INSTALLMENT
SETUP
Architecture
has found its ultimate repository of vocabulary in the city. Architects
turn to the city, using it as a fountain of eternal novelties. As the city
eludes any comprehensive understanding, new
techniques of observation unveil ever new conditions. This project
positions itself in the trajectory of mapping a city: dissecting
the urban body from a curatorial perspective.
[Constructing
an Ontology of the Normative]
Many times we
hold the things against the light to find out something new about them. One shifts the
perspective, turns things to see what it, the unknown, actually is, or could
become. Here this
method of naïve curiosity is recruited to find something out about a place we
live in. Manhattan.
Let’s hold the city against the light.
[Questions to
the Grid – Glimpses of the Sun]
The 1811 Grid
of Manhattan
is 28.9 degrees off the North-South orientation. Due to this
the city annually enters a cosmic phase, comparable to prehistoric Druid or
Inca civilizations, where cities were laid out to follow cosmic events. From the
middle of June until the 4th of July, the sun is rising on the continued axes
of 161 cross town streets. 161 sunrises, the trajectory of the earth around the
sun, the city of skyscrapers now scrapes the cosmos, the streets brush and comb
silently the space between sun and earth.
a) Juxtaposition ::: Aim of this project is to create a
document of the city, in which life in the city is dissected complacent to the
urban grid by the cosmic scalpel: the sun. 161 sunrises record, depict the
myriad of events, proposes a method site specific to the geographic reality of Manhattan.
Through the introduction of the solar movement’s concordance with the city grid
a precision in dissecting the city is achieved. The record then collapses the
distances into a single observable spatial unit: that of the exhibition space
allowing for the juxtaposition of a site beyond the boundaries of perception.
b) Simultaneity ::: In Glimpses of the USA
by Ray and Charles Eames similarity and difference in the lifestyles of the USA
is revealed, constructed by a simultaneous recording of a daily cycle. This
project takes the technique to explore parallel moments organized by the datum
of the city: the grid. 161 sunrises organize the spontaneity, repetition and
routine in the quotidian life of the metropolis. In the course of a 120 minutes event overlaps, sequences
unfold: the time space of the city is documented on 200 feet interval.
c) Incision – Dissection ::: This anomaly or event is taken as a point of
departure to investigate life in the city: explore the similarities through the
differences and vice versa. The tool of the architect is the section: the
anatomic cut through an object of investigation.
d) Spine: Broadway ::: The 161 recording units are deployed along
Broadway. Broadway becomes the recording spine. Cameras are all facing
East-South-East along the axes of the cross town streets.
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Phase I
Dissection
recording
of a moment in the city. It comprises the preparation, scripting and
coordination of the recording. 161 recording
units are brought to a single standard, equipped with equal recording devices
and settings. Checklists,
communication means and backup units are developed and deployed, recording
teams are trained and briefed. Synchronized
on site recordings beginning 5:05am
are conducted by the situated teams. The emphasis
of the project lies in the organization of the material necessary to conduct
the simultaneous recording and in the orchestration and coordination of the
capturing.
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Phase II
Juxtaposition
Construction
a space of a meta-sunrise of 161 suns framed by 161 street flights.
An
installation space is adapted to host the display of the 161 recordings. The reproduction space is
to be furnished with projection surfaces as outlined in fig. 5. Juxtaposition
of the urban moments in real-time implies the synchronized emission of the 161
captured sunrise sequences.
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Numbers
161 recording
units + 3 Backup units
120 minutes
continuous recording time, synchronized. June 21 2008,
5.05 – 7.05am
322 hours of
footage
110 feet long
wall surface in a gallery space with 161 projection units
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