Below are three accounts from the Hidden Spaces workshop led by TJB on Monday. Two are written the next day in exactly 5 minutes without reference to my notes or documentation of the experience. The first is a purely factual account of what I did - largely in note form - and the second is about my thoughts and feeling about what I was experiencing. Both texts are direct transcriptions of my hand written versions and I've taken the liberty of adding punctuation where I think it helps readability, The third is a piece of writing based on a very short (1 minute) presentation we were asked to make at a follow-up writing workshop that draws together a very small amount of the theory from our reading with our experience in our Hidden Space.
Text 1
The shed
Went down stairs with all my stuff
Forgot ice cube... went back to get it
Set up chair in shed... door slightly ajar
First task -> melt ice.
Had a good look round, particularly up.
Found what looked like a ladder suspended on ceiling
Lowered the ladder - a path. Found trapdoor.
Examined the space below - that I am in - in detail.
Stood on the ladder.
Closed the door to be in the dark completely.
Climbed the ladder and opened trapdoor.
Had a good look around.
Did a rubbing of the number 18.
Took out postcard, placed it between locks and took photos
Wrote "WISH YOU WERE HERE". Photo
Took a photo of empty address space
Took a photo earlier of chair with notebook on.
Took a photo of empty chair.
Tidied up.
Left.
Text 2
I had lots of concerns about starting this session - particularly choice of space. What was meant by hidden. The idea of appearing hidden in public did not sit well with me - particularly now. I feel there is nowhere near here that would work. Decided on shed - lots of people in the block do not know it's a space for them - that they have their own storage there.
Entered - dark, confined, bikes in the way.
Hand really cold from holding ice - when would it melt?
Child playing outside - would I be discovered?
Discovery - the ladder. I'd never seen that before. Could I get it down and was it safe to climb? Maybe later.
How could I hide this place? Close the door and be in the inside - dark with the spiders - or close the door and stand outside. Hide the entrance.
Text 3
In writing about Maurice Merleau-Ponty's ideas of Flesh, Susan Kozel states "Our bodies extend beyond ourselves through the operation of our senses and as such the boundary of body, skin, is not a boundary at all" (Kozel, 2008, p.33). How is this tested? During out hidden spaces workshop we were given the instruction to intervene with our body to hide the entire space. In my writing, Text 2, I noted "How could I hide this place? Close the door and be in the inside - dark with the spiders - or close the door and stand outside. Hide the entrance." I chose the inside and through this I became at one with the hidden space - I recorded its darkness, its silence, its musty smell, I could taste the air, dust from crushed dried leaves blown under the door - and I was still within it. Through the darkness I sought out the points where light entered to calm me. Concentrating on these senses I did not scrabble to open the door, as I thought I might, instead I felt my body belonged to and was welcomed by the whole space.
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