interviewees & photos
Jan Werner
she's very interested in helping with the performance, from sitting
for an interview plus anything else that comes up. She's a very
talented visual artist and has lots to say about the garden. Here's
her email: brigitte....@gmail.com
Another good interviewee would be Jennifer Lowing, at
jlowi...@aol.com She lives in 392, the building to the east of
Green Oasis, and both her kids have pretty much grown up in the garden
so they'd be cool to record too. (The older one, Marisol, is a
dancer...)
I'll head down to the archives this week to order tax photos and see
what else is available. The photos are $35 ea. for 8x10 and $50 ea.
for 11x14. We'll need somewhere between 5 and 7 to get good views of
both flanking buildings too. What size do you prefer?
Finally, could you post the proposal document we read at the Jan.
meeting? It'd good to have an electronic version accessible.
THANKS!
Jason Grote
up with Tim - haven't heard back re. our initial request. If you see
him in the flesh, could you ask him to email me? Tim, if you see this,
can you contact me off-list about an interview?).
Not sure whether Maureen is in town but I'll try to coordinate. Big
congrats are in order for her, though -- she is the director of The
Arcade Fire's stage show, and they won big at the Grammys last night!
Proposal attached & pasted below.
Foundry Artist Proposal – Maureen Towey and Jason Grote
We would like to propose an ambulatory installation piece occurring at
the Green Oasis garden, to be performed on two consecutive days, about
an hour or two in duration. The piece will involve music, dance,
performance, visual art, and pre-recorded audio pieces to be piped in
through speakers or played on portable audio devices. Audience
members will engage with the event at their own pace, led by a map or
possibly a scavenger hunt (though the hunt will be for experiences
rather than objects). There might also be an element of pageantry,
with audience guided through the garden by costumed gardeners and/or
neighborhood kids.
The guiding metaphor for both the creation and the content of the
piece is emergence. Over the course of our interactions with the
garden membership, we’ve noticed that creative projects there operate
in a specific, consistent, organic, and non-hierarchical way: a
gardener will start a project (e.g., the stone patio in the center of
the garden, which didn’t exist when we first visited and was gradually
built over the course of three months); that garden member will be the
lead on that project, though not exclusively, and other gardeners will
help, offer input, argue, or opt out as needed. We believe that this
is why gardeners have told the Foundry that they are “waiting for us
to tell them what to do;” because the group operates less like a
theater company or a labor union and more like a neighborhood or
family. Limited hierarchies emerge and fade away in a casual, social
way, contingent on projects. Spatially, this is reflected in the
garden’s built structures, like the gazebo, the koi pond, the
beehives, and so on. Taken as a whole, the architecture of the garden
is beautiful, but individual structures are messy and uneven, in
defiance to the hard right angles of the surrounding buildings and the
grid structure of Manhattan. This is our guiding principle, and our
alternate vision of “NYC… Just Like [We] Pictured It.” The audience
will be witness to an actual, working utopia—not the utopian program,
which is largely taboo (think Marxism-Leninism), but the utopian
impulse—or, as the artist Steve Lambert puts it, utopia is not a
destination but a direction.
In practical terms, we’d like to spend the winter months assembling
audio interviews, mostly with Green Oasis membership, but also with
academics studying gardening and urban space and activists from the
garden reservation music. These would provide any text for the piece,
and we would also edit the audio and (budget and technology
permitting) have it playing on loops on speakers planted strategically
throughout the garden. I know that Radiohole owns at least one audio
spotlight, a device that limits sound to a specific range, and we
might be able to rent it from them; however, small regular speakers
would be fine for this purpose. The audio would maximize
participation from gardeners who can’t or don’t want to commit to the
performance dates, and would provide new and interesting context for
the audience as they wander through the garden; in the same way that
an audio tour operates in a museum. Another approach might be to make
the interviews available on mp3s for the audience to listen on
individual devices; however, this isolates the experience in the way
that might not be constructive.
Another idea would be to create small temporary plaques for plants and
built structures in the garden, like they have at botanical
gardens—but instead of (or in addition to) scientific info about the
plants, we would include personal history about the garden that we get
from the interviews—or information about the site of the garden
(formerly a tenement, later a vacant lot) that we get from the NYC
Municipal Archives. We’re fascinated by the idea or a palimpsest—as
Luc Sante has said, New York is a city that is always being built on
top of another city. Underneath the garden there is rumored to be an
old basement from the tenement that once stood there, and we’re really
fascinated by that idea, and the idea of “air rights;” the idea of New
York as a vertical city.
