Salt Flats

While I'm in Utah, I'm trying to see more of the American west. I don't have a car (the irony of nature being more available to people who own polluting machines is not lost on me) so I'm dependent on other people for transit to the national parks, etc. Last Saturday we went to the Salt Flats. We woke up early to make bread and fill the thermoses and then we drove a few hours to arrive at sunrise. These photos were taken by me, Rachel Hludzinski, and Mariana Castro.

When I was in Spain, people often told me that the US didn't have any cultural patrimony. But I feel like American patrimony is built into the landscape. It's doesn't necessarily belong to us but we can assume the role of preserving it; we can treat it like patrimony.

--------------

Mientras vivo en Utah, intento experimentar la naturaleza que hay aquí. Pero no tengo coche (para los que contaminan con el coche, es más fácil llegar a la naturaleza). Después de que Mariana me buscó en coche el sábado pasado, conducimos para los Salt Flats (al borde del Lago Salado). Nos madrugamos a las 4 para hacer un pan (en Utah no hay panaderías) y llenar el termo. Llegamos sobre las 7 para ver el amanecer. Hicimos estas photos Mari, Rachel, y yo.

En España pensaban que casi hubiera patrimonio en EEUU. Pero en EEUU la tierra es el patrimonio nuestro: aunque no nos pertenezca, la podemos conservar. La debemos de tratar como si fuera patrimonio.

Film photo!

This is a bilingual post. If you notice a mistake, please correct my grammar (in either language!)

Publico esta entrada en castellano e inglés. Al notar faltas de ortografía y gramática, hacedme el favor de corregirme (¡el inglés tanto como el español!)

Weaving

I was a lucky kid who got to take a textiles class last semester. One of the best things was that we did a tiny amount of weaving on the school's floor loom. It reminded me a lot of operating a clamshell press, but with multiple food pedals, because you "feed" the shuttle with one hand and pull it through with the other hand. Kind of like feeding paper. But there's not ink, and it's not as noisy, and it's probably warm because looms don't have to live in garages like presses. 

Judie Eatough, the woman who gave our class a demo and warped the loom (which means putting yarn on it) for us is very active in the Utah weavers' guild. Where you can rent equipment for 10-15 dollars a month. Wut? 

Anyway, when I asked her about her career, she said that many weavers, like her, have a science/math background (the jacquard loom was the first computer!). She got a degree in chemistry, raised her children, and ended up taking weaving classes as a hobby. She became so expert that she then taught college weaving classes for many years. 

We learned the names of all the parts of the loom (yay jargon!) and wove this simple pattern from linen threads:

Some signage dregs

San Francisco

Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City

Uptown Minneapolis

Provo

Provo, at the Great Salt Lake Guitar Co

Bent to a Straight and Narrow at a Point of Passage

Lawrence Weiner piece at the UMFA

What does travel ultimately produce if it is not, by a sort of reversal, "an exploration of the deserted places of my memory," the return to nearby exoticism by way of a detour through distant places ... in short, something like an "uprooting in one's origins?" (Heidegger).

~Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

Provo, Utah, 2014

Arches / arcos

Moab, Utah, 2014

Segovia, Spain, 2009

Dear Barcelona / Querida Barcelona,

Love, India / con cariño, India

These remind me of Candy Chang's sidewalk psychiatry. / Esto me recuerda de este proyecto de psiquiatría peatonal por Candy Chang.

Victorian Eclectic

I'm working on a project that involves taking lots of photos of victorian houses in Provo, Utah. This is one of my favorites. Because its assortment of architectural details is so quirky, it's classified as a "victorian eclectic"home. 

#5daysofpreservation

My employer, the Harold B. Lee Library, recently participated in #5daysofpreservation.

(Best aprons ever, btw).

