I chose last sunday (yesterday) as the period of 24 hours I would spend with my 2x4. Having worked at a hardware store all summer (doing load-outs and stocking the lumber yard), being in close contact with a 2x4 was nothing new to me. Nevertheless, I did feel a little weird bringing it to the dining hall at lunch. I stowed it under the table, ate, and then headed for my dorm room to get some reading done. I spent the rest of my day there (I had upwards of 90 pages to read by the end of the day), but from time to time I would glance up at my 2x4 and try to come up with some sort of inspiration. As I mentioned in class today, a pivotal moment in my experience came while I was trying to clean my room. I had put everything in its correct spot except for several pairs of shoes (which I haven't found a spot for yet), and my 2x4. This was when the idea of a functional sculpture started to play a large part in my thinking. In the end I decided that although a shoe rack would have been a good idea, there is simply no room for it in my dorm room. Plus, shoe racks aren't particularly famous for acting as vessels for artistic creativity.
A few more hours passed, and between periods of reading, I came up with several ideas having to do with chopping the 2x4 into extremely thin segments. However, these concepts weren't directly inspired by any occurrences in the world outside my own brain. My final bit of inspiration came when I was turning the lights out and getting ready to go to bed. An ongoing problem in my room has been that I have no source of mood lighting in my room. Although a 2x4 obviously doesn't emit light, I believe that there are many ways it can be combined with a light source in a way that is both artistic and functional. So, I drew a final sketch of a design involving the use of circular saws and drills. Then I went to bed, thus concluding the conscious portion of my 24 hours with a 2x4.