mapping where you summer

With a second, smaller batch going out earlier today, I've now sent 36 of the total 45 miniature Adirondack chairs scrapped from this project almost 10 years ago. I had to send a replacement chair to one participant whose first chair broke in transit! So I may try to send a few more out, but I'll likely keep a few in case this happens again.

To celebrate, I made a map showing the first name, last initial, and city & state of each participant. Isn't it fun to see them all plotted out like so? At least a couple of these chairs will be traveling internationally later this summer, so I may begin to post pictures as separate map markers with a different color to indicate travel. The possibilities are endless.

Meanwhile, my little chair has been mostly hanging out with me at work this week. I have a couple of summer trips ahead, but on the other hand, that's part of the appeal of this project - to see the reality of summer for different people around the country. If you'd like to see what others are posting, search the hashtag #wheredoyousummer on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And yes, I'm aware this particular hashtag is associated with a Leisure Society contest. I'm a big fan of "hijacking hashtags" after all.

where do you summer?

Back in grad school, inspired, like so many students from elsewhere suddenly in this foreign land known as New England, I created one project inspired by travels there as well as back in California and Oregon. Miniature Adirondack chairs were eventually scrapped from what became a pared-down floor installation of many, many CMYK screen prints of sand, water, etc. I honestly can't remember what my original intention for the chairs was, but they've been hanging around my studio ever since. This spring I got the idea to distribute the freshly re-painted white chairs to artists, friends, family, fellow alums, and other creative folks as I posed the (it would seem to me, anyway) dated question, "Where do you summer?"

Friends have started receiving the nearly 50 chairs late last week and today, with a second batch going out via USPS on Thursday. So it's early and I'm not sure exactly what form this project will take.

As images start trickling in (above are some examples over the long weekend of the chair I kept and will carry with me all summer), I'll share them by linking here in addition to writing about overall ideas as they develop around the project as it takes form. As I wrote in the brief statement for the original project, titled "for we are where we are not," I'm still very much interested in the distance in time and space in the dissemination of these chairs around the country (and, as the participants travel this summer, around the world), and in creating a setting for the possibility of narrative. What that narrative looks and sounds like is to be seen and largely dependent upon the project participants.

Stay tuned! And email me if you'd like to play along - becky [at] rebeccabirdgrigsby [dot] com

let's play polo: hijacking hashtags

One side-effect of this project that I'm really enjoying is using social media hashtags already used for something else. #letsplaypolo is used by people actually playing polo! Imagine that.

The more people participate, the more interesting this little side-effect will be. Join along on the event's Facebook page and share with your friends. I'm personally planning on "attending" (October 10th at any museum/gallery of your choice - take pictures!) with at least one other family so there will potentially be 9 of us in yellow polos. I can't wait.

PS - more on where to get your yellow polo in a near-future post! Stay tuned...