the first assignment was an ice project where we were investigating the decay of architecture and the concept of atmosphere's plurality of meanings - measure (as in atmospheric pressure), medium (as in the air we breathe), and mood (you know, like ambience). i created an icosahedron that held exactly one liter of water, which required me to break out my geometry training in a somewhat powerful way. the difficult part of the exercise for me was getting the model to hold water, but thankfully i had some help - a tip from my instructor, a proposed medium from a woman at the art supply store and a willing and able conspirator.
it all starts with one simple equilateral triangle...
and then you go crazy with triangles...well, really with your compass.
there's a magic step involving an x-acto knife, all natural rubber latex in liquid form (yes, you heard me correctly) as well as a healthy dose of rubber cement and you end up with a 3-dimensional expression of finite mathematics, or discrete mathematics.
the trick is getting that object to accept and commit to holding water, but i'll save that for another post as this post is about my new home and a slight callback to my history and interest in black and white photography.
the second assignment for the course was to explore the concept of urban joints (no, not the kind that get you into trouble with the authorities). we were asked to find ten urban joints, or points of connection, in the city of new york (think of exposed structure in architecture or the way your wrist very functionally connects your hand to your forearm). i think there are only about ten billion joints in new york so the real challenge of the project was to find a point of view that limited the possibilities somewhat.
for my expression, i chose to find ten urban joints that were all in my commute from my apartment in brooklyn near grand army plaza to my office in manhattan near union square. after all, that is my reality and nobody else can possibly express these urban joints with the same degree of connection to them as i have. i used a photographic filter in photoshop that gave me the feeling of an older technology called gum bichromate printing. this process creates photographs that resemble paintings from about six feet away that begin to appear almost too real (but not quite hyperrealistic).
my first photo is a view from one of my bedroom windows. i appreciate the way the bricks frame the window and meet the stone sill of the window - the primary joint in this photo. and of course, i'll relish the fact that i have a strong dose of green leaves in my immediate reality every day until the fall comes.
as i begin my day, i like to include music that i love as a way of awakening my creative self. and also easing my transition from the dream reality to the waking reality. this morning i played some acoustic guitar and one side of van morrison's 'tupelo honey' record (side 2).
you'll notice three joints in the photo of the acoustic guitar - the bridge joining the strings to the body, the neck joined to the body at the end of the fretboard and the guitar joined to the wall in the extreme depth of field of the photo.
in the photo of my turntable, i see this concept of joining the information in the groove of the record to the needle of the turntable, which then connects to an amplifier that makes beautiful audible music to listen to and enjoy. it is in this moment that i wish photos could capture audio information as well as video, but alas. in any case, there is no better way to begin the day than to begin with music and i especially appreciate the analog experience after waking up.
i recently installed a shower rod in my bathroom because apparently one takes one's shower rod with them after vacating an apartment in new york (the kind of thing that makes you want to ask, 'seriously?'). in this photo documenting the way it joins to my slate tile wall, you can see all of the information captured in the photo also captured in the shower rod itself. sort of a portrait of the photo within the photo itself, as if the shower rod were taunting my camera to say, 'anything you can do, i can do better.'
i can honestly say that i am getting to a place of caring for the space in which i inhabit. i like my local park. and my local grocery store. and my local burrito bar. i still, however, feel awkward in my staircase. the lighting is quite limited and it just feels a bit ominous (and that's being generous). it is an expression of a very practical urban joint, though, that connects my apartment to the outside world. without these stairs, i would be forced to get very good at urban gymnastics and tree climbing (base jumping?).
on my walk to the subway, i always pass a public school at the end of my street with such an appealing entry. it is made entirely of a red brick / stone arch that meets what appear to me to be ornamental columnar elements in the front (as opposed to structural ones). whether functional or ornamental, i find the image compelling.
we have been discussing the very public space of the sidewalk in some detail in the class. it's such a strange, small space. and in new york you have the big city experience of the sidewalk. in one breath you can overhear someone's very intimate conversation with a loved one or witness an intimate act that is likely better expressed indoors. in the image below, i was captured by the way the mailbox joins us all to our specific network of family and friends - a unique and intimate connection for all of us in a very public space.
the last thing i do before going into the subway stop at flatbush and 7th avenue is cross flatbush avenue. now i tend to generally use the crosswalk but i have been known to be that guy splitting through cars in the street if i'm about to miss my train (the cars are parked, of course). this photo shows how the crosswalk connects both sides of flatbush avenue and also notes that flatbush avenue itself connects brooklyn to manhattan. and then there's the subway stop in the background that easily goes unnoticed. this connects each and every one of us to the entirety of the new york boroughs and even the rest of the world as the subway is connected to both the train station and the airport.
i tend to look at subway stops as representative of basements. in new york, all the subway stops feel like they are in various stages of being finished out just like basements. some subway stops are iconic and completely finished out while others feel unfinished in a way...like a wine cellar or man cave might have felt in the homes you grew up in. this is an architectural image showing how one of the beams in the rational structural system joins to the stucco-surfaced wall.
on the subway, we are all forced to compete for space, especially in rush hour commute times. this morning i was fortunate enough to get a good spot with enough space for me to actually hold on to the support bars. downside, of course, is that i did not get a chance to practice my subway surfing, which i have been slowly perfecting over the past few weeks. here you see the first (and only) human joint connected to the joints of our built or manufactured environment.
my favorite part of my journey on the q train is crossing over the manhattan bridge. there is a reconnection with nature, albeit controlled and quite limited, and some sunlight to wake me up after 15-20 minutes underground. i also get the chance to quickly check emails in case there is something critical happening at work or otherwise. nothing especially noteworthy this morning on the email front, but i did happen to capture a view of the brooklyn bridge from the manhattan bridge articulated through the window of the q train (two especially functional urban joints connecting manhattan and brooklyn to one another). it's voyeuristic in a way - i suppose if iconic feats of engineering do it for you.
i finally re-emerge into a new local reality at union square. each time this happens my tendency is to look up. today i found a lamp post. it happened to be roughly aligned with the sun, which was fortunately hidden well enough behind the cloud cover that this image was feasible. the joint here is the connection of the lamps to the post. i find it especially useful that the light from the sun serves to illuminate the lamps which are obviously not lit during the day. it adds a surrealistic quality to the image for me.
and that as they say, is that. look out for more next week!
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