Author: Claudia Arias

Public Space Project

| Claudia Arias

Public Space Project

Materials:
  • Box
  • Index Cards
  • Various pens and pencils
Location:
  • Mall at Bay Plaza, Bronx, New York
Recorded with:
  • (Photography) Canon T3i DSLR camera

Theme: What do people think of NYC? How do they feel living in NYC?

This box was taken to the Mall at Bay Plaza, along with a card that asked “Bronxites” how they felt about NYC. The mall is one of the biggest and bound to attract many customers, which makes it a perfect setting for this project. It attracts a very diverse population in both class and race. (The box looks tiny from this perspective.)

While some called it overrated and noisy, most comments were positive remarks about the state.

It was however hard to take pictures of the people interacting with the project due to various reasons:

  1. They wanted to keep their privacy
  2. They didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures or videos
  3. MOST were in a rush

New York is known for it’s fast paced environment, and I believe that this and the fact that the project took place on a weekday, made it more difficult to fully record the people interacting with the project. I do believe that if i had done it in a park or a central place in Manhattan, I would have had a better chance to record people’s interactions. On the other hand, I am content with the kindness and respect that the people of the Bronx treated my project. Their answers were also surprising since most were positive and relatable.

 

The Project was in collaboration with Kevin. After our original project (which has been posted by him on the blog) got taken, I decided to try it again while taking care of the box and encouraging others to interact with it more. It was a fun project.

Art in Public Places

| Claudia Arias

Our project is a wish/prayer tree. Since it is still very cold outside, I believe that the perfect location for this project would be indoors, in a public place. It would be nice to put our project inside the art building, shuster hall and/or another building at Lehman. A place where it is easy to see and people can interact with it. It is important for us that the project looks approachable and easy to interact with. It is also important to film and photograph in a public place where it is legal. We will make sure to keep those who wish to not participate off the video and images, so that we respect their space. The location is usually occupied by Lehman students, staff and visitors. I think both film and photography would be the best way to document people’s interactions with our project. We can capture their fresh interactions and photograph the details of the project for easy transitions and understanding of it.

 

Example