Project Title
The Lookout

Discipline
photography & writing

Grant Amount
$750

Website

Description

Laura Noel will use her Idea Capital grant to fund The Lookout, an artist book of found poems that she created by stitching together intertwined conversations overheard in public places. The Lookout will also include photograms made from objects Noel found on the street. Between the tent poles of our dreams and our creations, most of our lives are played out on small stages. Going to work. Raising families. Traveling from place to place. Running errands. The mundane tasks of our lives can be tiring or at times even, oppressive. Laura Noel’s simple antidote to the sometimes-routine nature of life–is not only to be an observer, but also to transform what she sees and hears into a photograph or poem that is more substantial than the sum of an average encounter. Recently, Noel has been collecting the conversations of strangers, in much the same way she looks for images, by careful attention to gesture and mood that elevates a conversation or object beyond the ordinary.