in·can·des·cent (ĭn′k n-dĕs′ nt)
adj.
1. Emitting visible light
2. Shining brilliantly
3. Characterized by ardent emotion, intensity.
TWELVE MONTHSATCOLUMBIAGRADUATE SCHOOL
MARGARETBOZICEVICH • MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
BUENOSAIRES-
--6
NEWYORK-
--38
TRAREAL-
--60
GIES-
--69
CENTRALPARK-
--72
LAYERED URBANISM • BUENOS AIRES
Critic: Galia Solomonoff
amMargaret.MyInterventioniscalledBuenosAiresProjectioINTERVENTION:
PROJECTIONSAND VOIDS
Existing Site Documentation
The following photos weretaken on the existing site. On the second row left you can see the view of the obelisk from the EdificioMercado del Plata.The bottom row shows the interiors.
The nexttwo pages detail the extensive research on landmarks. UsingArcGIS, five main landmarks of the city can be mapped out along with their relationship to the Mercado del Plata. Below the map is an illustration that shows their proximity in elevation also.
Obelisco
ViewtowardsObelisk ExteriorCourtyard ExteriorCourtyard
EastFacade EastFacade
WestFacade WestFacade
Obelisco
CasaRosada
PalacioBarolo
1909
Colóneatre
SPRING STUDIO LAYERED URBANISM • BUE-
Source:https://aeroterra.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=23fcdb5591ae4889a054b63bcbd7fc98
EdificioMercadodelPlata
AVENIDA9 DE JULIO
Through the center of the avenue runs one of the city’s Metrobus (Bus rapidtransit) corridors, whichstretches 3 kilometres (1.9 mi)and was inaugurated in July 2013.
It is currently thewidest avenue in theworld.Line C of the BuenosAires Metroruns for a stretch under the avenue. LineA, Line B, Line D, and Line E have stations when their course intersects the avenue. Notably, lines B, C, and D sharea station underneath theObelisk
The street has 14 traffic lanes and stretches for 3 kilometers. This massive avenue was completed in1980 and is named afterArgentina’s Independence Day (9th July 1816). The idea was for the avenue to serve asan artery connecting thenorth and southofthecity. Since there aretraffic lights at every intersection, it frequently takes a few minutes to cross the avenue at street level. It typically takes pedestrians two to three green lights to cross it at regular walking speed.
To construct theAvenida 9 de Julio, brutal demolishing of both private and public property was carried out in the city center. Over 60,000 sq. meters of city real estate was demolished and thousands of residents were displaced inthe process.
PRECEDENCE: PUBLIC PROJECTIONARTART
ONTHE MART
This famous building is called the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It sits on the Chicago River. THEMARTis 4.2 million grosssquare feet, spanning two city blocks and rising 25 stories. It is the world’s largest commercial building and design center, and one of Chicago’s premier international business locations. Marshall Field & Co. developed itto create a central marketplace where retailerscould cometobuy their wares all under one roof. Chamfered corners, minimal roofline setbacks, and corner pavilions serve to camouflage the edges of the rectilinear mass, visually reducing its weight and bulk.
Art on the MARTis the precedence for public projection art. It is the largestpermanent digital art projection inthe world, projecting contemporary artwork across the 2.5 acreriver-facade of the MART. Since the launch,Art on the MARThas provided a public platform for moving image work by renowned local, national and international multi-disciplinary artists.
The following photos weretaken by me in 2022.
WEST FACADE
Video projection necessitates that the whole front wall remains intact. New cantilevers areshown that will be used for public spaces and glazing.The central location and closenesstothe obelisk provides opportunities to foster Democracy through artand address the political unrest inArgentina.Approved videos can play free independent movies and serve as a new freedom of speechwall, replacing the temporary banners that are installed by the public on the abandoned facade.
The giant front screen is made of self-emitting LED panels. Panels will rotate from LED screens at night to building integrated photo-voltaic collector panels during the day.This energy can then be used to power electricity.
Amanufacturer called Street Company makes an LED CurtainScreen which isan innovative transparent led display, which does not affect the building space and building lighting inside.
To the right, one can see the back cantilever and the pedestrian walkway connecting the back addition to the existing building, at the government museum level.
Output by the peak sun hours: 400W (output) x 4.5 hours = 1,800 Watthoursper day.
Around 1.8 kWh of electricity per day and 54 kWh of electricity per month.
Multiplied by 45 panels: 45 x 54kWh = 2,430 kWh per month
B.The photovoltaic cells produce an electric current, and Direct Current (DC) electricity.An inverter changes it intoAlternating current (AC) electricity.
C.This current runs through the electrical panels and is distributed withinthe building.
PHOTOVOLTAICS • HOW + HOW MUCH DIAGRAM
PROJECTIONS & VOIDS
BuenosAires,Argentina
The new West facade iscovered by a giant screen.About 55% of the original building is kept.The new glass elevator lines up with the existing elevator cores. The second floor enters the library.Alibrary is one of last institutions where users are not obligated to buy anything.
