Proposal for Civic Center Park - Rough Draft

Entertainment as Communication

Overall there is a huge divide between the haves and have-nots at the park.  They avoid each other like the plague.  The homeless tend to stay in their own areas while other citizens walk around them or past them.

On another note there is a general lack of entertainment in the park.  Though it is beautiful landscaping and art placed in the very center of the city there aren’t any street musicians, children playing, or other signs of people actually using the space.  Its like a very well tended garden that only occasionally gets visited by the non-homeless.

My idea is to try and bring the homeless and other citizens together through gaming.  Specifically through the shuffleboard court, I want to organize at least one to two games to be able to go on concurrently.  Also possibly other games as well as getting shuffleboard pieces might be problematic (even if I make the sticks)

Problems: 

·      Getting people to get involved, possibly a prize for the homeless people that play (or individual money for getting involved).  Does this taint the project by paying the people to play?

·      Getting regular citizens to play.  How, what incentive? 

·      Middle school dance syndrome. Involved but separate.

Solutions:

·      Put forth a proposal to Wizard’s chest.

o   Other games, checkers chess?

Site Analysis

Summary of my site analysis.

Artist Presentation

Bibliography

Book

1.     Fineberg Jonathan, Volz Wolfgang. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: on the way to The Gates, Central Park, New York City. Yale University Press, 2004

Websites

2.     http://www.overtheriver.org/

3.     http://www.landfallpress.com/news.htm

4.     http://christojeanneclaude.net/

a.     http://christojeanneclaude.net/otherOil.shtml

Homeless Vehicle Project

I had some major problems with this article though I feel that my own experiences have greatly influenced that.  I felt that this project was not truly art, though an interesting approach to a problem in a specific area.  That said the design of this project was truly novel to me.  Creating a way for the homeless to keep their pride/independence while actually improving their quality of life was a design feat.  It brings me to question why aren't more projects done like this, asking designers/engineers about problems that are outside their normal venue in order to render new ideas?

One major problem I had with the article was that the people writing it hadn't consulted/talked to a single female homeless person.  I myself have volunteered quite a bit in NYC helping the homeless spending time talking to them and listening to their problems.  It seemed like a lackluster effort as far as research goes to not talk to an important part of the group whose problems they are trying to address.

Site Analysis

In researching Civic Center Park this is some of what I found

http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_6.asp

Robert W. Speer Speer shared his vision in a January 7, 1907 pep talk to the city council: "We are in a plastic state. As the twig is bent so the tree will grow.... Denver can be made one of the ordinary cities of the country, or she can be made the Paris of America. It will cost money, but this investment will pay ten dollars for every one spent. Let us start [with Civic Center] plaza near the business center—have statues, trees, and flowers—where our people and tourists may gather each evening under the most artistic electric lighting—near the spray from grand fountains and listen to the finest music in the land....Then build not an ordinary, but an extraordinary drive or Appian Way into the mountains.... Take these forward steps, and you will never turn back—our future greatness will be assured."

Current ongoings

http://www.civiccenterfriends.blogspot.com/

General history –Government site

https://www.denvergov.org/CouncilDistrict10/CivicCenter/tabid/382974/Default.aspx

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Denvers-Civic-Center-Park/61865302953

Park webcam

http://www.camvista.com/usa/colorado/webcams/denver_civic_center.php

Denver parks Policy change

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_16157610

Chapter 1 - Miwon Kwon

This has to be one of the more difficult readings I've encountered in talking about art.  Its dense, verbose, and very very academic.  The introduction itself was a bit overbearing summing up each chapter rather than overall message.

I couldn't make it through 3 pages without turning to the dictionary/internet to find out about underlying theories several times.  I found the entire chapter seemed to assume previous reading of several other textbooks/theories. Though this itself is not necessarily bad it just frustrates me a bit.

However, Kwons work goes into much greater depth into how site-specific design has evolved over time.  Going from inside the gallery to analyzing the site of the gallery through such pieces as 'Measurement: Room' and 'Within and Beyond the Frame'.  It really shows how artists/art evolved out of the gallery rather than just suddenly appearing as a movement.  It allowed artists to truly interact with their site as a piece of work, to question it and criticize it.
Mierle Uskele's work was itself genius in creating "maintenance art" questioning the very how of the white walls and floors.  Who keeps these spaces clean late at night, forcing the audience to see the work happening during the day/operating hours. It also brings into question the gender roles of the work she was doing in cleaning. 

Some of the examples seemed to truly confuse me though.  Specifically Mark Dion's On Tropical Nature had a confusing definition of site.  He divided it up into four parts, four specific 'sites' though I couldn't for the life of me believe that beyond the site in the rain-forest and the site in the gallery that the third and fourth sites existed other than as conceptual ideas.  In my opinion it was a bit much.  How do we define a site?  Is it simply physical? Do sight lines constrain a work?  Can a work influence an entire area even if it can't always be seen?

Civic Center Park trip 1

Pictures, top to bottom (The capital building, a fence in front of the capital steps,  the shuffleboard court, the view of the South end of the park, and one of the walls close to the shuffleboard)

Above are some of the photos from my class's trip to Civic Center Park.  We were analyzing the site for a proposal for public art that we are each going to create.  Overall I found myself focusing on the peculiarities in the park.  The things I found odd about the site seemed to jump out at me screaming for attention, but I'll go into those later in my site analysis.


Civic Center Park is undeniably beautiful.  It has been carefully crafted as a crossroads between Art/History and the commercial, the judicial and the legislative.  Below are the transcriptions of my notes though some of them are more steam of consciousness than complete thoughts.

Public vs Official
   Actual use vs intended use
Stone Axis accentuated by landscaping
Golden Triangle,
   - light industry
Colfax - longest running commercial st.
   Bends around the park, forces you to at least look at it.
   view artwork on the edge of the park.
Old art (memorials) vs New art
      How do you compare them, how do they relate to each other

Landscaping - Who designed it?  What was their motivation?
       Community garden in one corner, interesting idea. Maybe it will expand.
Lighting - Ornate posts, do they work?  Are they maintained?
Contradiction of North vs South, commercial/art. 
Architecture doesn't differentiate maybe infers their similarities?
Who uses the park? When/why?

What is the upkeep costs? What about design costs?
Civic Center built 1912-1920
      -Restored 1989-1992
Entertainment
Amphitheater,  Shuffleboard -games