connectivity.

I'm becoming more and more convinced as I get older that everything is connected, that there will be things in your life that never seem to leave or disappear all the way.

My mom and our family friend Karen and I went to the 50th Anniversary Barbie convention the weekend before last. Yeah, I know ... but my aunt makes reproduction historically accurate gowns for the dolls (her work is some of the best there, if you ask me) and the convention was in D.C., so we went. It was an experience, to say the least, but the best part was the memories it evoked. More than once Karen or my mom would burst with joy at the sight of a doll they'd forgotten they had, or would begin to tell a story about a pair of shoes, a wig set or cutting Barbie's hair.

I was astonished by how few of my Barbies they had. In fact, they didn't have any of the ones I had -- perhaps they're not old enough yet. My Aladdin and Jasmin dolls, my skater Midge and Barbie, my Kelly dolls -- they're just not "vintage" enough yet. As I walked through the tables, I wanted some sort of a jolt of recognition, something from my childhood that I'd forgotten, something that I'd loved and then given up along with the American Girl dolls, Polly Pockets and My Little Ponies. But it didn't come, at least not until the very end.

And then, on a table, there it was, my Barbie poodle. Yes. I had a poodle. He was white (I'm assuming it's a "he" even though there were no anatomical indicators) with legs that bent at the shoulder and hip joints. Matted white "fur" with floppy white ears and white, hard plastic feet and face. He was my dog! I had him! And I had completely forgotten about him. He's sitting in an enormous plastic container in my parents' basement. I'd loved him.

Moments like that one are so bizarre, and they remind us of how strange memory is. How we can be such good friends with someone and then five years later we can still remember the name of their cat, but their name escapes us. We can find our way to their house, or remember their phone number, but their birthday is gone. We can be so invested and yet something happens and the dustbuster in our brains turns on and starts to make space, eliminating somethings and keeping the others, forging hair-thin links between that stuff and other stuff so we can someday access that bit of information in our seemingly infinite rolodex.

I'm thinking about all of this because I've realized that these links don't actually matter unless we pay attention to them. Like anything else, if you ignore it, it might as well just not be there. As I was updating some contact information today for one of IPM's donors, I had a moment's flash of recognition with the organization she works for: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

It was one of those moments that's similar to trying to remember the movie a favorite quote comes from. Or the lyric to a song where you can only remember the tune -- why did I know this organization!? I've been working with organizations with names like that since I started at IPM. I've even seen that name before, so why was it sparking something now? I don't suppose I'll ever know. But then I realized it -- I know them because of the Corcoran. I worked with them last summer.

The Global Fund partnered with Magnum Photography last summer to produce an exhibition called "Access to Life" that would originate at the Corcoran. I wrote the press release for the show. I stuffed hundreds of press folders for the show. I met people from the Global Fund at the show. Light bulb!

So, I don't really know what it all means or if there really is any significance that it's all connected. But I find it really bizarre how one thing has taken me to the next. How everything seems to be related, whether or not it really is, I guess that remains to be seen. But still, it's these little flashes or recognition, these moments of connectivity, that really surprise and startle me into questioning how many of these moments we miss.

Art Collections website

After nearly a year's worth of work, the Elon Art Collections website is finally up and running.

A little background on the project: As many of you know, I love art. As an art minor, I was required to take an art history class, and I fell in love -- a little too late. I wasn't able to double major or minor in art history, but I was able to take a few more classes. One of those classes led me to this project. A friend of mine in the class, Alaina Pineda, who is a brilliant art historian, has spent most of her Elon career working with the problematic Elon Art Collections. Like most people on campus, I'd never heard of it. It contains more than 650 works in seven different collections. It's under funded and under appreciated, but it has many gems and I realized that I might have the means to help it out.

My senior sem project (basically like a senior thesis) was born: I would make a website for the Elon Art Collections that would not only explain and explore the collections, but attempt to obviate their use as a teaching tool and a developmental priority. What that means in plain English -- Why it's important that we pay attention to it.

And so I was off. My friend the university photographer, Grant Halverson, graciously agreed to take the photos. Anyone who has ever tried to take a picture of a picture knows just how impossible it is. It's because of his work that I think the project turned out so well. And then I began building with Flash.

And nearly five months later, here it is:

http://org.elon.edu/arthistory/artcollection/home.html

Enjoy, show all your friends, and most importantly, if you go to Elon, any time you get to talk to an administrator, ask them about the collection and what they're doing to promote and support it.

panorama ding dong

A life update will come soon, but as I'm in the middle of some reading and still have about 50 pages to go tonight, that can't happen now.

But, as I was doing this reading for my Methodologies in Art History class, I stumbled upon this really cool website when I looked up a piece of contemporary art that was being described.

It's called gigapan. It takes high resolution images, especially panoramas, and allows you to zoom in, zoom out and view different sections of the image in seriously high definition. Totally cool.

This easily distracted me for 15 minutes.