Sunday, April 02, 2006

Doctor, there's a castle in my head (Part Two)

There are only two things in the room. The first is a chair positioned in the exact center facing the window. It took me a long time to sort out what kind of chair this was going to be. I started out with your basic Eames lounge chair, but decided I needed something more substantial. I cycled through a few different chairs until I finally chose to make my own. It's a solid white oak frame using double mortise and tenon construction. Instead of several large springs I use 45 small multi-stage springs. The chair is an oversized club chair style with a slight incline to the seat. It's covered with a dense and thick cotton fabric in a navy so dark it's pretty much black. I don't really like the feel of leather, so cotton it is. The other item in the room is a single reading lamp. It is positioned behind and just to the right of the chair with a long cord connected to an old-fashioned single outlet in the wall. I picked a Tolomeo floor lamp from Design Within Reach. It is a simple tension arm design that I find quite appealing.
I use the chair to contemplate the world I've created. In the beginning it was designed so it could show me anything I imagined. Since I moved the room up the cliff as an observatory for the town I created I've removed the magical capabilities of it. It is now just a window. Of course an 18x12 foot window is structurally unsound and I haven't found a way to support it without breaking it into sections yet. So it remains a slightly magical construct. I want this inner space to obey the laws of phsyics as much as possible. No floating cities with giant mushroom houses for me. It's just not my style. However, some rules can be bent until I have found a solution. Anyway, I have dry erase boards that fold out of the ceiling for working on concepts and equations. It is interesting how I can meditate on this concept, meticulously applying ideas to the boards and then remember them perfectly much later. This appears to be an effective mnemonic tool since I don't actually have a photographic memory. If the entire concept of the memory palace seems ridiculous to you, just remember that we naturally compartmentalize our memories and this is nothing more than adding a formal structure to a natural process. you may surprise yourself with how enjoyable this effort can be. I went from a single room to a castle and then to an evolving port city and harbour. I like to sit in the chair and watch people race small sailboats out in the bay. I have to expand the boundaries so the people can explore their world.

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