Review Notes

Here are the minutes:

- Study of the uncanny-ness… Exploring the above and below
- “Fluid” network – fluid of the technology


Comments

What is your idea of the uncanny?
- unhomely, disconnection with what you think something should do… it is not real (automata) – notion of devices behaving on their own.
- Fearful response, something that you think should not happen.
- Pleasure principal – we love to be scared

Amazing thing in itself – standing in as a representation it is unclear. What would these things be?

- Play off of public / private – lower surfaces as a more private nature.

What surface are you referring to? Grade?

- Model suspended at eye level – ground plane
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Is the position literally there? As in underground?

Can you go down there?

- Not necessarily literally 30 m underground – but you can build lower.
- Not intended just for hobos
- Exploration of the unknown world

Nat

Would be very helpful to be specific about what things really are.
Pleasure of the infrastructure... Inputs are very simple – trains are going by. Meaning of the thing is basically a train going by tells people a train is going by. The complexity is the articulation of what is happening underground. Pleasure in trying to understand infrastructure that is unclear about what it is. Very helpful to start to say very practically, how much of this can I get in contact with, how do I get in contact with it? Hiding behind the abstract / figurative. Define the spaces in terms of reality. What are the surfaces? Spaces lead to other spaces? Describe what it is. How do I engage with it?

Rob

Got caught in the “unconventional”. Totally seduced by it…
Not working as well as it should.
Do not see the connection between the hobo culture and the model. Not convinced about the representation of the thing.
For me I would flip the thing on its head and have the whole piece as some kind of installation in the air.
Why did you go underground?
Why does the hydraulics say “underground” to you. – Idea of what might be at the site. How we dream into the ground.


“Stop Market Planetarium” – Danish artists ** Example.
- Could not read the thing literally, but you were aware of a world.


Another pleasure in the specificity of the translations – how the passing of the train is understood by each one, individually – different trains, sorts of trains, triggering different meanings. Is there a sensitivity to certain conductors that might suggest that they would be more welcoming to hobos, etc…

Rob – Still unsure why it is underground. I want to enjoy the thing not only as a model, but as a real thing. Idea of the uncanny is the least convincing aspect.

Patrick: It is a speculation – It is a possibility. Parallel would be the want to travel into the subway tunnel just to see what is there. Could just say “okay there is infrastructure” but really it is about speculating beyond what is underground. Dream of an imaginary infrastructure. An imagined world.

Absolutely need a section of what is really there. Draw in the piles, etc… How I would come across this space.

Early aspect of reconnecting the two sides of the city that are divided by the trains. Opportunity to address this through cross-section.


Reflection:

My presentation was good for the most part, i recognize my presentation of the work was poor, repetition and generalities became an issue. I agree with all the comments, and will be addressing these issues in the portfolio through the drawings. My regret was to get hung up on the uncanny in my presentation, the work is involved within the uncanny, but my work was more about exploration into abandon sites , finding a potential to bridge the neighborhood that was once divided. My focus for my porfolio will be to address these main issues.