May 26, 2019
I recently created symbols for the actions in my daily life. I used sketching as a warm up to think about symbol ideas and assigned random colors for each one. Lupi & Posavec call this the "legend" in which recipients can understand what the design elements mean. It starts with a question and mine this week is: What Am I Doing?

For five days this past week I counted what I was doing. I couldn't help but notice some patterns with areas that were excessive and thought about how those areas might be taking time away from other things I could be doing. I wanted to think about my emotions but I held back to stick with my commitment to the process per Gude's (2006) suggestions.


Sunday through Thursday I counted and then measured on Friday. I did as Lupi & Posavec suggested and spent some time with my data after I gathered it. On Saturday I created my visual representation of my life data for the week.

I began working on this on my back porch. This is where I focus the most probably because it is as close as I can get to nature during busy times. As I started grabbing markers, my Dad texted me a link to Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime" song after I sent him my recent blog image of my thick thoughts. There is a cheesy, bouncy feeling in the song that I liked and felt the lyrics and rhythm were what my mind needed after a week full of overflowing thoughts. I appreciated the water reference as it connects with my CreativeFlow program that I am developing for teenagers. (I'll post later with some info about that).
In reflecting on my art, I can definitely see a struggle and tension between the most excessive area being digital communication and one of the minimal areas which is nature. Considering the song I was listening to, it does have a feeling of talking leaf heads communicating or spewing very loudly back to technology.
Next week I will be documenting my thoughts/emotions to the actions that I am doing and measuring them. "It is only by adding personal context that you get closer to real meaning" ~Lupi & Posavec
Great work! I would not have the patience to keep track of all my daily activities ! The song you mention has a few hidden meanings,but the songwriter expressed it this way: "We're largely unconscious. You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I get here?'"
And the water reference is about how just like trying to remove the water at the bottom of the ocean, there's no way to stop life from moving on. The forces of nature (like the ocean) keep you moving almost without your conscious effort - like a ventriloquist movin…