make the mirror piece and use it to interpret my sense of the territory I am mapping. The mapping and the territory seem like two completely different concepts so far - perhaps that in itself is an insight to my practice and its context.


9th May 2011