The Map is Not the Territory

Abstract

Hi Donald, It just occurred to me that I might be finished with this fieldwork. I’m sitting at the side of the road looking over this fucked up landscape of cattle, golf carts, trees with turning leaves, being rained on, frozen out, everything feels forced, and I’m double-taking sight after sight, saying to myself I’ve seen this before, I’ve done this already. I’m packing up my things. I’ll write more later, or perhaps I’ll call. bau

Thirty-three locations in pursuit of the long view, from the borders of an expropriated forty year old ghost town. Thirty-eight Polaroids, thirty-six mobile phone photographs, thirty-six photos from a digital single lens reflex camera with an oiled lens filter, forty 15.2 x 10.2 cm drawings, fifty-six 38.4 x 16.4 cm drawings, sixty-three white-bordered 38.4 x 20.8 cm drawings, sixty-four 33.5 x 17.2 cm sketchbook spreads. 20 085 words; 14 123 by choice, 5962 out of obligation.

It is important to figure things out for yourself. It is important to not learn too much of any one thing. This is a thesis because it’s a thesis; it is what it is. (That’s begging the question.) This is a thesis about begging the question.