Sock It To ME: a community public art project to raise awareness and funds.

[creekfeet]

Good experiment jace!

I guess what we want is attachment that won't come off with a mild yank, just in case somebody gets rambunctious in viewing the socks...

Doesn't have to be 100-year archival permanence. AIDS quilt gets periodic repairs, socks would probably need same.

Posting again in a moment, further suggestions that came up in chat.

 

[creekfeet]

Ideas raised in chat this morning:

Someone said their friends weren't getting the socks thing. Why socks? How about photos of people looking out the window.

If socks, someone suggested hanging the socks of the deceased on a different color of cord or with a different color of tab.

More suggestions and discussion?

 

[Dreambirdie]

Ideas raised in chat this morning:

Someone said their friends weren't getting the socks thing. Why socks? How about photos of people looking out the window.

That was me. I'm not sure if SOCKS speak to the masses we are trying to reach?
Ask around and see what people that you know think about this.

I mean, we are trying to get the ATTENTION OF THE WORLD--what image works best for THAT?

 

[creekfeet]

Yes! Dreambirdie, that's right, it was you, and thanks for posting. I was thinking, in the suggestions and instructions for making AIDS quilt panels they tell how to incorporate photos into a quilt panel, and I'm sure it would be possible to do the same with stockings. So maybe a fusing of concepts is possible.

I can imagine a gorgeous display of photos of PWCs at windows, and the only thing would be how to mount them in the most portable way. I suppose if they were all framed the same and then mounted on large light-weight panels, they could be easily shipped and hung for display. It would just be important to ask people for same-sized prints of decent quality. Or the project could do all the printing at the right size and best resolution available if people sent digital photos, but that would cost more time and money.

 

[outofstep]

shoes

Why not shoes? Pandora did a fundraiser w/ the theme "Walk in my shoes" so could potentially link up with them. Get a pair of shoes from everyone with ME/CFS and line them up-then donate them to charity afterwards. The message is: there are a lot of sick people, too sick to be here, they are all shapes and sizes, imagine if you were sick too.
The expense would be in transporting them from a point person, but you might be able to get a charity to drive them around if you donate them afterwards.

 

[talkingfox]

Why not shoes? Pandora did a fundraiser w/ the theme "Walk in my shoes" so could potentially link up with them. Get a pair of shoes from everyone with ME/CFS and line them up-then donate them to charity afterwards. The message is: there are a lot of sick people, too sick to be here, they are all shapes and sizes, imagine if you were sick too.
The expense would be in transporting them from a point person, but you might be able to get a charity to drive them around if you donate them afterwards.

The point would be that each sock should be in some way indicative of the PWC, like each patch of the AIDS quilt was personalized. PLUS one would have the added benfit of being able to string them up and cover a large area, also like the AIDS quilt...without being yet another quilt. PLUS the benefit of being inexpensive and easy for each person to do, having options of getting as creative as they wished. And oh yeah, easily transportable/storable as well as very colorful

 

[starryeyes]

IMO

Walk a mile in my shoes is cute but would be more difficult to display.

The CAA already did the Faces of ME display.

I think the reason the AIDS quilt gets so much attention and recognition is because of ACT UP and also because it can be put out on the Mall in DC very easily and it's all in one place for everyone to view and for cameras to take pics of it, newsreporters report on it etc...

Where would we be displaying these socks?

 

[starryeyes]

The Quilt, first displayed in Washington, D. C. in 1987 on the Mall near the Smithsonian Castle, then contained a modest 1,920 memorial panels stretching one city block. The Quilt became both the human face of AIDS and a battle flag against the ignorance and fear that surrounded the disease. Those displaying the Quilt in 1987, innocent and full of hope, believed that the nightmare would soon end. The Quilt, as massive as it is in panels and weight (45 tons), represents only one in ten of the deaths from AIDS. Now, 15 years into the epidemic, AIDS has claimed 350,000 lives (including more than 9,000 in Washington D.C. compared to 2,031 for all of Wisconsin) and takes one more every 15 minutes

.

http://www.ragefilm.com/

 

[creekfeet]

Places to display them might include the Mall in Washington DC; also at ME/CFS conferences, health fairs or festivals, maybe in front of the CDC when they're considering their budget priorities. The AIDS quilt (or rather sections of it) get displayed lots of places. More ideas of display places are welcome!

Oh yes, another important suggestion from chat, and again sorry I didn't take notes of who was suggesting what:

Possibly have a UK chapter and a US chapter. The disadvantage would be dividing up the project into two would make it feel less unified at first and make it take longer for us to get an impressive garland of socks. The advantage would be savings in time and expense for shipping. The AIDS quilt project now has various chapters worldwide so whether or not we start out that way, we may end up that way.

 

[starryeyes]

Good points Creek.

