Raw Notes from Nicosia, Cyprus

Subjective data collection is different in draft form from what is ultimately presented as a finalized product. Just last evening, while sitting on my futon in the living room (at the time, Iron Man 2 was for some reason streaming through on the AppleTV), I began flipping through the notes I had jotted down while in Nicosia, Cyprus, on May 18, 2012. When these notes were scribbled down, little thought was given to how they would be viewed in the near future. But last night there the notes were, igniting in my memory thoughts that had otherwise gone dormant, and also the process by which these immediate thoughts are set down, and what they look like in rough form. Here is a page of notes, scribbled down with pen while sitting at a KEO beer tent, taking in some regular sounds of the city.

Raw notes taken down at a KEO beer tent in Nicosia, Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean) on May 18, 2012.

The above reads:

The streets are modernized yet directionally pre-Industrial, a reflection of the irregular past, when humanity tended to organize themselves in accordance with the natural surroundings… Beyond the Venetian wall, a vestige of Byzantium, are commercial skyscrapers, clean lines and sky cranes. Between this and the wall is a moat, a previous way in which human inhabitants attempted to impose some kind of order against the chaos inherent to the natural world. Commercial signage, Nike (Greek god!), Coke, and so on, also reflect the appropriation, hyphenation and hybridization of the past with the present, the latter always reaching back into the infinite of history to grab the necessary justifications to live out life…

Sometimes it’s important to not try and slam the day full with one consecutive tourist attraction after another. Knowing what a place is like often requires us to find a corner cafe or some sidewalk seating, sit down, not worry about a time-table or schedule, and simply observe what is going on around us for a good hour or so. Or more. I often have to remind myself of that.