last call

Thursday afternoon I had an opportunity to spend a few hours at the Detroit Public Library. I was able to make photocopies of a rather comprehensive map of the city assembled in 1991-this was the most recent study I found. I was able to make copies of the Dequindre Cut (from above the market down to the river) as well as a good section of the brewster project. I will be going back down to the city tomorrow and wanted to know if there was any information that people "need" me to collect. anyways, let me know if there is.

p.s.

matt and thomas, i hope that your seminar at MOCAD went well. I am sorry that i could not see it but I had to pick my mom up from work at 7:45. see you back in providence.

-b

Compared to What?

http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=50579_0_23_0_M

Compared to What?
Detroit, Flint, Gary, Chicago, East St. Louis, and Cincinnati, 2006 A.D.

by Wes Janz

baahahaha.

Return from Ashes

Michigan Central Station - Main Waiting Room
6:45 am EST March 26, 2007

This was roughly processed (very rough, minding the jpeg artifacts and compressed dynamic range) and stitched from lowered-resolution jpegs. More to come later: I'm working on some 96 megapixel stitched monsters which will be available on a dvd for the class to share.

man or woman?

dana's new hair style?
comments.


or concerns.

they're back!

GUESS WHAT GUYS?! i got 3 postcards from people back and one from an Upton lastname person with a "return to sender" like i thought would happen, since the addresses from yellowpages.com were sketchy. i was very excited.

what man

many thanks to providence local and slow manual animations.

casino in progress

proposal for studio book cover

news from the D:
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will be delivering the State of the City address this evening @ 7pm.
to listen live check out: http://www.wdetfm.org/

Le Crit

The crit went well by certain standards...



"It can even feed your fish!"

...the hidden tension between Dana, Asher, and a trapped tomato....

...staring into the maw....

...post-post-post-modern interrogation...

...pull my finger!

...Brian is profoundly touched...

"Wood! Who want's wood?! Wood for sale!"

...battle of the wits.

Meeting Tomorrow

Okay, breathe now K. May.
Meet tomorrow at 1:00pm in the studio. Bring ideas, concepts, web pages, examples, etc. etc. etc. I sent an email this morning. I think we should make a story board as a goal for tuesday with supplemental precedents, etc. Also, as indicated in the email, some people have to make it their responsibility to coordinate the various shorts with transitions, an intro, and ending. We can discuss in person tomorrow. Blogs and email are great but there is nothing like a good old fashioned sit down. Please bring ideas and energy. Maybe I'll bake cookies tonight.
dg

im so sorry i keep posting, but im just worrying about this now. i was talking to er-ti and we thought it might be a good idea to take those, what 4 people, that have worked with the programs before and spread them throughout 4 groups, and those would be our groups. what do u think? could we set a time to meet in studio tomorrow? thoughts? ideas? if you have already decided on a group, could u just say so so we make other plans or something...i duno...just communicate. thanks!!!

also...please come and bring your friends to the ASA festival tonight, er-ti and helen and others, but especially them have been working SO HARD on this and it would be awesome for lots of people to participate guys! support them! tonight at 6:30 at the auditorium for yummy asian food and entertainment. see you there?

so what are we going to do? can anyone make a decision?

the film groups

hey guys, what are we doing about partners/groups for the film? has everybody already chosen the people they're going to work with? i think it would be good to randomly select like helen suggested. what does everyone think? it would be a nice primer to get to know everyone before detroit when we wont be able to get away from each other! haha.

fluxus

why is my font small and then big?

so it might be a little late for this but i'd thought i'd post a little project synopsis anyways.

comparing and contrasting skymall, somewhat looking down on the ideas behind skymall because of its biase towards the "wealthy, affluent" class of travellers, and becoming very interested in Kelly's questions, i thought about how my hometown of Upton, Mass. is a perfect example of a non-commercial society that functions beautifully and successfully.