More about the scavenger hunt: it would be geared towards people
having alternative experiences, use all the five senses, and emphasize
the notion of having a different experience of the city; tasting honey
from the garden, say, or sitting in silence in the shade of a
particular tree, or contemplating, the way one does walking through a
labyrinth.
Some other ideas we’re having:
We’d like to have an information booth, maybe built to look like one
of those old-time robot fortune tellers, where audience can ask
questions about garden history (or anything else). It would be
staffed by a gardener. We also like how gardeners who have been
members for a very long time argue about historical details, so maybe
it could be something like the booth of disputed history (but with a
better name).
One of the older gardeners is a retired dancer; we’d like her to make
a dance with one of the local children (a nine-year-old girl who is
also a dancer). In general we’d like to involve as many kids as
possible.
There is a large raised platform that was formerly used to store honey
(now it’s not used for anything); we’d like to station musicians (from
the garden membership) on top of it.
The garden does many kid-friendly group activities, like
costume-making or pumpkin-carving—we’d like to incorporate this
somehow, maybe bringing a lot of stuff from materials for the arts and
making costumes for a pageant or otherwise decorating the garden for
the event.
I like the idea of a confession box—a place for people to write
anonymous messages and put them in a box, like a suggestion box—then
we would make something out of them. Not sure what.
Pamela Pier
At last.. shapes in the smoke..
This is a marvelous gathering and sifting of information. I would love to
work on designing a project (or projects) to create something related to
the garden. ..we could begin to save twigs for another twig creatures
effort....or .... or.... I would love to sit around one afternoon and
brainstorm. Please let me know if you would entertain such a session.
Pam
p.s. rumor has it that Tim is on his way to Barcelona (again.).
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Grote" <ja...@jasongrote.com>
To: <goasis_...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: [goasis_foundry] interviewees & photos
Excellent! Thanks, Jan. I will try to line up interviews (and follow
up with Tim - haven't heard back re. our initial request. If you see
him in the flesh, could you ask him to email me? Tim, if you see this,
can you contact me off-list about an interview?).
Not sure whether Maureen is in town but I'll try to coordinate. Big
congrats are in order for her, though -- she is the director of The
Arcade Fire's stage show, and they won big at the Grammys last night!
Proposal attached & pasted below.
Foundry Artist Proposal � Maureen Towey and Jason Grote
We would like to propose an ambulatory installation piece occurring at
the Green Oasis garden, to be performed on two consecutive days, about
an hour or two in duration. The piece will involve music, dance,
performance, visual art, and pre-recorded audio pieces to be piped in
through speakers or played on portable audio devices. Audience
members will engage with the event at their own pace, led by a map or
possibly a scavenger hunt (though the hunt will be for experiences
rather than objects). There might also be an element of pageantry,
with audience guided through the garden by costumed gardeners and/or
neighborhood kids.
The guiding metaphor for both the creation and the content of the
piece is emergence. Over the course of our interactions with the
garden membership, we�ve noticed that creative projects there operate
in a specific, consistent, organic, and non-hierarchical way: a
gardener will start a project (e.g., the stone patio in the center of
the garden, which didn�t exist when we first visited and was gradually
built over the course of three months); that garden member will be the
lead on that project, though not exclusively, and other gardeners will
help, offer input, argue, or opt out as needed. We believe that this
is why gardeners have told the Foundry that they are �waiting for us
to tell them what to do;� because the group operates less like a
theater company or a labor union and more like a neighborhood or
family. Limited hierarchies emerge and fade away in a casual, social
way, contingent on projects. Spatially, this is reflected in the
garden�s built structures, like the gazebo, the koi pond, the
beehives, and so on. Taken as a whole, the architecture of the garden
is beautiful, but individual structures are messy and uneven, in
defiance to the hard right angles of the surrounding buildings and the
grid structure of Manhattan. This is our guiding principle, and our
alternate vision of �NYC� Just Like [We] Pictured It.� The audience
will be witness to an actual, working utopia�not the utopian program,
which is largely taboo (think Marxism-Leninism), but the utopian
impulse�or, as the artist Steve Lambert puts it, utopia is not a
destination but a direction.
