BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE, II: The question of distance

Once you've done the tagging task described in my earlier post, Between Past and Future/I, you might want to try this one as well. It works in the same room uses the same tags you put in place earlier.

This time, you're not focused on the question of past vs. future. Instead, you'll be looking at how far away in past or future each item is. Is the room or studio filled with things that representing meaning very far from today, or are most of its contents relatively closely linked to how you live, work and/or create today?

To explore this, go around the room and take off the tags on every item that represents a past six months or less before today or a future six months or less after today. In other words, you are removing the post-it tags from all items that definitely have been or will be used within six months of today. The word "definitely" is important here. Don't fudge.

The binder holding a manuscript you began and abandoned two years ago, books from college or graduate school, shells from a long-ago vacation, a stack of empty frames you've kept in case they might fit artworks as yet unpainted, a box of pastels you don't really like to use but spent good money for way back when, and ephemera you might use for collages of a type you're not making now would all fit into that category. Leave their post-its on.

Books you've referred to within the past couple of months, manuscripts of recent work, supplies for media you're currently working with, mementos received very recently, and stuff that is placed in some "way station" in the room but will soon be moving out...take the tags off all of these.

As you did after the first exercise, take a moment to step back once you've finished.

How have the numbers of post-its changed? A little, or a lot? If the room looks much the same, you probably tend to assign memories or usefulness to things for a very long time. If there are noticeably fewer sticky notes in view, you're likely a person who lets go of such meanings faster.

Has one color disappeared more than the other? My own personal tendency is to keep many more things I received in the the distant past than things I might need in the distant future. In contrast, my friend Denise is much more prone to keeping art supplies and materials that she might use someday. Neither tendency is better or worse than the other; it's just helpful to know which one leads to the most clutter for you.

Though I'm focusing on creative space here, this exercise is helping in things like closets too, helping give you an easy visual read on just how much you are hostaging the present against the distant past or future.