Journal Entry 10/25/16 - Reflections
Sunday ended up being quite gorgeous, but windy as all get out. At around 8:30 am, I went by Picasso’s bakery on Westcott Street and picked up some sweet potato, pumpkin, and cranberry poppyseed muffins for the attendees so I wouldn’t have to cook as much. I had coincidentally won a $20 gift certificate in an email competition from my landlord on Saturday morning. I also ended up making two loaves of challah bread the night before. In my email, I asked attendees to bring some food if they could, just to play it safe. The morning was spent worrying about who would be coming. I sent out twenty-five invitations with an open-ended, “Just show up!” Who would show up?
At around 12:50, Celeste and I packed up the bags, got Quogue ready, and started our five-minute walk over to Thornden Park.
We plopped down in the grass after unloading some blankets near the top of the hill on a relatively flat area near the large tree. It wasn’t long before Jake started walking up from the West and Ridvan from the East, his car parked in the cul de sac encircling the observatory building at the top of the hill.
“I couldn’t get the drone, but I brought my camera for documentation.”
Jake had his camera in hand, along with two flimsy frisbees, and Ridvan brought a blanket and a cheese platter. We set down the blankets, anchoring them against the wind with food and water bottles, gathering the food towards the center and sitting down at the peripheries. It seemed like our bodies and food objects were acting chiefly as anchors against the wind to keep all of our possessions from flying off the hill.
After I started to film, I handed out little waivers that allowed me to photograph and film my friends, and thus began the running joke throughout the picnic that Jake’s photography was technically illegal if it was only my photography specified on the document. We kept snapping away anyway, drinking apple cider and eating donuts and challah and cheese while doting on Quogue the Dog and commenting on the strength of the wind.
Max appeared near the bottom of the hill on his road bike, popping from the asphalt onto the grass and riding up to the edge of our blankets.
“I brought cookies. They might not be done, but they’re here,” he said, tossing a tupperware into the center of the group, tossing off his backpack and settling down on a blanket and grabbing a donut. Caroline came shortly after.
Conversation ran easily since everyone was familiar with each other. Caroline was the only non fifth year, and every attendee was an architecture student. She told stories about her current third-year professor, whom the rest of us have had before and all equally adored.
The size and dynamic of the group ended up being really great, with three men and three women and a dog. The frisbees provided some movement and action for a couple people during the middle of the picnic, while others just chose to repose the whole time. There was enough food for everyone.
Some people remarked that if there were architecture, then the wind wouldn’t be so bad. Others remarked that the wind was architecture.
While undertaking the mapping exercises, I was able to isolate some variables that affected the gathering, namely: peoples’ comings and goings, what they brought, wind levels, conversation topics, and spatial composition. The site plan provided an avenue to display the context of the site, but I think that all the other time-based and human-based elements composed of the site itself.
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