610 Project: Venting Station

Well we are at midterms and my project is still under going some changes. While the idea is still the same, being that i want to create art installations where people are invited to participate in the creation of the final piece, but the purpose seems to be evolving. I'm thinking about naming my installations "Venting Stations." In today's fast paced and frantic pace it is very easy to get weighed down buy stress and anxiety. My goal is to place these venting stations around the city and provide a release point were people can vent and let go of some off the things that are bogging them down. While it is true we all living in a streamlined digital age where more and more people are blogging about there lives, but i feel there is still a need for a tangible space for venting especially because when you are done you can physically walk away from it. Essentially leaving what ails you behind.

While designing this i ran into quite a few problems, number one being cost. I am quite broke at the moment and many of the materials i was thinking were just to expensive (i.e. wood, metals), also these materials would be too heavy for me to transport and set up. I decided it would be best if i constructed the booth out of PVC pipe and connectors. This makes the booth very light weight and portable.

Another problem facing my original design was that it was going to be fully enclosed on 3 sides. I initially thought this would be a great idea because it provided a lot of writing space, but then Paula enlightened me to the idea that if something were set up like that in public some people might use it as a discrete place to urinate. To fix this I made the "booth" portion only at the top so the lower limbs are visible to all those around.

And on the right is a mock up i made using Sketchup. Try and envision a curtain covering the opening. i just don't know how to create that effect in Sketch up.

Below is a list of materials i will need to make this project


3-way Ell connectors, 8 @ $1.90 = 15.20





Tee connectors, 2 @ $1.30 = $2.60





4-way connectors, 2 @ $2.00 = $4.00

PVC pipe, 50' @$ 2.33 = $11.15

Art 610 Research Paper (midterm)

For my research paper i want to focus on community based and public artwork. First it is important to establish what community based artwork is. In Kathie deNobriga and Matt Schwarzman's article Community-based Art for Social Change, they wrote, "Community-based art is a creative expression that emerges from communities of people working together to improve their individual and collective circumstances." they go on to say that, "Community-based art involves a wide range of social contexts and definitions, and includes an understanding of "communities" that includes not only geographical places, but also groups of people identified with historical or ethnic traditions, or dedicated to a particular belief or spirit."

Community-based art can also be referred to as Dialogical art because it hopes to engage communities in a sort of social conversation. One of its goals is to bring to light social conditions and challenges facing communities. One Piece that I am planning on doing more research on is entitled "the roof is on fire." The project was organized by Suzanne Lacy in 1994, and consisted of ov

er two hundred Oakland high school students sitting in cars(on a rooftop parking structure) carrying on their own improvisational dialogues on the problems facing young people of color in California. Over a thousand oakland residents and representatives of local government were invited to participate and overhear the conversations that were taking place. The topics ranged from media stereotypes, racial profiling, and underfunded schools.

Another goal of community-based artwork is to educate and get the community to participate. This can be done in many ways through performances, community workshops, public debates and so on. There was a project in Hamburg entitled park fiction, where artists invited the community to come up with ideas of how to utilize the park space. they provided supplies, i.e. paper, crayons, markers, clay, etc. The dialogue is not created by the artists themselves but the interaction of the community that partakes.

SFSU Downhill Mapping

For this project i wanted to create a sort of trail map similar to the ones you would get at a ski resort, but instead of ski trails i wanted to do it for skate boarding. It is complete with trails as well as places to eat, drink, relax, and even the location of "lifts," aka bus stops

Below is a still image of the "trails" but there is also a Google Eart tour that i will be presenting in class.