Even tape can be a wall.
An experiment in breaking the definitions of “wall” and engaging passer-byes who become participants simply by social instinct, I attempt to test the thresholds of our unconscious instincts towards barriers and create flows of pedestrian traffic in an urban environment with a minimal tool: duct tape.
Description
Society has defined something as unapproachable and the presentation of something off-limits and separate from the remainder of the space around it, simply by the use of tape.
Classes
Urban Computing with Adam Greenfield and Kevin Slavin
Keywords
urban computing, wall
Background
An extension of an earlier project (Crime Scene: Wall and Window) this project takes an intimate look at urban spaces, social tendencies, and a sudden understanding of our surroundings.
My interests in street photography and social documentation also shaped my interest in injecting a minimal piece of marking into an environment and documenting the results.
Personal Statement
My tendencies to consider alternative solutions and push/pull ideas to the limits of their rational beginnings had me quickly consider the options in life that we come in contact with that are not walls, but in fact act as walls simply by social understanding or conditioning. Thoughts of cracks in the sidewalk, a speaker blaring music (a wall of sound), or light in a darkened room can instantly bring up a group of the same set of emotions that are evoked when coming face to face with a wall. Isolation, distance, separation, security, etc. are often derived out of ideas, objects, or senses that are, in definition, not considered walls.
Audience
Passer-byes of the tape that instinctively walk around the boxed-in/taped-in area are audience members as well as those that view the photos and video documentation of the process.
Final thoughts:
This was an incredibly fulfilling project I look forward to continuing.
References
Adam Greenfield: http://itp.nyu.edu/blogs/urbancomputing/2008/01/25/01-wall/, Lee Friedlander, Bruce Gilden, Henri Cartier-Bresson, UML: Urban Markup Language