The three free programs are:
1.The video projections at night, from the front and back facades 2.The library that spans three floors 3.The publiccourtyard and community swimming pool
The free services serveto alleviate an unstable economy and poverty inArgentina.
Apedestrian walkway that connects the back addition to the existing building is shown at the government museum level.Above the museum floor aregovernment offices and commercial offices.The top cantilever is a glass penthouse with abar for holding events, that opens to the two decks on the roof.
PLAN PROGRAMS
FINAL MODEL
GROUND
FLOOR + SITE PLAN
GROUND FLOOR + SITE PLAN
The basement floor shall be underground parking, while the ground floor remains open to pedestrians with existing columns intact. Two main entrances are in the front, leading to stairs and the existing elevators. Additional entrances in the back are a new elevator and stair. New walls are shown in green. This floor speaks to the open nature of the outdoor spaces on the third floor.
FIRST FLOOR LIBRARY
The first floor enters the library. A library is one of the last institutions where users are not obligated to buy anything. In addition to book stacks on the left, are digital media stacks are on the right, which also have a film library. In the middle is an informal conference space and shelves with transportation guides about the nearby roads, subway and bus systems. A 3d printing room is on the bottom left.
PEDESTRIAN GROUND FLOOR FIRST
VOIDS + FLOORS
LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT MUSEUM . . . . 25
The 3 free programs can be seen on these plans:
1 – the video projections at night, from the front and back facade.
2 – the library that spans 3 floors.
3 – The public courtyard and community swimming pool, which becomes a reflecting pool during the colder months. The free services on the lower levels serve to alleviate an unstable economy and poverty in Argentina.
The 2nd Floor library has desktop computers with printers and scanners. Large plotters are on the left. The reading desks are all positioned on the sides, next to the windows. On the back is the new garden courtyard and the pool has a small fountain on the left side. Pool locker rooms are shown at the bottom. The new glass elevator lines up with the existing elevator cores.
Above the locker rooms is a small café, on the same level as the third floor library. On this floor are book stacks as well as a legal archive, which is positioned under the government museum on the next floor. Here are exhibits about the past and present government of Buenos Aires. a pedestrian walkway that connects the back addition to the existing building is shown at the museum level.
BACK PROJECTIONS . . . . 26
The technology for the back projections is more simple because there are no trees blocking the screen. A specialty urban mapping projector is installed on top of the new additon on the back of the building. Projection mapping is a technological innovation that lets you overlap video onto any surface. It fits images onto a 3D model of a surface, giving the impression that they’re painted on. These surfaces become a canvas, playing off the surface’s shape and textures to create an experience of light and illusion. Source: https://lumitrix.eu There are benches located behind the outdoor projection room and curved seating inside of it.
OFFICES . . . . 29
Above the museum floor are two floors of government offices. Their placement in the middle is meant to foster interaction between these users and the other programs. Above that are three floors of commercial offices. The cantilever spaces shown on the right are public with conference rooms and circulation.
PENTHOUSE . . . . 30
The top cantilever is a glass penthouse with a bar for holding events, that opens to the two decks on the roof. The mezzanine with support spaces looks down on the event room below (shown on the bottom.)
LONG SECTION . . . . 32
This is the longitudinal section showing the programs together. The railings throughout the building are a repeating element that highlights the connections between floors and the outside spaces.
SECOND FLOOR LIBRARY + POOL DECK
THIRD FLOOR LIBRARY + CAFE
BACK
PROJECTIONS
GOVERNMENT MUSEUM
GOVERNMENT OFFICE
PENTHOUSE
ACCESSIBILITY • EAST NEW YORK
Critic: Laura Fiero
Peoplewho live inEast Brooklynexperience a lot of health issues caused by unhealthy eating habits.An estimated 29 to 34 percent of adults experience hypertension due to high salt intake, 30 to39 percent of adults consumeat least one sugary drink a day and only 76 to 83 percent of adults eat one vegetable or fruit per day.Theseeating habits have caused an estimated 24 to 28 percent of children to be obese. 31 to42 percent of adults are also obese and 14 to 15 percent of them have diabetes.
Additionally, around 1,226,000 NewYorkers live infood insecurity, including 251,960 located in Brooklyn.Those living in food insecurity can often only afford to eat cheap industrial food saturated in salt, fat and sugar.Life expectancy in East NewYork is one of the lowestin NewYork City.
NewYork state imports nearly 85% percent of the food it consumes.The lack of regional agriculturehas contributed to rising food prices. Out of the billions of pounds of food distributed throughout NewYork City every year, the majority of ingredients come by truckacross the U.S. For waterborne imports, the current top origin countries are China and Italy. Beverages, vegetables, and fruits are among agricultural goods.Anew urban food network will help NewYork City become less dependent on imported food that can be disrupted by war or famine.
