The Chelsea Highline; Psychoanalytic Map

Our exploration of the Chelsea Highline through the senses was a seriously unique experience. We visited the highline a couple times to really pay attention and document the experience and identify any specific data we noticed among the space.

The sense I was paying attention to was touch. It was really interesting for me, because I usually stick to visual experiences of a space. To be aware of the literal feelings in the space was new, and I noticed a lot in particular about the contrasting textures of the highline. There was an overwhelming presence of the industrial feelings of metal throughout the entire highline. I expected this, because of the fact that the park is a completely built structure. But what I didn’t expect was such a profound presence of natural textures. For every metal element, there were equally as many forms built from natural materials. Many of the benches are finished wood, and the entire walkway is inlaid stones! Also, a lot of the plants along the path are tall grasses or smooth-leaved trees that hang over the walkway, easy to be touched. There was one specific type of tree that was pink with a feathery texture that stood out a lot!

I documented all these different types of surfaces and textures, and photographed most of the prominent ones. My groupmates did the same with their assigned senses. To present the senses on the map, we gave each sense a color, and printed out small sample pictures of the specific things we noticed for our sense. We then put these on the map at the area they were present. For the parts along the way that we didn’t photograph but our sense was prevalent, we put a color-coded identification button, with the category of the sense pictured. These categories are presented in our legend. Our actual map is laser-cut into clear plexi-glass, with separate levels to better organize and present the senses. Here are photos of the map in creation:

IMG_3708 IMG_7494Our final piece has a gradient to represent the change in time while we documented our experience. We also collected a lot of data based on the types of visitors in the park. There were many tourists and exercising individuals, as well as a scattering of photographers and families! We presented this data on the map with dots that correspond to a color indicated in the legend of park visitors. Here is the final!

Here is the final paper explaining the final process!! High Line Map Paper

IMG_6434After the final critique, we decided the map would be more interesting and readable if we included spacers in between each layer, to create more dimension. We added spacers made of hot glue sticks, and I think it ended up truly completing the piece; IMG_0111 IMG_0113 IMG_0115 IMG_0116