Urban Tangle: 2,000 City Grid Fragments Connected by the Public with Terreform ONE

Urban Tangle: Make It Together Network City Map. 2,000 City Grid Fragments Connected by the Public - Terreform ONE

Our project consists of hundreds of machine-milled components made from fragments of city maps. All the physical map elements correspond to variable grid patterns and street patterns of NYU's Global Network sites and three main campuses. Each participating person is asked to build his or her own map of NYU from the randomized city-grid fragments. No answer is wrong, instead it’s a three dimensional artifact of collective memories made of multiple recollections while exploring NYU sites. From Shanghai to New York every student and faculty has a different experience of his or her time at NYU.  This combinatorial sculpture serves as a spatial expression of our multi-cultural and diverse locales. Based on Situationist theory, this mapping concept is a primary method of stabilizing what was referred to as the “spectacle.” It is a compositional assembly of pre-made situations, meant to be collectively composed. These physical moments of life are deliberately fabricated for the purpose of rekindling and shadowing authentic desires, feeling the sensation of life and adventure, and the liberation of routine activities in cities. Our map project is a three dimensional version of a specific Situationist product otherwise called, Psychogeography. Here, psychogeography invented by Guy Debord in 1955 is the, “study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.” We have moved beyond their original works to celebrate NYU in a similar experiential manner. Yet we still give homage to the achievements of the Situationist International arts group. 

Credits:
Mitchell Joachim, Maria Aiolova, Matthew Mitchell, Mat Sokol, Shandor Hassan, Molly Ritmiller, Jasmine Hwang, Janghee Lee, Liana Grobstein.