One thing that I didn’t really talk about in my book, are my experimental extensions into the environment. Many of the pictures in my book Organism Theory are sheltered spots that I made by applying myself experimentally to the environment. Astute observation leads what should be thought of as, ‘an intimate integration’; I aimed those methods at the living environment, with results that added to the humanness of the environment in a positive way.  I practiced such concepts as; applied myself locally and all materials locally sourced, using a very low expense of energy overall with sudden and temporary bursts of planned energy, I was able to observe and respond to something as it changed with time and use, and I was being aware of the two principles normalization, and integration.

The didactic themed poem that I chose for this place, which was my first practice-art in environmental integration, was called Children of the Grave. A poem that I will not reproduce here, because it was made from the extracted nuances that I sourced from the lyrics of music, something that you could do as well if you ‘data mine’ nuances from the lyrics of songs.  I discovered through this activity that older music has a more robust level of didactic information than today’s music does.  The teens that frequented here called it C.O.G.1; I named each place after the poem. There were originally four of them all together in sequence of their creation, Children of the Grave, People Going Nowhere, Hero, and Sorcerer of Death’s Construction. I didn’t sequence the whole creation of this spot with photographs showing a growth over time but it was one of the things that I learned to do in the future.

These are some images of the nuances left behind by the people who visited here.

No matter what happens from now on, I’ll always have this message to make me feel better. Well, it was addressed to me!

I once saw a small Rabbit here on only one occasion, I captured it on film. Should we wish to learn from this small creature, we could capture it and observe it in a cage, or by dissecting its body. But to know how it survives we have to have observed it from many angles in its natural environment, where it knows intuitively, how to survive, and is carrying out natural and uninfluenced behaviors. Not like behavior that you would have observed had it been held captive in a cage.  Indeed, its life would be totally dependent on its captors, and would appear as an unintelligent, savage creature.

The material that this was built with was material I had gathered for another project that didn’t materialize.  So, when I was looking for a spot, I knew to look for two trees about 6 feet apart.  Cutting the material to fit what’s there is the reason that it looks like it belongs there. I layered the pieces of plywood like large shingles on a roof that sloped on two angles. I hadn’t planned on a bark shingle roof initially but after some learning curve I began to collect the bark of dead trees. It worked so well that it did stay dry on the seating area in the rain, and which was very hard to achieve.

I can’t remember where I found this little doll. I thought it was creepy so I would leave it around the place. This is also a good picture of the bark that I used on the roof that shows all the layers.

The approach was a tunnel of live arching branches. These were the first branches that I would ‘fold up’. Hooking its branches on higher branches to open the pathway.

I soon became aware of the need to move people away from there because too many were coming all at once, disturbing local residents. So to draw people away from there, I set to build another place more reclusive and further from the community.

Some called it, “The Throne” because of the way the chair looks.  I wrote the word ‘Zen’ on the inside of the roof to establish a positive vibe as I always took the initiative to do. The poem in this one was called ‘People Going Nowhere’.

It was very comfortable to sit there observing what was there to be observed during that time. Birds used to fly right through here, and would sometimes fly-by within inches of you. The roof had an inflatable children’s swimming pool on it, and a 4′ foot diameter beach ball that had both surpassed their original usefulness.

Some of the messages that were left behind by the visitors.