1KM: Consciousness in a Kilometer
For my 1km assignment I decided to conduct an experiment. I wanted to push myself to think outside of the box and try something that was a little bit vulnerable to share – My thinking with no restrictions.
To make my own kilometer I decided to write myself a note checking in with me. I wrote about my plan, asked myself some questions, and recorded my baseline feeling before getting into the “experimental” part of why the assignment is my kilometer.
I decided to record my mind and my thinking because I wanted to go on a 1km walk from my house while smoking a joint. (Tracked on Google Maps).
As a somewhat regular smoker I thought it would be an intruiging take on the assignment to get into my mind/conscience. Something I don’t ever do is check in with myself while under the influence.
I think its an interesting and a little bit of a humourous idea to see a side of yourself that isn’t as filtered – and mildy embarrassing to share with others (haha).
Although this experiment didn’t provide me with too much profound insight about myself, I still think it was fun and personally a nice break from more serious artistic endeavours. Sometimes I find it difficult to make art that I care about that is also less serious.
I think it’s pretty comical how clichΓ© my second note is. The most stereotypical concepts you can think of for a stoner really did prove to be clichΓ© for a reason – surface level ideas being exaggerated; I was thinking about my uncomfortability with the heat, clearly getting to me more than it normally would, I wasn’t focused on my task at hand, I had the munchies and wanted food even though in the first note I had just said that I was full from dinner, I couldn’t remember to answer any of my questions I had written from the first note – though I did answer some of them indirectly…potentially proving they were in my subconscious?
Something I did think was interesting was that in the first note before I began the walk I was feeling a bit stressed from school and projects starting to pop up. Instead of the weed enhancing my stress and making me paranoid and stuck on the feelings I was having before, it did the opposite. I wrote about seeing the world around me and taking in my current surroundings, being present in the moment. I said I felt peaceful.
Before I got distracted by, again, the clichΓ© of asking yourself what you precieve at the time as “deep” and “philosophical” questions.
I think some of the smaller details about the process of these notes coming together also offers some insight into the “simple” mind of being high. The first note my writing appears neater, the ideas are more organized, and the binding of the page I cleaned up before putting it in the envelope. In the second note you can definitely feel a more chaotic and distracted energy. The writing is messy, I exaggerated more words to convey my emotions, theres a spelling mistake, I was not consistent in ripping the loose binding, I also missed the small detail of adding “pm” to the time stamp at the top of the page – unlike the first note. While these are not that important to the content of the notes, I think it’s still important to consider these as part of the experiment. Highlighting how my intentional mind was not fully there.
I did also decide to write these notes in pen to try to keep them as honest as I could.
I think something for next time I would consider instead of writing notes to document the process of my conscience being altered, is to experiment with recording myself as I indulge. That way the audience would be able to actually view me sober and join me in the journey as I become more effected. I think this would be able to provide more insight as we would be able to see my emotions, hear my voice, and see where I am in my environment. There would be less interpretation and make it more immersive.
I quite liked this project and I would definitely consider creating more opportunity to question myself while indulging.
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