Space As An Extension Of Self

I've been thinking about how rooms and spaces and belongings are all a part of you. Like you are more than your body and thoughts and clothes, you're also your environment. Where you live and your culture and your time is all part of you too. But more specifically the space which you can call yours is a part of you in terms of both lived experience and physicality. It's an extension of you, you arrange it and occupy it, but it also arranges and occupies you.

I've been obsessively reading things about minimalism lately - that is, the kind of minimalism that talks about minimising the things you own. I like the things I own of course, including some of the bulkier things like my scanner, guitar, mirror, table, chest of drawers, big cuddly reindeer. I really enjoy trying to minimise the amount of space things take up though. One day I want to have everything I own fit into one drawer or suitcase. I don't know if that will really happen, but I like the idea.

Here are some articles and blog posts on minimalism that I liked:

• Mark Manson / Minimalism
• Winona Dimeo-Ediger / 8 Things I Learned From Selling All My Belongings On Craigslist
• Joshua Fields Millburn / Everything I Own: My 288 Things

I have also been fascinated by Michael Landy's "Break Down" ever since I heard about it. I like the kind of meticulous documenting of things like last.fm (recording every song you listen to) and the idea of doing that with everything you own is really interesting to me. It's similar to the enjoyment of watching "what's in my bag?" videos and seeing someone pull out a half empty packet of chewing gum and a receipt for a sandwich. There's something great about those details. This also reminds me, somehow, of Henry Darger and the immense work discovered after his death.

Anyway, so I took these pictures in an attempt to mesh myself with my room a bit, to make myself a clear part of the paintings around me. The air has been thick and hot for a while and I'm sitting in it like a depression in a mattress. The air is all mine, at least until it cycles away somewhere and gets replaced. Recycled by some trees and all that. It's just against this one pink wall as usual, but I don't know, it's the space.