Stim + Dross
2020
studio media manifold
collaborators madison irish
advisors marcus carter
institution rensselaer polytechnic institute
abstract
Stim (the mixture of program, building, and its support structures) and Dross (the undervalued residues of the metropolitan machine) describe the site and studio. The immediate context is industrial, with a history of both creative and commercial trades. The result is a context of historic factory remnants and modern creative industries, with plans for a green network along Newtown Creek. The SDSC inspires new methods of media engagement through a site-driven series of temporal interactions, where traditional notions of authorship and participation are upended to form new perspectives of past, present, site, & self. Visitors assume unprecedented levels of control over their perception and engagement; artists curate dynamic experiences rather than static pieces, each designed to produce infinite perspectives that lead to reflections beyond the self.
PROJECT I: media manifold
Abstract eidetic diagram for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Exploring nonlinear narrative, structure, intersection, framing, and POV.
An initial timeline diagram aiming to unravel Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s nonlinear structure of loopy narratives, framed memories, and conflicting timelines.
The design originates from an exploratory exercise involving the spatialization of nonlinear film structure through abstract compositions. The film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, has a unique structure of looping time jumps to a central spine; as the main character erases his memory in order to move onto the future, both new and past relationships are revisited, exploited, and unexpectedly intertwined.
Sequence, framing, and rhythm are explored as tools for spatial organization.
The larger project’s desire to look backward and forward at cultural patterns (of media innovation) and contextual trends (in site pollution) reflects this research.
The film’s strategies of concealing, revealing, and choreographing between varied bodies and pockets of time are explored in order to create a nonlinear and entirely unpredictable method of circulation. As visitors experience each ephemeral exhibit, perceptions of site conditions, self image, and shared community may find new perspectives and latent connections.
PROJECT II: museum of future media
Perspective towards the new addition and its conflicting presentations of past and future media, both physical and digital.
Illustrative Context Plan
Illustrative Site Plan
Sequential design progression diagram.
Visitors are elevated to the second floor upon entry, and travel from the site’s south end (of existing construction) to the north end (of proposed construction).
The proposal can be analyzed using two modes of spatial and circulatory organization: Circuit 1, the “immersive” circuit, and Circuit 2, the “experiential” circuit, aiming to challenge typical museum statics and directionality.
Circulation Sequence Diagram
Circuit 1 has a strategic, specified path for visitors to follow with brief moments of respite. This choreographed system of elevated bridges takes them to a large “black box” with a dynamic, semi-transparent screen, before dropping them onto the ground for Circuit 2, existing as a flexible field of temporal ground networks. Visitors may then experience grounded perspectives of past exhibits, or explore alternative views on the exhibits they just experienced.
There is no set “order.”
Plan Level 1
Plan Level 2
The museum links to a green network along Newton Creek that aims to revitalize the area with social, ethical, and environmental initiatives.
Framed perspectives, interactive elements, and temporal installations at the SDSC bring awareness to site histories of creation and pollution. Its creative past and industrial present can be engaged, linked, and questioned through exhibits on pollution, progress, and purpose.
“Pollute,” W.A. Rogers (August 13, 1881 / Harper’s Weekly)
Tracing the lineage of Newtown Creek: art, industry, and its effects.
The design’s insistence on forming multiple perspectives comes from our approach towards the three silos at the heart of the site. Instead of demolishing them, we use them as industrial remnants; tools to consider the history of the site and its potential futures.
In the silos, for example, atmospheres between the second-level bridges and ground-level silos are changed as people move through and interact with them. Only the third and final silo reveals both parties.
Silo diagram illustrating its playful negotiation of sequence and engagement.
In the first silo, bridge visitors unknowingly affect the ground atmosphere with each step. In the second silo, visitors on the ground level interact with an exhibition that affects the bridge atmosphere. In the third silo, the bridge becomes transparent so that both atmospheres can see each other and interact simultaneously, all without having to touch. Each visit, therefore, is anomalous and dependent on the collective as much as the individual. The major variable for repeat visits is no longer what’s “on display,” but the novelty of each new visit’s experience.
Schematic Section
immersive perspectives
Exhibits are activated upon engagement, which could range from directly touching designs to simply entering the space. Artists have full agency on how they address relationships between the context and media futures, with tectonic elements and framed views constructing a nonlinear sequence of concept and circulation.
images
special thx
daniell morales (for all of the love)
“the gays” groupchat-turned-quarantine-bubble (for showing me drag and keeping us up, till today)