perforate and pool

The success of the city depends on the multitude of exchanges, situations, transactions it is capable of hosting. We estimate that public space is chronically undervalued according to the dominant value system of financial market economy. Applying the strategy of remapping, this project attempts to excavate the hidden value of public space.

Exchange value [borrowed from the terminology of currencies] of sites acknowledges those acting as insular places of exchange, as local markets. As such, the sites reinforce the main theme of New York as a global site of exchange. The main financial market of the city is fed by a constellation of micro markets. Movement and flows are traced down on the sites. Using the model of fluid mechanics, the sites are understood through the movements and flows that traverse that.

Adjacencies and relations and spatial effects of movements on a site are understood as proto public space. Interventions are based on the native configuration of currents on a site. Velocities, densities and schedules are the context. Strategies of Manipulation address the adjustment of velocities to facilitate exchange between intersecting movements. Unrelated flows are perforated and pooled. Spatial interventions provision recipients, flows spill to their native schedules, program the site, generating vibrant stages of exchange.

Collaborators: Daniela Serna, Kania Curtis, Lorjan Agalliu, Rolando Lineros