"Readings from the Room // The Room
Tales of the depraved in an enclosed space, trapped initiations of aging and persona, Disparities between cultivated isolation and the sacred insanity of the tribes we choose to become walled inside together
Writings on nostalgic objects, anonymity, power & control, boundaries in sanctuary, role of temporary spatial memory"
This prose was written and performed by me for my wonderful friend's prose and poetry event "Pandemonium". It was my first time writing prose and performing it so that was fun and I met very awesome writers ;).
What is a room, a dwelling, a bounded or boundless spatial territory, if not purely a collection of experiential I’s and Me’s incarnated. The room is the culmination of an [anybody]’s sensorial habitudes displayed through aesthetic convictions. A second skin. A second body. Material compositions produce immaterial ways of being that contribute to the characteristics of the space. These material im-materials exhibited within and maintained by the room and its [anybody] consist of but are not limited to:
There’s an exchange to it all. The room benefits the I and the I benefits the room. A symbiotic affair. The power/feeling of possession/ownership is essential to transform “a room” to “the room”. The mechanism of I, a vessel of found internal nuances, requires a locus of physical control in order to sew materialistic impressions. The room is kept together by these threads of past, present and futures only to be undone upon moving, at which the room loses its “the” definite status and returns to its not so significant article of “a”.
Out of the material im-materials attributed to the room and its [anybody], it must be noted that the room is not static; which is not to be made interchangeable with stagnation. Opportunity for exploration occurs when the room is made synonymous with the human body, both edifices for existence and both, containing organic and inorganic substances. The room is a body in technicality. Its infrastructure is 1 to 1 to bones and skin and organs. The room needs to breathe, air out, be deodorized, swept up and wiped down. Its hygiene must be maintained and however that occurs is up to the room’s [anybody].
Sanitation isn’t the only ingredient as ornamentation is just as important. Sure, you can have a room clean to your standards, but is it really yours if you don’t have the autonomy to put up or not to put up what you want? The instrument of decorative autonomy bonds the authority of inheritance with intentional identity presentation. Form is function, as modernists like to say, but function is form as well. Fate lies in the ornate [or a lack thereof] fixtures adoring the room. When the “I” does bad, hygienically, mentally or decoratively, the room reflects it. When the room does bad, the “I” reflects it. There’s the saying “cleanliness is close to godliness”; I can’t speak to that, but a well-fed second body does wonders for the first body.
When talking about the room as a physique worth caring for, the word “homemaker” trails behind, waiting for its turn to be relevant in this conversation. The homemaker, in its vintage fashion, was (and still is) the explicit name for the occupation of stay-at-home wife. To regard the “homemaker” as a gendered job is necessary as it inherently implies that the art of space making is a form of feminine expression.
The notion that the way a woman manicures her body apparently makes her befitting to the role of composing a second body, the room. This outdated archetype of the one who makes a home romanticizes spaces filled with warmth, personality and a dash of understanding all gracefully transfigured into ornamental form all thanks to the maker’s femininity and all the necessary context and performances that surrounds it.
There are resolutions to fix a “mal-adjusted” room, some more realistic than others. Tearing the room down and building it back up is a choice. This requires evoking the classic American manner of destruction and replacement. If considering this option, [an anybody] must act with tunnel vision intent teamed with the expectation to lay out some cash. The hopes of mandatorily producing a fundamentally improved antecessor to a torn down predecessor is in order to justify the results. This choice is a heavy burden.
Another, much more rational fix, is moving. We’ve all done it. Bad view? Weird unexplainable smells? Odd living situation or just looking for a change. If the stars, and pockets, align then get out. A room is merely a container. It's how the room's [anybody] populates it that ignites a room’s physiological switch.
Now, moving isn’t often an option, resulting in having to make do with what is available. While the infrastructural icks of a space can’t be altered in this solution, a room’s [anybody] does have an organizing sovereignty. Maybe arrange any furniture for optimization or inconvenience. Apply whatever materials to the walls with various and alternating means of fastening. Let these materials range in display from delicate regularity to haphazard anarchy. Stand back and think about it for a bit. Adjust accordingly. Take it down or maybe determine it by season. Burn one incense. Burn an unreasonable amount of incense - daily. Open your window for a few days regardless of the weather and see what the room smells like, what your clothes smell like. Stare out the window, make eye contact with strangers, maybe give a wave? Move things out of the way so you can sit on the floor, lay on the floor, nap on the floor. If you can reach your ceiling, drape fabric, make it fancy. Hang a mirror on it and have your guests ask you about it. Put holes in your wall, just kidding don’t, unless you know how to plaster. Paint your wall if you know you can get your security deposit back. Make the room a capsule for sensorial and mental invigoration.
The room and its [anybody] is its own conception. A demarcator of value. A shelter for pragmatic function. An organism that grows when enriched and hurts when neglected. Out of anything to be taken away here, some form of gratitude must be had for the room, even if it isn’t entirely to your liking, as it is in turn, having gratitude for yourself. Consume the space. Take it in through sight, sound, texture, and if you can, taste. Stand in your room, close your eyes and let all your inhales impact you like the first.