Babs' Nest

For the New Genres class, Babs Laukat created the above nest-like structure. The task was to create "art in the environment." The class had a good evening crit of the nest in the nest. I'd hung out in it for several minutes and felt very restful -- in fact, I had to get out, for fear that I'd fall asleep, and wake up at 4am, covered in pine needles. Other people found the oasis less soothing -- their own thoughts churning under the bulb hung at top, in the tangle of twine (Babs had everyone go out to the nest at night, one at a time).


There's a pillow in the nest, that makes its own travels day by day, as people arrange it for their own comfort.


Someone left a lighter in the nest a few days ago. It kind of felt like littering, but I didn't remove it. It was gone a couple days later.


One night, as I was going home from my late class, I saw from the parking lot that someone had left the light in the nest on. Kristin was at a rehearsal, so no one was waiting home for me. I thought to myself that there would be no better place to spend the next ten or fifteen minutes than in the nest. So I went down, arranged the pillow, and listened to the sound of the brook mingle with the muffled susurrations of the traffic. The light picked out frayed filaments on the edges of the twine, swaying on the wind. Ten or fifteen minutes passed, and I was grateful for all of them.

Here's a link to Babs' blog.