Regret and Rationalization

Date: Summer 2014

In the summer of 2014, my family and I travelled throughout Israel for three weeks. We had no set agenda. We had our backpacks, tents, and money. There was a lot of regret and rationalization going on - wishing we had stayed somewhere, but realizing we could not have due to reason x, y, or z. This was a constant loop playing in our head. So much so, we had to go back to one place at the very end of the trip to 'relive' some moments we wish we had lived on our first visit to that place. During this hyper-regret-rationalization-situation of travelling, it occurred to me that this goes on all the time. Not only in my wife's head when we are going through our typical days in our typical house with our typical activities, but in other peoples heads as well. As I started listening to people, and looking through the papers, and thinking about my conversations with public officials and staff, I began to hear a whole slew of regrets and rationalizations.

I began to realize the City - its governance, its occupation in the landscape, its people - is just one big ping-pong game of Regret and Rationalization. We kill a frog, we preserve some landscape, we fund a project. When it is over, we regret. Then we rationalize. Then we do it all over again. And again. And again. And again.

Contributors
Drawings and words by Worker, Inc
Voice by Erica Blank
Manufacturing, printing and assembly by Gloo Factory
Sound by Audio Geography
Video camera and editing by Eduardo Guerrero
Space by Exploded View Gallery, Tucson, Arizona
A Things To Do While Driving Production