I mean to browse the CLUI website to briefly remind myself of some of the concepts we’ve been discussing this past semester, but it’s so easy to get totally absorbed in the CLUI’s world – our world.

I took a closer look at The Lay of the Land, their quarterly newsletter. I remember Matt Coolidge talked about the exhibits about the Mississippi delta region and the institution of parking in America, but the newsletter also mentioned some other interesting activities (more along the lines of research and presentations, rather than exhibitions) that the CLUI has been sponsoring, including research about Elkhart, Indiana. I’m not sure that any of us had read this particular article entitled “Bird’s Eye View of Trailerville: Over and Around Elkhart, Indiana” before stopping by the RV/MH Hall of Fame on our way to Gary. At least, I had never heard of Elkhart before.

Reading about Elkhart and seeing some of the CLUI’s photos of the trailer landscape after having been there, albeit briefly, put into perspective the implications for land-use involved with RV production and lifestyle. Stretches of pavement lined with white rectangles fill the aerial photographs. The redundancy is unattractive and the space seems crammed, but then I remember that suburban neighborhoods look no different, they’ve just got lots more grass and trees to give an illusion of picturesque.

On the subject of pavement, I came across an interesting quote in the newsletter’s article about the exhibit “Pavement Paradise: American Parking Space.” David Pagel, an art reviewer for the Los Angeles Times said, “Although there is not a single work of art on display, ‘Pavement Paradise’ does art’s job efficiently and with significantly less to-do than usual”(The Lay of the Land, Spring 2008, Vol. 31). I surprised by this comment. Maybe the combination of image, video, text, and the installation of a full-sized parking space doesn’t count as art. Is this because the CLUI engages in research, data compilation, and education besides exhibiting its work in galleries? What if an established visual artist had installed a parking space in a gallery space? Can an exhibit that doesn’t show “a single work of art” be art, itself? Trevor Paglan said that the goal of art is to show us the world we live in. Pagel did not specify what “art’s job” is but if we use Trevor’s definition, then Pagel is partly right: the exhibit did accomplish the goal of art. But perhaps he is also partly wrong. If research and the dissemination of information can be art, as we have discussed in this class, then the CLUI exhibit, though it maybe did not contain art, was art.

That was my impression of the show. but I was also very interested, perplexed, and amused by some of the other responses I overheard from visitors that night. (quotes are not verbatim)

>”So I’m confused, what exactly is ‘land art’ ?”

“I…don’t….know…”

> “I love the Indiana Dunes! I’m from Chicagoland, I recognize where some of these photos were taken.”

> “This makes me want to go to Gary. Anyone have a car? Now I want to go to Gary.”

> “I want an excuse to tramp through abandoned buildings and get credit for it.”

> “All of Gary doesn’t look like this, does it?”

> “That is just -so- neat. ”

I could not have anticipated what people would take away from our show. For the most part I knew what I was trying to say, but what was really interesting were the conversations that developed out of people interpreting the message in different ways.    art.

I’ve been looking for pictures for my projects and come across LOTS of images from the first abandoned building that we went into in Gary. I think it’s really interesting that the first thing we happened to improvise with happens to be famous in its own right. It’s the Memorial Auditorium. It was used for Gary public schools. That’s why we saw the word “art” - because that’s one of the things that was done inside. The building burned down in 1997. Here are some websites. There are many others.

http://www.preserveindiana.com/pixpages/nw_ind/memorialauditorium.htm

http://www.preserveindiana.com/pixpages/nw_ind/garycrds.htm

http://www.forbidden-places.net/urban-exploration-gary-indiana-ghost-town

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2230/1523739305_5de64e4406.jpg&imgrefurl=http://leebey.com/blog1/2007/10/gary_the_magic_city.html&usg=__wzHWgbk93M3igFKpWRlE36syaVI=&h=500&w=492&sz=147&hl=en&start=42&um=1&tbnid=W5jt9hvuPp-SHM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgary%2Bindiana%2Bpictures%2Bmemorial%2Bauditorium%26start%3D21%26ndsp%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

It’s also very popular on flickr

Leo

http://www.nps.gov/indu/naturescience/naturalfeaturesandecosystems.htm is the website of the Indiana Dunes National lakeshore and the source of many fascinating official facts about the dunes.

http://www.ussteel.com/corp/index.asp is the US steel webpage. 

I’ve been thinking about the idea of succession and how a draft of poetry is itself a succession from one state to another. In ecological succession, the idea of one climax community has been debunked, so I thought it would be interesting to try and convey that by not only including the drafts leading up to a “finished” poem, but also by then breaking that poem down into other poems and finally just words. I’m going to try to make magnetic poetry for the last part so it is interactive. 