I probably communed with the 5 days of preservation tumblr for an hour everyday while it was still going on. There was a gamut of preservation--everything from book repair to environmental monitoring to digital preservation. My favorite post was of these libros cartoneros at Harvard:

Since I'm so enthusiastic about preservation, a lot of people have asked me how we know we're collecting and preserving the "right" things. What is the logic of amassing a large amount of stuff in a library and spending a lot of resources to baby it--how do we know what is really important or what will be useful to future generations? In the 21st century, is this whole library thing a futile human activity? Maybe some preservation makes sense, but isn't it generally excessive? At the Lee Library, there are curators who decide what to collect and which items should get conservation.

As a student tech, I'm a cog in a preservation machine--a happy cog! I think I'll always prefer to help fix individual items to tackling library systems on a grander scale. But I can offer this: although professionalizing the collection or care of library items is a 20th/21st century thing, we've needed libraries since Alexandria. We still need them. It's irresponsible not to provide preservation when it's within our ability.

cairns / hitos

In Arches National Park / en el parque nacional «Arches»

At the University of Utah's Marriott Library / en la biblioteca Marriott de la Universidad de Utah

Spiral Jetty / el Muelle espiral

What I miss most about Barna is how visually rich it is. I love going to school in Utah, but my daily surroundings too often narrow to campus, my apartment, and the sidewalk in between.

Going to see the Spiral Jetty yesterday yanked me out of my everyday. It's a piece of art that could only be possible in Utah -- a reason to savor being here.
____________

Barcelona tiene una enorme riqueza visual. Me encanta estudiar en Utah ... pero ni el piso, ni el campus ni el camino que los relaciona porta tal riqueza visual.

Ir al Spiral Jetty [el muelle espiral] ayer me arrancó del entorno cotidiano y me hizo recordar la riqueza de la naturaleza que hay aquí.

First project for class / Primer trabajo del semestre

I'm in a letterpress printing class this semester! It has been months since I've touched a press; it felt good to print these.

Este semestre me toca una asignatura de tipografía manual. Hace meses que no imprimo. Que me esté de nuevo disponible una prensa me alegra. 

The assignment was just to print ourselves business cards. The font I used for my name didn't have a label on it, so I don't know what it was. But rad, right?

El trabajo que nos pusieron era imprimir unas tarjetas sencillas. Saqué los tipos para componer mi nombre de una caja sin marcar; así no puedo decir el nombre del estilo. Pero es chulo, ¿no? 

My only regret is that the spacing of my two phone numbers is maybe a little awkward. It's also great to print for yourself. I could get exactly how much impression I wanted (none), and use a paper that I liked.

Debería de haber jugado un poco más con el tracking de los números de teléfono. Ser mi propio cliente es lo mejor. Así estas tarjetas se imprimieron con poca impresión, como a mí me gusta. 

The shop at school has these great gauge pins. THEY DON'T MOVE. This is going to change my life.

En el taller de la universidad hay unas supercapuchinas que NO. SE. MUEVEN. Me van a cambiar la vida.

Also, I've been listening to the album Nos sobran los motivos on repeat lately. It's what I was listening to while I was printing. I wish somebody would go through and translate Sabina.

Últimamente escucho mucho el disco Nos sobran los motivos, de Sabina, incluso mientras imprimía esta tarjetas. Quisiera que alguien hiciera alguna traducción al inglés de sus canciones. 

This is a bilingual post. If you notice a mistake, please correct my grammar (in either language!)
Publico esta entrada en castellano e inglés. Al notar faltas de ortografía y gramática, hacedme el favor de corregirme (¡el inglés tanto como el español!)

Signs in Salt Lake City

YET MORE OF THEM. Actually, this first one is in Minneapolis. All the rest are in Salt Lake City.

This was on an antique scale at a coffee shop.

In this sign I love the A and the N especially.

Although this building is now a bar/restaurant, they kept the original signage.

This is part of a bigger chalkboard of great lettering. (Also, Doner in Salt Lake!!!) This is a bad snapshot but it was night. 

These two are near the Rio Grande Depot. 

Also, thanks to my amiga Phoebe for taking this one for me: 

TRAINS AND BOOKS

This is the train stop in Salt Lake City in front of the public library. Public transit, books, public art, and libraries ... all so lovable.

I loved discovering all the details, like the books peeking out from under the benches. Also, this library has a great zine collection!