The project coming is to build a sensory machine that would represent our district.
What Is a sensory machine ?
To our group a sensory machine needs to represent our district, has to conceptualize our perception of Soho.
It is also a machine that will work thanks to a domino effect which will create several actions, all aiming to this final action: the goal of the machine.
For our group, being: Victor, Chiara and I, the district is Soho.
Before getting into any further details,we should delimit the boundaries of SoHo. SoHo is a district of Manhattan in New York delimited byHouston on the north side, Crosby street on the East side, Canal street on the south side and finally by Six Avenue on the West side.
I was assigned textures, it is why I will mostly be describing Soho trough its architectural history.
But as a group we were assigned three senses: textures, sounds and smells.
First SoHo came to the public’s eye for being the chosen place of many artists’ lofts and art galleries, but is now also seen for its numerous shops: traditional boutiques, luxury brands, chic hotel to little cofee shops. The area has been trough many changes, transitions : social, economic, architectural and cultural.
This little part of history brings us to the idea of diversity and contrast. This diversity is also traduced by the multiplicity of textures.
In Soho we can contemplate walls made of bricks, wood, glass and so many others. The streets can either be very modern or made out of stone giving them a very vintage look.
To us, after going two times to Soho we realized that it was a district with a strong contrast. A very luxurious district with numerous luxurious brands but also a very vintage look with red bricks, stairs on the frontage of the not so tall buildings.
We can’t miss the diversity and the contrast that Soho has to offer. By only looking at the floor we already have this perception of a contrasted district.
While walking on Houston avenue or Broadway, the spectator is submerged by modernity: large roads that have obviously been built recently. The streets roads are so even, we can nearly feel the presence of technology. It is nearly the opposite when you decide to leave those avenues. If you leave the boundaries of Soho and go deeper into the district you will leave the modernity and enter a vintage atmosphere.
The streets are not made of tar anymore but of little rocks, it is like a continuity of little mosaics : Be careful girls do not wear heels, you will fall.
The people there are also very different. From tourists to New yorkers, artists, street sellers selling the art they make, everyone is mixing up.
Sounds are also very diverse. From the music of those hotel lounges, high brand stores to the people in the street playing music out loud on they radio.
That is the reason why our sensory machine has for goal of mixing up fours different things, maybe black and white paint that mixed will show the contrasted identity of Soho and stones and glitters to show the luxurious and vintage parts of Soho.
For the machine we will need for sure a bowl, very little black and whites ball, glitters and little rocks, paper box or wood that will be painted as a Soho building. The fourth walls of the Soho building will be decorated, so we will be able to show the multiple aspect of Soho and also give the impression to the public that they are walking into Soho’s streets.
The goal of the machine is to produce a mixture of those different materials in order to show the identity of Soho or at least our perception of it.
