Richard Tuttle and notes from my thesis presentation

I found an artist's work that represents the ideas floating around in my head perfectly. Richard Tuttle abstracts form in such a basic way and creates dynamic, balanced compositions.

While I'm on the subject of abstraction of form, I should post the drawings I created last week. I used one image of the street in the Lower East side to analyze all of the shapes, patterns and interactions of form. There is so much more I can do with this project, and Richard Tuttle's work is an example of taking it to another level.

Some notes from the presentation feedback:
1. My previous work is a lot more related to my thesis than I realize. The folio is an exercise in psychogeography (I will post tomorrow), and possibly my Sun Day book from earlier this year.

2. I see two distinct directions: psychogeography/memory mapping as the intersection of all my ideas and exploring further with abstraction of form, or being more scientific and creating the system of symbols/typology of the components in our environment (this could be a comparison among cities or a system for nyc)

3. Engaging with the community: some ideas include asking people to define the boundaries of their "neighborhood", giving people cameras to record their own photos and tell their own story.

4. Incorporating the interior life of a building as well as the building from all angles and perspectives.

5. Defining my topic and creating a stronger argument will be key as we progress. I'm interested in recording the components that define the "essence" of a place; essentially telling a better story about a place in the way that artists like Edward Hopper have done (the block that he painted in Early Sunday Morning below was preserved mostly because of the value created by the artists depiction). I would like to create something that naturally leads to preservation through awareness of the unique value of the sensory experience of a place.

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning (currently on view at the Whitney)