Reading things...

Mimwon Kwon:

A lot of what is said about site-specific art makes sense to me. I believe, having done street art before, that the placement and the environment in which a piece of art is placed/done is just as important as the art itself, and essentially becomes a part of the art. The democracy of a space, however, is another entirely different matter. I feel that in terms of public space and common property, the property that is not owned by one specific person should be deemed pubic property and should be treated as such. This is why I don't understand the extreme presence of police officers at property that people don't own and change it. I think public art in these cases challenged these borderlines and what it means to really be public property.

Critical Vehicles:

I do relate a lot of what Krzysztof Wodiczko points to in his article, mainly the points concerning the foreign nature of aliens and the ways in which they have a pretense as to how natives should treat them in conjunction with the natives, who have a pretense as to how the foreigners should behave. I feel this way about our projects on Lancaster, which basically make us, the students, into the aliens and the residents into the natives. Not only do we misrepresent the other, we also expect the other to behave in ways that it naturally wouldn't, which creates and perpetuates this divide between the Lancaster neighborhood residents and us.

Put Something... HERE!

My "Put Something Here" project was basically sixteen of my best Invisible City photographs, laminated, and hung with red thread on a fencepost that regularly holds messages and posters. I wrote on the back of the laminated sheets, in black sharpie, "This is Lancaster" so that anyone who saw the project would know that these photographs were taken right here in the neighborhood. I got the idea for the project while I was with a friend of mine. I showed him the photos and he took a look at them and exclaimed incredulously, "This is Lancaster?" I feel that people might have the same reaction in seeing some of these photographs because, frankly, many of them don't look like they belong on Lancaster or were even taken around the area. There's this large misconception that there's nothing beautiful in Lancaster, but I beg to differ. I think there's plenty of beautiful things, but they're merely overlooked by people who see them every day. I wanted this project to be semi-interactive and have people pick up the pictures, turn them over in their hands, and pick up another. I want them to see that this is indeed Lancaster and that these beautiful photos are, in fact, their own neighborhood.

*UPDATE*
Part 2 of the project was to add something to the site, and I decided to add the physical location of the places in which these photographs were taken so that people who wanted to find them could see the places I took the pictures. I wrote the directions to the location of where the pictures were taken in sharpie on the laminated back of the corresponding photograph. The only twist is that I didn't use an address or any universal geographic location to help people find the places I took pictures in; instead, I gave them specific directions from the art project itself directly to the places. I wanted people to take initiative, to follow directions in an analog way through their own free will if they so chose, and to see what I saw in the same place that I was in when I took the pictures. I wanted to give them a sense of the photographer's eye and what exactly is involved in taking photos like the ones I have.

Neighborhood Walk thoughts...

I very much enjoyed the neighborhood walk and found it to be very insightful into the nature and history of the neighborhood. I did not realize how rich the culture and history was behind each building, and I realized upon a closer inspection that each facade was unique and had different character from other fronts. I suppose I was reluctant to pass through the neighborhood too much and missed out on the diversity of the  area, which was revealed to me during the walk. I feel that there are probably plenty of outsiders who don't know the exact history of the neighborhood and therefore don't understand it, which is a shame because they pass judgment on people they don't even understand. The pride the residents feel about their home is electric and almost tangible when walking through the neighborhood itself.

Sound Walk

I feel that I owe a description at least for my soundwalk because it's literally impossible to upload the audio onto a website (or online at all, for that matter). The device I recorded the walks on is an old analog sound recorder with no computer interface, so it can only be heard on the recorder itself. I suppose a short description of the sound is in order:
I made two recordings, one of me walking on UPenn campus and one of me walking on Lancaster. Listening back, one can very distinctly tell the difference between the two just by the sounds heard on the recordings. Only the sounds of wind in the trees and distant cars passing could be heard in the UPenn recording, while the Lancaster recording contained numerous passing cars, street activity, and other loud surrounding noises. The striking differences between the two recordings shows the very staunch separation between sound environments even within the space of only a few blocks. It also helps to illustrate hard boundaries between neighborhoods, boundaries which perhaps completely divide the people within them from the other.

Zooburst Test!

So this was my first attempt at making a zooburst popup book, and I think it turned out pretty well. Only problem is that I can't seem to be able to make more pages, and so I was only able to put up these photographs (out of the 90 or so that I took). Oh well. Enjoy :)

Follow me to the book:
Zooburst Book!

Stalking, stalking, stalking, stalking.....

So it was sort of my assignment to follow people around with my camera... I spotted a few people I knew and decided that it was probably best to follow someone I knew because, well, I'd rather be caught by someone I was friends with than a total stranger. Which is what happened in the end X)
Anyway, their journey started on the Drexel campus and wound its way to Seven Eleven, a cigarette break, and back to campus, ending up at the Northside dining terrace.
(I'm sorry they're so blurry, it was very dark outside and I had to have my aperture open all the way plus a really slow shutter speed to get any sort of light in. In any case, the person on the left is my friend Chris, and the person on the right in light sweatpants is my friend Tasia)