Last month, two students from the fourth year class, Teddy Luong and Torrin Mullins, camped out in studio for a week. I wish I could tell you of their misadventures, but all they did was studio work. Although sometimes we feel like we eat sleep and breathe studio especially when our deadline is approaching, but that usually just entails one or two nights. These guys thought it would be fun to move in and do it for a week.
Q: Whose idea was it to live in studio?
TL: Torrin’s?
TM: The idea was just to do something exciting, but we kept pushing it back because we had no reason to stay at school. However, once we learned of our workload for the deadline to come, we realized it would be a great week to live at school and get stuff done
Q: What are the rules?
TM: 1. no going home
2. Required to sleep at school
TL: 3. Shower at school, as in athletics
TM: That's basically it. There weren't many other rules - just a bunch of activities that stemmed from the main sleeping rules
TL: Oh and we were only allowed to eat out once
TL: Well there was also supposed to be a diet rule, but we sort of forgot about that...
TM: Oh ya! The diet rule! The diet rule failed, because all I brought to school were sliced cheese, cold cuts and bagels
Q: What was the diet rule?
TM: It was a planned meal theme for every day.
TL: day 1 - celiac day
day 2 - methane day
day 3 - microwave day (where we had to microwave everything)
day 4 - can day
day 5 - chocolate sauce day
day 2 - methane day
day 3 - microwave day (where we had to microwave everything)
day 4 - can day
day 5 - chocolate sauce day
TM: and there were a lot of cookies, a loooooot of cookies
TL: the only successful day was microwave day
TM: I only paid attention to methane day
Q: Methane day?
TM: I found a list of items that cause flatulence, and followed it for the day. Teddy followed microwave day, and that was about it
Q: Where did you sleep?
TM: I had a hammock, but there was no place to hang it. I tried out a bunch of locations, depending on who was staying up late, and which lights were on. [in the end] I pushed four rolling chairs together, laid out my sleeping pad on top, and laid there in my bag. It was awkward, because sometimes I would wake up, and there was a two-foot gap in the middle where the chairs had rolled away
Q: Would you suggest it's a good way to sleep in studio?
TM: There were small additions to the chair-bed that I implemented, which stabilized the chairs. With the chair stabilization implemented, I would recommend it. I could roll around on it and have no problems with the chairs moving.
Q: What did you use for stabilizing?
TM: I pushed the chairs up against the desks, with one end of the chain at the wall, and the other end held together by a set of drawers. I also had my sleeping mat laid out over top, which helped to keep the chairs steady
TL: I had a little more luxurious set up. I brought in a fold-out cot and used that with my sleeping bag. It really wasn't that bad, I can imagine someone else eventually moving in to studio to avoid rent it really was like camping, there was a ritualistic set-up every night and tear down every morning
Q: So can you describe a typical day in the life of living in studio?
TM: We generally made it back to the studio for 9-9:30, and would just start working. We worked all the way through the days though occasionally we would take a break, whether that was to take strange photos of each other and everyone else in the room, or going into the hallways to kick around a ball but all-in-all, they were very work-focused, and we were really productive
TL: It was incredibly productive.
Q: How did your classmates feel about you guys living in the studio?
TL: not that many people knew, but those who did know thought it was gross
TM: ...especially the first night when I slept under my desk... yeah. Dusty. Dirty. The ground is gross...
TL: Haha yeah, the sauna was important
Q: Alright well I think that's all... Do you guys have any tips or tricks for other students who sometimes end up living at school too?
TL: sauna
TM: agreed