A cottonwood tree and its cottony seeds

In my research, I learned that cottonwood trees can be partially buried by sand dunes and their branches will sprout into roots or vice versa. This is fascinating, and I don’t know if any other tree can do that. Originally I was going to write about witch hazel because it is indeed backwards-blooming in fall, but its seeds aren’t windborne and thus it would not sprout on top of a building. Cottonwoods seemed so ordinary, but it turns out they’re fascinating in their own right.

I’ve finally gathered almost all of the materials for the collage I’m making, and am going to begin shortly. This is exciting, but I need to figure out some sort of organizational method before I start cutting. Printing in color is expensive!

Okay, maybe I’ll add more later, but that’s all for now.

The gentlemen that run the Midwest Railway Preservation Society took us on a tour of the space, through abandoned rail cars, and into the shop where they work. Old relics, engines, soot, hard wooden floors, original bricks for recreating the place.

The guys there are working to preserve this space, to recreate it using original materials to be open to the public. I appreciate the work they are doing. The depot is in the midst of steel mills, down Steelyard Drive, in the crux of the steelscape of Cleveland. This place is important and must be maintained for the future. They kindly opened their doors to us and even swept a the concrete floor, where we could work. They were eager to see what I was doing, and we would interact with the space. I don’t think it was what they expected (several tableaux, not much actual choreographed dancing…). Anyway, I was really happy to do this project within a space that was mediated by the Preservation Society. They showed us a lot and gave us the opportunity to relate to the space, rather than simply be intruders in an unknown territory.

I’ll post some pictures in a bit…

The film is full of clever banter between very smart and artful movie makers. The obstructions were interesting because with each one, the elder director, Leth, would innovate upon things that he had been presented as a challenge. One of the obstructions, for example, was traveling to a miserable place of Leth’s choosing to film the movie—he chooses the Red Light district in Bombay. Another, he relates to Von Trier how he loves smoking Havana cigars and admit to saying that he has never actually been to Cuba although he has been to Haiti, it seems quite a big. So Von Trier retorts, “That’s the first obstruction: you must film it in Cuba.” Some of the rules are more specific to the content of the avant-garde film itself, challenging Leth to test his ability to grasp his very own creation and its narrative. He eventually flourishes in the rule, turning it around and making it his intention.

This ownership of an intention, reversing something that is seen as a challenge due to one’s aversion to an idea, is an exciting possibility. I find that when I am thinking about my project that I sometimes push ideas away because I think that my impulse is not “interesting” or “conceptual” enough. That probably sounds stupid, but I take the concept seriously in artistic practice. Today, I had a revelation about my project and decided to work on it as best as I could as something coming from me rather than worrying about its relevance or how much it actually will communicate to the audience about Gary, IN.

Then, I remind myself: I’m not from Gary, IN, in fact I’ve only been there once therefore I can’t assume myself as artist as knower, or one who understands fully the effects and repercussions of complex economic institutions. This then leads to me reassuring myself. As long as my intentions remain open-minded about the magnitude of these questions we ask about Gary, IN, then I think I am on the right path. As long as I don’t ever assume to know the answers, then I can listen to my impulses.

In the film, “5 obstructions,” Leth’s success with the movies he makes comes from embracing whatever rules he at first shies away from. And Von Trier’s intention is clear to: put my idol to the test to see if he is actually as good as I think he is. And by the end, you understand why Von Trier wanted to make this movie and spend time with Leth: because he is actually that good.

First off, on my new revelation about my own project: incorporating the theme of “haunted,” “paranormal,” and ghost activity in abandoned places in Ohio. In my search for a location (by the way I have a tentative location at the MidwestRailway.org) I ran into a whole community that surrounds ghost activity. This community is intertwined with those people who seek out these abandoned places. I guess that makes sense: it is a way of imagining a history, applying a narrative. I find it interesting in so far that people enjoy these places out of fear, and go to them to be scared. These places are scary, they do merit a chill to the bone. The loss, the emptiness in which our minds create notions about ghosts helps in dealing with the void. Occupying space, visiting abandoned places, reactivates the space. You, by nature of your presence, reactivates a past narrative. This perhaps is what the ghost hunters are feeling. Within yourself and your own actions, which can be as simple as just stepping into a lost space, are falling into an already existing story.

We use architecture to construct meaning in space. Yet, humans are the ones who bring meaning to the architecture. This course that we are taking is making sense of the relationship of space, structure and ourselves. Its all space, we are brought into the fold by being “interactors.” How can we catalog the progression of space over time? Is our diagnosis of a space, like of a factory in Gary, IN relevant? All critical interaction is significant and worthy of documentation. I am attracted to the ghost hunters because they are consciously taking part in documenting the remnants of a historical narrative. By their actions they are directly placing themselves into the trajectory of these lost and abandoned narratives.

