Untitled.
9 March 2000
so everyone crammed into the beb gallery today, with the pieces of the cabanon, for a huge group crit, section by section. it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the preliminary crit we had though.
kinda made the day feel a little unproductive, on one hand: a lot of it was interesting, but really had next to nothing to do with the work that i had done. but, on the other hand it was also kinda relaxing.
afterwards we got the assignment for the next phase of the project: designing an additional work space. individually, no more group coordination nightmares. under seventy square feet. taking into account the cabanon as we built it. the site (we are going to be deconstructing, and then reconstructing at the risd farm next tuesday, s'posedly). ideas of modularity, pre-fab, etc.
actually left the beb a little early for a studio day. made some phone calls. didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone for long if at all.
spent about two hours in the met at dinner. with a wide array of people. talked with molly and chris (and cybèle came in towards the end of the conversation) about making friends and reading people and misreading people and effort and enthusiasm and such. i still feel like i don't really know anyone here yet, and i said as much. there's a tradeoff between being difficult and lonely and being "the mysterious bean" as chris put it. i do like being mysterious, but i'd also like friends.
it occurred to me during this conversation, although i didn't bring it up, that while risd is a lot like high school was for me in some ways, there are other ways in which it is completely different. i've met lots of people here. and hung out and kinda gotten to know them. really for the first time since nmh. but, risd doesn't offer the same sorts of opportunities for actually getting to know people that nmh did. there's no real student center where people just hang out. maybe in the freshman dorms and some other outer houses people get together in the lounges and such, but there's only a small subset of people who hang out in the farnum lounge. and it's only to watch tv.
i sorta feel like molly, chris, and cybèle are all people who i could become better friends with. along with alex.h and yuka (although i don't see much of either of them anymore) and maybe susie and garth. and i guess that in the fall i'll get the opportunity to get to know chris and garth better. but maybe see everyone else even that much less.
i don't know. i still don't get interpersonal relationships.
this just occurred to me, as a way to distinguish levels of friendship. if i were to suddenly leave risd for some reason, who if anyone here would i stay in touch with? i'd probably exchange sporadic emails with a few people. but most i think i'd just kinda lose track of. i want people in my life who i don't want to lose track of. i want to be able to spend time with those sorts of people while we're in the same place.