I think we have become brainwashed to understand that we might not be able to survive without these aspects to our lives, the commercial products, businesses, and ideas. through Upton, we see this is completely untrue.

i was inspired by Kelly's photographs in his travells throughout Asia.
i decided to explore photography, and the need to create "awareness" of the functionality and success of Upton. i want to "spread the word". so the photos turned into postcards that i would send out to create this awareness. this led me to fluxus
i became extremely interested in the art of fluxus, and mail art was so intriguing. to enable a full boomerang effect of mail art, i created 25 questions of my own, inspired by Kelly, that would apply to the more modern day person, but also some things that only residents of Upton would know. i proceeded to interview residents that i knew, documenting age and occupation, and comparing and contrasting their answers. the postcards have now become a tool not only to create awareness, but also for others to answer the same questions the Upton residents had answered and then they must follow the directions and return the postcard to me.

experimentation was huge for me.
you'll see.
i also created a fluxkit for the home of the returned postcards as well as for other items that are sensory mechanisms for Upton.

assignment 2:

Filmic Autotopia

Is there a way to combine a radical critique with a constructive program of action?

Problem 2 calls for a film, a celluloid/digital precursor to applied research. The subject of the film is Detroit, or more accurately, stereotypes, preconceptions, misperceptions you have of Detroit, a sort of impressionistic view from afar. Divide into small groups (2 or 3) and prepare a film/video of 3-5 minutes in length. The genre is open: it may be narrative, anti-plot, pseudo-documentary, mythic, epic, sci-fi, animated, etc. In addition, as a studio, prepare an opener of +/-20 seconds, a +/-5 second intro to each film, and a +/-20 second conclusion. The formats must be consistent, smooth, seamless, windows & mac compatible, and loaded on a DVD ready for presentation on March 21st.

the produce section

i'm going on a field trip tonight. actually, it's a more of a repopulation program--the fruits and such have been radio tagged and are ready to be re-released into the grocery store. oh, and also, if i'm not in studio tuesday morning, it's because the east side marketplace management took exception to my decision to put my own chicken dinner in their chicken dinner freezer. what's mine is theirs, i say.

oh, and don't forget:

The start of something beautiful

I saw this dream machine, and it was love at first sight; I just had to have it. Epitomized somewhere deep within its carcinogenic bowels is the notion of the American Dream; that you can have your cake and eat it too. Culture? Yes of course it's there - it's for tea! I never really needed a cart to drink tea before, but thought I'd get this for just in case. Who knows, maybe I'll really like it and like tea and carts, and throw this cart away when something bigger and better rolls around. I heard that the Benjamins just got a cart after seeing mine. It may already be time to accessorize. Cultural tradition my a$%! It's all about having the biggest and the best!

A few Detroit Links

Broken Detroit: Death of a City Block
The Detroit News - 2001

With this five-day series, The Detroit News launches a continuing examination of why Detroit has inadequate services, a shrinking population and vast tracts of abandoned or vacant property. The first installment, what went wrong on Elmhurst shows why our neighborhoods struggle while other cities' revive and thrive. A second installment will examine obstacles to change and a third installment will look at solutions for reviving Detroit.
Part 1:White exodus - In a panic, working-class Jewish residents flee the block on Elmhurst and blacks move in.
Part 2: Unrest and decline - The neighborhood thrives until the riots ruin businesses and property values plummet.
Part 3: Crime and abandonment - Crime sweeps in, people abandon property and buildings are torn down.
Part 4: Lost block - Abandoned buildings haunt the block and city government is overwhelmed.
Part 5: Life among ruins - During the Archer years, residents struggle to improve their neighborhood.

*Check out the 'Snapshot of Elmhurst' for each of the 5 parts which show the changes to this one block over the decades

Video - Detroit: City on the Move - 1965
Promotional film made for the City of Detroit, an unsuccessful bidder for the Olympic Games. With views of city highways, automobile manufacturing, a diverse population, and social activities, all shot prior to the city's economic decline.



Video - Renaissance Center - early 1970s
Proposal promoting the construction of the Renaissance Center



Video - Renaissance Center - mid 1970s
Groundbreaking of Renaissance Center and optimistic vision for the future of Detroit with its completion. As a bonus it has some sweet 70s tunes.

Audio Podcast - Shrinking Cities exhibit at MoCAD (Smart City Radio)
Also with us is Marsha Miro, acting director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, which is opening a new exhibition this month about shrinking cities worldwide. Marsha previously taught art history at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and has numerous books and a film on Cranbrook to her credit.
We'll talk about the challenges cities face in moving people and managing population shrinkage this week on Smart City (2/1/2007).

