5th Anniversary of my MFA

In acknowledgement of the fifth anniversary of receiving my MFA, I’ve decided to post my thesis – typos and all.
While some of my feelings have changed since I wrote it, mostly I find that am still coming up against the same questions in my work as I did then. I am not sure if this points to a lack of progress or that I have stumbled onto some central theme for my work.

In the end, the project that was the basis for my thesis was quite pivotal for how Das Fundbuero developed in Leipzig. That, along with the distance in time from the whole master’s experience lets me view the work somewhat more objectively and reevaluate its relative success and failures. I feel much better about this project than I did in 2009, and I’ve realized that “building community” in the traditional sense – a certain harmony between project participants – is not one of my goals; I am more interested in how we deal with those people whom we do not like or do not agree with – how do we continue to work productively in spite of such conflict? As usual, I don’t have a clear or concise answer for this yet, but I’m working at it from a few angles and hope to address it in written form sometimes soon.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the thesis.

M_Sheets_Thesis

Das Fundbuero in the Press

I have beentaz_2013_26_09_fundbuero_sm wanting to start posting actual news and updates for some time, so this seems like a good thing to start with.

In today’s taz in Germany, there is an interview with me about Das Fundbuero and the Leipziger Zentrale. Some national press coverage of the project is certainly a nice parting gift for me, and it will hopefully give the project a little boost as Peggy Freund continues to lead it after my departure.

The article is available online here. Click on the image for a PDF of the print version.