We need healthy people to help too:

The display of the Quilt required over 10,000 volunteers, beginning in San Francisco, where crews folded and packed one full railroad car per day for two weeks. 400 volunteers spent 3 days prior to the display cris-crossing the Mall with 21 miles of black fabric to create the giant grid of walkways. Each day 1,200 volunteers were needed to unfold and refold the Quilt, packing it away for the evening, and moving it to a secure storage site. Plastic was hidden under the corner of each section allowing the entire Quilt to be covered in under one minute in the event of rain. According to the Quilt's founder, Cleve Jones, this is perhaps the last time it will be displayed in its entirety. Since that display in 1993, the size of the Quilt has more than doubled, filling all the space of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol Building, and spilling off into the tree lined areas along the Mall's edge.

I realize we're nowhere near this level and socks weigh less than quilt pieces but we do need to think about the logistics of this.

 

[citybug]

I picture the socks sewn together in strings. Easier to ship and store, and expresses how many people end to end. A garland as said above. And socks because we're stuck at home not wearing shoes. Easier to record length it reaches, x miles of socks end to end.

 

[talkingfox]

that's what I was thinking as well! The length of strings like this would be a great bullet point in press coverage!

I think we should shoot for the mall in DC as far as places to display this. I'm thinking that taking as many tips from the AIDS quilt as we can can't help but be a good thing

As far as getting healthy people to help us in this, I say start with social media already in place. A Facebook or Myspace account can contact a whole lot of folks once you start looking even one degree out!

 

[jace]

I still like the sock idea. So clever, the "sock it to ME" tagline. I agree, it needs to be visual, but our ME bunting would be, provided the socks were big enough. Symbolic socks. Fluffy, bright, holey, unravelling - not to much of the unravelling, would get tangled in storage...

And logistically, fixed at intervals on reels of line, easier to deal with than the quilt.

I'm seeing the tag, with name and details, as being a certain specified size, fixed to the top of the sock, and that is what goes through the lay of the rope.

Whaddya Fink?

 

[talkingfox]

I still like the sock idea. So clever, the "sock it to ME" tagline. I agree, it needs to be visual, but our ME bunting would be, provided the socks were big enough. Symbolic socks. Fluffy, bright, holey, unravelling - not to much of the unravelling, would get tangled in storage...

And logistically, fixed at intervals on reels of line, easier to deal with than the quilt.

I'm seeing the tag, with name and details, as being a certain specified size, fixed to the top of the sock, and that is what goes through the lay of the rope.

Whaddya Fink?

I think that's a way good idea!

I was also thinking that having a parade width segment lengths that can be hooked together or not as needs be would make good logistical sense. This little project could actually be marched like a banner, each length on 2 poles, meaning 2 marchers could represent many people. Sure can't do that with a quilt!

 

[creekfeet]

Yes, much more displayable than the quilt or the shoes: I can see it and it's lovely. In parades garlands of socks stretched between poles carried by marchers, and in stationary exhibits garlands hung from walls or suspended between lampposts, lots of possibilities.

It will be easier than that description of the quilt displays (whew: guess that's why they switched to 12 x 12 blocks on display, not the whole thing) but! We will definitely still need healthy volunteers. In fact some healthy volunteers now would be great. We could start getting out the call for socks, then there's receiving and cataloging and attaching, arranging permits and display logistics (someone in or near Wash DC?), some more publicity, and shipping and displaying and dismantling after.

Looks like we might have some help lined up to create a website. Some of the other stuff we can do ourselves but we'd probably better not put any job entirely on the shoulders of a PWC/ME.

 

[Dreambirdie]

Okay, I think I'm being sold on the socks.

But my socks are pretty boring... not exciting at all.
My worn out, pilled up, smart wool socks wouldn't even get accepted. :Retro redface:

So... am I going to have to learn how to knit?
I HOPE NOT!----knot knot knot---if you know what I mean.:Retro wink::Retro smile::Retro smile:

And are there store bought socks with dreambirdies embroidered all over them that will be the true expression of my inner being. :Retro tongue::Retro tongue:

These are the questions that remain to be answered.

 

[talkingfox]

DB, it wouldn't have to be actual functional socks...think christmas stockings as an example. Not functional, highly personalized in a sock shape.

You could make one (or two) out of anything your creative heart desired to represent you at core. Symbolic socks!

Let's face it the AIDS quilt blocks weren't actual functional quilt blocks by in large either.

 

[jace]

Before anyone gets busy, we need to specify overall maximum and minimum size, could be quite wide parameters, and the size of the tag (which will mean specifying the rope) If we are still with the rope idea.

I've just had another way that might work - I'm off to mock it up. Back in a mo.

 

[jace]

If the tape ran across the top of the sock, then it could have a buttonhole or loop one end and a button the other. The only thing necessary to specify would be the size of the button and the hole

 

[jace]

I got in a muddle with the attachments process...so on two posts.

You coulp have photos, or dolls, or icecream cones (messy) in the socks