Apr 2, 2009
A grocery list forever: The beauty of everyday things.
On Thursday April 2nd I saw this tweet:
The Grocery List Collection http://www.grocerylists.org/lists/100/
Instantly I thought of the grocery list I had used for years. It was in a sketchbook that I had ultimately filled. (I don’t fill them all.) I then tore the list gently from the book and used a paperclip to keep it attached to the next book. I did this repeated times. I try to recall which book it may be clipped to now. I haven’t seen it since the last move; that was when I moved my art studio out of the living space.
I was hoping to scan or photograph the list for this post. I thought I could put my hands on it easily. Then I hesitated.
I don’t know where the list is.
I’m trying to recall what it looked like now, comparing it to the images I saw at the link above. But my list wasn’t like these lists at all. My printing is disciplined from many years of design and drafting. I write straight and even on unlined paper. I use a fountain pen which leaves the telltale puddles based upon the speed in which one writes the stroke. It was on a piece of paper which barely showed the wear.
The organization of the items had been typical for me. Dairy together, fruits, vegetables, fish, yummy spices, cheeses, bread. It was ordered by my serpentine route through the isles. Items grouped geographically, creating their own special cartographic experience.
I can see the map in my minds eye now. The small dots next to the objects the corresponded to the items in the cart.
tweet from
web: http://www.projectb.com
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/barbaralevine
Tags: grocerylist, artifacts, memory, everyday things, twitter
well, if i wasn’t sure we were related, I am sure now. LOL I do my lists in a similar fashion.
Also, on another note: After taking some classes in qualitative research, I began to look at things differently. Well, it’s not that I didn’t look at things like this before, but now, after delving into all kinds of qualitative studies, I now knew that I was not crazy to think, for example, (I feel a run-on sentence coming on) while in the grocery, that it would be pretty cool to (surreptitiously perhaps?) collect the lists left behind by other shoppers (in carts, on shelves, on the aisle floors…) and take them home – and well – study them.
And perhaps make a collage.
Ha. Yes, the genetic material shows itself.
I have artifacts everywhere. I loosely follow the Warhol example. Ever visit the museum in Pittsburgh?
It’s what makes the work I do so exciting… discovery!
I think you should collect them, scan them, and make make a book, with commentary. It would be wonderful.
Pretty interesting.
Have NOT been to that Museum. Need to go tho. Hey, I will put it on my “To Go” list.
A book WOULD be great. And perhaps I can sort them by the stores in which I found them. I imagine a list for Whole Foods would differ very much from one for Wal Mart. Of course then I could comment on the type of paper used, the shape its in, and where I found it.
Then, there’s the handwriting and the spelling. There were a few on the site you referenced that surely reminded me of some students with dyslexia I have taught in the past.
Oh yes, and as you mentioned — how the items are categorized – and if the method is discernible.
Uh oh – I am starting to scare myself. I see in my mind’s eye, a database – just something simple in FMP. I would build the value lists as I went — stop, Linda. STOP IT!
OK – tomorrow, the quest begins!
The database would allow you to find the intersections/ commonalities. That would start a whole new conversation. Date and time stamps of the discovery. Map on google… Oh my!