in my explorations on the line i looked at it through the scope of the word singular. i looked for singularity on the line in everything, as much as i could collect through my senses and understanding of my surroundings. i analyzed everything through the different definitions and meanings of the word ’singular’, taking into consideration everything that could possibly be communicated as singular, in any sense of the word. i began to think of the word as something that i would need to dissect and collect examples of tangents or alternative meanings of to fully understand how it can be used to describe the line. singularity by my understanding can mean one of three things:
1) exceptional, unique, strange or remarkable
2) grammar- denoting one thing person or place
3) mathematics- having unique properties, having a zero determinant, or a point that is singularity- the underlined ‘u’ shape or intersection of two lines
i collected a number of objects on my explorations. i documented the locations using google maps. here is a link
i found that everything is singular, and at the same time, nothing is singular. it is relative to the scale at which the object is observed, the circumstances such as time, location, physical presence, and other intangible aspects of reality that can’t be recreated. for example, say a cloning machine is invented and the inventor wants to test it on an apple. the experiment is successful in that it duplicates the apple, but the apples will never be the same. they are both the exact same in their physical makeup, but their existence becomes the dividing factor in their singularity. those words alone prove the point: ‘their singularity’ it is a paradox because the two apples have their respective singularity, but not a common one. singularity is the opposite of common. alternately, if the apples both exist, they become two. and they are no longer singular, but if one apple is destroyed, the remaining apple remains singular.
textures: i took the different textural elements that i encountered on the line. i pressed a wet piece of paper on the surface until the texture soaked through the wet paper. the singularity of these objects on the line is their recording. i couldn’t do the same thing again no matter how careful i was in finding say the exact same spot on the exact same fallen tree, and putting the exact same amount of water on the paper, and putting the exact same amount of pressure on the paper, etc. it becomes unrealistic, but still, even if that did happen, if i was able to recreate the textures on the paper i got it wouldn’t be the same. they are singular, and unique. nothing is exactly like them.
interpretations of found objects on the line:
this is a pin i found in the woods that says ‘alfred university grandma’ i couldn’t pass it up. the singularity of this pin is that i’ve never seen something like this. true there are probably other pins similar, i’m sure it’s not one of a kind. also there are probably billions of other pins in the world. it is only singular if you look at it on a level of what it is to the viewer immediately, specifically me.
a golf ball i found on the line. it is not singular. i know of other golf balls. it is only singular on a much smaller level.
everything is singular on some smaller level. a golf ball is only singular because even though it is machine-made and supposedly exactly the same as the next one, there are always small almost indistinguishable differences. if i were to compare two microscopic images of two golf identical golf balls, i would see that the plastic would be structurally drastically different. nothing is built exactly the same, because we can’t control the exactitude of its material structure.
i found this purple latex glove on alfred state’s campus near the sidewalk. it is unique in my collection, but there are an immense number of latex gloves almost identical to this one.
this note was behind joel’s house. it reads “hip replacement surgery/ hope you’re feeling better/ thinking of you/ best wishes”. i found it to be interesting and singular to my experience. i appreciated its humor- finding this note so out of context. this was the only object that made me laugh.
this was a plastic stick i found behind the gym at alfred state. it’s the only object in my collection that i don’t understand its purpose or reason. i think it might be a glow stick, but i’m not certain.
i found a piece of a magnet- or what i think was a magnet. it has a landscape of los angeles with the words ‘los angeles’ over it.
i was given a spider ring at one point… i think he said it was for my honesty. i’m not sure why he gave it to me, but i appreciated it and it was unique to my collection because it was the only thing that was given to me.
this was a tiny pink carabiner that i found behind the mcmahon center on the way up to the wooded half of the line. it was interesting and unique for being pink and so small.
this nerf dart i found in the parking lot behind the uni-mart. it was not singular because there were many of them lying on the ground near a truck. i began to think about the story behind it.
“maybe alfred state has the game where one team is zombies and the other is humans… and maybe one human was hiding behind a truck or something and was reloading his gun before the zombie came after him and then when he came up behind him and tried to tag him, the human jumped up, spilling his darts, and ran from the zombie.”
i find jewelry a lot. i found my mother’s birthday present one year- a gold and diamond tennis bracelet, and i found my sister a pair of earrings attached to each other and they happened to be her birthstone- i didn’t recognize it, but she was excited when i gave them to her. then i found a necklace that i gave to a girl in high school, and now i find this- a necklace with birds around it. the clasp in the back is one of the screw-together barrel type clasps. it’s easy to tell how it fell off of someone- the clasp is pretty loose and kind of rusted.
this was a part of a keychain i found that had the inside part missing. it was either a cover for something that fit inside, or one of those l.e.d. lights you use to find your keys in the dark. either way it was still in pretty good condition for being in the road. i wish it had the light still in it if it was one of those lights…
a washer i found near the stairs at alfred state. i picked it up because it was worn to the point that it was almost paper-thin. further exploration: measure thickness of paper vs. this washer, compare.
a locking nut i found in harder. it wasn’t singular because there were two of them. it is singular because now it’s missing it’s counter-nut.
i collected images of several trees. they were all the exact same type of tree, relatively in the same area, all approximately the same age, size, color, texture, etc. but they were all slightly different from each other. i found it to symbolize the idea that everything that we think is identical to the others like it really are very different if you look at them from a different perspective. when looking straight-on at these trees from a distance, they all look the same, but upon closer inspection, and when i took the photos from this angle, we see the differences drastically magnified.
tree trunk no. 1
tree trunk no. 2
tree trunk no. 3
tree trunk no. 4
tree trunk no. 5
tree trunk no. 6
direction: direction was a difficult concept to explore as singular. i thought of it as my singular being traveling in one singular direction at one singular moment in time for one singular reason on one singular plane, in one singular location. but there are tangents to all of those. what i’m describing is essentially a snapshot of someone moving. there is no dimension of any of the aforementioned aspects of movement and direction. when i take a step on the line, i take a step in a certain direction. as i have to move around obstacles, i move in another direction. this begs the question: is direction singular? can there really be only one direction? in my mind, the concept of direction is just that- a concept. the idea of degrees like on a protractor or the measurements on the globe are arbitrary and relative. i thought of what is between the two ends of a degree? there can be infinitely smaller units of measurement. so small that we can’t see them when we’re using them, we only recognize the concept of direction.