YORK SHOWING SIX DIFFERENTDESIGN PROPOSALS WITHTHREAD
LIRR URBAN FOOD NETWORK
ACCESSIBILITYSTRATEGIES
FOOD:made accessible through deployable hydroponic systems, composting system, insect and proteinfarms, community fridges, and market stands
EDUCATION:food labs/kitchens, botanical gardens, urban farms
WORK:made available through food processing, marketplace, packaging system, teaching, farming, support staff
CULTURE:is accessed through new foods
CLASS CNC MODELOF EASTNY
THE LONG ISLAND RAILROAD DECOMMISSIONED SUBSTATION NO. 2
PROPOSAL:
Anew food network that will rely on growing and processing food inan urban area. Wewill connectpeople with healthier food alternatives and create new job opportunities as well as educate peopleabout healthier eating habits. One reason why NewYorkers would consume more unhealthy food saturated infat and sugar is because of their economic situation. Weaimto uplift the local community by creating new job opportunities like picking and transporting produce from the vacant lots, processing the ingredientsinto meals, selling the meals at the market placeand to educate the local community about healthier eating habits.
There are 2,535 acres of vacant land which is110,424,600 squarefeet and which equates to 3346 football fields. We can deploy 766,837 modules if we useall the vacant lots in NewYork. Each moduleis 12x12 feet and comes in parts that are 10 feet tall sotheirheight can be adjusted. In our site plan you can see all the different areas wherethe farming units will be deployed.Allthe food that will be harvested inthose farms will be later transported to the LIRRsubstation where they will be processed into meals.
We will deploy three different types of farms focused on growing vegetables and insect protein. Each unitcomes with a hydraulicelevator that allows for people to access higher elevations.The hydroponic and insect module have curved and angled roofs that allows for water to be gathered into a single point.
Through PVC pipes rainwater flows to the basement of the modules where it is filtered and stored.The filtered rain water is then used to water crops and insects through a sprinkler system.
The hydroponic module is fitted with growing racks that have builtin LED lighting as well as a sprinkler system.The insect moduleis fitted with insect growing farms called hives that havea mating chamber, growing racks, insect collecting chamber and ventilation system.Asingle hive unit produces 200-500 grams of insect proteina week and the insect modulehas 32 of those. In perfectconditions a single module can produce 16,000 grams of insect protein which is equivalent to160 meals.The Hydroponic farmhas growing trays that are 2.5 x 11 feet.The Hydroponicmodulehas 22 growing racks that is equivalent to 605 squarefeet of growing space. We can produce 6.6 tons of food per year which isequivalent to 1550 meals,which could feed a family of four for four months.
The third module is a food processing module. It has a kitchen in the lower part that allows for the farmed items to be cleaned and cooked. In the upper parts of the module there areshelves that allow us to storeour grown food. Vegetables and fruits from the hydroponic farms can be turned into salads, turned intojams or fermented intokombucha or sauerkraut. Insects like crickets can be dried and grounded up into protein powder that is used to make burger patties, smoothies, pasta, protein shakes,protein bars, waffle mix or candy.
PRODUCTION
JAM MAKING KITCHEN
FERMENTATION LAB
LOADING SPACE
LOADING DOCK
EDUCATIONAL KITCHEN
LOADING SPACE
PASTA PROCESSING KITCHEN
BEE PRODUCTS
REST ROOMS
STORAGE WAREHOUSE
E NEW YORK AVE
ATLANTIC AVE
LOBBY
BAKERY FOOD LAB
CANDY SHOP
MARKET
HYDROPONICS
SUBWAY
MEZZANINE
CHEF TRAINING KITCHEN
RAMP ELEV
PROGRAM:
In the central space of the LIRR substation is a circular education kitchen that allows for the educator to stand in the center and prepare food while adults stand in the outer ring, wherethey have food preparation stations.On the roof of the education kitchen isa mezzanine where the public can dine. On the right side of the LIRRsubstation is the bakery where insect proteinpowder can be mixed with flour to produce a variety of breads and pastries. On the left side of the LIRR substation is a water collection spacewhere water will be used to water insects and crops on the rooftop. In the courtyardis the ramp that connects the L subway to the ground.
Underneath the subway track is the elevated food processing center.Trucks can unload the produce collected from the modules deployed inthe site and then store them in the warehouse. We then have kitchens dedicated to processing the produce into different types of foods.After the meals are prepared they are then packaged and ready to be distributed to the marketplace.Abovea bus parking lot isthe marketplace where the local community can buy and consume more nutrient rich and better alternatives. Our food networkaims to produce healthier, locally produced food for a community that lacks access tohealthy food, teach the locals inside our educational kitchens and create new work opportunities for people who arecollecting the produce, processing itinto meals and then redistributing to the community.
