Jackson Valette Sypher Puma Rose
09.26.18
Int. Studio 1: Avatar Bridge 2: Artists’ Statement
We spent time reflecting on both our individual issues and the project prompt, as outlined
in the syllabus, to best approach this design challenge. The syllabus asks students to “imagine
a utopian place in which both of the issues you have identified have been solved”. The issues
we chose to tackle are the lack of access to public education and to healthy food, specifically in
low-income neighborhoods.
Initially we found ourselves looking at this project through the lense of a design
challenge which, in some ways, gave our work a stiff feeling – more architectural than artistic.
Our intention for this project was to create a multi-purpose space that aims to provide both
access to public education and create a sustainable source of organic produce for residents of
the Bronx – a real neighborhood, right here in New York City, which currently faces both of
these issues. Moving forward, our hope for this project became not only to create said utopian
space, but to use our platform as artists to start to examine the implications of our utopia. Where
were their dichotomies between our intentions in designing our facility and the reality of its
effects on the community it was meant to serve?
A utopia can be defined in two ways. The Google Dictionary defines a utopia as “an
imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.” Merriam Webster, on the other
hand, defines utopias as “an impractical scheme for social improvement.” Which is ours? Does it
exist in a space between the two? These were questions we felt we could not fully answer – and
we thought it would be important to reflect our uncertainty in our completed project.
Our final composition consists of three sets of overlayed of twin-visuals, each meant to
address both of these distinct definitions of utopia. The base layers of these layered visuals are
architectural sketches of prominent details in our design. These beautified sketches present an
image of efficiency and innovation. In these sketches everything is perfect. The top layer,
however, takes a more skeptical look at our facility: layers of tracing paper sewn over the base
sketches expose our doubts and concerns; it begs to ask the hard questions whether our
attempt to aid a community as outsiders will simply become a means through which it is
gentrified and displaced in the long run.