project 4/

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE PAST

G. Sobakina, Music teacher, Serpukhov

In many countries today, either thanks to an abundance of goods, or on account of their inexpensive manufacture - it is commonly fashionable only to wear new things: clothes, shoes. But the same thing happens as well with items of household use: new furniture new dishes and everything right down to a new apartment, a new house ... Given this, all that is old is mercilessly discarded, replaced, and often this is only because it is "old," out of style. But with this quick replacement of the old with the new, very few people notice that along with all the old things, our past life is also tossed out on the garbage heap, all that we knew, experienced, felt in our past, everything that was associ- ated for us wtlh these things, and ultimately, along with these recollections we also lose, waste our entire life.

The project which could be called "An Encounter with the Past" proposes precisely to combine our passion of today for the new and the importance of such old things for our complete existence.

You need to make a special partition in the room so that it doesn't interfere with new furniture, build it up against the wall. The box should periodically be filled with things which have already become useless or are broken: chair legs, an old coat, packages, purses, old books, everything with which our re- collections are connected, and which we would like to keep in our memory. Whenever guests would come to see you, you would pick up some old thing (the box should always be open), you could exag- geratedly tell about what this thing is connects to for you, recalling the date and circumstances. In this way, your entire past life would remain nearby, and your friends would become con- vinced of the use and significance of such a "memorial." They themselves would decide to create such a "museum" in their own homes.

AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE PAST

1. Build a wooden box from construction boards up against the wall. Leave the boards in their natural form (don't paint them).

2. Toss all kinds of old things there: a) Clothing; old coats, pants, shirts, shoes, etc.

b) Cardboard boxes, manuscripts, newspapers, etc.

c) Old dishes: plates, glasses, old dented, broken frying pans, teapots, etc.

d) Scraps, wooden and metal, that are left over after repairs.

e) Old pens, pencils.

f) Pieces of old broken furniture: legs and backs from chairs, etc.

g) All kinds of small boxes, cosmetic and medicine jars, etc.

3. Bear strictly in mind that the "mountain" of this garbage should not exceed the configuration and level indicated in the sketch on the left.