HUMAN TRACE
credit: wootam
At this moment in history, there is a renewed interest the tactile, the three-dimensinal, the imperfect, and the handmade. People are making and attempting to keep human to human exhanges and traditions alive even as they are being radically reshaped by extreme media forms. Does the current confluence of human touch and mediated connection make something new possible and sense-able? What traces of their bodies, thoughts, emotions, and actions do humans actually make, want to make, exchange and leave behind?
DAILY LIFE>>>EACH DAY IS TRACED BY THE HUMAN HAND
credit: kute _digital misfit_
"It would be easy to suppose that this neighborhood looks much the same as it did two hundred years ago. Within two weeks, a three-story concrete apartment building will wedge its way in between the gray tile rooftops. The old wooden buildings, the homes of craftsmen and merchants whose shop fronts open right onto the streets, are disappearing one by one. Made of simple wood, clay and sand, they are easily demolished, gone within hours on any hot Kyoto afternoon. But with them goes much of the history and charm of this thousand-year-old city..."
--Diane Durston
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ART>>> THE TRACE OF A HUMAN GESTURE. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS.
credit: andrewcoulterenright
"And now, after many visits to the Land, I still don't know exactly what it's all about. It
may sound strange, but this hazy quality is precisely what attracts me. Nobody knows
what the Land is-and even less what it's going to develop into." In fact, the Land isn't a
commune in the normal sense, because the artists realizing projects there have done so
primarily for the benefit of others. The inhabitants-perhaps "users" is a better term-are a
mix of local artists, a few farmers, and a small group of students." -Tobias Rehberger
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ENVIRONMENT: RESTORING THE EARTH BY HAND
credit: carlosjwj
“The women of the Green Belt Movement have learned about the causes and the symptoms of environmental degradation. They have begun to appreciate that they, rather than their government, ought to be the custodians of the environment.” -Wangari Maathai
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CONSUMER CULTURE>>>A HUMAN TRACE TURNS CONSUMING INTO CULTURE
credit: local produce
"Slow Food is also simply about taking the time to slow down and to enjoy life with family and friends. Every day can be enriched by doing something slow - making pasta from scratch one night, seductively squeezing your own orange juice from the fresh fruit, lingering over a glass of wine and a slice of cheese - even deciding to eat lunch sitting down instead of standing up. For example, here in the Slow Food USA office, we take a moment to eat lunch together every day." -Slow Food USA
Follow the human trace from Slow Food to CouchSurfing:
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BUSINESS / ECONOMIES: INNOVATING HANDMADE ECONOMIES OF EXCHANGE
credi: luzer
"In a reversal of the traditional American narrative of aspiration, an awful lot of people at the Brooklyn Flea turned
out to have ditched lucrative white-collar jobs to hawk goods from folding tables on the street." -Guy Trebay
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POLITICS>>>ONE HUMAN LAYS HANDS ON ANOTHER: WITNESSING TRACES OF POWER
"Harman said that she began photographing what she saw because she found it hard to believe. “If I come up to you and I’m like, ‘Hey this is going on,’ you probably wouldn’t believe me unless I had something to show you,” she said. “So if I say, ‘Hey this is going on. Look, I have proof,’ you can’t deny it, I guess.” That was the impulse, she said. “Just show what was going on, what was allowed to be done.”
- Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris with Specialist Sabrina Harman
credit: duncan
"They couldn’t say that we broke the rules because there were no rules,” she said. And by taking pictures of the prisoners on the M.I. block the M.P.s demonstrated two things: that they never fully accepted what was happening as normal, and that they assumed they had nothing to hide". -Megan Ambuhl
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TECHNOLOGY / MEDIA>>>EXTREME MEDIA EXTEND A HUMAN HAND
"A new wave of craft is capturing the attention of the nation. It has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk and the D.I.Y. ethos while being influenced by traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism and art. It is no longer just about cross-stitching samplers or painting floral scrolls on china. Instead, it has increased its realm to embrace an emerging movement of artists, crafters and designers working in traditional and nontraditional mediums and methodologies to intervene in mass-market consumerism, to challenge the familiar and to attempt creative and economic freedom." -Handmade Nation
credit: handmadenationmovie.com
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BE A FIRST RESPONDER
Write a 1 page essay about a human trace in your neighborhood. Find a person, business, or organization that has somehow kept a tradition, craft, skill, practice or material alive in a local area. Include information about what they do, how you think they have managed to keep this trace going, and why you chose them.
Draw a map or write an essay about how a human trace that has come into your life through an exchange with a stranger. The trace could be something you mistakenly left behind, anonymously gifted, randomly found, or intentionally created and installed in a public space for someone to find. Draw pictures or write a description of the trace and why you consider it a human trace. Inspirational data>>> The Secret Life of Benches, Vietnam War Memorial
Humans are exchanging their traces through media. Visit several social networking sites that use the internet as a way to connect members for social/political events that are staged in the offline world. Find an online promotion for an upcoming event. Make a 30 second video PSA about the event. Post your video online within your own social newtwork. Inspirational Data >>>Earth Hour, Moveon.org Actions
Call: The Art Museum Social Tagging Project. Give your human trace to a piece of art. "See art you haven't seen before. Look in a new way. Describe works of art in your own words. Exchange your ideas with a community of art lovers. Lead others to artworks they wouldn't normally see. Create a personal relationship to works. Let museums know what you see. The more you tag, the richer the experience for all."
Media researchers now realize that the human trace is what turns information into something that has meaning and use for real people. "While the Internet may be immaterial, placeless, and free of social ties, information is not: materials, geography, and sociability all help define how we create, share, and use information." -Institute of the Future 10 Year Forecast Inspiration 1, Inspiration 2
Submit your projects for publication in GEN U (the EMS showcase of user-generated work).
Help us update this flashpoint by posting your observations, documentations, and relevant links to the Tracking Flashpoints: HUMAN TRACE section of the EMS blog.