Check these sites out, if you are interested

http://www.abandonedohio.com/

http://www.forgottenoh.com/page1.html

http://www.scaryohio.com/

http://www.graveaddiction.com/abindex.html

http://www.deadohio.com/Links.htm

happy halloween!!

p.s. one of these sites says that a red headed woman haunted Warner in our very own Oberlin.

From these questions I have looked into Marxist ideas of spatiality. I don’t think I have read enough to drop knowledge on you here, but it is interesting stuff. The stuff that urban planning is made of. I am currently in a private reading, studying memorials and monuments particularly in Latin America that deal with post-traumatic state imposed violence. Through this study, I have become increasingly aware of landscape as a tool. It is a tool of interaction, a multitude of space that lends itself to the people’s voices. The most effective memorials that I have come across are those that permeate the cityscape with reminders of what happened. Rather than isolate the memory, funneling it into one monument (usually a state imposed take on collective memory), the people can use the sidewalk, street signs, ordinary markers of the landscapes to send out their message. Some things to look at if you are interested in this work:

http://www.stih-schnock.de/remembrance.html (These are a pair of artists who work in Berlin, memorializing the Holocaust. This particular project, Places of Remembrance, I wrote about for my private reading. They are visiting Oberlin sometime this semester.)

http://www.memorialmagro.blogspot.com/ (This site is in Spanish. It is the blog of a neighborhood group placing tiles in the sidewalk all around Buenos Aires, where I studied abroad for a semester, commemorating the disappeared. Check it out for visuals. I also made a documentary on this group for a project when I was there.

If you are interested in learning more, check out James Young, author of Texture of Memory.

* * ************ ******

I have been thinking a lot about intention recently. I have been thinking about how it drives and is intertwined in the final art work. Intention is the impetus, the process and the final work. Never losing one’s intention and purpose, even subconsciously (intention does often occur subconsciously), their art will be good. Maybe not aesthetically, but it will be good in serving its purpose.

Hence, I ponder what my performance piece is supposed to mean. We all have a tendency, sometimes I think I have more than others, to criticize and analyze what we are doing. Yet perhaps, sticking to an impulse, going with something is also as much a part of intention as is the conceptual aspect.

photographers note

If this is a little hard to read, click on the image and it should appear bigger. I think what he said about not forgetting what gave rehabilitated buildings life in the first place is spot on. Buildings are powerful places and the energy that was in them effects the feel of the building forever. It is important to note what has been done with a building and how it has effected the area. Industry shouldn’t necessarily be thought of as negative. It can be empowering, for example, to think of the steel the current Goodman building produced and the buildings it helped build.

The photo exhibit especially struck me because I know of many abandoned factories in my neighborhood but I was not familiar with any of the ones in the exhibit. This made me realize really how many abandoned industrial spaces their are around Madison. They can blend in very well when a person has grown up in an area. When there are so many, it is impossible to get to know them all.

I was struck by how industrial this neighborhood is as I walked back home along the bike path which was recently a railroad track. I was leaving a rehabilitated abandoned site  and walked past several abandoned factories. I wonder if and when they will be re-used and what for.

another abandoned factory along bike path

reminder of the past

There are a few of these around the center. If you had no idea what this building used to be they seem very out of place but that is what is great about them.  They force people to think about the building, the space. Why would these pulleys be up in a community center? It not only makes people question the space but the entire neighborhood.  It is perfect that a neighborhood community center would be in an abandoned factory. The left over pulleys remind us what this neighborhood was built out of. It was once a very industrial area scattered with active and busy factories that provided work for the community members. Now this building continues to provide for the community. in a new way.

There was a beautiful display of photos along one hallway. Several large lit up photographs show what the building looked like several years ago before any new construction started on it. Above the photos hang all the work gloves found in the factory as it was cleaned out.  They add a really human touch and make the past that much more real. All these gloves were worn by men working in this building years ago. Filled by warm hands and left behind when the factory closed.

photos and gloves

Here are a few more photos of the buildings new look. This first one is a large meeting space that has already, in the first month of the new community center’s existence, been used for a memorial service of a cherished community member.

Many of the old brick walls have been left creating really nice spaces inside. This last photo is of the building from the outside. It looks very much like it used to, only cleaner. It is also apparent that this building is again full of energy. It is right across the street from a community garden and next to one of the running factories of the east side of Madison. An interesting juxtaposition.

meeting space

old walls

Goodman Community Center

I am very proud of the center and think they did a great job of preserving the history and yet creating a new vibrant space. The one thing I would have liked to see was at least a brief right up about the history of the building.  However I did find information about this on their website.

http://www.goodmancenter.org/onefamily/history.php

The above site gives a history of the building. It is under the national registrar of historical spaces and went through for different companies in its history. The company that stayed there the longest, the ironworks company, fabricated steel that helped construct many important sites in Madison and throughout the area. It had a great impact on the area. This building made Madison what it is in many ways.  I am glad to see it is being preserved and  being put to such a good use.