Chelsea

 

Our assigned neighborhood was Chelsea. The main goal of the machine was to highlight some of the significant aspects of Chelsea, such as one of the corporate buildings, The High Line park, and the Chelsea studio. Some of the things we learned through this project were the ideas of iterations, trial, and error. Learning from those mistakes in order to reach our final outcome. Last friday, we began from scratch, we went on a mission around Union Square and the Parsons green center to collect the materials we taught were necessary for our machine. We collected all kinds of materials such as cardboards, pieces of wood, and metal. Finding the proper fabric for our curtain, a ball heavy enough to drop the curtain, foil trays to create our High Line ramp, leaves, and a lot of basic sturdy materials to keep our machine together. It took us a while to find the right ball as we weren’t sure what would hold the machine together so we grabbed a lime from Whole Foods as well as a decoration ball, but both failed.

We were able to find a place in the fourth floor of the Parsons building to work on our machine, however supplies were a huge setback because we didn’t know where to start. We didn’t have the right glue to put the cardboards and pieces of wood together. We used regular glue which took forever to stick together, but it was able to work with time. We started by making fences with paper but we realized a faster method was using ice cream sticks which would enhance our replica of The Highline Park. Additionally, we used the foil pans by connecting them all together with a stapler. During these three hours we built the general form of what our machine looked like at the end. We put the ice cream sticks together to form the fences with glue. We made a list of the materials we needed and organized our ideas in a list.

On Tuesday, we met outside of class to gather all the materials we were missing in order to finalize the project. Thursday, we were able to complete our project. We bought spray paint and a hot glue gun which allowed us to finally put our machine together. We bought brown and black spray paint to cover the building and The High Line. The curtain was made out of a piece of blue fabric that we sewed over and made it look like a curtain by painting it with red spray paint. An important part of our machine was our visual/3D map which we included as the stage of Chelsea studios. In the afternoon, we put the components of the machine together. Eventually, were able to paint our materials, we set them to dry and unfortunately, we ran out of black and red spray paint. We went on a mission in order to get more because we couldn’t find the same colors anywhere When we were finally finish painting, we connected the three parts of our machines together, the building The Highline Park, and the theater.
After spray painting all the parts of the machine we struggle with the curtain because the spray paint made it stiff and as a result it didn’t drop the way it was supposed to. From the four floor we went to the studio room in the second floor because we would be able to connect everything and leave our machine there overnight. Although we were able to put everything together, the main problem was how our ball would roll over to make the curtain drop. Some of us worked on gluing the last minute things such as the windows, leaves, and etc. At first, our curtain had too many strings, so we had to remove some of them as well as cut the curtain from the bottom so there was less weight. After a few trails, we were finally able to drop the curtain to reveal our studio. In our process of iterations we didn’t use our fences because it was poorly put together and it looked messy at the end.

Working in a group was really difficult because it’s hard to rely in order people to get the work done. Our schedule differed and we were not able to get together all the time, but at the end we made it work. As a group we all agree that we learned about our other senses. We usually rely in the sense of sight, but creating this machine and exploring Chelsea helped us developed and appreciate our other senses. It’s incredible how we were able to captured the essence of Chelsea using texture, sound, and smell. In the overall project, we were able to have a better understanding of the reading “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger because we experimented with our senses in order to capture the essence of Chelsea in a simple yet complicated machine.

As a group we were able to meet the learning outcomes. We brought our writing and making together by basing our machine in the notes of our sensory experience when we explored Chelsea. We translated Chelsea in a machine informed by our senses which after a long process of iterations we felt clearly represented Chelsea. We explore visual representations when we research and decided which place and materials best represented and capture Chelsea broadly. The final machine communicated the message we determined which was the hard working, recreational, and entertainment part of Chelsea. The theater represented the entertainment, the The HighLine Park the recreational, and the building the corporation/ working aspect of Chelsea. In this collaborative project, as a group we were able to follow the rules and accomplish the goal of the machine (reveal the chelsea studios/theater). Together, communicated and cooperated to achieve the same goals, a successful and aesthetically pleasing machine that demonstrated our ability to denote concepts material skills and techniques.

Video, Chelsea Sensory Machine