(re)connect

Psychogeography

"...decisions about where to walk next are made not by reference to an authoritative architectural guide or tourist map, but by some form of individual, subjective response to the emotional contours of the urban landscape." (from 'The City of Psychogeography' by Iain Borden)

My idea is about dismantling the constuct of a map as a form of abstract representation. Instead, I want to create a new form for a map where you can get a sense of a place, and get a sense of the relationship between places. I want this form to provide information as if you had experienced the place first hand, but also provide information about places (+ the connections between them) that would be inaccessible otherwise.

After identifying the sites in NY to expand, I want to then decide what kind of dialogue exists between these places...how can I connect one place to another? How do these spaces interact? What information about a place can I show so that a viewer can derive meaning?

This yellow image is a crude illustration of my concept. The boxes represent the NY sites. There are also some ideas about the ways to connect the sites. I think this process will grow organically, since the connections (both in concept + form) will be partially reliant on how + what I created as initial reference points.

The other images are from a project I did a while back. It is a little book about commodity culture. It's mostly comprised of images in addition to some text I added in. The point of the book is to illustrate the concept of commodity culture through the images I selected. I think a book like this could be a good starting point as a form to illustrate a connection between my selected sites. Some connections that I can identify off the top of my head are: power, exclusivity, refuge, privelege. Each of these ideas would become their own book. And the images / text would rely on the places I reference.

Here are a few sketches for Wall St. My idea was to show financial monoliths.

Here is an example of one way to represent a place - Times Square. The images are video stills of my sketch, where I try to show the chaotic and kinetic aspects of Times Square. I made this video sketch because I want the content of the representation to influence the graphic form. In this case, I wanted to show the constant motion and movement of the place, and I thought a video would be the best vehicle to communicate this idea.

I chose 10 locations in NY to visually represent. They are:
> E 166th in the Bronx
> Malcolm X in Harlem
> Coney Island in Brooklyn
> Times Square
> Central Park
> Gramercy Park
> Wall St.
> Ellis Island
> LES
> Chinatown

I made these selections I realized that each place either was a park, or was near a park. And that the reputation of the park was closely tied to its surrounding neighborhood. ie, Morningside Park is representative of Harlem, while Bryant Park is representative of Times Square. I think there may be something in this connection, but I am not sure what yet. Something about parks being a neutral ground for interactions.

Here is a visual representation of NY with the specific parks highlighted. (There are way more parks in NY, but I am only highlighting the ones specific to my investigation).

These are the sketches I prepared for Thursday's class. They illustrate my thinking and process toward inventing a new kind of "map", one that offers a sense about a place and its people. I use the term map loosely as a way of describing my process of making representations of a place, and then connecting these places to each other.

The first part of my idea involves making the representations of select neighborhoods in NY. Both the graphic form and content relate to the specific place.

The second part of my idea is about offering more information than what is visible had you visited one of these locations. Information about similarities and differences between the people and places...opportunities, limitations, power, nostalgia, etc.

I don't know what form this end product will be, but it will be based on the connections and relative preceding forms (multimedia?). I am imagining the presentation as being some sort of installation or exhibit...a sensory experience.

This idea of using a map as a research apparatus relates to the work I am doing in Publication Design (ie, PUB). Here, I started with the event of riding the subway and I chose three specific routes for each of the three issues we’re making. My route choices are based on an overarching commentary I am making about the subway…how it’s a fluid connection between opposing forces. So far, I’ve identified two of the three topics: urban vs. natural and wealth vs. welfare. The third will have something to do with power and marginalia (as illustrated by a trip between Wall St. and Malcolm X Blvd. in Harlem).

This work in PUB makes even me more curious about the ‘subjective gray spaces*’ that exist beyond their respective 2d representations. The map is a starting point for a larger investigation about a place and its people; and the structure of a map—a form that shows the relationship between things—can be the structure of an investigation.

*Mentioned in the post ‘Maps…A Fallacy?’

I always go back to the beginning when I am feeling stuck.

My criteria: I want my work to involve a lot of making, making in a way I enjoy, am good at but can also improve. I want my design to matter, to make a difference or open a dialogue, however big or small, on a social, political or cultural level. Having made all my posts it's now easier for me to identify larger themes…New York, maps, connecting people, city & visual vernaculars associated with it (vs. suburb and its universal qualities). Based on these themes, my post “Maps..A Fallacy?’ is most inclusive.

A proposal: invent a new kind of “map” that provides experiential information about its people and places. I am not thinking of a map in its traditional 2d, flat sense, but using the term as a proxy for a form that ‘represents the relationship between things;’ in this case, people and places. I want my design to achieve two ends: one, allow people to experience places as if they were there, even when they’re not. Two, I want to add information about these places that may be inaccessible even if a person were present.

To execute both ideas, there will be two components to the project. The first is to choose a number of different (and disparate) locations in New York city and to make posters that exemplify the experience of these places. Drawing upon the local visual vernaculars of each destination the posters will be unique. The second component of the project involves showing how the places are connected or relate to each other. This could be a video or some other type of design that explains what ties some destinations together, and similarly, what separates others. The exploration is not limited to geography.

Relational Aesthetics

I have been reading more about this idea of Relational Aesthetics and am finging lots of good information. It is a theory being discussed contemporarily based on a series of essay written in the 90s by Nicolas Bourriaud. His claims closely relate to my earlier post about Relational Design and have to do with connecting people, or engaging people in the design dialogue.

Some of his ideas:
> dialogue, not monologue
> socially acitve and acitvate the social
> room for the audience to fill in the blanks
> what is actually there and what you put there
> draw individuals into a relationship with a space, and information
> create micro-utopias--everyday human relations

A is for Alpha, B is for Bravo

Technology is causing the spaces and distances between us to shrink. As a result hegemonic cultures are swallowing up local identities. I would like to address this issue through graphic design and use design as a tool to help maintain local identity in a global landscape. I think design can be instrumental in helping us understand other people and other places through an appreciation of diversity and individuality.

In terms of manifesting these ideas visually, I am thinking about using some sort of mapping as a way to represent different people and different places. Maps are a form of graphic design we interact with willingly in an attempt to understand relationships between things. I am working on narrowing my thinking to a specific case out of which a realizable endeavor can emerge. Thoughts about this direction or my thinking?

Poltergeist

Is the movie Poltergeist a satire about suburban sprawl? Is the fuzzy TV (that gobbles up Carol Anne) and the development of sacred ground metaphors for destruction, imitatation and artificiality?

Dots on the surface

I take pictures of buildings at night, when it’s dark and the illumination from the windows dot the architectural surface. I look at (or inside) these windows and imagine what it could be like inside. Each illuminated square symbolizes a different reality…different people, different perspective.

Buildings seen in the dark are like road maps, un-descriptive and abstract representations of a yet to be disclosed world. Where a city is represented by a black dot, a reality is represented by an illuminated square.

Valencia®

Stars

Sokeedys

The ideas behind the Cranbrook work from the early 80s fascinate me. Formally interpreting philosophical theory seems like a transcendent methodology for creating something new in art or design.
Agree/ disagree?

(BTW - sorry for the awful pun.)

NPR in print

NPR is a one media source I rely on for un-sensationalized and straightforward information. Can this type of reporting translate graphically? Can we employ an un-sensationalized (but not un-sensational) graphic form for sharing this information? It could be interesting to create a visual journal of NPR news stories that avoid the typical money-sex-violence driven approach of other media sources.