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Teacher: Your work is very spay-tial. [Italian accent]
Art Student: Special?
Teacher: Spatial.

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Teenager: Dad, it’s mom!
Dad: Where?
Teenager: On the phone.

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131. 96.
A Foot at the Table Still from F R I E N D S. The One with Ross’s Tan.
Looking around a photograph of a well known (Warner Bros, 1994-2004)
female designer at a meeting with her bare 95.
foot on the table. The Life of a Pencil

112. Project inspired by Retired Snapple Fact #917:
Still of Carmen Amaya Dancing The average lead pencil can draw a line 35
https://www.youtube.com/ miles long or write roughly 50,000 English
watch?v=9z-1B1m0E0A words.

110. 94.
Muriel Cooper with Unidentified Males, Photo of a Page from Norman Potter’s What is
c. 1970s. a Designer
(MIT Archive) 90.
108. Five Rays of the Starfish, as mentioned in a
Still from Little Mermaid lecture by Rudolf Steiner On the Dimensions of
(Disney, 1989) Space
107. (Image Source Unknown)
Stressed Spelled Backwards
is Desserts ‘Look at the star-fish. It has not this sym-
Poster displayed in New Haven of a photo- metrical form. It has five rays. Of course you
graph of a postcard displayed at a diner in Los can pass it by without any inner feeling. But
Angeles. if you perceive it feelingly, you could never
105. say that the star-fish has a united feeling-life.
Seven Autobiographical Accounts Of The star-fish cannot possibly relate a right-
New York hand to a left-hand side, or grasp a right-
hand with a left-hand member. The star-fish
must continually relate the one ray to one or
two or three, or even to all four remaining rays.’

Parallel excerpts taken from 7 autobiographies: 88.
Andy Warhol Google image search: ‘Writing with both hands’
Joan Didion (Source Unknown)
Jonas Mekas 84.
Patti Smith Google image search: ‘Writing with both hands’
Bob Dylan (Source Unknown)
John Cale 83.
Chantal Akerman Right Handed
104. Comparing the drawing styles of the right and
Steroscopic Image left hands by drawing the same thing with both.
(Google Cardboard) 80.
100. Right and Left Hemispheres
A page from Bob Gill’s book Forget All The of the Brain
Rules That You Ever Learned About Graphic (Source Unknown)
Design. Including The Ones In This Book. Right and Left Hemispheres of the World
I have a copy of the original hand-cut letter- File: 1799 Cruttwell Map of the World in
head framed in my bedroom. Bob Gill gave it Hemispheres- Geographicus-WorldHemi-
away at a lecture by calling out: Does anyone
have a name that starts with the letter S!

133

sphere-cruttwell-1799.jpg
(Wikipedia)
78.
Human Hip Bone
File: Pelvis (male) 03-anterior view.png
(Wikipedia)
Drawing of a Butt
77.
Paprika Fold XIX, Yale School of Architecture
The text follows a spiral inwards towards the
center and the images spill out onto that back.
76.
Mirror and Bricks
Brick Oven Pizza
New Haven CT
74.
New Wall Meets Old Wall
Fair Haven, CT

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A Foot At The Table In 2014, there was an exhibition dedicated to
I saw Muriel Cooper’s work before I learned Muriel Cooper’s work at Columbia University,
who she was in design school; the black the first in twenty years. In the exhibition book-
bars of the MIT Press logo and a thick book let, two of her co-workers at MIT Press recount
about the Bauhaus that every architect seems that She often wandered around barefoot…and
to have on their shelf. She was a graphic climbed up on tables when she was excited
designer and educator at Massachusetts about a project…Muriel was clearly in her ele-
Institute of Technology for about four decades. ment, making trouble. So this wasn’t the first
MIT Press hired her as their first design direc- time she was shoeless in the workplace. Yes, it
tor in 1967 and later she started the Visible was the 70s, yes, she was the boss (imagine a
Language Workshop. She was fascinated by world where an intern could stand like this at
print technologies and publishing systems, a meeting) but no matter how I contextualize
then transitioned her attention to the emergent it, Muriel putting her bare foot on the work
field of computer graphics. I read about a table—which also happens to be the academic
moment in her legendary class Messages and table—is radical. It seems the foot and leg are
Means that is a good example of the kind of there to support an image more than an arm.
energy she stirred up: without permission, the Her stance is unmistakably assertive. If a man
students knocked down the wall separating were to stand like this at a meeting he may be
the computer room from the printing room, perceived as arrogant; a cowboy, a mountain
creating a truly interdisciplinary workspace. climber who has reached a peak, a dog mark-
ing a tree.
I am looking at a black and white photo-
graph of Muriel Cooper at work captioned I am reminded that we lack a collective
‘Muriel Cooper in conversation with unidenti- language to describe embodied power without
fied males, c.1972.’ They are standing around conflating power with masculinity. The photo-
a wood table in a long collegiate room at MIT graph offers an alternative image of a woman
that has portrait paintings on the walls. The at work and of the designer. The presence of
group is turning towards a document that is the foot injects a refreshing playfulness into
just out of sight from the camera in one of an environment in which we are expected to
the men’s hands. At the moment the photo be serious and formal. Her foot simply makes
was taken, everyone’s mouths are closed and work look more fun.
their eyes gazing in different directions. Muriel,
foregrounded and the only one in full focus, I gave the pose a try in my living room. I
appears to be lost in thought. had the necessary elements: table, bare foot,
and stretchy pants. It felt physically strained,
There is one chair between the five people especially the lean forward, and humorously
and a line of unused chairs along the wall exaggerated. Maybe good for a momentary hip
behind them. Without seats, they are relating stretch, but not as a resting pose. And then in
to the table in slightly uncomfortable ways. a work meeting, I brought my entire shin on
Some lean on the it, some sit on it. to the table. This felt awkward at first, but I
persisted and eventually it felt natural.
Muriel Cooper seems very comfortable. She
has her bare foot flat on the table. Her legs are I am looking at a photograph of Muriel Coo-
wide open, and her crotch is turned towards per at work. Her stance has an internal tension
the camera, lit by sun flooding into the room. that adds to its effect. As I look back and forth
The inner crook of her elbow rests casually from her foot to her head, they appear not to
on her knee which is jutting upwards. Muriel’s be of the same body or mental space. From
hand hangs down near her foot. Her white waist up she is casual, lost in thought. From
crocheted top stands out among the grays and waist down she is defiant, holding her ground.
blacks of the men’s suits.
Also, seeing hands and feet in such proxim-
My eye wanders. There are dollar-sized ity to each other and on the same horizontal
coins and what look like white poker chips plane is rare outside the privacy of the bed-
scattered on the table. A throw away wax cup room. We spend most of our waking hours
near her hand is at odds with the sturdy semi- vertical. All day, the hands are free to dance
nar table. Who are these unidentified men, was weightless while the feet carry the weight. But
this an everyday kind of meeting? here, the foot is elevated, the foot is at the
table.

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115

Doctor: It’s a very exciting time to be a fragmentologist.
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Finding Your Sense of Center
Close your eyes, move your hand on each axis of your body until you feel you’ve arrived at a
center position that has no directionality.

Up Center Down

In Center Out

Left Center Right

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Letting Your Back Be Your Front
Walk backwards and think of yourself as walking forward with eyes on the back of your head.

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