In practical terms, we�d like to spend the winter months assembling
audio interviews, mostly with Green Oasis membership, but also with
academics studying gardening and urban space and activists from the
garden reservation music. These would provide any text for the piece,
and we would also edit the audio and (budget and technology
permitting) have it playing on loops on speakers planted strategically
throughout the garden. I know that Radiohole owns at least one audio
spotlight, a device that limits sound to a specific range, and we
might be able to rent it from them; however, small regular speakers
would be fine for this purpose. The audio would maximize
participation from gardeners who can�t or don�t want to commit to the
performance dates, and would provide new and interesting context for
the audience as they wander through the garden; in the same way that
an audio tour operates in a museum. Another approach might be to make
the interviews available on mp3s for the audience to listen on
individual devices; however, this isolates the experience in the way
that might not be constructive.
Another idea would be to create small temporary plaques for plants and
built structures in the garden, like they have at botanical
gardens�but instead of (or in addition to) scientific info about the
plants, we would include personal history about the garden that we get
from the interviews�or information about the site of the garden
(formerly a tenement, later a vacant lot) that we get from the NYC
Municipal Archives. We�re fascinated by the idea or a palimpsest�as
Luc Sante has said, New York is a city that is always being built on
top of another city. Underneath the garden there is rumored to be an
old basement from the tenement that once stood there, and we�re really
fascinated by that idea, and the idea of �air rights;� the idea of New
York as a vertical city.
More about the scavenger hunt: it would be geared towards people
having alternative experiences, use all the five senses, and emphasize
the notion of having a different experience of the city; tasting honey
from the garden, say, or sitting in silence in the shade of a
particular tree, or contemplating, the way one does walking through a
labyrinth.
Some other ideas we�re having:
We�d like to have an information booth, maybe built to look like one
of those old-time robot fortune tellers, where audience can ask
questions about garden history (or anything else). It would be
staffed by a gardener. We also like how gardeners who have been
members for a very long time argue about historical details, so maybe
it could be something like the booth of disputed history (but with a
better name).
One of the older gardeners is a retired dancer; we�d like her to make
a dance with one of the local children (a nine-year-old girl who is
also a dancer). In general we�d like to involve as many kids as
possible.
There is a large raised platform that was formerly used to store honey
(now it�s not used for anything); we�d like to station musicians (from
the garden membership) on top of it.
The garden does many kid-friendly group activities, like
costume-making or pumpkin-carving�we�d like to incorporate this
somehow, maybe bringing a lot of stuff from materials for the arts and
making costumes for a pageant or otherwise decorating the garden for
the event.
I like the idea of a confession box�a place for people to write
anonymous messages and put them in a box, like a suggestion box�then
Jason Grote
Jason....
At last.. shapes in the smoke..
This is a marvelous gathering and sifting of information. I would love to work on designing a project (or projects) to create something related to the garden. ..we could begin to save twigs for another twig creatures effort....or .... or.... I would love to sit around one afternoon and brainstorm. Please let me know if you would entertain such a session.
Pam
p.s. rumor has it that Tim is on his way to Barcelona (again.).
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Grote" <ja...@jasongrote.com>
To: <goasis_...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: [goasis_foundry] interviewees & photos
Excellent! Thanks, Jan. I will try to line up interviews (and follow
up with Tim - haven't heard back re. our initial request. If you see
him in the flesh, could you ask him to email me? Tim, if you see this,
can you contact me off-list about an interview?).
Not sure whether Maureen is in town but I'll try to coordinate. Big
congrats are in order for her, though -- she is the director of The
Arcade Fire's stage show, and they won big at the Grammys last night!
Proposal attached & pasted below.
Foundry Artist Proposal – Maureen Towey and Jason Grote
We would like to propose an ambulatory installation piece occurring at
the Green Oasis garden, to be performed on two consecutive days, about
an hour or two in duration. The piece will involve music, dance,
performance, visual art, and pre-recorded audio pieces to be piped in
through speakers or played on portable audio devices. Audience
members will engage with the event at their own pace, led by a map or
possibly a scavenger hunt (though the hunt will be for experiences
rather than objects). There might also be an element of pageantry,
with audience guided through the garden by costumed gardeners and/or
neighborhood kids.
