The S.O.P. Mystery

What is Standard Operating Procedure? That’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves for a while. All we really know is that it’s a “quarterly publication of art and architecture.”

That’s normal enough, but all the information we’ve gathered comes from a mysterious March 3rd e-mail sent over most of the House lists—and it’s one of those e-mails that begs for attention by pretending to not really care. (I guess it worked since we’re writing about it now.)

It has a bizarre minimalist format (“STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE [verb] [clause].” Now repeat that four times.), and it even seems uncertain about its own content ("content is non-specialized and may include essays, interviews, treatises, projects. propositions...”—you get the drift). Sources report it's the brainchild of Sabrina Chou '09.

But the best part of all: the theme of the first issue is “POCKETS.” How do I mitigate the fact that this is a publication about buildings and art, but its first issue will revolve around those flaps in my jeans that have become receptacles for long-forgotten fortunes from the Kong?

It started with awnings and Impressionism, but then... pockets. Really? Is that where it's at?