You Were Here!

This is an ongoing project that takes place on the University of Leeds campus and was started in November 2010. I am taking photos of found objects, not rubbish, although I appreciate that they may look like that. The objects I am interested in are the ones that could have conceivably been dropped accidentally. These items may well be classified as rubbish at the point they hit the ground, but the objects that intrigue me are those that could have possibly been lost, and at that moment in time, could have been attributed some value by the owner.

These items will be listed chronologically with the most recent at the top of the blog. They will be indexed temporally and spatially. I will be uploading them in batches corresponding to the relevant expeditions, and will be interspersing them with texts that relate to the themes of this blog.

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Ref: #17
Description: cotton tea towel
Date/time indexed: Wednesday 20th April 2011, 11.14am
Location: Lifton Place

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Ref: #16
Description: half-pint beer glass
Date/time indexed: Wednesday 20th April 2011, 11.111am
Location: Clarendon Place

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Ref: #15
Description: man's black shoe
Date/time indexed: Wednesday 20th April 2011, 11.08am
Location: Clarendon Place

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Ref: #14
Description: pencil attached to string
Date/time indexed: Monday 18th April 2011, 11.36am
Location: the back of the Brotherton (west floor)

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Ref: #13
Description: kirby grip
Date/time indexed: Monday 18th April 2011, 11.04am
Location: on the stairs outside Mathematics (leading to Roger Stevens)

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Ref: #12
Description: lens from glasses
Date/time indexed: Monday 18th April 2011, 11.01am
Location: next to the building that is under the plaza outside Roger Stevens

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I found this really interesting abstract for an article on the found object: 'From trashed to treasured: A grounded theory analysis of the found object' by Paul M. Camic. This is what the abstract says:
Both research and applied psychologists pay surprisingly little attention to the material objects encountered in day-to-day living, even though the significance of these objects in human development has been profound. Drawing on literature from the visual arts, consumer behavior, anthropology, psychology, art therapy, and museum studies, this is the first known article to examine the psychological, social, and aesthetic factors involved in found and second-hand object use. A survey design employing a qualitative questionnaire, analyzed by grounded theory, was given to 65 people from 8 countries. Results identified a found object process that involves the interaction of aesthetic, cognitive, emotive, mnemonic, ecological, and creative factors in the seeking, discovery, and utilization of found objects. This has potential implications for the use of material objects within health care by applied psychologists and allied professionals.

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Ref: #11
Description: pencil
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.59am
Location: outside the Student Union.

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Ref: #10
Description: black hair scrunchy
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.57am
Location: near the cut-through between sociology and the Ziff building.

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Ref: #9
Description: contact lens case (unused lens still intact)
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.55am
Location: near the wall outside the Henry Price halls of residence on Clarendon Road.

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Ref: #8
Description: red feather
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.51am
Location: outside the Brotherton Library (west floor).

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Ref: #7
Description: black biro (with ink)
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.47am
Location: outside the Brotherton Library (west floor).

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Ref: #6
Description: cycle luggage strap (?)
Date/time indexed: Saturday 29th January 2011, 11.40am
Location: outside the casting room at the back of the Old Mining Building.

“The found object shares with the readymade a lack of obvious aesthetic quality and little intervention on the part of the artist beyond putting the object in circulation, but in almost every other respect it is dissimilar. The difference is attributable to Breton’s positioning of the found object in a different space – the space of the unconscious.”

Iversen, Margaret. “Readymade, Found Object, Photograph,” Art Journal, Summer 2004, 48.

I consider these objects to be both found and lost. Because I only select those that could have been dropped unintentionally, and therefore could be thought of not as rubbish, I think they do reflect the unconscious of the individual that owned them. One could also make a good argument for them reflecting the unconscious of the person finding them too.

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Ref: #5
Description: lip balm
Date/time indexed: Saturday 20th November 2010, 12.35pm
Location: near the wall outside the Henry Price halls of residence on Clarendon Road.

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Ref: #4
Description: black woollen glove
Date/time indexed: Saturday 20th November 2010, 11.45am
Location: on the cut-through between the fire exit of the Old Bar and Sociology.

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Ref: #3
Description: eye-liner
Date/time indexed: Saturday 20th November 2010, 11.37am
Location: on the piazza outside the Union.

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Ref: #2
Description: green feathers
Date/time indexed: Saturday 20th November 2010, 11.33am
Location: on the wall next to the ramp near the Michael Sadler building.

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Ref: #1
Description: orange silk flower
Date/time indexed: Saturday 20th November 2010, 11.30am
Location: disabled parking bay, between the Baines Wing and the Michael Sadler building.

The above objects are the first five I found on my first expedition. They were not as easy to spot as you might expect, as you had to look for them amongst 'real' rubbish, which, even though the campus is very tidy, there is a lot of in terms of very small items. There are a number of things I like about these items. They enable you to pose such questions as:
At what point does something become rubbish? When it leaves the hand, when it touches the ground? Couldn't something that is accidentally dropped be considered a lost object, rather than rubbish?
These items become an index of a journey. The amount of green feathers I found, when looking carefully, was incredible. There were many, and they weren't just located in the region of the one I photographed. These objects tell you something about the owner. The information may be limited, but it tells a story. It says: I WAS HERE!