Informed by the tradition of paper lanterns, beacons are ghostly apparitions that transform and mutate according to their surrounding environment. They will change in both scale and form. Imagery pulled from geotagged photos posted to the internet is projected on the skins of the beacons. The beacons will light in nighttime and move to entice people to enter the border.

Armin Linke screens the US premier of his award winning film-in-progress on the Alps realized in collaboration with architect Piero Zanini

I visited the Pavilion on the night Armin Linke presented. The structure is a modular construction of hundreds of glow-in-the-dark hula hoops attached together to form a perforated dome.

The space created a psychological barrier from the adjacent streets and surroundings. Viewing the presentation on a big screen from inside the enclosure and at the same time having essentially a full view of the world outside reminded me of similar experiences one would have in NY. This was like being a passenger on subway cars, or like sitting at a window and people watching while commuters pass by watching you as you watch them.

I'm curious how Storefront for Art and Architecture was able to get the city to allow them to build this on a public space this and keep it there for several months. The site was likely underused given its location between two intersecting streets.

Pell St, 1899

Doyer St., 1890's

Sometimes I move, watching the crowds pass below and through me. Oblivious. My senses are eternally overwhelmed. My world emanates North South East West. Flow. Buildings, streets, - cannot confine my path. Memories may. I watch, listen and capture. To be here is all there was. It grows.

The border will shift and I will float to its edge. Brooklyn and Queens pull gravitationally. I can go there too. Old New York has mostly disappeared, or at least you think it has. But I know and still go there. Anthony (now Worth), Orange (now Baxter), Mulberry (remains)...There is no end. I move with it. I live.

Mark it now, but it will change. A periphery... transitory but with solid presence... a feeling to enter and leave through. Listen. See. Smell.

The 2007 Border

Pell St.

Pell & Doyer

Bayard St. looking North East

What is the relationship between the Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn Chinatowns? Do Flushing and Sunset Park operate as satellite of Manhattan's Chinatown? A Taiwanese ITP student informed us most of the Chinese immigrants that have settled in Flushing are of Taiwanese descent and Manhattan's Chinatown is settled by Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong. Borders and boundaries in NY in a real estate and psychological sense should provide us with ample room for exploration and discovery. The issue of satellite communities will likely be an important element in our research.

A toy that combines a marble-run and letter blocks and engages children in learning through play. The 3" square blocks are magnetic and can therefore be attached to magnetic surfaces such as doors or refrigerators. This was done in collaboration with Ben Chao.

A collaboration with ChoRong Hwang and Eugene Ahn.

PoetryBall utilizes random input to play music or speak poetry when users throw or kick it around. Each segment on the ball is a button, which when pressed, triggers sound heard on overhead speakers. The buttons act independently of one another and each is programmed to send a unique signal when pressed. PoetryBall implements radio technology to send data wirelessly to a computer across the room.

This was for an assignment in Commlab. We were supposed to use Photoshop to compose a narrative image. I thought the subject of shadow and reflection of light was interesting enough to portray in a collage. I'm satisfied with the way this turned out. It's amazing what range of colors I was able to get in such a very small space --and I do mean small.

Above are the final protoypes for our Stoneglow project. The tri-colored superbrights worked quite well inside the enclosures. We were thrilled with the end result of the resin castings. We would have preferred to have been able to obscure the LED bulb and have the light diffuse more thoroughly through the shape but time ran out on us. More to come on the process itself.

Source Code

Prototyping Board (with 4 pairs of an IR emitter and detector and 3 Superbright LEDS) Connected to an Arduino

Experimenting w/ Internal Light-Enhancing Materials

Testing the LightBox Enclosures

La Jetee is a French film directed by Chris Marker (with music score by Trevor Duncan) and released in 1962. It's composed entirely of black and white photographs and sound. This constraint provides Marker with ample room to experiment with various visual and aural elements to tell his story.

The premise of La Jetee (The Jetty), is that Paris has been blown up in a nuclear attack and that mind experiments are being conducted on the protagonist who is "...marked by an image from his childhood". The narration and music seems dated, viewing the film in our 21st century mileau, but they enhanced the film.

Throughout the film, Marker uses sounds like the varying rhythym and intensity of a heartbeat, whispering, and flocks of birds to create and release tension. There are several sequences that stand apart. One towards the end in which the the viewer hears the sound of a flock of birds as a quick succesion of images of the protagonist's girlfriend lying in bed is flashed to imply breathing is very effective.

What resonates is Marker's implementation of still imagery and sound to convey the concept of visceral memories in a story about time travel. The images would stand alone without sound but it is the synthesis of elements that proves so succesful. La Jetee warrants multiple viewings to fully appreciate.

Minsoo and I went to Canal Plastics this past Saturday and bought some opaque, white plexiglass. It'll take some time to cut and fashion the plastic into our hexagonal forms. So, in order to have a mock-up for testing, we decided it would be best to buy "pre-made" enclosures. These food containers will serve the purpose. We sanded them to take off the gloss/shine and to create a somewhat opaque finish. We're hoping to get the light to spread evenly inside the enclosure.

The cards are an efficient way to handle the large number of machines that would otherwise require cash collection. With the vending machine, the cash collection is consolidated to one location.

The VTM itself has a relatively simple and manageable interface. However, since the neighborhood is multi-ethnic (various Indonesian dialects, Portuguese, Greek and Arabic are spoken), some of the customers may benefit from having a greater variety of languages represented. As it stands, only English and Spanish are being implemented. It seems that French as well as a couple of Asian languages may be helpful. Perhaps, this was an additional cost the developers/programmers did not feel was necessary.

The assigment asked us to consider the perspective of an alien seeing this technology without a reference point. This is certainly what many recent immigrants may feel like when using the machine for the first time. Particularly if English or Spanish aren't languages they feel comforatable with. Luckily, there are visual cues on the machine such as a graphic of money being inserted and color coding of buttons.

Overall, the VTM is a serviceable machine that could be improved aesthetically and internally with software enhancements to make it easier and more pleasurable to use. Most customers would likely rather use it than carry cash or a pocket full of quarters around.