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:

They wanted to keep their privacy
They didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures or videos
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.