Presentation link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19DHjo3lp_HjC7ZoTHAy_Q4vm4pSVJ6OiGk2JvwTvCcs/edit?usp=sharing
For my final bridge project, I decided to take a walk through a path that I have passed through almost every day through my childhood. It is a hidden path that leads to an abandoned water pumping station. South Orange, the town it was built upon, was founded in 1666. Beginning in the late 1890s, and throughout the early 1990s, swamps were drained, roads were constructed, and has lines were laid within the town. Sewers and running water were also added, including the water pumping station. This was all done to transform the area from a settlement of farms into a railroad suburb of neighboring cities, New York and Newark.
The water pumping station is a symbol of this transformation, as it was the catalyst for the physical taming of the area. The ability to pump water to various locations allowed the area to become suburbanized, by creating an organized grid of housing based upon where water lines were routed. Water lines also allowed residents to tame and change the landscape of the town by growing grass and specific plants, a practice essential to suburbanization. Grass was grown and maintained in an organized manner to make the community appear wealthy. Well kempt landscapes have always been a symbol of wealthy suburbs due to the large amount of resources needed to maintain it, mainly waterlines.
As I kept walking down the path, I found a broken water hose along the brick pathway. I realized that not only the abandoned water pumping station, but the object itself was a symbol of suburbanization. Like the water pumping station, an object like a water hose is used to maintain nature and lawns to look clean and proper. The hose was someone’s investment in order to make their home appear well kempt, and thus alluding to the fact that their financial status allowed them to allocate their resources to do so.
I then started to think about the idea of taming landscape, altering its shape, and objects that are often added to lawns in order to transform them into decorative objects. They are no longer seen as nature itself, but a controlled decoration meant to represent a homeowner/person.
I decided to deconstruct my object in order to further understand its functions. Upon researching, all my findings narrowed down to the topic of control. Every piece in the water hose aided in a function to disperse water out and onto grass, in order to control its form. I decided to manifest the idea of my object into my chosen project material: paper. I decided to make paper as it uses water in order to bind fibers and objects found in nature in order to control its form, which is an idea identical to my object.
My process of making the paper was simple, however I ran into issues of the volume that I could produce. The amount of time to produce the paper was long, and I had limited time to make it. My food processor broke, which also limited the amount that I could produce. Though this seemed like a misfortune at first, I realized that this related back to my idea of controlled nature, in which lawns have limited size. I decided that working with what I had was beneficial to my idea, by forcing me to transform what I was given into a “decoration” of my choosing, similar to a homeowner and their lawn of a specific size.
After a lot of playing around with the configuration, I settled upon a quilt like formation. I bound the papers together with string to indicate that I had purposely positioned each piece to my liking, and that they were controlled by me. I decided to hang the papers on a wall in order to elevate them further as decoration, and so that the landscape could be taken in all at once.
After presetting to the class I noticed that many people had comments as to how I could have alternatively displayed the piece. I did not disagree with any of them, as I felt that they were all true. I believe that I could have placed together the squares in any way I wanted, and either laying flat or on a wall. This is because any configuration would be representative of my control over nature using water. The configuration I chose to display just happened to represent my taste more. What I chose to display was “my lawn”, if you will, and I think that any configuration I chose would be indicative of that.