Berenice Abbott/my obsession with historical images of New York

Over the last few weeks of summer, I created a project using historical images of New York City's Lower East Side. After a few trips to the NYPL Image Library (great resource btw), I found images organized by street name and neighborhood that would work. I wanted to capture the timeless essence of the neighborhood by using historical images, and drew the details on rice paper.

I found an incredible book that documents many of the photographer Berenice Abbott's works, and another called "Then and Now", which compares images of the same location at the turn of the century and the mid-70's.

The first image is the large sheet of rice paper with the images juxtaposed next to each other, but I see it as more of a book that you can flip through.

The thing is...

In my thesis I don't want to put more printed matter into the universe or send more needless messages. I want to create something of value, that hopefully decreases the high concentration of visual stimuli in our lives. Today I sat and drew a lamp post in the Lower East side, and was so annoyed at the bar across the street for erecting this cheesy sign of photorealistic monkeys (and blasting bad techno). The reason I was so bothered by it is that they had absolutely no awareness of the historical building in which they occupied the street level space, and the architectural details were obviously not considered when hanging this sign, or the other hideous one that reads 'Hungry? $2.95' with a picture of an unappetizing sandwich.

I couldn't bring myself to post the hideous signage from the bar, but this is the building I was admiring. What if there was a way for store signage to connect with the surroundings and incorporate historical detail? For a neighborhood like the Lower East Side with rich history this would add so much value to the area and connect residents and visitors to the place. This idea is related to the theme of localization because using local/historical patterns is parallel to using local materials for building, local food for eating, and local artists for murals. These are all ways to add value to the community and bring awareness to the unique characteristics of the neighborhood.

I could use the inherent patterns and designs on surfaces and from overhead (i.e. Google Earth) to create place-specific artwork (in many forms, one of which would be signage). Actually, this is a photo I took of the restaurant Spitzers across the street from monkey madness. They did a good job of connecting with the place to deliver the appropriate style of signage, but I wonder if there is more to it than just something hip/urban. I love the lamp posts by the way.

I really want to work with maps in some way. I'm always fascinated by the idea that we're these tiny specks walking along, oblivious to our orientation in the greater surroundings. The awareness of the massiveness of our place/the Earth makes us realize that our lives are actually much simpler than they seem. An artist in Brooklyn seems to think along the same lines. We saw this cool mural, which was really a collage of many different artists, on the way to the Botanical Gardens.

Eureka!

I think I've been stressed out about how broad my thesis topic is, because when I had a eureka moment tonight when I decided to focus on the Lower East Side community it made me so happy. Ever since I moved to New York, I've been drawn to the Lower East side for walks during the day, to soak in the surroundings and details. It's a unique place because of the character of the streets, architecture and environment. It's also pretty fun for nightlife, between Max Fish and that bar that has $1 PBRs.

The Lower East Side is exactly the kind of community I need to focus on cultural preservation and to study the effects of globalization/homogenization. It's a vibrant, fun, eclectic neighborhood that is at risk of completely losing its character and 'grittiness'. What does this term 'gritty' really mean anyways? Dirty? The LES is definitely down-to-earth, not stuffy at all. However, the original community that has historical roots in the area can barely afford to live there anymore. Big-box condominium towers and celebrity chef restaurants attract a very different population than Katz's Delicatessen. How did this trend begin? Was it the Rivington hotel or way before that?? And how can we as designers preserve the culture of the community by connecting residents and visitors to the historical roots?

This gives me some solid direction for primary research, starting with visiting the Tenement museum and NYPL to learn about the history of the area.

This guy was blasting music from the back of his scooter. You could literally hear him from 4 blocks away.




















This is my new brain map of thesis ideas. I narrowed down the topic but it's still comfortably broad. It's scary to think that I need to focus in on one specific thing to focus on for the next 10 months, but it's what I need to do. Now I feel like I have so much more direction.