November 01, 2007
October 01, 2007
Beacons
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.
September 30, 2007
Paper Lanterns
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Performance Z-A: a Pavilion and 26 Days of Events at Storefront
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.
September 24, 2007
Chinatown Border (Manhattan)
The Original, Traditional Border
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
September 21, 2007
(Expanding) Borders of Chinatown
As a group, Younghyun, Hyeki and I have chosen to pursue a project on the concept of the borders of neighborhoods in Manhattan. Specifically we'll focus on Chinatown. My understanding is that the Manhattan Chinatown is shrinking whereas the "satellite" communities of Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens are growing rapidly. This is mainly due to real estate in Manhattan being so expensive, but there are political and social reasons for the change as well.
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.