The Bottle Man
The trajectory of my research and the magnitude of information relevant and available to me, previously broad and, due to semi-inconclusivity, ridiculously copious, both changed drastically today.
This is a misleading way to begin this post, because I do think I have done my most productive work today and the foundation for the rest of the project has been established sufficiently, but recently the term "Bottle Man" has come to my attention and I think it deserves a place of importance, and maybe some dramatic flourish, in my research narrative.
Fun facts about bottle men: they dig for long periods of time, sometimes even for more than forty years. They are raised in Connecticut, and liked the woods as a child. They have reservations upon moving to the city but are ultimately happy with the bottles they find in dumps.
Fun facts about bottle men: they dig for long periods of time, sometimes even for more than forty years. They are raised in Connecticut, and liked the woods as a child. They have reservations upon moving to the city but are ultimately happy with the bottles they find in dumps.
After searching through books and publications describing the various ways in which "trash" or "second-hand culture" has pervaded the American/New York society and art scene (and combing past the frequent titles expressing outrage over the term "white trash"), I realized that to include the history of non-human trash's generational exploits in a one-page paper is too ambitious an endeavor. Also, that if I was to include a brief synopsis of said history only, I would/will need more information than that to write about in order to complete said one page. Ironically, especially in regard to the effort of this project to engage us wholly with our objects, the fact that this bottle does not represent itself to me solely as trash rediscovered and is actually a combination of many other things as well, physically and in exposition, was the last thing I considered. This realization did, however, overpower the residual feelings of despair over leaving such a great wealth of sources behind.
I have decided to separate my object into its parts, physical and expositional. I have begun research surrounding glass, a little into glass art, the rainbow effect of soil and water on glass surfaces for extended periods of time, the happenings of the 1880s, the way this bottle may have been influenced or influenced said happenings of the 1880s (which is looking more and more like the topic of my creative writing piece), trash and its environmental, artistic, and societal implications/associations, second-hand/vintage culture with a close look at the Bottle Man himself, and a brief look into the human inclination to focus on that which we hold a connection to, which is what drove the choice of my object over the others. These are the elements that exist together as this object for me. Thus, my research has become less about a movement over a very long period of time and more about my engagement with the object and its original place and time.
The biggest step I took today was finding and emailing the man who sold the bottle to me. From him, I hope to get a sense of why and how he does what he does (which is essentially digging in landfills and waste depositories to find artifacts to sell or make art out of), how he would characterize or define the distinction between trash and art, and more specific points of information about my bottle itself: what about the style clued him in to its time period, why he was digging in the Greenpoint landfill at that time (or why he digs there at all, if that is too specific), what else he found that day (in case he keeps a detailed record), if he has any bottles that are twins to mine, why he allows the rainbow to exist rather than bathing it to eliminate it, or whether he sometimes does bathe bottles, and if so, how he makes that choice, etc. These are all things to look forward to.
If anyone is interested in vintage NYC bottles, here's Scott Jordan's (aka Bottle Man's) website:
http://www.scottjordanartifactart.com/
I have decided to separate my object into its parts, physical and expositional. I have begun research surrounding glass, a little into glass art, the rainbow effect of soil and water on glass surfaces for extended periods of time, the happenings of the 1880s, the way this bottle may have been influenced or influenced said happenings of the 1880s (which is looking more and more like the topic of my creative writing piece), trash and its environmental, artistic, and societal implications/associations, second-hand/vintage culture with a close look at the Bottle Man himself, and a brief look into the human inclination to focus on that which we hold a connection to, which is what drove the choice of my object over the others. These are the elements that exist together as this object for me. Thus, my research has become less about a movement over a very long period of time and more about my engagement with the object and its original place and time.
The biggest step I took today was finding and emailing the man who sold the bottle to me. From him, I hope to get a sense of why and how he does what he does (which is essentially digging in landfills and waste depositories to find artifacts to sell or make art out of), how he would characterize or define the distinction between trash and art, and more specific points of information about my bottle itself: what about the style clued him in to its time period, why he was digging in the Greenpoint landfill at that time (or why he digs there at all, if that is too specific), what else he found that day (in case he keeps a detailed record), if he has any bottles that are twins to mine, why he allows the rainbow to exist rather than bathing it to eliminate it, or whether he sometimes does bathe bottles, and if so, how he makes that choice, etc. These are all things to look forward to.
If anyone is interested in vintage NYC bottles, here's Scott Jordan's (aka Bottle Man's) website:
http://www.scottjordanartifactart.com/
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