ACCESSIBILITY:
There are three ways to enter the LIRR substation: one is through a stair and ramp system in the Eastern part of the building.That entrance is close to the exit off the Lsubway line and provides accessibility topeople on wheelchairs and bikes.Another entrance is in the Northern partof our proposal that is located between the bakery and food processing center.
We have a ramp system that connects the LIRR substation with the subway, located in the triangular courtyard. While moving down the ramp you get accesstothe marketplace, food mezzanine, and courtyard.Thiscourtyard provides access to the substation and processing center.We also have two glass elevator cores that allow you to see the substation and the farming modules while traveling upwards, and an emergency stair.
AESTHETICS:
We wanted to create a new roof on top of the LIRR that would use light industrial aesthetics that contrast with the existing substation. We used the arches from the LIRR substation to carve the rooftop and to create a new beacon for the community.
Our proposal is a new food network that will rely on growing and processing food inan urban area. We will connect people with healthier food alternatives, create new job opportunities as well as educating them about healthier eating habits.
TECHNIQUES OF THE ULTRAREAL
BARCELONAPAVILION RENDERINGS IN 3DSMAX
FINALRENDER IMAGES IN COLLABORATION WITH RUIQI LIAND LUIS SALINAS
-ARTIFACTS IN FORESTIN COLLABORATION WITHANDYELSET
ESSAYS: TRANSCALARITIES
A HOUSE FOR JOSEPHINE BAKER
The house in Paris by Viennese architect, Adolf Loos, transformed two exis ng corner buildings into a stage. His 1928 design for Josephine Baker, the American dancer, exists as a model and a few drawings. She did not commission or approve them.
One of the most successful African American performers in French history, Baker rose to cult figure status in Paris during the 1920s. She became the first black woman to star in a mo on picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics. She eventually moved to New York and par cipated in the celebra on of black life and art there now known as the Harlem Renaissance. She was then able to use her fame as a vehicle to oppose segrega on and became a poli cal ac vist in the Civil Rights movement. At the March on Washington in 1968, she was the only female speaker. In France, she worked for the French Resistance during World War II. She was able to double as a spy while traveling for her performances.
Historian Ines Weizman states that Loos’s design for Baker’s house is seen as a transla on of her performances. During Siren of the Tropics, she was a stowaway on a ship with a scene in a bathtub. In the center of the building is a volume of water, a double-height swimming pool, with entry at the second-floor level (Colomina 260). Natural light enters through a glass ceiling. We also find a hidden corridor around it. Although rela vely inconspicuous from the interior, the passage is marked with windows on either side, looking out towards the street, and looking in, towards the water (Haralambidou 4). They are voyeuris c, to watch a woman swimming. Inside the pool the windows would appear as reflected surfaces, impeding the swimmer’s view of the visitors standing in the passages (Colomina 260).
A large theatrical staircase marks the start of the public realm of the house. It leads to the grand salon, where a second drama c semicircular staircase connects to the second floor (Haralambidou 2). The first floor was to include the two salons and a round café room (Shapira 4). Loos’s design clearly aims to contain the exo c femininity of Baker in a theatrical domes city (Haralambidou 1).
Baker’s legendary solo show in Europe had to be transformed into a revue tled Black on White because of public opposi on to its sexual themes (Weizman 12). “Loos divided the facade into two parts: the ground floor, to be covered with a white marble, and the upper two floors, which were to be faced with horizontal black and white marble stripes” (Shapira 3). There have been many interpreta ons of the significance of the striking striped facade of the house (Haralambidou 7). Loos said that the horizontal line represents a woman’s reclining body (el-Dahdah 77). The two upper floors were designed to be rectangular, interrupted by a cylindrical tower posi oned above the main entrance in the corner (Shapira 4). Loos saw architectural design as an embodied experience that cannot be sufficiently described in drawing, but ironically the Baker House, one of his most iconic projects, only exists in drawn form (Haralambidou 8).
TRANSCALARITIES CASE STUDY: FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE IN DEATH ALLEY
Death Alley, Louisiana is home to a historically black community, as well as over two hundred sites of petrochemical factories. This place along the Mississippi River lies between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and has some of the highest rates of cancer and other health condi ons. As the pollu ng industry surrounds these communi es, it subjects them to toxic chemicals, a modern form of racist violence. The residents have demanded accountability from the petrochemical corpora ons for years. RISE St. James, a local ac vist group, commissioned Forensic Architecture to gather evidence to support their claims for repara on by bringing visibility to lethal airborne pollutants and searching for traces of erased black cemeteries in the earth. The case will work to respect the living and the dead. FA has inves gated with advanced visual technologies and is working with the United Na ons to bring jus ce. They collaborated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London to develop a fluid dynamics simula on that would track the spread of a range of pollutants from three dozen facili es along the river under simulated meteorological condi ons, drawing on ten years of data from a local weather sta on.
