Illustration by Annie Leue

It is the final week of the semester, and I’ve shoveled several boxes of crackers into my mouth while avoiding my homework. I like to think that I can get everything done in time for my classes. But I also need to sleep and watch 1700 videos on YouTube about completely superfluous subjects (Vine comps, best of “My Strange Addiction,” cats). So, if I don’t finish all my final assignments in time, here are some things I saw today that, with the right phrasing, could be turned into final pieces: 

1. Any one of the half-finished collages I made this weekend

Ever drink and craft but never finish the piece? Present it as a material exploration of the unfinished.

2. Blackout poetry using a magazine I found in Lakeview

Pro: can be done in 5 minutes for free. Con: Tumblr.

3. Mitten stuck in half melted snow

Global warming destroying beloved American holiday iconography; “it’s like an object designed for warmth that’s completely overtaken by the cold. Like conceptually it just questions whether objects really do have function. What matters, you know?”

4. Clothes I slept in last night presented with a poem I wrote on the train

If you can write a haiku about self-care on the train, then you can successfully pull this project out of your ass.

5. Snow in a jar with a random material

Anything can be material exploration with a hint of rhetoric against capitalism, right?

6. Street trash

Capitalism!

7. Any weird product from Whole Foods

Capitalism!

8. All of the bad selfies on your phone, the ones you didn’t post to Instagram

“It’s like a commentary on media and media expectations and beauty standards.”

9. An old diary

If it’s not full of extremely embarrassing content, you can present it as writing or a found object.

10. Barbara Krueger rip off that says LITERALLY anything

A weird tinder message + an old stock photo of a woman = success.