CAR + PLANTER + BENCHES greenspace-making & place-making, etc.

Good to be back in town where I can actually SIT, STAND, BE in the place we are researching! I’d like to share some public art I encountered on my travels, but more than that I’d like to share what I felt was so different about the places I visited. There was a sense of community in a less personal and more universal sense than I experience here in Memphis – that is, not the way that everyone in the Memphis art scene is 1-2 people removed from one another so it feels small, not in the sense that I can post “Help me move a giant rock" on Facebook and people will show up in Memphis, but in the sense that the way traffic moves, the way health care is provided, the way art is publically funded says “We are all in this together. This is for the greater good of all.” It’s not the opinion of a few leftists and artists fighting the system and the capitalists (that is not always the case here, i'm just abbreviating for conversation.. disclaimer disclaimer), it’s a historically established given, an inherent value in French and Italian culture. Or so it seemed. Italy had the best and most meaningful / thought-provoking graffiti, and France has a better reputation for actually formally funding the arts. In both countries I found that art and philosophy are valued across the economic spectrum, and simultaneously with concerns for social work and economic issues, globally and locally. These things were all commonly considered and not in competition with one another like I feel they are here. “Do we fund art or feed the hungry?” for instance. In France the government provides free tents for thousands of homeless, some nationals, some immigrants. They are living all over Paris. And many without these tents too. Families with small children living on the streets in Montparnasse / St. Germain, begging in a neighborhood akin to Saddle Creek, where coffee costs 5E+. I will include here some images from public art abroad that I hope you enjoy.

After re-visiting the Edge district I noticed that the same old questions were still occurring for me, in terms of the purpose of this project. There are so few residents since the district is primarily commercial and largely vacant. Our target pedestrians will largely be tourists. These factors make the project uniquely challenging in terms of place-making. So I re-visited some thoughts on public art and place-making.

From http://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/public-art

"Public art is often site-specific, meaning it is created in response to the place and community in which it resides. It often interprets the history of the place, its people, and perhaps addresses a social or environmental issue. The work may be created in collaboration with the community, reflecting the ideas and values of those for whom it’s created.

Being public, the art is free and accessible to everyone. Public art creates a heightened awareness in the viewer of the site of the people and the broader context of what’s around them. Today, viewers may capture a photo of the public art on their smartphone and share the work and the experience with others, extending the reach of public art beyond the site.

Whatever the form, public art instills meaning—a greater sense of identity and understandings of where we live, work, and visit—creating memorable experiences for all."

So we want it to be accessible (public) and meaningful (like Cedar reminded us in our last meeting), responsive to community requests (greening) and history of place (auto, disco, music, art and collaboration, Heartbreak Hotel, Wonder Bread), and mind-broadening. Creating memorable experiences. Enabling memorable experiences. Inviting...

I imagine the colored tire mural relating to a map on the large mural wall, corresponding to the same map on a webpage where more stories could be accessed. I imagine an art-map, a path, an app, leading people from downtown up Monroe or Madison. I’m imagining vertical gardens built in to chainlink fences with a mixture of real and fake plantings, greenspace murals on available walls with in-mounted buckets for plantings. And I’m also imagining the greenspace parked car-planter-benches. I will render one here – let’s see what happens. I would like to build some auto mirror structures as well, they can compliment the planters and provide vertical visual interest in winter. I look forward to catching up with everyone, and I hope tonight we can really crack open the collaboration in collabortory. : ) r*