Emancipated Black people formed free towns a er the Civil War, which grew from the slave quarters on the planta ons of their former enslavement. Louisiana’s air quality standards are among the lowest in the na on, and residents tes fied that they would get a headache or stomachache from the smells. By 2014, the governing council of St. James, Louisiana, passed a plan that wrote off the district’s majority-Black communi es as ‘industrial’ and ‘exis ng residen al/future industrial’ sites, which compounds the problems in the future.
Companies are required by federal law to iden fy historic proper es, including cemeteries, that would be threatened by future development. In 2015, two cemeteries were uncovered during a survey for an expansion of a refinery owned by Shell Oil Company. Four years later, four more cemeteries were located during the early stages of the construc on of a facility by Formosa Plas cs. As the enslaved used wooden grave markers, which decomposed over me, the townspeople knew there were more graves underground. FA developed a method to determine possible loca ons of ancestral cemeteries at risk of future desecra on. Their cartographic analysis determined that low-lying areas toward the back of the planta on and further from the riverfront have a higher probability of holding these Black heritage sites.
This project is one of nine crises in FA’s environmental violence sector. Fourteen UN experts have released a statement condemning the perpetra on of environmental racism. FA submi ed an affidavit and expert report in May 2022 to a legal suit filed by the Center for Cons tu onal Rights (CCR) and the Descendants Project in St. John the Bap st Parish in Death Alley. The case challenges the construc on of the Greenfield Development, an industrial grain terminal planned to cross several planta ons, including the Whitney Planta on, a central site in the inves ga on. Without Forensic Architecture’s visual proof, there would be no end to the pollu on by the Mississippi River.
Sites of PM2.5-producing facili es are layered onto a ‘heat map’ showing concentra ons of PM2.5 (par culate ma er) in the atmosphere, according to a 2014 survey. (Forensic Architecture)
Loos and Baker: A House for Josephine by Catherine Slessor. The Architectural Review March 2018
Adolf Loos, Baker House Project, Model 1927-1928. From Heinrich Kulka, ed.
SPECTACULAR PEDAGOGIES
Excerpts from research paper:
On December 28, 1895, two events occurred: the first public showing of the Lumière Cinematograph at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris and the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Würzberg, Germany. Within a few years, the word screen was being used to represent and refer to the cinema, as the art of the screen, as opposed to the theater as the art of the stage (Chateau 14). First came the cinema. Then there was one screen per household. Now every individual uses a number of screens.
It was only in the last quarter of the 13th century that the word screen was a ested. Its etymology can be traced back to medieval Europe (Chateau 13). The word screen, through the evolu on of its usages and the diversifica on of its connota ons, has evolved into a complicated term, the history of which is hard to trace. . . .
In the 20th century, the theater screen was considered the primary and elite screen – the cinema experience was synonymous with crowds a ending great shows – but it was soon challenged by the smaller screen of television and the more in mate mode of screening it implied. It does not mean that the old theater screen is now confined to media museums. We must consider that the development of screens consists more of the accumula on and coexistence of old and new forms than a systema c switch from one to the other (Chateau 13). . . .
“The cinema screen is now a television screen is now a computer screen is now a tablet screen is now a smart phone screen is now a smart ‘eyewear’ or ‘wrist wear’ screen – and vice versa” (Chateau 163). We cannot have school without it today, and electronic reading has largely displaced reading from physical books. “Obviously, there is no need to invent the reasons why ‘screens’ is a relevant topic. It is almost impossible to imagine a country where screens are not used on a daily basis” (Chateau 13). Today these tools are predominantly electronic displays, but for much of the 20th century, when screens were recipients of projected light, they were invisible and unmen oned (Chateau 70). As screens have mul plied and converged despite their apparent dimensional and func onal differences, they have only further complicated, compounded, and confounded our a empts to describe them. They now circumscribe and comprehend us more fully than we comprehend them (Chateau 158). The screen has added another dimension to our human world.
Its inven on as a communica on tool came a er the auditory tools of the radio and the telephone. The first cell phone hit the market in 1973, and the I-Phone was introduced in 2007. The social media giant Facebook was started in 2005 (Ryan 1) and the iPad came out in 2010. Contemporary visuality is so overwhelmingly defined by them - from phones and laptops to electronic billboards - that the drama c subjec ve effects of screen based viewing o en go unno ced (Mondloch 96). This narra ve defines the change in human psychology and manipula on of consciousness, since the first screen un l 2022. It examines the effects of overs mula on, screen dependency, and withdrawal. Where is the line between learning, entertainment, and addic on? What does the fourth dimension look like from the outside? What does my dog think when she sees me looking at the computer screen all day?
