Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Improbable Monument

Introduction
Def. of Promenade (n): “a leisurely walk or ride especially in a public place for pleasure or display.”
- Merriam Webster 

Promenade is a place where one can watch other people, while being similarly watched. My improbable monument addresses this odd situation.

Background
Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian mall in Santa Monica since 1960s. It is one of the most popular shopping areas in West Hollywood. It includes three theaters, large tenants (Gap, H&M, Apple, Pottery Barn, Barn&Noble, etc.), and biweekly farmer's market. Many street performers and entertainers are seen every day and night on the promenade. 

Def. of Monument (n): "a lasting evidence, reminder, or example of someone or something notable or great." - Merriam Webster
“Monuments and memorials can be devices of detournement or slaps into consciousness.”
- Seeing in the Past in Present Tense

I wanted the viewers to be aware of my monument and remind them something, then questioned myself what I wanted them to remind and to be aware of. My desire was to have them to become aware of what I was aware of. This reminded me of how the people at the promenade dressed up to 'look nice and show off'; to be seen, while they are themselves looking at others similarly dressed. It is sort of game. And all engaged in such game extremely conscious of self and others, the promenade has become a show of superficial evaluation rather than just a “leisurely walk.” Personally, I felt very uncomfortable and uneasy to be watched from head to toe by strangers. It was as if I were an alien or a rare species of human.
However, people are not conscious of the frivolous superficiality dominating the environment, which they have become habituated to and therefore a part of. 

Project Description
My monument would be placed in the middle of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, L.A. because this is where I personally experienced this unique situation. The monument signifies that the superficial evaluation dominating the space provides discomfort in the same space. This monument plays an important role in raising awareness of consciousness among people on the promenade.
The monument would be larger than life-size to outstand and attract people on the crowded promenade. The design is Art Deco style because Art Deco is ornamental, which only has an aesthetic aspect. Similarly, people on the promenade are very cosmetic. Thus, the style symbolizes the superficiality.



The original image of the monument.
My monument would be stone or metal sculptures in white color, so that the projection can reflect on the surface of the sculptures.
This is how it would look like in day time.

At night, it would look like this.

The images of faces are projected on the sculptures’faces as seen in “Texas Big Face.” With the sensor system, the projected images of faces, especially eyes, follow as the pedestrians walk by. In addition to the images, a sound system would be installed right beneath the sculptures (inside of the foundation). The sculptures are able to make a sound of giggle, sigh, etc.
These effects would provide the viewers uneasy experience of being watched and evaluated.

People might be displeased with the monument. Since the sculptures are larger than life-size, they basically look down on the viewers. With the effects of the projection and sound, the monument aggrandizes feeling of discomfort of being watched in the space where people are to be seen.

However, this monument is improbable because of the environment. Even if it is at night, the promenade is decorated with hundreds of lights and too bright to project the images clearly. Also, the projection can’t be seen in day time when more people are on the promenade compared to night time. It would otherwise appear to the viewers that they are just ordinary sculptures on the promenade.

Benefits
The public would experience displeasing moment in a busy place like Third St. Promenade which is supposed to be a place to have leisure. Hopefully, the audience would realize that the monument is just reproducing a part of the activities happening on the promenade.

Timeline of tasks
If I could implement my proposal, I would first talk to people who have knowledge about projection and sensor system to discuss how I can install it on the promenade. This phase would take a while to figure things out in order to succeed. Then, I would work on making sculptures as working on the sound system installed on the foundation.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Improbable monument proposal

Deal with awareness.

Monuments, I believe, should be objects to bring or raise awareness. It could be historical events, person, etc. to remind us. For this assignment, I'd like my monument to raise awareness of people's awareness on other people in particular area - shopping malls.
My improbable monument would be placed probably in Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica because that is where many people are dressed up, hang out, and shop, and interestingly, (and you will know if you are there) they look at you from head to toe as if they are judging you whether you are cool or not. This made me really uncomfortable, but it was funny to me that they were not aware that they were judging the others while being judged by the others.
For my monument, I'd like to use this trick to reproduce this situation.
Disney Haunted Mansion Ride's trick on Youtube

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Inspiration


"Erratic" by Roxy Paine

For the final assignment, I'm thinking of installing my improbable monument somewhere in Los Angeles. While looking for the best place to install, I found this sculpture, "Erratic," done by a New York-based artist, Roxy Paine. His work is installed in Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills. When I first saw this sculpture while driving Santa Monica Blvd. early this year, I thought it was a huge silver turd and so bold to place the turd next to Beverly Hills because I perceived it to show that celebrity culture is a full of crap, but people who live there are very rich.
However, Paine's actual concept of the work is to depict the struggle between the natural and the artificial; Humans always attempt to reproduce nature, but with technology, everything made by humans is unnatural.
In spite of his actual idea, it makes sense to me where the work is located because the culture and people's mentality and lifestyle in this particular area, I think, are unnatural or bizarre. I'm interested in finding out why this work is installed in Beverly Hills because I'm sure it's not accidental.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Monument Intervention

My group decided to do three different projects; dressing up statues, (pretend) watching TVin public, and putting up photoshopped Civil War pictures in Union Square. The former two projects were taken place in Golden Gate Park. Luis came up with the idea to dress up statues and we could have some of them to be dressed up.

This project definitely caught some people's attention. Some were laughing and others were taking pictures of them. And we were able to capture their response.


Angeline's "watching TV in public" was an interesting idea, but the setting and the layout of the park didn't work that well for this project (we did it anyway). 
Although this project didn't intervene in a way we wanted, her handmade TV in public was a little surprise to some.

Lastly, my project was to put up photoshopped Civil War pictures on a monument of a heart in Union Square. Before the Civil War began, Union Square was named after Union Army to show support for the United States of America. This place was once used for Civil War rally. Today, Union Square is a 'heart' of shopping and entertainment. So, I wanted to show the history of Union Square but in a funny way.

The picture above is a little funny to me because in one picture, Union army soldiers also have Nordstrom shopping bags.

Where we first place the pictures didn't attract people's eyes. No one bother looking at them, so we put them up on the back of the hearts. 

A few people briefly looked at my pictures. I guess that makes it a success. 

Here's the details of the pictures.





Wednesday, October 27, 2010

my hiking history on Google Earth


Hike on Google Earth: KMZ file


My Google Earth project is a document of my hiking experience. It starts out with places where I have gone hiking in Japan when I was little and moves on to hiking trails I recently have gone since I came to the States. It goes back to Japan to show where I'd like to hike in the near future. 



The main idea of my project was to show that I like to go hiking. As a child, I was actually not that interested in hiking and I don't remember much about what I did while hiking. But, since I came to the States and went hiking with my friends often, I came to appreciate nature. Then, I realized that Japan had many beautiful places - Yakushima, Mt. Fuji, etc. - and I felt I missed out on exploring and knowing my home country. That is why I'd like to go back to Japan to hike those places. 



I divided six places into three parts - past, present, and future - and attempted to show that I went hiking, go hiking, and will go hiking. Using Google Earth was, to me, a funny experience because, for example, Mt. Kabuto Park  looked a huge park to me as a child, but on Google Earth and comparing other places like Morgan Territory, the park looked very small. And, El Scorpion Park and Morgan Territory seemed to be vast fields when I hiked, but they appeared small on Google Earth. From this experience, I got a sense of how small I was on earth; how gigantic the earth was. 


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