on monday i had a studio project review which went rather well, if i might say so myself. anyhow, the one major critique was that the choice of building materials was "bittersweet." i haven't written too much about my project yet as i haven't had too much time but the general idea is a think-tank for memory research. anyhow i'll have to put together something to document/share all my work with those who can't be here to talk about it in person. so in the meantime, i've chosen corten oxidized steel on the main facades of the building, using it in a variety of ways for the exterior skin, corten steel tubes overlapped, corten steel shingles patterned, corten steel strip plates, and corten steel corrugated panels...after entering the building inside , a "sensing" wall guides you along the main artery path, this i determined as bird's eye maple wood placed in strips along the wall in continuous repetition. as your hand passes along the wall, one of the strips becomes a cold galvanized steel. causing your senses to allow your hand to remain at this point and push the "switch" opening the various doors to the various research areas. anyhow, the point being corten "hard" steel versus "soft" maple was referred to as bittersweet.

this word, bittersweet, makes me think back to the original project purpose, to be a place of memory. are not memories bittersweet? or the combination of extremely happy memories plus one bad memories, always causes that tinge of taintedness. thus in turn making every memory bitteraweet? i dunno. my thoughts have been going over and over this for two days now. isn't it only under the hard surface of our being that the soft memories remain precious and buried. only after penetrating the skin can we dig up and reveal the memories? doesn't the skin just become a mask that allows memory to be revealed or hidden at purposely specified moments?

any thoughts on what memory tastes like?