As the ar st Andy Warhol observed, a s ll image cannot compete with a video with changing images. “Warhol claimed that his embrace of filmmaking a er 1963 signaled a shi in focus from conven onal art objects like pain ngs to a prac ce of recording interpersonal rela onships on film. As he declared in Popism, his memoir of the 1960s, ‘Art just wasn’t fun . . . anymore; it was people who were fascina ng and I wanted to spend all my me being around them, listening to them, and making movies of them’” (Joselit 73). This was a significant shi , coming from the master of s ll images. . . .
We seem to be almost always elsewhere at the same me as we are here where we physically are (Chateau p160). Our absorp on in screen space has not only now le the protec ve bounds of theater and home for the streets but it has also radically altered our comportment in physical space and compromised our physical safety (Chateau p160). Contemporary screens have created an encompassing domain from which there seems no escape (Chateau 161). . . .
With Virtual Reality technology, the screen disappears altogether. . . or, more precisely, we can say that the two spaces, the real, physical space and the virtual simulated space, coincide. The virtual space, previously confined to a pain ng or a movie screen, now completely encompasses the real space. Frontality, rectangular surface, difference in scale are all gone. The screen has vanished (Ng 127). This also requires virtual reality headsets. To anyone who has donned a VR headset, the replacement of reality in VR is certainly by no means perfect – the images are not realis c enough; there is s ll lag, pixel bleed and so on. VR as yet does not “feel like life,” and probably never will (Ng 128). . . .
I have o en wondered, what is the purpose of having so many screens in a bar or restaurant, that is not a sports bar? How does this hinder communica on with your fellow diners? “I am in a restaurant with friends, si ng in front of a television screen; although I am trying to focus on the conversa on, from me to me, my gaze returns to the screen; although I am trying to detach myself from it, something irresis bly draws me to it. This reminds us of insects a racted to a light source that will kill them. Apart from this fatal ending, the comparison is even more per nent as, in the fascina on for the screen, it is actually the light that is the cause, whether it is a light beam of “old school” projec on, from the back or rear projec on on mul ple state-of-the-art screens” (Chateau 197).
The screen is hypno c. Light somehow replaces the stare of the hypno st. Two characteris cs of the screen remind us of fascina on as psychoanalysis envisaged it: first, it depends upon a restric on of the object to one of its aspects and, correla vely, requires a strong focus of the gaze; second, it captures not only the gaze, but the mind in a way that reminds us of hypnosis (Chateau 197). We are hypno zed because we are blocking out our environment to focus on the screen before us. Our body is there, but our mind is in the fourth dimension. it is the pervasive extrusion and permea on of this different yet coexistent “dimension” into our familiar world that so forcefully a racts and distracts us.
In the 2018 computer-animated superhero Disney film, Incredibles 2, the villain uses screens to hypno ze people into carrying out her nefarious bidding, which works well for her as screens are ubiquitous (appearing in shop windows, studio broadcasts and so on) and portable (where they can be placed over a person’s eyes like goggles). What is remarkable is how the film, itself ironically a mega-blockbuster exhibited on mul ple screens across the globe, so effec vely leverages the ominousness of screen displays against the all-encompassing reliance and wholly accep ng rela onship viewers have with screens today (Ng 17). “You don’t talk; you watch talk shows. You don’t play games, you watch game shows. Travel, rela onships, risk; every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance so that you can remain ever-sheltered, ever-passive, ever-ravenous consumers who can’t free themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, and par cipate in life. . . Grab your snacks, watch your screens, and see what happens. You are no longer in control.” - Dialogue line from Incredibles 2 (Ng 17). . .
“In February 2014, Coca-Cola released an adver sement for a fake product, the so called Social Media Guard. Sa rizing and pretending to cure today’s social media addic on, which has led to ‘checking your phone every eight seconds,’ the so drink company launched the idea of a huge dog collar, in red, with the recognizable white wave of the brand, that ‘forces’ you to look up and to look your real life companion (friend, fiancée, child) in the eye. The Coca-Cola commercial became a hit thanks to the social media, as so o en happens with these types of videos that are cri cizing the social media” (Chateau 143). . .
It is well-documented that the blue light of a smartphone screen can disrupt the sleep cycle. Excessive use of mobile phones may lead to the development of specific disorders, such as the so-called “disconnec on syndrome” and “ring or phantom vibra on syndrome.” Everyone can relate to the experience of thinking that they heard their phone ring or vibrate, only to look at it and see it is blank. Similar to most addic ons, mobile phone addic on occurs more easily in individuals with low self-esteem, social difficul es, high anxiety levels, marked interpersonal sensi vity, obsessive thoughts, and compulsive behaviors (Adams). In some ways, technology is a drug, like caffeine or nico ne. Internet and video game addic on . . . impacts mo va on, reward, memory, and various aspects of psychological func oning (Ryan 1). “It’s death by digital distrac on,” says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addic on Is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance (Ryan 1). The problem is not a single app, device, or game, but the amount of me users spend (or feel the need to spend) online (Ryan 1). “Managing screen me” has become a new term in psychology, referring to Candy Crush addic ons to non-stop Google searches to Ne lix binge-watching.
