Manifesto

Ethnic 

(adj) 

1 : heathen

2 : of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background <ethnic minorities> <ethnic enclaves>

(noun) 

1 : a member of an ethnic group; especially : a member of a minority group who retains the customs, language, or social views of the group

Enclave

1 : a distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory <ethnic enclaves>

To instill architectural practices that serve as direct dialogues between people and place, not people and people.

 To offer the people, of all ethno-economic fronts, the ability to build their own, from the earth up.

To create a new system of architecture that is directly accessible to all, built and designed by the people, with architects. This system will allow for a direct relay of information into the built environment rather than a indirect approach to framing communities. 

Final Project

We wanted to create an installation that would relate to the existing architecture, not impose upon it. We arrived at a vacant lot, where we could create an environment, which would be framed by a building next door to an abandoned warehouse. Upon arriving at the site we discovered the dirt in the vacant lot was a rich deep clay, which was an ideal material for digging. We chose to dig into the ground because we wanted to create a central focal point, which would help serve as an area where people could congregate and use the space. By keeping the project low we would be dealing more intimately with the ground, and the history and physical past of the space we would be working in. Hoping to create a place that would evoke nostalgia in the community and a sense of unity the project eventually took shape. We decided a barbeque pit could invigorate the community, without alienating it by producing a piece of abstract art, which might not be as easily relatable.  All of the materials were found on site, using bricks and cinderblocks from a surrounding building. After we harvested these blocks back to the lot they became the seating as well as the framework for the barbeque pit.

The pit was not intended to be an object but rather a piece of architecture, integrating into the landscape, using natural elements to re-structure and re-purpose the environment. It was important that members of the local community took part in the process of creating the installation. First we found a man who was doing construction on a nearby block, and after we explained our intent, we asked if he would contribute any extra pieces of wood to our project. Once the project had started we invited children who were playing in a nearby park to help build the fire pit. The kids were extremely excited to participate, not only in the making of the installation, but also in using the pit once it started to take shape. Interestingly, almost immediately many of the children started to discuss fond memories of camping and playing outside, already demonstrating the transformative nature of something as modest, but also as symbolic as a barbeque pit, in an empty lot. Leaving the site we were approached by a neighbor who had been watching our building process through her window-- she explained that she never intervened with our process because she didn’t see our installation as a threat to her neighborhood. She recognized the space as somewhere welcoming, but even more so she believed it would serve a purpose in the community, as people would use the barbeque pit again. Our intent was to leave the vacant lot with this small architecture in place as a simple threshold of concrete and earth, which can serve as a pathway away from the abandoned environment. 

Site-Specific Art

Miwon Kwon readings references site specific art through context in which the art owes itself to its surroundings. Referencing the naturals laws of physics and how site specificity can be traced to a subatomic scale, Kwon goes even further to say that art has transcended that spacial temporal registration. Kwon mentions the evolution of sculpture, and how modernist sculpture relies on the pedestal to dissect the sculpture from it physical location. This emphasis on a divergence between the object and geography in which the sculpture is found grant the object the authority of existing in an abstract realm, and hence, increase the sculptures referential basis, as well as possible avenues of interpretation. When relating the reading back to the "put it here" assignment, I realized a similar play of locality versus object was at play. For the put it here installation, an abandoned plot of land was transformed into a sculptural retreat. Trash was first removed from the grounds and then essentially re-distrubuted in a controlled and organized manor. This re-interpretation of space as a result of a re-organization of material that had preexisted in the space very much conforms to the Kwon's earlier notions of space time in accordance with the well know physical laws. These physical laws that tell us that matter is inseparable from space. However, something radical occurred after all the re-organizing was complete. While stepping back on to the street to observe what we had done from a detached vantage point, we realized that our plot of land no longer assumed the identity it had before as a result of this simple re-organiztion of preexisting materials. So our piece very much existed within the fundamental constraints of the physical laws of space and time, seeing as the material was fundamentally derived and hence dependent on the land. But the other could be said too, the plot of land, previous to our state of play, was registered as a local dump site, and also the lot to an abandoned building that had burnt down. So the land very much registered as just that, an unwanted, unused property that instinctively got turned into a local dump site by the locals. But after some material was removed and re-organized, the land assumed a new, positive value. 

