About the connections project
The central idea behind this project is to consider how the ‘Six degrees of Separation’ concept might be applied not to people but to objects, images or maybe even words. This will mean thinking not just about single ‘things’ but about relationships between them.
The early stages will be mainly individual practice but the project will build into a collaborative piece of work involving the whole group.
The early stages will be mainly individual practice but the project will build into a collaborative piece of work involving the whole group.
The 'six degrees of separation' notion uses the concept of a network that consists of nodes and paths between nodes. In this project, the nodes of the network of connections are objects. This includes images - e.g. photos or paintings - as well as things we have made for this project or found objects that resonate with the project. A path between two nodes is a story of a connection between those two objects. For instance, one of the seats in one of my 'objects' called 'Set of Seats', is a zafu meditation cushion, so a story that connects the Set of Seats with the Tibetan prayer Flags is as follows:
In Magdalen Road there is a house where I have been to sit in meditation on a zafu with the Tibetan monks who live there.
In discussion, the idea of the network being coloured came up, as in the colouring of a line of the London tube diagram. This has been incorporated into what I have been working on (details to be added later).
The Small World Problem by Stanley MilgramPublished in Psychology Today in 1967, this paper gives an introduction to the 'six degrees of separation' idea.
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