Like religion and art, media is ul mately about the fulfilment of inner human longings, even as it folds and enfolds complex assemblages of materialist concerns, aesthe c interest and so on. In media lie mysterious appeals by the soul out of which people acquire a more mys cal happiness beyond the brute needs for food, water, shelter and so on (Ng 46). Video games and virtual worlds, whose virtual reali es through the screen, allow for freer expression of self, iden ty and so on, provide a welcome refuge from the more grounded world of the flesh (Ng 49).
Sherry Turkle wrote of another hunger – one for in macy and emo onal connec on – which got fed by the computer and the mediated connec ons it provided: terrified of being alone, yet afraid of in macy, we experience widespread feelings of emp ness, of disconnec on, of the unreality of self. And here the computer, a companion without emo onal demands, offers a compromise. You can be a loner, but never alone. You can interact, but need never feel vulnerable to another person (Ng 47). Our compulsion to venture elsewhere lay in human nature before the presence of screens. It is born out of our innate curiosity, voyeurism and loneliness. Humankind’s myths, fairy tales and classic stories contain mul ple boundaries which are portals to transforma on of selves, worlds and des nies: think Alice’s looking glass; Snow White’s mirror; Coraline’s secret door; the wardrobe door to Narnia (Ng 48).
What exact chemical reac on do we experience when we receive an email or text message? What kind of effect has this had on the a en on spans of the public, an aversion to being idle and the need to be visually occupied all the me? Our self-control dictates our choice to look away. “Are we not always free to stop watching a movie, if only by closing our eyes or looking at the person si ng next to us?” (Chateau 179). It is, then, only a ma er of will from the viewer, who will make the effort (or not) to keep his eyes s ll for the dura on of the movie (179).
My proposed solu on to keeping our feet planted firmly in the human third dimension is self-awareness and discipline. To accept our immersion, but stay free from addic on. I don’t drink three glasses of wine a day just because it is in my kitchen, because I have the self-awareness to know that would be bad for my health. Is where we are si ng so tedious that we must transport our mind to the virtual world? If the answer is yes, let’s physically travel to somewhere more inspiring.
THE ANTHROPOCENE • CENTRAL PARK
Critics: Laura Kabage Karanja & Stella Mutegi
Monuments in the Park
The Lake The Ramble
3D Site Captures in collaboration with with Mengyu
Existing
Wang & Sixue Long
Existing Cave and Paths Above
Arriving to Ramble Cave
Ramble Cave the Abandoned Artifact
Central Park opened in the winter of 1858 as an 840 acre oasis in the middle of New York. The park was entirely manmade by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vox. All of the plants, bodies of water, and stone stairs were designed to look natural. It was originally a tract of swamp and rock. The Ramble is a heavily wooded area, interwoven with narrow, winding trails, and dotted with large granite boulders. It is located just below the 79th St. Transverse. Designers Vaux and Olmsted envisioned it to be “a wild garden.” They laid it out, complete with paths and trees, but to construct their artificial wilderness required a lot of construction and excavation.
Ramble
Cave was not part of Olmsted and Vaux’s ‘Greensward Plan’ design. The cave was discovered by workers building the park in the 1850s.
It was during an excavation dig that a large deposit of rich soil was found in a small bay on the north side of The Lake. The soil was carried away, cart-full by cart-full, revealing a narrow cavity, at water level on the lake-side and sloping uphill thirty feet or so to the north, meeting up with a planned path just to the east of the Ramble Arch. This cavity was then incorporated it into their plans for the Ramble.
Several large rocks were set on top of the eastern wall with more stones set into the hill beside the north exit, giving the impression that they had slid down naturally. At the southern exit, by the Lake, rough stones were laid out to form a narrow staircase leading from the lake-side path down into the cave, with a border of larger stones hiding the stairs from view except from above.
Ramble Cave stands in the center of the park map as a buried natural artifact that precedes the park and all the built artifacts around it.
The cave became a popular attraction in the Park, with one early guidebook calling it “a great attraction to boys and girls, and hardly less to many children of a larger growth.” It was a thrill for kids, an “Eldorado of pleasures.” Unfortunately for urban explorers, both ends of the cave (one was accessible through the lake, the other beside the Ramble Arch) were sealed in 1934. The steps by the Lake are still there, however. Unless you know of their existence they, and the Cave, they are the easiest things to walk past, unaware of this former feature of the young Central Park.
Dark Past:
After the turn of the century, based on newspaper accounts, the cave gained a sinister edge.
According to news reports, there had been stories about fugitives, robberies, assaults, sexual harassment and even suicides.
All of this unsavory activity led park officials to shut the cave off to the public.
Timeline of Incidents:
Central Park opened in 1858.
