On Longing

"The body is the primary mode of preserving scale."

When I think about scale, I think about maps of the world and how they have measurements to help you estimate how far a place is. I chose this piece because I thought it was the perfect mix of the quote and my interpretation of it. A body will always have it's own scale and can't make a drastic change on it's own quickly, kind of like the world.

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience."

Objects can help to retain memories. There's no capacity for how big of a memory a small object can hold. When first thinking about this quote, I decided to use this photo because the smoke is exceeding the capacity of the vase and is boiling over.

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body."

This quote was pretty hard for me to understand, but to me it seems that maybe the memory that the souvenir brings is what is able to reduce people? Souvenirs offer a chance for people to show and tell their stories. For this quote, I thought that this scanograph shows the three dimensional into the miniature by showing a larger starfish next to a smaller one, it even looks like the body of the larger one is about to envelope the body of the smaller one. 

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to posses both a specimen and a trophy."

When first thinking about this quote, I immediately thought about dead animals from poaching, but didn't have any personal photos of that! So instead I went a different route and thought about having someone special being exotic in a sense. It's not something you find everyday or that everyone has. So having someone like that around and showing them off is like having a specimen and a trophy.

"... the nostalgic imput of the handmaid in a plastic world."

When I think about nostalgia, I think about time and how it's effected me. Which is why I chose a photo of my eye with a watch. This was another quote that confused me and I wasn't completely sure how to interpret it. The only thing that really came to mind was time and advice from an older woman, someone who is very wise. The watch is made of plastic so maybe that's another added connection.