The guiding metaphor for both the creation and the content of the
piece is emergence. Over the course of our interactions with the
garden membership, we’ve noticed that creative projects there operate
in a specific, consistent, organic, and non-hierarchical way: a
gardener will start a project (e.g., the stone patio in the center of
the garden, which didn’t exist when we first visited and was gradually
built over the course of three months); that garden member will be the
lead on that project, though not exclusively, and other gardeners will
help, offer input, argue, or opt out as needed. We believe that this
is why gardeners have told the Foundry that they are “waiting for us
to tell them what to do;” because the group operates less like a
theater company or a labor union and more like a neighborhood or
family. Limited hierarchies emerge and fade away in a casual, social
way, contingent on projects. Spatially, this is reflected in the
garden’s built structures, like the gazebo, the koi pond, the
beehives, and so on. Taken as a whole, the architecture of the garden
is beautiful, but individual structures are messy and uneven, in
defiance to the hard right angles of the surrounding buildings and the
grid structure of Manhattan. This is our guiding principle, and our
alternate vision of “NYC… Just Like [We] Pictured It.” The audience
will be witness to an actual, working utopia—not the utopian program,
which is largely taboo (think Marxism-Leninism), but the utopian
impulse—or, as the artist Steve Lambert puts it, utopia is not a
destination but a direction.
In practical terms, we’d like to spend the winter months assembling
audio interviews, mostly with Green Oasis membership, but also with
academics studying gardening and urban space and activists from the
garden reservation music. These would provide any text for the piece,
and we would also edit the audio and (budget and technology
permitting) have it playing on loops on speakers planted strategically
throughout the garden. I know that Radiohole owns at least one audio
spotlight, a device that limits sound to a specific range, and we
might be able to rent it from them; however, small regular speakers
would be fine for this purpose. The audio would maximize
participation from gardeners who can’t or don’t want to commit to the
performance dates, and would provide new and interesting context for
the audience as they wander through the garden; in the same way that
an audio tour operates in a museum. Another approach might be to make
the interviews available on mp3s for the audience to listen on
individual devices; however, this isolates the experience in the way
that might not be constructive.
Another idea would be to create small temporary plaques for plants and
built structures in the garden, like they have at botanical
gardens—but instead of (or in addition to) scientific info about the
plants, we would include personal history about the garden that we get
from the interviews—or information about the site of the garden
(formerly a tenement, later a vacant lot) that we get from the NYC
Municipal Archives. We’re fascinated by the idea or a palimpsest—as
Luc Sante has said, New York is a city that is always being built on
top of another city. Underneath the garden there is rumored to be an
old basement from the tenement that once stood there, and we’re really
fascinated by that idea, and the idea of “air rights;” the idea of New
York as a vertical city.
More about the scavenger hunt: it would be geared towards people
having alternative experiences, use all the five senses, and emphasize
the notion of having a different experience of the city; tasting honey
from the garden, say, or sitting in silence in the shade of a
particular tree, or contemplating, the way one does walking through a
labyrinth.
Some other ideas we’re having:
We’d like to have an information booth, maybe built to look like one
of those old-time robot fortune tellers, where audience can ask
questions about garden history (or anything else). It would be
staffed by a gardener. We also like how gardeners who have been
members for a very long time argue about historical details, so maybe
it could be something like the booth of disputed history (but with a
better name).
One of the older gardeners is a retired dancer; we’d like her to make
a dance with one of the local children (a nine-year-old girl who is
also a dancer). In general we’d like to involve as many kids as
possible.
There is a large raised platform that was formerly used to store honey
(now it’s not used for anything); we’d like to station musicians (from
the garden membership) on top of it.
The garden does many kid-friendly group activities, like
costume-making or pumpkin-carving—we’d like to incorporate this
somehow, maybe bringing a lot of stuff from materials for the arts and
making costumes for a pageant or otherwise decorating the garden for
the event.
I like the idea of a confession box—a place for people to write
anonymous messages and put them in a box, like a suggestion box—then
T. Murphy
sorry to be so out of the loop.
A lot of personal issues - bad and good - have me overly pre-occupied.
And I have been going to Madrid(not Barcelona) 1-2 weekends a month.
I will be away until Feb28th but in NYC completely until April 15th.
Tim
Jason Grote
March. No apology necessary.