The pathology of Collecting!

Cabbage Patch Kids collections 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QPMLQGuL0c

Click the above link to watch the video

Ive been looking through 'obsessive' collecting videos on youtube as part of this collecting task and came across this one, i think its almost slightly freaky and weird! A man and wife Collecting Cabbage patch kids and almost treating them like children! within the video is states that there are many clubs in america that are cabbage patch lovers and within these groups they have meet ups, where they are initially meeting so that their cabbage patch kids can play with each other and sort of act like real human children?!

After the first time of watching i could only think that these people may not have children of there own for many reasons so they are trying to treat there cabbage patch kids like there own kids? But after doing a bit more research and watching many more videos i then found out that the main couple featured in the video do in fact have grown up children. 

When reading though Baudrillard's 'The system of collecting' one quote really stuck out to me. ' Thus any given object can have two functions; it can be utilized or it can be possessed.' I think this is a very true and fair quote, The youtube clip shows people collecting and keeping hold of these collections so why not use them and take it to the next level rather than just sitting them on a shelf letting them colllect dust. With some certain collections they might not be usable collections but if they are why not use them the way you want to? I think with this certain clip because they are middle aged men and women its almost sort of a regression, going back and visiting your child hood and the child hood memories you have and trying to re live them as you are now. 

I have secret collecting obsessions too, Tins, all shapes, sizes and patterns and key rings! which are not going to be so secret now! :) 

Pigeons and Pavements

For our first project at Chelsea we were given the Rough Guide project, a task involving different parts of London, we were split into groups and had to make a 'Rough guide' to London totally in pictures, in our groups we were each given a specific area we had to focus on, and individually we focused on what we wished.

My groups area was Piccadilly circus, Bond street and the surrounding streets. The main things that stuck out to me were the amount of pigeons literally everywhere and the dark dampness of grey paved streets. which then led me onto the traffic lights and pedestrian crosses, and the fact that nobody apart from a select few actually waited for the little green man to cross the road! Despite the busy traffic and busses driving past! Its always an urgency in London, everywhere you go, a busy hussle and bustle to get anywhere, people rushing and not taking the time to take anything in around them.

So to me, the three most common things in London are the pigeons,pavements and the little red man! I tried to document these as much as i could when visiting these areas, taking photographs, collecting litter from the paved walk ways and watching the day go by. 

 

My page in the guide is quite abstract but also quite easy to look at, a distorted photograph with a red spray paint mark on, different on each separate one. 

I enjoyed doing this mini project, it gave me time to explore London and we quite experimental with what i was doing.