Ritual and Personal Space

 Prowl Logs

1- black cat runs by. Venus is especially bright. Quiet tonight. Many rooms are unlocked. Colder than it has been. Stayed around the GLC this time. Uneventful.

2- got legitimately scared walking to the art building. Venus is even brighter than before. Lots of weird noises. Crescent moon is very visible. Keep thinking I’m seeing things. Adams is very calming. Lots of lights, I can see clearly. Walking back is not as bad. Lone pinecone is a little interesting. Parking lots and open doors are inherently disquieting. Got a little scared at the end when I heard water hitting the ground and thought it was footsteps. Glad to be back in my room.

3- not as scary. Moon is clear behind the trees. Venus is once again super bright. Orions belt is clear. There are strange trails of ants along the ground. The campus is peaceful and serene. There is a low noise like the whistling of wind through a canyon. I go to the observatory. Here I am a little afraid, but can see the stars more clearly. I walk past the pool, noticing a birds nest. There is a receipt on the ground. I find a pepper packet. 

4- venus is bright again. No moon tonight. Path is more peacful. Only one trail of ants now. Spend a long time watching the night. Lots of bats in and around adams. The way back is less eventful. Public safety truck rolling aimlessly through parking lot. 

5- super quiet. Didn’t ses anything weird. There were more people than animals this time, locking up the classrooms or cleaning them. Someone said “good morning” to me. Did see one bat. Moonless again, still the bright venus. Lots of cricket noises I hadnt noticed before. Loud noises from Wittier hall.

6- last night. Venus remains as bright as ever. No moon once again. Saw an owl flying overhead as I walked. Tried to find where it went, but with no luck. I ended up seeing one bat, and a lot of moths. Walking around to come back, I noticed a group of students laughing and hanging out by the observatory, playing music. There was little to see otherwise on my way back.

    During this project I went out into campus nightly and observed everything that I found unusual, that I would normally ignore during the business of daytime. I often do this, but rarely do it from the standpoint of seeing what I can notice. As it went on, I kept a log of a flow of consciousness that I would add to after each session, so that I could document what I was thinking. The end result was a sort of dreamlike collection of thoughts and ideas, which created an odd juxtaposition in that instead of actually dreaming I was out observing the world in this setting that we often ignore. What I found was that there were often other animals about at night, and they were prevalent enough that I was able to notice them every night even in my short one week span of going out at night. This took on another perspective, and reminded me of hunting or stargazing, in the act of going out during nocturnal hours to see this side of the world that we so often are afraid of or never notice.