modartifacts

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Final Project

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Co-creators: Dipika Titus and César Loayza

Inspiration and Artistic References

Mycelium networks

Light installation at the Desert Botanical Garden

Hand of the Statue of Liberty

The Pink Rabbit, Gelatin art group

Bouncy castle

Surrounded Islands, Christo and Jeanne-Claude

The Floating Piers, Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Sketches

Process

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Brooklyn Commons - Historical Research

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Downtown Brooklyn

First Congregational Church / NYU Wunsch Building

  • Originally inhabited by Lenape Native Americans until the 17th century

  • City was home to many prominent abolitionists, safehouses as part of the Underground Railroad movement

    • Protests over the planned demolition of some of these historic sites

    • First Congretational Church in the commons — originally a stop on the Underground Railroad, now the NYU Wunsch Building

  • Walt Whitman lived at Willoughby and Myrtle Avenues

  • Brooklyn incorporated into an independent city in 1834 due to its growing commercial, industrial, and residential presence

    • Third largest central business district in NYC

  • Historically, downtown Brooklyn was primarily a commercial and civic center

  • 2004 Rezoning —> $9 billion of private investment and $300 million in public improvements

  • More than 14000 residential units have been added since 2014

    • Went from 9-5 to 24/7 community

    • Tall luxury towers

      • “many of which include affordable housing” — 420 units (according to wikipedia)

    • Tax abatements for people who buy apartments

  • Buying and rental prices are rising — median rent for one-bedroom apartment is $3744/month

  • Foot traffic is 60-70% of what it was before the pandemic

    • Many small businesses are loosing shops due to gentrification

  • NYU expanding it’s presence in the area, Tandon School of Engineering

MetroTech

NYU buildings around the Brooklyn Commons

  • Demolition of over 100 homes and 50 businesses when it was created

  • 16-acre rectangle, entire area was designated a pedestrian zone

  • In 2018 Brookfield Properties purchased the MetroTech complex and renamed Brooklyn Commons

    • Privately owned public space

  • Hosts events including concerts, health fairs, chess tournaments, holiday celebrations, theater performances, ice-skating rink, and children’s activities

  • Jay Street is the most accessible subway station (?!)

Terms

Gentrification - the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process

Resources

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/22/realestate/downtown-brooklyn.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Brooklyn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqnAlEkvYxg

https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2019/01/treasures-of-downtown-brooklyn-remnants-of-the-former-independent-city-hidden-in-plain-sight.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Commons

https://www.archpaper.com/2022/02/metrotech-center-becomes-brooklyn-commons-and-will-get-a-50-million-overhaul/

https://brooklyncommons.com/

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Volumetric Scanning

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Process

Ok so the notion that you need a device with a LIDAR sensor to do volumetric scanning is a myth! I’m not sure where I go that idea from but a standard smart phone camera can do the trick. I downloaded the Scaniverse app and took 3D scans of some of my favorite objects. The app is really easy to use and the scanning is really easy to do too, it basically just involves making sure your camera sees all angles of your scanned object. It was so much fun!

Curated objects to scan

Volumetric scanning setup - scanning against a high-contrast, non-reflective surface

3D scans in the Scaniverse app

After everything was scanned, the app let me export .obj files. I downloaded Blender and imported my object meshes and materials. Below is a crazy scene I created!

Final Product

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Ancient Artifacts and New Tools

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Get lost in the MET

Stela of the God Bes, Egypt, late dynastic-early Roman periods, 4th century BC - 1st century AD

I LOVE the MET. It’s basically the only place I’ve been to (other than school) since moving to NYC 9 months ago. My Montana-aunt came to visit me this weekend and it is such a flex to take us both to this ginormous museum for free! It is so expansive and winding and multi-leveled and I’m pretty sure a full week isn’t enough to see everything the museum has to offer.

Actually, the first artifact I encountered is the one that spoke to me most. This is a stela, something I’ve never heard of before, which is a stone slab monument that sometimes serves as a gravestone. The Egyptian God Bes is carved out of limestone. Bes is the protector of households, mothers, children, and childbirth; defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad. He has a knife in one hand and a snake in the other whose tail curls up toward the god’s tambourine. The hole would have held a large erect phallus and there are some remaining traces of paint on the stone.

Archaeologists excavated the “Bes Chambers” at Saqqara. They are decorated with large terracotta wall reliefs of Bes with a large phallus. It is theorized to be a place where pilgrims came to stay and sleep in order to receive divinely inspired dreams prophesizing fertility. I think that’s super interesting because we’ve been discussing rest in class a lot and I think more rest can lead to more fertility in life, happiness, career… all aspects of life!

This artifact stood out to me because I really think this figure is cute and I’m interested in ancient deities.

Artifact honorable mentions

Ancient Egypt Amulets and Statuettes

Ancient Egypt Amulets and Statuettes

Armchair, NYC, 1875

Side chair, NYC, 1879

Stained glass window, London and New York, 1877-80

Chain Mail shirt, rings inscribed with the name of God (Allah), possibly Iranian, 15-16th century

Helmets, Caucasian (Ottoman?), 1808 (left), 1782 (right)

War maks, Tibetan, 14-16th century

Saint John the Baptist, Lombardy, late 15th century

New Tool: Priyanka’s Patented Pink Colored Glasses

  • Blocks out all the bullsh*t!

  • Someone bothering you? Now you won’t see ‘em!

  • Work on your plate? Through these glasses work-be-done!

  • NEW noise cancellation feature. Now you won’t hear any complaining, b*tching, or general bad vibes.