SkyMall Collage and Doomsday Capsule

I have been collaging images of products, people and the lifestyle promoted in the SkyMall catalogue while trying to arrange them densely in a way that ties them together to narrate the SkyMall ideal family/consumer. Almost all of the products are either for storage, comfort & ease, portraying an image particularly of a 'successful' suburban family, a sense of safety/paranoia or recreation.

Taking these key elements of SkyMall, my next step is to create a SkyMall product that incorporates all of them, namely a sealed escape family doomsday shelter/capsule for scares, emergences or when the world ends. This would be placed in a living room of a house and disguised by a built-in book shelf on its exterior providing needed storage, the interior would be very comfy with lots of fun gadgets and gizmos to play with (from SkyMall of course) and it would be made with easy maintainance materials like PVC. Then presumably when a problem occurs the family would retreat into the capsule, seal themselves in and wait it out in comfort and safety.

phase 3

though i am still prefecting the tomato resin casting, i've been scheming other portions of the project up for review on thursday. phase three will be a public intervention. something dealing with spectacle and security. does anyone know the legal issues surrounding public nudity? i imagine its happened before in providence, especially with risd so close to the river. anyone have good stories?

The benefits of Shellac Graffiti

Trying something out. This was one of a few test runs. The bleed and font annoy me a bit, as does the actual word. Essentially, the technique seems interesting. It will serve as markers, my nodes as thomas was calling them, at moments both on a procession for thursday and throughout the city. I'll be documenting them through photographs. These I have been marking by "shrine". Not totally sure yet, but working. this is a small bit by the way, but something I could post tonight.
-dg

oh the benefits. Typically used as a way to easily clean a surface after grafitti, it in fact just darkens and glosses a surface. I think I am also into how it looks somewhat like piss on the sidewalk when it runs.

Asher naked is shrine, yes.

When Japan conquers the world

check out the Japanese gadgets (Chindōgu) @ http://www.chindogu.com/

http://www.chindogu.com/chindogu/chin9.html (this is my personal favorite)

you can actually submite your own invention and let your ingenuity be another 'as seen on TV' thing, pretty sweet.

on the face of it, Chindogu seems like an ideal solution to a particular everyday problem. But in fact, they cause so much more problems and even more social embarressment.


~ hands down, this is way better than bonsai kittens fad from 5 years ago!

assignment 1:

40 Queries and a Mall

Is there a way to combine a radical critique with a constructive program of action?

At first glance the following questions appear to present a moral position on how to conduct yourself in the world, whereas the Sky Mall catalog offers a ready target for critique of suburban consumer trends. A more probing and objective reading reveals that neither offers anything truly necessary for the basic sustenance and daily survival of the individual.

Consider the two together, formulate your response and construct its manifestation.

Some Questions to Elevate Your Awareness (and Literacy) of the Greater Place in which You Live:

Adapted from Kevin Kelly

1) Point north.

2) What time is sunset today?

3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap.

4) When you flush, where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water?

5) How many feet above sea level are you?

6) What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here?

7) How far do you have to travel before you reach a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours?

8) Is the solid under your feet, more clay, sand, rock, or silt?

9) Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves?

10) Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available.

11) From what direction do storms generally come?

12) Where does your garbage go?

13) How many people live in your watershed?

14) Who uses the paper/plastic you recycle from your neighborhood?

15) Point to where the sun sets on the equinox. How about sunrise on the summer solstice?

16) Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move?

17) Right here, how deep do you have to drill before you reach water?

18) Which (if any) geological features in your watershed are, or were, especially respected by your community, or considered sacred, now or in the past?

19) How many days is the growing season here (from frost to frost)?

20) Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put?

21) What was the total rainfall here last year?

22) Where does the pollution in your air come from?

23) If you live near the ocean, when is high tide today?

24) What primary geological processes or events shaped the land here?

25) Name three wild species that were not found here 500 years ago. Name on exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years.

26) What minerals are found in the ground here that are (or were) economically valuable?

27) Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated?

28) After the rain runs off your roof, where does it go?

29) Where is the nearest wilderness? When was the last time a fire burned through it?

30) How many days till the moon is full?

Bonus Questions:

31) What species once found here are known to have gone extinct?

32) What other cities or landscape features on the planet share your latitude:

33) What was the dominant land cover plant here 10,000 years ago?

34) Name two places on different continents that have similar sunshine/rainfall/wind and temperature patterns to here.

35) Name two places in this country that have similar socio-economic histories and patterns. Compare and contrast the current trajectories of each.