on collaboration

Having read Twyla Tharp's book on creativity, I thought I'd take a look at her newer one on collaboration. Most of it consists of descriptions of various collaborations she's been involved with but she also includes a number of aphorisms about collaboration, two or three per chapter. Here are a few I enjoyed:

• Uncredited collaborators are often key to successful outcomes.
• A willingness to try for the unknown can be a strong bond.
• Collaboration can be internal - an act of listening to others and then having a silent, private conversation with yourself.
• Letting an audience in on the joke creates a community of collaborators.

collectivity/collaboration/companionship

You wrote here about your feelings on the idea of travelling with a ragged little caravan of people dropping in and out as you make the journey.

If we're going to think about memory here - and, in particular, the idea of the layering of memories onto a map, i think the fact that the journey will be a collective, collaborative, companiable experience is interesting. It might lead to a work, or a document (?), that is structured by *your* consciousness - because you'll almost certainly be the only person who makes the whole journey - but that also includes material, "memories", made by *others*. And I suspect that memory IS, in fact, like that - I don't think i made my memories all alone. Far from it. Memory is a kind of collaborative process, isn't it?

canoe information

Jeff sounds like he might be an ideal source of advice and ideas, and if we can enlist him to join us, that'd be totally cool, too! right now, I'm feeling like the idea of inviting a whole array of different people to participate as they like might be a really wonderful thing. instead of the solo trip I originally envisioned, it becomes a sort of fragmentary ragged little caravan of assorted folks with a variety of perspectives and interests in doing the trip. I doubt it will get out of hand, because how many people are really crazy enough to drop everything and come along? but those who do will be self-selecting to be interesting companions, I think!

anyway, I'm trying to keep focused on a few things OTHER than this project, but I couldn't help doing a bit of googling about canoe travel after our conversation yesterday:

http://www.bucktrack.com/Mississippi_Canoe_Planning.html

http://sourcetosea.net/if-i-were-to-paddle-the-mississippi-again/

the latter had this little tidbit:

The canoe worked out fine, but was larger than necessary from the headwaters down to Bemidji. Bemidji State University’s Outdoor Program Center rents smaller (pre-scratched) canoes that would have been more appropriate for that first stretch.

so maybe we should rent a smaller canoe (or borrow kayaks) for the first part of the trip and then outfit an expedition canoe when we get to Minneapolis? this might mean no need to scope out MN in June, we could just show up in late July and get started...