In our Integrative Studio class, we did an activity in which I visually mapped out the pictures I took when I went the Museum of the City of New York and saw at the NY At its Core exhibit. I categorized my pictures into three different categories, which were colors, physically things one could touch, and the different kinds of evidence the exhibit had like images, 3D objects, digital images, and interactive activities. After we were split into groups in class, my group and I combined our categories together and split our images into two different categories, colors and different mediums. It was really difficult deciding which picture goes into which category because each person had a different interpretation of each picture people took. For example, one person in my group had pictures of black/white paintings with a red light gleaming on it. In my perspective, the pictures of the paintings were suppose to go into the black/white group since the paintings were black/white, but the person who took the picture thought it should go into the color group because of the red light. We also, realized that there is no one specific group for each picture rather the pictures taken could be used interchangeable in other categories.
After this group activity, as a class we came up with various systems that would be interesting to research on and map. The three systems we decide on were wayfinding/information systems, city infrastructure, and systems of movement. I’m really interested in the steps of curation and wayfinding, so my group and I decided to think about the distinct steps one needs to accomplish in order to create a mall. First, we thought of the things and people that go into building a mall like investors, interior designers, construction workers, companies, supplies, elevators, visitors, etc. Then, we organized all the information into an order of steps and categorized certain people and jobs together. After that, we used different animals to represent each individual involved in the process. For example, the rabbit symbolized the founder/creator of the mall, the yellow/green/blue dinosaurs were the visitors or companies(stores), the sharks represented the construction workers,etc. At the end, we drew lines to illustrate the internal connections between each group, so who would talk to who and the relation between each other. While mapping out this system, I realized that minor details create a system how it really is , so it is very important to concentrate and remember those details during the process, whether that be a mall or a small museum exhibit. Also, when we were organizing the stickies(refer to picture) into steps , sometimes we didn’t know what some things would go under because they could be placed in various groups. Therefore, that led to asking many questions to ourself about the process of building a mall. For example, how and who decides the budget of creating this mall, who report backs to who, or how does one decide which stores are going to be in the mall?
