Monthly Statement:
October 2005
I am very pleased with the effect of gridding the taxonomy according to color and tone. The taxonomy is arranged with the reddest yellow stuff at the right, graduating to the bluest at the left, the most saturated tones at the top, the least at the bottom.

A friend visiting yesterday was "surprised" by the effect of exposing the range of color within yellow. The items are starting to form lovely subgroups.

One last quick thought:

Part of the effect of these taxonomies relates to some advice Leonardo Da Vinci's gave for painters.

Leonardo suggested that painters lacking ideas for compositions should spend time studying old, decaying plaster walls. He pointed out that any number of compositions could be found in such richly varied surfaces.

In these taxonomies there is a natural movement from the concrete and specific toward the mesmerizingly abstract- a reversal of Leonardo's process. (That is because although most objects are not so fragmentary that they can't be identified, choosing an "arbitrary" quality by which to group them emphasizes their abstract qualities) Memes- I hope I am using this term correctly here- I take it to mean a somewhat articulated unit of language still abstract in and of itself.
On the beach you have everything from living organisms and whole shells to fragments of organisms, shells, to sand- the sand being suggestive of the lowest level of differentiation or of non-differentiation. The realm in between is the suggestive realm of memes.

Part of my attraction to litter is the fact that it operates in this in-between realm. This is another thing that the taxonomies amplify- by placing objects together, fragments of things that share a single characteristic, the differentiations are amplified. As these are fragmentary, the abstract quality is also amplified, the compelling potential of articulated objects to take on meaning.

Process: I will collect yellow things which will be mostly litter and other refuse of our urban environment, on walks. I will collect them as I go about the normal business of my life.