Joy in Movement

The theme/title of my degree show came to mind while riding the bus the other day: Joy in Movement.

I was sitting in my favorite seat, looking over old photographs in my phone. I came upon one from my trip back to Los Angeles in summer 2011:

Traffic, I do not miss you. Sitting in traffic alone, you suffer an isolating feeling. Yes you are surrounded by people of like minds, but you're separated by white lines, heavy metals weighing up to 2 metric tons, and personalized music that allows you to stay in your own world. It's rare to make eye contact with another, or even a smile.

It is even more worrying when one steps onto a busy Tube train, and the isolation continues. You are touching others, you are right next to many people yet it still feels as though people are dividing themselves with white lines and 2 metric ton boxes. How sad it has become that if you get a cheerful smile from a stranger once, that is out of the norm.

In the opening scene of Crash - Don Cheadle's character is quoted saying,
 "It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

 I feel now that this is lack of human interaction has spread widely to most large cities. With new technology of iphones, ipads, kindles, mp3 players - it has become easier to ignore those around you and get distracted with the fun toy in hand.

Now more than ever is the time to raise attention to SMILE. JOY. BLISS. HAPPY. in public transport. To create Joy in Movement.

Look up. Smile.

"Failed" Projects

I'm not always a fan of using the word 'fail,' I hope that fail could be replaced by 'pending' projects. The truth is, I do think it is vital to document your successes along with projects that don't quite work out. Here are two examples of such.

The first being how I wanted to explore outside the printed world. I wanted to send a happy random message to commuters outside of posters, billboards, etc. With this project I imagined a walking commuter, whether he or she was about to cross a street or maybe simply walking down the sidewalk to look up and find this wired word that said "SMILE." Why wire? Well because wire might tie into the urban scene more effectively, whether this be hanging from a the cross walk walking signal, or on a random Edinburgh iron fence, or a bus stop.

I'm almost embarrassed to mention just how long it took me to create this horrid looking 'S.' Let me just say much longer than it should have. *cough cough* (more than a days work). I assumed that taking that jewelry making class when I was 13 would have helped a bit when it came to bending and working with wire, but the truth is...I was far more talented with wire in my early teens than I am now. Though this is something I would like to explore more in the future, I had to make a decision: I don't have the time to perfect this at this time, especially when it's not something I'm really all that passionate about. Perhaps on free time, over break, when a deadline is not hanging in the back of my mind I could conquer this task - but not when there are other projects/subjects pending in my mind.

The second 'failed' project came from our Investigation Task with our tutor Jeanette. Well the idea came, but the fail came from my follow through. Our task was to look into [in a sense] symbols of our subject. We had to find or create images that match our subject to: Presentative, Metonymy, Synecdoche, and Metaphor/simile. The inspiration came when Sofia and I were trying to come up with a simile to bus transport and I joked about it being that of a kangaroo - sit back, relax, enjoy the ride...you'll get to your destination. Like that of kangaroo's joeys sitting in their mother's pouches, just relaxing on the journey. A bus is like a kangaroo. We found too much joy in this, probably more than the average person should - but that could be from our lack of sleep and over working...you tend to get loopy.

We then thought how much fun it would be to create a bus campaign in form of a kangaroo, emphasizing comfort and relaxing. How often do you see that message in bus campaigns? Never...exactly! So I went to drawing...

Okay, it was getting there...but it hit me hard - there is no drawing a kangaroo and joey without seeing a phallic symbol. I understand sex sells, but this was just ridiculous. From here on out, I could not draw or trace a kangaroo/joey image without seeing a phallic symbol, no matter what position the kangaroo was in. Hopping, standing, laying down...nope! It was not going to work! Again faced with the issue of time, I do think this could work if I spent much time trying stylize the kangaroo/joey and make them not so realistic. But of course with this idea coming to me at the end of the semester, time is not my friend. So yet another project that could be pending.

In Amore Cotidianis

In love with the day-to-day things

Have you ever had a job you hated so much, that Sunday was the worst day of your week? This being because you knew deep down inside that Monday was tomorrow - that in less than 20 hours you would have to wake up to a whole new week and deal with 5 more days of going to that wretched place. Bring on Friday! Bring on Saturday. You keep Sunday.


I had a job that did this to me, I worked for quite the horrid corporate company in Reseda, CA. It took the majority of my strength each morning to wake up, sit in the bumper to bumper traffic and arrive with even just a half smile. It wasn't until one morning when I slowed down that I started finding joy in the ordinary. I enjoyed seeing my usual commuting friends on the 405 freeway. Coffee never tasted better than on a rainy day, and a random Peggy Lee song would calm the nerves even more.

If it is possible for an isolated Los Angelino to find peace in her traffic, it is most definitely possible for the average individual to find peace in the public transportation commute. In public transportation, you are allowed to converse with others, you are allowed to read and expand your knowledge, you are allowed to smile at a child giggling in the seat next to you. You are allowed to smile, but then why is it so difficult to do so? To just let that little grin out.

To design is to convey a message, my message is that of finding simple joys and pleasure in the ordinary of one's commute on public transportation.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Public-Poster-Project/136966

I admire the Public Poster Project - It is conveying messages through the simple norm of posters. How often do we stop and actually read the mass amount of posters and propaganda around us? Very rarely. Yet I'd smile while reading one of these signs in passing by.

I am in no way encouraging the average individual to not get in touch with daily news, events and occurrences on their way to work. It is simply my goal to let this individual lift his head out of the newspaper, take a deep breath and smile at the simple surrounding him.

Through this blog, you will see my journey of creating travel companions (a compendium as a whole) meant for the average public transportation commuter. These companions are meant to make you smile, to make you find joy in the ordinary.

(Art by Brian Andreas)