Processbook for Riverfront Project By So A Ryu
WORD & IMAGE STUDIO 1 Project 2
Communication Design College and Graduate School of Art Washington University Spring 2016 F10 ART 238B MW 8:30-11:30 Lower Level Walker Hall Lab Session W 4:00-7:00 Steinberg Hall 009
Professors Penina Acayo p.acayo@wustl.edu Amy Auman amyclaireauman@gmail.com Heather Corcoran hcorcoran@wustl.edu D.B. Dowd mail@dbdowd.com Vidhya Nagarajan mail@vidhyanagarajan.com
Visual Essay: Riverfront YOUR ASSIGNMENT.
WHAT YOU WILL MAKE.
What’s the difference between a location and a place? The former can be identified by coordinates, fixed in a spot by math and method. But place is more elusive. A place cannot truly be plotted, only described or evoked.
You will produce five images which address the Riverfront as a place. Your images should cover a lot of territory, depictively speaking. They should provide visual variation, yet with sufficient continuity to be identifiable as a set. But you will be well served by using a range of media to develop your ideas; as with your last project, you want to generate more images and visual ideas than you will use.
This project will ask you to capture a sense of place within a given physical area. The point of the activity is to create a “story,” in the journalistic sense of that term. What is happening here? What can be conveyed about the site? What do you think your reader or viewer should know? These questions are factual ones, but they also make space for atmospheric or emotional responses, too. The general location in question is the St. Louis Riverfront area, stretching along the Mississippi from the Poplar Street Bridge to the south, up to the ancient Union Electric Plant to the north. Your terrain extends from the river itself west to the Old Courthouse on Broadway, at the edge of downtown. To be clear, you’re not accountable to describe that whole space; you may want to narrow your focus to some degree.
Lab Professor Penina Acayo
The area is currently undergoing substantial change. New park construction is well underway between the Old Courthouse and the Gateway Arch grounds. The construction itself might be part of your “story.” It also might not. We will travel as a group to the Riverfront via the Metrolink system, boarding our train at the Skinker stop, eastbound to the 8th & Pine Station. You have already received emailed instructions on the travel logistics.
At a certain point you will focus and narrow your approach to materials, but that should not concern you at the beginning. As part of your process, you will write statements which frame your experience, and from which you will develop a series of captions to which help the viewer/reader understand your point of view on the place you have investigated. These statements will use simple sentence structures and active verbs. It may be helpful to write a thesis statement, but only in response to your observations, experience and “take,” not as an imposition on or as a substitute for them. Your work will printed on three (3) 10” x 16” spreads showing all five images and captions. The design of those spreads matters, but you should not worry about that early on. You may want to think about a modular approach to the format of your pictures. DEADLINE
Wednesday, February 24
Step 1: Riveefront site Exploration When I first visited the site, I wanted to gather as much information as possible, so while taking photographs to... - get a sense of place within a given physical area - create a story - understand the surroundings - gather information I otherwise cannot I also explored to see the details that makes this place Riverfront: textures of the walls in different buildings, the route to get to the arch, mood and weather, how the arch, old courthouse, and the riverfront act together when on site, etc.
My classmates were the only ones around that day Many construction workers were smoking
The reflection of Old Courthouse was intrigging
So, I gathered a lot of photos, but many focused on documenting the journey to get to the arch and not enough information on the Riverfront itself.
While taking photographs, I also took notes on how this place is making me feel, what I’ve noticed, how I navigated this space.
Step 2: Reflections after first visit
I’ve created a map only from my memories and with photographs afterwards because I felt that doing this exercise would help me understand which aspect/information of this place takes priority when I try to remember it.
Visual map done with photography
I feel that our eyes process so much, but our brain chooses to only remember certain images and moods in certain order. This process was important in recognizing what Riverfront as a place rather than a location.
Step 3: Second visit to Riverfront Visiting the site second time, I was able to see certain areas in detail and explore the Riverfront. The first thing I’ve noticed when walking from the arch to the river was fences. The overlap and jaggedness of layers that creates a maze like route that took me to the edge of the river were both visually striking and essential to creating a narrative between the on-going construction and the Riverside.
The burried construction materials and objects in the snow were everywhere by the Riverfront. The scattered metal objects paralleled the emptiness and coldness of the place.
Step 4: Understanding vocabularies and Making panels Reflecting the visits, I began to figure out what the visual vocabularies other than the big iconic structures can tell us.
As I gathered all the information, during this pin-up tried to narrow my “big picture�/ over arching theme. I wanted to convey the trip down to the river, and how the fences and other construction materials becomes part of the lanscape of the place.
Used black electric tapes to create a jagged feel. Tapes were constantly present around the site.
Quick sketch in photoshop to see how it would turn out
Used acrylic paint to convey the edge of the river.
Tried to see if todgether it would work. Decided to have it separated.
This is part of a Callograph print I made, and the rough texture and the color gives a sense of cement blocks and ground at the Riverfront. This helped to create the sky, which is soft cold grey, to convey the cold air in the winter.
Quick sketches to see the placement.
The sketches were done in ink pen.
I wanted to see by sketching from the otherside it would convey Riverside better, but having two arches within five panels felt unnecessary, and that I don’t need the skyline view of the Riverside to give a sense of place. I wanted the five panels to make up a story together to create a bigger picture than have Icons and readily recognizable images to play the protagonist of the story.
Step 5: Finalizing panels