1897 - Susie Grunelt, a 15-year-old runaway, hid for a month inside the cave before being found sitting on a rock by police.
1904 - an artist, Alexander MacArthur, was found guilty of disorderly conduct after a baker claimed that the artist walked him to the cave with the intent of robbing him.
1904 - a man who called himself Boy was found shot in the chest near the steps, a victim of suicide.
1904 - Samuel L. Dana attepted suicide. He recovered, but the incident and its mysterious aftermath would set off a media frenzy.
1908 - Grove L. Kline - death by suicide. “One of the sparrows told me to do it.”
In 1929 alone, 335 men were arrested for harrassing women in the Park. More reports followed in later years.
The cave was sealed in 1934
The entrance by the lake was simply bricked up while the opening by the Ramble Arch was more elaborately sealed and covered over with dirt to make it appear as just another hillside in the Ramble.
Ramble Cave
Light and Shadows at the Site
Brick Wall
Ramble Arch
Sixue Long
Artifacts
The Original Opening (Image courtesy of the NewYork Public Library)
‘View from Interior of Cave, Looking Out’1863 (Image courtesy of the NewYork Public Library)
The EntrywayAndTheHearth
Entrance I - Remove stone wall on the inside and carve out exhibit space
Entrance II - Enter from pathway above down the stairs
Entrance III - Enter by boat to wooden dock
Memorial Space: Healing Pathways
IntoThe Ramble Cave
The Ramble site is an incomplete, but central part of Central Park’s design.Apart forgotten and neglected by the designersand the public. Safety is always an issue for building on this site, to create outdoor rooms of comfort that will be frequently used.Afeeling of opennessand well-lit areas arecrucial.Two gates will close off the space during after hours.The existing manmade stairs and proximity to the lake are two obvious points of entry.
These drawings will completeFrederickLaw Olmstead and Calvert Vaux’s design of Central Park and the “wildgarden” of the Ramble. They will open up this piece of historytothe wider public in an inclusive way.
The design intervention seeks to turn the abandonedArtifact of the Cave into a Memorial and Exhibit space, through entry points and light sources.The permanent Exhibit is minimal, to allow for future installations.
Concept Sketches
Exhibits
“Fireis the origin of stone. By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.”
The Lenape NativeAmericans: Fire and Sun in Religion
Fire (Tentey)is regarded as “Grandfather”inLenape culture.
The importance offire was both practical and ceremonial for them. Heat, cooking, and tool making were all practical uses offire butthere is a much deeper understanding offire. Like everything in Lenape life there is abalance, while fire is designated as “male” the balance, water, is considered “female” and the human “caretakers” are respectively maleand female, that is men generally areresponsible for making and caretaking offire and women are the caretakersof the waters.
Firewas maintained year round, and was central in ceremonial life. Offerings of tobacco, fat, and meats were offered to the spirits through thefire, redcedar was sprinkled on thehot coals from the fire to purify, or “smudge”, stones of granite and limestone were heated in thefire to heat the Sweat Lodge, and thefiremarked “center” for the night dances.
Andy Goldsworthy
“Architecture is as much about the events that take placein
In the Gamwink or BigHouse Ceremony there were two fires, one to the East and one to the West of the Center Post. On theninth night of the BigHouse Ceremony the “old” fire is put out and a new fire is made using only the pump drillor the flint and steel. Noother means of makingfire is accepted inceremonial use. Onlya person who is considered “Pure,” or Pilsit, is permitted to make thefire. If the person fails to make thefire it is believed that they are not “clean” and they did not live a ceremonial life adhering to the cultural practices and “taboos.”
With the putting out of the oldfire it is believed that all grudges and “bad blood” was forgiven, and with the newfire came afresh start for all involved, arenewal of the year. In historic times this fire was probably kept burningin some way until the following year when the ceremony was held again. In more moderntimes it was “symbolically” kept burning. While thereis certainly a high respect for the fire and its role in practical and ceremonial life, the Lenape were not “fire worshipers” as some early documents wouldlead one to think.
Source: https://nanticokelenapemuseum.org/learning-center/769/fire-tentey/
Manhattan Schist Rock
spaces as about the spaces themselves.”
BernardTschumi
“Astone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.”
To the sun the Creator gave the duty of providing light for the people. Every day he travels across the heavens from east to west, stopping for a little while at midday, then going on.At night he comes backunder the earth. When praying to the sun, the Lenape usually addressed himas “Elder brother.”
Others imagined thesun to be the only deity, and that all things were made by him.
Perhaps, the Original Great Spirit of the Lenape might really be called the God of Light.
Assuming that the Creator of the Lenape is the God of Light, what is it that leads men to worship the source of light?
- “Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape” by Mark Raymond Harrington
Plan Detail Scale: 1/2” = 1’-0”
Dock
Manhattan Schist Rock
Andy Goldsworthy
The Hearth
