WHY?

Why do i think you gave this assignment?
It taught me about working on something with no specific desired out come. No expectations.
It taught me to focus on one type of item and get very up close and personal with that item. Be absorbed by it.
evne though I was collecting the same thing(multiples) the things didd not seem completely the same. even when appear to be similar sometimes on closer inspection they are quite different. at the same time collecting the same thing can teach us about the things that are the same and recurring throughout. To collect something in this way is to give yourself to it to let the project define itself as time moves forward, like something unraveling or a web being created. This assignment was also important because it taught me to branch out from the original thought while still keeping the original goal.

documentation for collection

All samples were scanned at 360dpi at 8X10 inches.
I collected a variety of samples including various human, dog, cat, and bird hair.


Initially I was excited about the idea of collecting something so symbolic as hair and did not know what would come of it. In the process I learned how protective some people are with their hair and how much of outward indentity is defined by how we wear our hair. Many people asked what I was gonna do with their samples infering that I was up tp something sinister. The magical implications of having someone's hair is that you can cast spells over them with greater ease. I was surprised how many "normal" people were superstitious about this idea. When I did some digging on drug testing using hair i learned that it is pretty specific and dyes and bleaches do not affect the test, it apparently works better from the nap of the neck and with some folical attached. Still pretty amazing that an individuals substance history can be pretty accuratly determined by testing of the hair.Not to mention that our gentic code is embedded in our hair shaft.
I was thinking about hair as essence and that gave me the idea to present the samples in small jars , referencing Egyptian Canopic Jars as well as medical specimans. The idea to show the highly magnified scans larger seemed to be an obvious way to create a visual dynamic questioning size relationships.
I started to branch out and collect other hair like specimans bird feathers for example cause I liked the similarity that these adornments were quite similar to our hair _if only our hair let us fly. The visual similarities of seeing these different samples scanned and magnified was exciting to my geek side. love microphotography.
finally I realized that there are so many layers of information that exist in the world and in substances ther is an endless availabilty of visual and intellectual scapes to explore.

Proposal For Installation

One of the main things this project showed me was how there is so much beauty in the littlest of objects. hair is something that we usually take for granted -we all have it mostly and it is such a vital aprt of our identity on the genetic scale as well as on a purely vain tip. Another thing I wanted to play with in the final presentation was the idea of size contrast. This is why I have the box with the compartments and the tweezers so that the viewer will be able to extract the hairs if they wish to inspect them. This dainty size is contrasted by the larger light panels that would be covered with the even smaller view( high resolution scans) of the various samples. The juxtaposition of the tiny bottles and the large prints will create a nice dynamic between what is small being made smaller but then larger again. the box would be white plastic with seperrate compartments for the hair samples. the samples would be in uniform glass jars for viewing. There would be a small set of tweezers also housed in white plastic( Like the medical reference) . The larger scans of the hair would be uniform on the wall printed on clear acetate and mounted covering the largest light panels 16X20 maybe. Both forms of presentation would have a slick medical quality but hopefully the delicate beauty I saw in these scans will also come thru. contrrasting art and medical usese for the same samples.

4/25/08 the end is near

i do have samples i must scan them though.

4/18 /08 Last few samples..

more cat hair/fur

4/11/08

These are cat hair.

So.. hair we are again buta bump! 4/04/08

Gotta figure out what to do with all this hair.... I have afew notions brewing up.
Webster's defines hair as -any of the thread-like outgrowths from the skin.Also as -a very small space or degree.
other words for hair are-locks, wig,whiskers, eyebrow, mane, fluff, fur, down, fleece, wool