Crime Scene: Wall and Window

• Media

Brief
An installation piece with the presentation of a crime scene that embeds ideas of the definition of the wall and our natural surroundings.
Pictures

Description
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.

My initial premise in breaking the definitions of “wall” and engaging the audience in direct tape-to-wall relation found a new meaning in creating a display installation that has become quite literal, but requires exploration to understand the entirety of the piece. A piece of traditional brick/stone is placed next to a broken window in the center of a storybook crime scene investigation; set in the corner of a room. Bright lights shine on the “chalk outlined” piece of wall that creates the second ring of metaphorical/symbolic, but socially adhered-to, wall. From there, the groups of “rings“ that surround the center are devices that could easily be seen in such a scenario. The outer-most layer is a layer of blue tape in a box, which creates the same gallery/art installation setting that the public has taken on to define something as unapproachable and the presentation of something off-limits and separate from the remainder of the space around it.

Classes
Urban Computing - Professor(s) Adam Greenfield and Kevin Slavin

One pre-presentation reaction:

“I just watched you walk around that blue tape.”
“Of course I did! Why?”
“It’s a piece I’m doing about walls. Even just tape can be a wall.”
“Whoa…”

On second approach he inquired:

“David, can I break your walls?…When I walked up it the first time I just thought: ‘Oh, that’s not for me to cross’. ”

Keywords
wall, window, urban computing

Background
In class we have spent time considering the roles of three fundamental objects in urban society: wall, window, and door. Crime Scene: Wall and Window is a response to this change in my own perception of the definition of wall (with a very unintentional and cheesy symbolism to the death of the wall).

Audience
Urban Computing class:
as you can see in the picture to the left, prior to my explanation they all immediately found themselves obliged to stand outside of the outermost line of tape

User Scenario
As the audience walks up to the piece, they step up (but not into) a narrative setting of a forensic crime scene. The installation creates multiple layers of intentional boundaries from basic environmental pieces such as tape and light due to their own understanding of boundaries. In this way, the piece creates a set of walls that encircle each other; standing in stead of hard-set physical walls, but serving much of the same purpose. These layers, made of ideas and temporary materials that could easily be broken or disregarded, are suddenly seen as authoritative and static.

Final thoughts:
I believe people found themselves in a completely new setting: suddenly realizing their own constraints and position in a space that a few seconds before seemed familiar in a gallery setting. While discussing the project with Kevin and Adam after my presentation it was evident this idea can easily be pushed further, and the setting of a crime scene is merely secondary to the concept itself. It is possible I will use this for my final project in the class after refining its final production.

Through this project I’ve also started to think of the idea of “gradient walls”: objects in our natural environment that create the same reactions and impact as standard “hard-edged” walls, but have a less defined boundary; such as light, sound, emotion, etc.

References
Urban Computing: Wall