New York City
by Songul Aslanturk
I have started seeing everything in colors and shapes since I have become a designer. Even daily life experiences turn into posters, campaigns, illustrations and animations in my mind. Taking M5 bus trip to Harlem and back to W4 improved one more time that creativity is part of my life and everything I observe takes its place as creative pieces to be completed and improved in my mind. Watching the city I love behind windows helped me to activate my abilities and skills to help change some of the things that felt wrong.
I always thought of New York City as a big mosaic that has its own unique harmony to keep and accept differences and transfer richness very smoothly. In my mind each difference added different taste and made this beautiful city rich and mysterious so each individual who has been to the city would wonder and want to stay to discover and be part of this mixture. I am one of these curious individual who wants to discover every part of the city to find myself through this richness. Maybe this is why I was disappointed after that trip to Harlem. Seeing very distinct separations rather than harmony made me feel sad and realized that the mosaic I thought I am in, is broken apart into pieces with architectural connections in between such as streets, bridges and roads. The multicolor images of the city turned into separated geometrical shapes in my mind and the city lost its magic. Knowing not being able to reach someone and tell that I care, understand and feel what he/she feels even though I am apart put me into locked room where I want to break the walls to set myself free. I thought of building up a web site called New York City and interviewing with people and talk about their concerns, worries and expectations from life, government and the city itself, placing posters all around the city to invite people to contribute to the community and be aware of rights and wrongs of the system. All these ideas in my mind, I started picturing the city in four separated sections and highlighted the nature of each part organizing needs and deletions.
The first section starts around Washington Square and continues up to 29th Street. Multicolor perhaps mosaic around Washington Square. This section felt real mosaic to me - very dynamic, free spirit, ups and downs, people in search, lots of questions, knowledge, cultural variety, experiments and so on. I felt very comfortable and belonged to that part of the city. People from different parts of the world holding rich culture, speaking different languages, carrying interesting features, made me feel that the whole world was in that small region and integrated so smoothly so everyone had something to say and share with no hesitation. I loved the feeling of different and small units building a big mosaic and dream of living in an integrated world where everyone feels complete freedom and comfort. Architecture in this part of the city completes this richness, too. Small, cute shops rather than big malls and shopping centers, inviting cafes and restaurants, galleries and bookstores create warm, and inviting atmosphere. As you walk through the streets and interact with people you feel the dynamic, and free spirit of each individual. Everyone has purpose to be there but they are taking their time to make sure what they do is what they really want to do. Suddenly, I felt that something was missing as I looked around more and pay attention to generic look rather than details I realized that the age group was about the same in this region except few differences. A question popped into my mind that is if the mosaic I thought was real mosaic or I just felt that it was because I have spent most of my time in this neighborhood. Would the age make difference if there were decent differences between the age ranges? Without answering to this question I continued to my trip.
After w20th street business district started. Taller buildings and big corporations, malls and shop chains made the city look powerful and cold. People appeared to look serious, very business casual and fast phase environment made me feel bored already. Free spirit disappeared and left its place to corporate and business look. I didn’t know that Apex Technical School was around W19th Street and Barnes and Noble around 20th Street and 6th Avenue. That’s where I started to see gray-blue and some mosaic. Between 20th Street and 42nd Street are very crowded as everyone in marathon, running from one point to another but there is no end to reach. They keep running to reach to the next point so they can start running again. They don’t seem to know why they are doing what they are doing. Different types of stores, malls, shops in different sizes and people from different age groups but mostly around 30s, running around made me feel as I was watching an ant cage.
After 42nd Street, corporate section started and reminded me my days at my previous job. I call it as “My Gray Days” – I in black and gray all the time because everyone else was in black and gray, too. One day, I wore light blue and white and everyone looked at me, as I was not part of that group. Very tall buildings emphasize the strong inside and outside structure of the corporations. Very cold look and not inviting as you feel that there is this life out there very serious rule minded people work and spend most of their time helping corporations to make money and just live the business rather than their own lives. There is this line that is very hard to cross to be on that corporate site either you need a bridge to cross over or a hand on the other side to pull you in. Everything turns around money in this part of the city. I think the only multicolor I see in this neighborhood is, Bryant park because of the art exhibits, and little bazaar where you can find very creative custom made pieces of jewelry, scarves, fine home decorations and so on.
After 50th Street you start seeing older people and luxurious shops. That’s where the green section is. It is very sad to see how people in the same city not too far from where you and others are live very differently. Most of the things don’t seem real to me. I felt, as I would loose my humanity, if I become one of these unreal people who are not aware of the realities of life that most of us have to face. The most appealing thing in this part of the city is, the Central park- some nature even though most people think that it is very civilized and far from being real, I still like to see some green in this gray world. So, if you leave in this part of the city and feel colorless sometimes, just go to the Central Park. Seeing tall buildings outside the park might still disappoint you and remind you that this cold environment outside the park is still exist but try to ignore it and enjoy the greenery.
The bus turned on Broadway and W72nd Street heading west on 72nd Street. Old and smaller buildings started. It has cosmopolitan look but you see more Asian and black faces. Mosaic has started somehow not in real meaning but there is this feeling of multicolor and culture. This part of the city is full of very beautiful buildings and greenery, as you continue on the Riverside Drive. Around W88th Street the view changes. Nicer and richer look of structure and few people are around. I think this is very true that as the neighborhood gets richer less people are around to see.
Brown, black and mosaic starts after 1W35th Street. Many people, mostly Hispanic and Black and few Asian are out walking, chatting, standing on the corners. The bus driver changes on W136th Street and Broadway where Harlem starts. Everybody knows her whose name is Mira. Suddenly, warm and friendly feeling surrounds you, as people talk to each other. Everything feels real, as strong care, love, share and support rather than selfish life style without knowing what majority has to deal to survive, surrounds you. This strong feeling brings this question to my mind if I do anything to feel different than those people who live where green and gray color exist. Morgan Stanley’s Children Hospital is standing on W165th and Broadway. Is this real or been put there just to show that the only matter for that corporation is not making money - “$ for $”. I loved that bus driver I think we should examine her to see how giving and sharing she is. She is real and the color and hope in this dark ocean.
Here I am at the last stop on Harlem Drive River and W178th Street and feel broken somehow. Hearing stories about unfair world and life is not as strong as to hurt you, then seeing it with your own eyes on a bus trip in an hour only in 174 blocks. Shocked by reality, I started going back to Washington Square. At that point, I knew the answer to the very first question that popped into my mind in very beginning of the trip – nothing I have seen so far was real mosaic. Hoping everyone to realize that and find ways to combine these color blocks to create a real mosaic rather then separating it with very sharp lines that are very hard to cross I went home and put that task on to top of my list to accomplish first.
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