Reflections on Creating Democracy: A Dialogue with Krystof Wodiczko by Patricia C. Phillips

Wodicko, through his artistic lens, relates the Democratic process to a traumatic process. Wodicko describes an event or trauma as taking place, and having an inextinguishable flame. A sort of resonance, which shapes the individual from the moment in which the trauma is experienced, onward to the extent that the individual will never fully recover from a traumatic experience. Neurologically, the individual will remain attached to the event. Wodiczko then details what must come after a trauma,  to ensue the process of recovery. The very fist stage of recovery, which can simply be referred to as realization, details that the individual must look back and acknowledge the event that took place. And only after one is willing to confront the reality of the situation, can one truly move forward. However, the process of recovery is very much undefined, and can take up to a lifetime to resolve. Wodicko believes that one can only come to resolve trauma by directly engaging with it and intimacy is a key step along the process of recovery. Intimacy being, one's way of relating to the trauma directly, whether through dialogue or temporal experience.

Wodicko's work works to empower the individual, elevate them from their previous, enclosed state, into an open state, where the individual can grow and express their tragedy through new froms. Wodicko uses architecture as a medium for interaction and as a means of embodying the human spirit. Through live video projection, Wodicko digitally imprints the face of people onto building facades. These buildings, each tied to a specific spatial experience, direct the user, the user being people of trauma related experience,  to use his art in a positive and beneficial way. The specific installation Border Projection: Part 2, Tijuana, 1988 speaks to immigrants, mainly people, who are emotionally attached to the border through some instance of trauma. The installation allows people to project a close up image of their own face, focused on the mouth, onto the face of a border control office, located on site, where immigrants cross the border. Through Wodick's method of video projection, the people using the art are able to inhabit the architecture, the architecture which previously held them down, in a silent state. The use of architecture as a tool for initiating dialogue works by elevating the user to higher platform, where they form the confidence to "speak out loud." The use of a social setting as the site for the installation integrates other people into the mix, people of similar origins who can visually register with the  users new face, and voice that is being projected on what once was a border control office. Bystanders, can, just from observing, gain the confidence they need to begin to speak out loud about their internal struggles. These struggles, however, initiated by the trauma of crossing the border, go far beyond the individuals direct experience of crossing the border, and begin to reflect a transitional change that is felt by an entire community of people, immigrants. Wodicko's reference to democracy is subtle, but pungent, he's essentially, re-evaluating democracy through the eye's of immigrants, people who must fight to stay alive in a new seemingly un-democratic world.

The psychological component to Wodicko's work allows people to grow, and overcome prior anxieties attached to the location, time and space of the moment of trauma. Wodicko's work truly empowers the user, and strives to redefine their spacial temporal registration of the geography in which the trauma was originally experienced in. And once gaining confidence with the initial geographic setting in which the trauma was induced, one can then begin to further investigate other aspects of the trauma which are not as readily available as the direct stimulatory experience of the events locality.

Wodicko sculpts the users experience in order to elevate the user themselves to face the trauma directly. Or in other words, instills the confidence that is clearly not provided by the new, democratic state directly.

Democratic Space and asphault

Imagine a framed space, initiated by clear boundaries with a label that reads, "Democratic Space and asphalt." The 2- dimensional box, located on lancaster ave is a call for action. Framing the physical construct of the neighborhood, the "new zone" relates ideas of democracy, to the physical reality of the space. The space is very much defined by physical laws, but is to be found within a larger context, the context of America, the context of democratic ideals. But do ideas of democracy ever make it into the space? How does the space compare to other areas in the united states, say the suburbs for example. The box, and its 2-dimensional state, capture a fragmented view of the real world and encase it with the artificial presence of democracy. How far does democracy actually penetrate? Democracy surely built these streets, and this neighborhood, but can it still be found there today?

Perception

Reflections on Urban Renewal

Urban Renewal as a propagator of social divides in the United States.

 Urban Renewal as a form of welfare.

Urban Renewal as reverse welfare.

Who does the urban environment belong to?

Does Urban imply urban renewal

Is urban a form of urban renewal?

people sell the land
           people live on the land
                                   people buy the land

                           Who are you? who will you become....
I remember my grandmother teaching us about the land, the geography that raised us...

What does Urban Renewal become?
I can see the future....

Are there others forms out there?
                   How long does it take?

I can feel the people around me...

Does it cost money?

A true sense of community....
                           Does it cost lives?
How much are you getting out of it?

                  How long will you keep your eye on things?
I remember my mother, how she used to hang up our clothes on the front lawn for all the town to see....
Will you do it again?


                       Just the same?
Will it hurt?                                        Will it scar?                     what are the repercussions?

When will things come back?            Long term
How far have we gone?
When did we depart from reason?
                       Where are things heading?                  Short term
                     
                                                     Whose in charge?
Does the public know about this?
What vengeance shall I take
               Shouldn't we say something?
Does it always have to be unfair?                 What happened to equal rights?


Where are we heading?

                                                 


                                        Urban Renewal, o what hatred you breed.


Urban Renewal as a social metaphor

Urban Renewal as forced change
                                          Interaction
                                                  well being

Urban Renewal as untouchable?

Urban Renewal as God