Research Project Sample

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“Congested Urban Voids­­ Art as a catalyst in activating Terra Fluxes”

Abstract: “The City does not consist of this, but of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past: the height of a lamppost and the distance from the ground of a hanged usurper’s swaying feet; the line strung from the lamppost to the railing opposite and the festoons that decorate the course of the queen’s nuptial procession; the height of that railing and the leap of the adulterer who climbed over it at dawn.” ­­ “City and Memory” Italo Calvino Invisible Cities Coming from an Architectural background, I have carried a study of Urban Congested Void Spaces through out Italy, France and China starting from a travel fellowship 2 years ago, and kept it as an on­going project. Physical constructs such as thresholds, boundaries which help to activate of urban edges have been studied carefully. However, Art and cultural event, as an invisible and soft power, are also contributing immensely on activating and acupuncturing the urban edges. This research will focus on revealing the symbolic and economic influences of Art and culture on private equity in the public realm. Two cases will be examined and compared. The Brookfield Plaza in Financial District, and DUMBO waterfront Park will be studied and compared to each other. With extremely different neighbourhood history, program and identity, these two places share one thing in common: They are both constructed physical environment with intentional Art and cultural events by two distinguishing Real­Estate Offices. The research is an extension of our curiosity to discover the vague and unknown territory in how such cultural moves raised by the developer influence residents and locals inhabiting in such environments. Many data and plans could support the developers enthusiasm in combining Art into their neighbourhood, but few are done from the perspective of the audiences and receivers of Art and cultural events. How does a man feel differently by enjoying lunch while watching an outdoor music event rather than having it in a hectic working environment? How does that increase the invisible quality of a space and thus driving further industries?

Methodologies:


Using Art Project as a form of researching for Art project. The Research will be focusing on quantifying and revealing the hidden feelings of people through interactive installations, photographs, drawings and short interviews. Various installations Tweeter related will be focused. Quoting Herzog De Meuron , this project should "create its own reality outside the state of built or unbuilt and is comparable to the autonomous reality of a painting and a sculpture"1. Several precedents could be found: ­ Hans Haacke, MOMA Poll 1970. http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/faculty/budgett/algorithmic_art/haacke.html ­ Media Stream Icons by MIT Media Lab. http://www.flong.com/projects/icons/ ­ Mood Map http://www.archdaily.com/383546/mood­map­exhibit­e­b­office/?utm_source=ArchDaily+ List&utm_campaign=f41bc7e539­RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ b5a382da72­f41bc7e539­407940865 ­ The Talking Statue of Rome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pasquino_1.JPG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_statues_of_Rome ­ The Red Sticker Project http://weburbanist.com/2012/02/28/interactive­urbanism­5­simple­street­art­projects/

Using Tweeters or Modern Technologies to Reveal what people believes in.

Readings: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Burton Pike, “The City as Image” in Richard Legates, Frederick Stout ed.,City Reader (Routledge, 2003), pp. 242­249 Bernard Tschumi, “Manhattan Transcripts” Rosalyn Deutsche, “Uneven Development: Public Art in New York City” in October, Vol. 47 (Winter, 1998), pp. 3­52 Richard Sennett, “The Public Domain” in The Fall of Public Man (Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 3­28s Rosalyn Deutsche, “Questioning The Public Space”, in Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998), pp. 49­62 Denise Scott Brown etc, “Public and Private Space” in Perspecta , Vol. 30, Settlement Patterns (1999), pp. 92­97


Rem Koolhaas, “Shopping” in Mutations: Harvard Project on the City (New York: Actar, 2001), pp. 124­183 ● Rem Koolhaas, “The Generic City” in SMLXL (New York: Monacelli Press, 1997), pp. 1238­1270

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William H. Whyte, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces,” in The Public Face of Architecture, pp. 292­ 310 Erika Doss, “Public Art in the Corporate Sphere,” in Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs, pp.71­112 Henri Lefebvre, “The Right to the City” in Writings on Cities , pp. 147­ 159 Rosalyn Deutsche, “Uneven Development: Public Art in New York City,” in October , Winter 1988, pp. 3­52; Sharon Zukin, “Whose Culture? Whose City?” in The Cultures of Cities , pp. 1­48

CITY: ● Kevin Lynch, “The City Image and Its Elements,” in The Image of the City , pp. 46­90; ● Fred Koetter and Colin Rowe, “The Crisis of Object: The Predicament of Texture,” in Perspecta , 1980, pp. 108 ● 141; J.B. Jackson, “The American Public Space,” in The Public Face of Architecture , pp. 276­291 Mary Jane Jacob, “Outside the Loop,” in Culture in Action , pp. 49 ­61


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