W3 - Evolution of the Cube

I done a lot of thinking this week about what this cube is about and, therefore, what I make it from. I've considered covering the floor in sock balls and stapling socks on the walls which I could source from Savers - but that's a lot of socks and, thus, still a relatively expensive option and would mean a lot of stapling and very sore joints. I've also considered various sorts of foam and investigated sites such as Clark Rubber where I found a product called Peeled Foam. This refers to thin sheets of foam that manufacturers use to wrap all sorts of objects which I could either buy a roll of, find the dumpsters of suitable retailers or contact a likely local organisation (perhaps Mobil, VU, Kmart) and ask if I could collect materials from their delivery department. This began to seem like a lot of work.

Finally, given the assignment's time constraints, my desire not to spend much and the fact it'll be pitch black inside I think my criteria for deciding on materials are:

- softness and safety for audience entering the cube environment
- give an insulating and muffling effect
- be diversely tactile
- offer maximum impact into the space and upon the audience
- quick to de/install a lot of whatever it is
- easy to install: the less smelly chemicals and repetitive motion installation takes, the better
- easy to source a lot of whatever it is without lots of driving, phoning or Internet searching
- easy to transport: it fits in my economic little car
- cheap
- recyclable

Conclusion:
Rubbish, specifically, my rubbish. Thus, part of the meaning of the work becomes my contribution to landfill and a record of my consumption.

This ties in with the sort of installation work I've been looking at on the Internet and the hard rubbish I liberated last week! And, in light of the work I've looked at, most of it transform rubbish into something beautiful - no more so that Miwa K's PET bottle jelly fish - and, I don't think that's where I want to go. Rather, I want to engage other senses than merely seeing, and make the audience part of the installation, but disorientation rather than beauty is the goal becasue I don't want people to love their rubbish! Other artists I've checked out also variously use the power of art techniques to hide both construction and origin of their materials, while other do not. I don't want to transform rubbish into anything but rubbish - which includes truth in the title as well - and once the installation is done, everything will be recycled.

Possible Titles:
A Guilty Record of My Consumption. Three Weeks of Rubbish Collection and the Sound of One Bottle. Landfill Cube. Landfill Sensorium.

Floor:
A deep and uneven layer of shredded used photocopy paper from my printer (I have a recycled industrial shredder).

Hanging from ceiling 'rafters':
Curtains made up of strips torn from my broadsheet newspaper (ie, a large newspaper so the strip can be hung over the rafter and not attached at all).

Walls:
A tactile mosaic built up of plastic waste that I collect (and wash!) over 3 weeks.

Sound installation:
Impact sounds on hard rubbish eg a bottle, recorded in a tall reverberant room and manipulated using Audacity. This will be in complete contrast to the muffled cube environment and - I'm hoping - quite disconcerting.