I think it's interesting that so many of us are using a technology topic, because I was actually thinking about in trying to write a series of poems centered around how technology isolates us instead of brings us together. But I feel like that would be a little repetitive, so I tried to look at my idea from a broader angle, and came up with how capitalism has isolated us. I feel like people are pitted against each other from the instant we start getting graded, and I think this mentality of constant competition has divided more people than it has united in this country, and around the globe. We're always so worried about getting ahead and making money that we often forget about the people around us, who are all trying to do the same thing. I want my project to focus on solidarity, communal activities, and basically on things that bring people together.
So far the only things that I've really been able to consider (since I'm trying to use Miami students) is family (good or bad), loneliness, drinking (or the lack thereof), sex (or the lack thereof), and money (or the lack thereof). I'm kind of stuck, though, on how I want to funnel the communal idea of "loneliness" or "sex" into something that can appear on the page.
My first instinct was to do what I did in a previous project about dreams and sleep -- interview various people about their experience, transcribe those interviews and then select phrases and words from those texts. But I don't think that I want that to be the main way I go about building this project, because I've done that before. We've been reading in class a lot about refrain, and I was thinking about partially using that previously described method to come up with a refrain that I could repeat throughout a piece. I've also been considering printing out whatever refrain I come up with on handmade greeting cards cards, or in the bottoms of cups, or found objects and leaving them throughout campus (documenting all along with photos) or Uptown in places where they would be easily readable by a passer by -- of course they'll probably get stolen or destroyed relatively quickly -- so maybe I should make duplicates.
I'm thinking about making this refrain something that will make practically (with basic exceptions) every reader feel like they are part of a community, and connected to those around them. Even if every person is trapped inside their own heads, at least we are all trapped together. Perception is subjective, but there are commonalities in the human condition. But I still haven't come up with a way, other than recording testimonials or recording people talking without them knowing. I know this is pretty broad, so any suggestions, classmates?
