Sirc and Cornell's box

I am always amazed when things make full-circle connections.  While showing a PBS Art documentary series on American Art (written and hosted my Robert Hughes) to my Honors sophomores last week Wednesday (, I was reminded of Joseph Cornell's boxes of 'collected stuff' art and the way that the collection and arrangement of the items themselves made the art.

The class participated in a discussion and they seemed to come to the realization that 'collecting' was where ideas came from.  They came to the conclusion, mostly on their own I think, that their ideas stem from the way they perceive information and then how they put it together and process it.  it seemed that many of them liked the idea that writing could be assimilating, reorganizing and restructuring 'collected stuff from their observations and experiences.