  • One time payment of your soul to the apathy gods

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Dreams

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As a kid, I feel like I had a really overactive imagination and I remember having lots of dreams. Nightmares, specifically, that woke me out of sleep. I’m not much of a dreamer as an adult. Maybe I have them but don’t remember them in the morning?! I feel like I probably don’t remember my dreams on account of being overworked, tired, and having my to-do list looping in my brain constantly (secret is: it never ends!).

So this assignment of tracking my dreams was kind of hard for me. I would tell myself before falling asleep “now Priyanka, you better dream of something good and remember it in the morning!” and I would wake up stressed and upset that I had no dreams. This repeated for a couple of nights until I finally got something. I jotted down the following “dreams” in my notes app:

…hm yikes! Pretty terrifying, these must be stress dreams! Since midterms took over my life last week, these “dreams” were from a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t really know what they were/felt like anymore… but reading them back, they seem mostly bad. I think the intentionality lead to me to finally harnessing my dreams. I should practice this more when things feel a little bit more peaceful in my life.

I am not really familiar with writing prompts for AI systems, I don’t really like AI art in general, but I’m going to use Dall-E2, “an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language”, to try to illustrate some of my dreams. Below are some of the images that I feel like came may have come closest to the dream itself and the image prompts.

“rollerskating on a crowded beach”

“rollerskating really fast on a crowded beach”

“rollerskating on a crowded beach”

“rollerskating really fast on a crowded beach”

“one person rollerskating really fast on a crowded beach with people relaxing on the beach, during sunset”

“dystopia, desert, lightning, sandstorm, futuristic buildings and airplane”

“dystopia, desert, lightning, sandstorm, desolate, futuristic buildings up close and parked futuristic airplane”

“dystopia, desert, lightning, sandstorm, desolate, futuristic and very tall buildings up close and parked futuristic airplane”

“snow in the sonoran desert”

“vast sonoran landscape, with freshly fallen snow, at sunrise”

“vast sonoran landscape, many cactus, saguaro, with freshly fallen snow, at sunrise”

The effect of these images is so weird, totally uncanny. Like other than the images for the second prompt, the generated images look like there could be something real about them, but when you look closely, the pixels do strange things. They feel kind like a bunch of images stitched together in Photoshop. And on top of the AI-effect, the prompts (my dreams) were kinda generated by my own AI-system in my brain. So double-strange!

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Altar

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In Ali’s class we’ve been talking a lot about altars. Altars can be ancestral shrines, a tribute to a person or intention. It’s usually very personal to the person who created it and to who/what it is honoring. I’ve seen many altars on the side of the road put in place by families that have lost someone in an accident or Hindu altars around India worshiping specific deities. I don’t think I’m super spiritual so I have never created an altar honoring an ancestor or deity but when I think about it I might be building altars wherever I go.

I have moved every year for the last seven years and now that I’m in New York, I’m moving more than ever. Every time I set up in a new room I re-arrange my little chachki’s, notes, artifacts, letters, pictures, projects, etc around me. They are my home. I started out in New York a few months ago with really few things but through my time at ITP I’ve collected all kinds of stuff/materials and, more excitingly, things I’ve created. Below are images to my altar(s) to creating and my creativity.

Maybe I didn’t intentionally create these altars but I did intentionally arrange my silly creations in a way so that I can see them every day. Among some embroidered pieces and wood projects I have a plant and some special things made for me from my boyfriend. My favorite is my “Pri Shed” sign he made for my first ever she-shed/art studio. I don’t have a separate studio space anymore but I’m learning that I can make art anywhere. The Pri Shed is wherever I am!

I’ve also got some pictures and artworks hung up from my friends. Candles, calendars, and to-do lists to keep me accountable.

I feel like a desk or work table can be considered an altar for artists. I’m trying really hard to keep mine clean in my new place. I also really love flowers and nature but living in the city and being so busy with school I haven’t seen any real flowers in a long time. So I’ve made some arrangements with fake flowers. They’re colorful but don’t smell as good as the real thing. The altars around my room are good reminders of what I’m capable of and people or ideas that support me and keep me going in my journey in makin more stuff.

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Found Object Sculpture - Assemblage

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ITPearance Mask

This sculpture is a historical ITP relic: it is from, for, and by ITP. The mask itself comes from Alter Ego’s, a class taught last semester by Ali Santana. The drawings on the inside come from an anonymously authored “Faces of ITP” zine; representations of how community members see themselves. Face inside a face. This mask can serve as an identity or a disguise. Their eyes are always watching. The eyes are a window to the … balloon.

Found Objects

Materials the junk shelf offered me

Process

Faces of ITP zine

Zine spread

Deconstruct zine

Test: thought I could paper mache the pages into the mask but the marker bled

Use white glue to attach the pages to the inside of the mask

Sew the balloons into the eyes because they are too slippery to glue

Cut out shapes from foil

Both sides!

Paint decorations

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Brooklyn Public Art Field Trip

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On Monday Ali took the class on a walking tour of downtown Brooklyn to see some public art. Here’s what we saw:

Fred Wilson, Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds

Statues missing from inside cage

???

Hank Willis Thomas, Unity

Lisa Schemer, Beacon

Someone spotted me…

Sherwin Banfield, Sky’s the Limit in the County of Kings

Solar-powered music maker!

Biggie mural in Fort Greene

Spike Lee’s headquarters in Fort Greene

Spike Lee’s headquarters in Fort Greene

Bradley McCallum, Witnessing

[ITP: Modern Artifacts] Makin Stuff Creative Manifesto

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  • ABL - always be learning

  • Create without judgement and leave room for play

  • Experiment with new mediums

  • Document as much as you can and share your experience and knowledge with others

  • Use technology as a tool but always be critical of its larger impact (social, practical, environmental, conceptual, etc)

  • Be encouraging and supportive of your community (peers, neighbors, work partners, etc)

  • Leave space for reflection and rest

  • Put a little bit of yourself into whatever you make