Discovering and Mapping The Places of Books and Coffee

Digital Collage. 3,3,3. Coffee, Books and Me Collaborative Artwork by Stephanie Wirt, Nicole Kirkpatrick, and Carolyn Hill - 2011

The collage above is the result of three artists who, on the same day and at the same time but in three different cities, went to their local book store, sat for awhile in the coffee shop, observed the activities of the people there, wondered the store going to specific locations to find random books and recorded the experience as it unfolded.  Like a library, a book story is a quiet place to read and reflect.  Looking around the coffee shop in the book store you will find people entranced by the book or magazine they are reading, zoned into their computers, plugged into their ipods or quietly conducting a business meeting, study group or just meeting a friend for a calm cup of coffee.  The video below takes  you on a journey through three different locations that are all tied together by the coffee each artist drank, their sketches and maps of their specific location, the subjects of books discovered and their reflective silence as they observed.  While watching the video you may want to think about the times you have just observed the actions, objects, people and smell of a place as you wondered through it.

The Process of the Derive

On Wednesday, April 6th, Stephanie Wirt, Nicole Kirkpatrick, and Carolyn Hill each drove to their bookstore of choice to observe the activity and wander with purpose.  Carolyn went to Books-A-Million with a Joe Muggs coffee shop, and Stephanie and Nicole went to Barnes and Noble, which had a Starbucks coffee shop.  This web page with a video and collage are the result of their group derive.  The images below are details with explanation of the parts of the collage. an explanation of the process of the collage.