June 4th marked an explosion of arts activity in the Twin Cities—the eve of the all-night, city-wide nuit blanche Northern Spark festival.
At least one invention came out of the spectacular event—a 40th Sleep Position.
As part of Nightshift, the Walker Art Center’s contribution to Northern Spark, we partnered with McSweeney’s Publications, author Evany Thomas, and artist Amelia Bauer to bring to life their book, The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to Thirty-Nine Positions.
Many of the 4,500 people who came through the Walker between 9pm – 6am on June 4 tried on some of the positions printed as larger-than-life illustrations. They also had a chance to enter into a contest for a 40th Sleep Position. Some highlights from the night include the Supported Dreamer (most acrobatic), Bow and Arrow (sleeping grace), Gordian Knot (conceptual star), and Dominating Bear (as slapstick as a sleeping position can come). See more of the positions here, http://www.flickr.com/groups/1662795@N24/
From an array of these and other ingenious positions, Amelia Bauer and Evany Thomas have selected the “T-Square” as their winner—a pose developed by sisters Jenny Immich and Rebecca Immich Sullivan.
Jenny, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, enjoys hedgehogs, medieval archaeology, Lady Gaga, and Russian literature. Rebecca, currently pursuing a Masters in Divinity at Luther Seminary, enjoys running and watching TV show marathons. The “T-Square” is, in fact, a position employed by Jenny when she has the urge to sleep in an “L” (which happens often).
Amelia and Evany both leaned immediately towards the T-Square. Why? Amelia explains: “Perhaps it is because I was raised by an architect father that I first fell for the T-Square. It s a simple but perfect pose. One body shapes itself into what actually appears to be a cozy position, and uses the other body to align itself. It’s something of an odd-couple’s pose. There’s a “straight man” in this story, paired with an odd-ball. And yet, look how perfectly they fit together! I’m going to try out the T-Square will napping on a square-shaped pic-nic blanket in the grass.”
Evany says: “Although it’s too early to draw any official conclusions, preliminary sciencing seems to indicate that the T-Square is in fact the long-sought-after daytime pose, the true oasis of stolen afternoons and gray Sundays. Amelia and I must conduct our own field studies and data-crunches before we can confirm these early findings, but we expect to have a fully ratified classification to share within the next week or so — clear your calendars!”
We urge you to try to T-Square for yourselves, and stay posted for Amelia and Evany’s write-up and illustration for this winning pose.
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