I never knew how fascinating the space I spend 8 hours each day in was until I embarked on this journey to “Enchant the Mundane” cubicle in which I work. It all started earlier in the semester when I read the text Box-Logic by Geoffrey Sirc. I then began to contemplate as to which of my “boxes” is the most mundane in my view, and pledged to enchant it in some way.
In Box-Logic, it states that “the box has provided a basic container or frame for storing and exhibiting one’s most passionately cherished items” (116). This is probably the sentence that struck me to enchant the mundane cubicle for my project. After I read this passage, I looked around me. I noticed there were so many little things that, without knowing, I had “packaged” myself in with. As Sirc says, I was exhibiting my most passionately cherished items.
On my computer is a little batman face that I peeled off a valentine treat a co-worker gave me last year. On an upper shelf, I have a little trophy given for good performance two years ago. Hiding behind my left monitor is a small wizard that I found on the floor 3 years ago. I began to realize that over the years I have collected these small, yet monumental objects. I saw that I have used them to surround me, and they act as a memory of the positive experiences I have gone through here in my box.
As I set forth to initiate the process of capturing my surroundings, I saw that certain pieces which enshroud me were slightly coated in dust. I stopped and looked for a Clorox wipe to get rid of this when I realized that the dust is a part of the enchantment, and I should leave it there because it has a meaning of its own.
At first, I started with simple, close-up pictures of some of the objects and images that surround me as I sit there in my cubicle. Like Massumi says, affect is unassimilable. We can’t put into words what we see and feel; it is born within the body. This is one reason I chose to make my video without text or lyric. I wanted my viewers to experience this affect when immersing themselves in my own personal box, and let their stadium and punctum take charge.
Initially I was unsure how I was going to depict something as mundane as my bland workspace, so I began with the small interesting things that are special to me. When viewed close up, these are the objects which jump out the most although initially they seem the most insignificant. I put these objects and images to a very playful music, as to give a calm and unintimidating feel to my cubicle. From there I started showing some more serious objects that are seen in one’s workstation like a part of a keyboard and mouse, or my telephone.
I designed the film in such a way that the viewer would feel like their eyes are being “opened” to my workspace. As you watch, you will continue to see more and more of my cubicle. The pictures start to pull back farther, slowly opening the screen to see into my world. As it progresses, I slowly start to give full views of my desk. Towards the end, I expose the viewer to video footage taken of the different areas they had just experienced in still images.
A final touch that I added to my project that most viewers probably did not realize is the “awakening” of my cubicle. I portrayed this using the monitors on my desk. When one watches closely, they will see that the initial images of my computer screens are dark. Slowly as the film progresses, the screens begin to emit light. By the end, both screens are seen at full brightness, surrounded by the small simple objects that have been shown in detail making up “my box”.
