Monument Intervention; A Monumental Move

After some internet searches, pointers to links and debate, Dan I chose to visit, research and intervene on The Pioneer Monument at Civic Center in San Francisco. Neither of us knew much about the monument to begin with, but from initial readings we gathered some information about it and began kicking around some ideas. One of these ideas had to do with popular reference to the monument as being the James Lick monument. James Lick was the wealthiest man in California at the time of his death, in 1876, leaving a trust of $100,000 to San Francisco, to build a sculpture commemorating the people and events that contributed to the settlement of California. The other ideas revolved around the monument itself, its relocation in 1993 and the controversy around its depiction of Native Americans.

After some research into the monument, I found that it had a monumental history! Old things have history, but this monument has been through a lot. From it’s inception as a civic monument, to it’s perception as a wealthy man’s legacy, to a beacon of resilience during the 1906 earthquake, to a callus depiction of the early settlers treatment of California’s Natives, the Pioneer Monument seemed soaked with some heavy ideas. And I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Still, I found interest in the fact that it had been moved to make way for the current library. This seemed funny and practical in a way, that the “pioneer” monument, which is somewhat synonymous with explorer to me, would make way for a library, which is synonymous with history. The idea that explorers make history and that the moving of the monument can make history as well, got me thinking that the moving of the monument, whatever it turned out to represent, could be a symbolic thing and may be a place to start for our intervention, regardless of how absurd it sounded.

I focused on the most recent events, to try and get an idea of what the current perception might be. In the last 20 years it has been the topic of controversy because of its depiction of Native Americans. The statuette at the eastern end depicts a Native American passively lying/sitting before a cowboy and a monk. One seems to be preaching and the other…I’m not sure. Perhaps, needless to say, Native Americans take great offence to this statuette. During the monuments move in 1993, many people protested it, with some throwing red paint onto it. It’s not the least bit surprising that a monument with a statue such as this would be offensive, since it commemorates a time when many California Natives died, or were forced to assimilate into another culture. A compromise was made by the city, one that revolved around the placing of three plaques at the base of the monument to give some light on the treatment of Native Americans, but hasn’t been carried out to this day. Meanwhile Dan was researching James Lick the person and his legacy at Lick-Wilmerding High School. He had the idea that James Lick the person could be a role model for the kids at the school. While I designed a plaque that would cover the existing plaque at the monument, Dan put together a controversial t-shirt design. We decided to tie our ideas together with a joint plea to the city to move the monument to our proposed locations.

About the Pioneer monument: It was dedicated to San Francisco in 1894, several years after it’s benefactor, Lick, had passed away. It consists of five pieces, all bronze statues on marble bases. From observation, the monument seems to be laid out similar to a compass, or cardinal directions, with the center being the zenith and the four points representing north, south, east, and west. The centerpiece is a sculpture of a woman, Eureka, holding a spear and shield representing California. A band of four bronze reliefs depicting events in California history lie just below, with the busts and names of prominent people from California’s early history: Sutter, Lick, Fremont, Drake and Serra. As it’s currently situated, to the north is a statue of a woman with a horn filled with food, representing agriculture and plenty; to the south, a statue of a woman with a breast bared and a paddle, representing commerce; to the west, a statue of three minors and the title “in 49”, representing the discovery of gold; and to the east, a statue of a Native American, a missionary, and a cowboy with the title “Early Days”, representing the establishment of the missions.

My idea is to reconnect the monument to the spirit of the pioneer by making it a symbol for reconciliation. Not to say that this could be done by any one gesture, rather the idea behind the intervention is as a symbol to continually seek and to share common ground between people. By acknowledging the past and incorporating a gesture that attempts to include Native American values, this old monument can carry with it an idea of civic responsibility to be inclusive to multiple views of its history. Part of me feels this has been somewhat accomplished by it’s location between the UN plaza, an organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights, and the civic center. Still I liked the idea of playing with these symbols and the attention that moving a monument can create. My idea was to move the statuettes, to different cardinal positions according to Native American symbols, leaving the centerpiece in place. From the first time I saw the monument, I read into the statuette of commerce as being the archetype that represents “the pioneer”, or qualities I would associate with someone who braves the unknown, seeking new possibilities, and the struggle that comes with starting from scratch. This is partially because I can see a double meaning to the exposed breast and paddle of the woman in the commerce statue. The paddle as a literal device can symbolize a larger concept, the tool by which ships are moved (well boats maybe), and ships being the vessels for journeys and explorations, tying back to the pioneer. According to the Penguin Dictionary, a bared beast can signify protection as well as motherhood, security and plenty. I found a website which outlines the symbols of the cardinal points. It is known as The Medicine Wheel in Native American spirituality with North representing defeat/trouble; South, peace/happiness; East, success/triumph; and West, death. But I have no idea, as to what tribes believe this or if it’s even relevant to California. Nevertheless, the gesture is one that offers protection and innovation through the troubled waters of history mucked with genocide and forced assimilation to begin with. Further, commerce, in an old definition found in my Webster’s dictionary, means “social dealings between people”. My part of the intervention involved rewording the existing plaque to talk about the monuments history and future. It was written onto a piece of cardboard and placed over the existing plaque.

This is the inscription as it reads now.

PIONEER MONUMENT
Sculptor, Frank Happersberger (1859-1932)
Dedicated to the City of San Francisco on Nov 29, 1894, the Pioneer Monument was a gift of philanthropist James Lick. Lick, who died in 1876, left $100,000 to the City for the creation of "statuary emblematic of the significant epochs in California history" dating back to the missions' early settlements. The monument stood in Marshall Square facing Market Street in front of the Old City Hall that was completed in 1897 but destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. When the City was rebuilt after the earthquake, Grove and Hyde Streets were extended to meet Market Street, creating a new intersection. The Pioneer Monument stood at this intersection until it was moved to its present location in 1993.

As it will read…

PIONEER MONUMENT
Sculptor, Frank Happersberger (1859-1932)
Dedicated to the City of San Francisco on Nov 29, 1894, the Pioneer Monument was a gift of philanthropist James Lick. Lick, who died in 1876, left $100,000 to the City for the creation of "statuary emblematic of the significant epochs in California history" dating back to the missions' early settlements. Since it’s dedication the monument has come to represent; a commemoration of the people and events that contributed to the settling of California; the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake; and the perseverance towards a heritage that is meaningful for all Californians. Given the symbolic nature of these old sculptures it has been proposed that the pedestals, laid out as if representing the cardinal points, be repositioned according to Native American Spirituality, so that the archetype of commerce be facing north, symbolizing a tribute to the spirit of the Pioneer to take the road less traveled. This tribute could act as a reminder for all people to face the unknown, and blaze reconciliation in our present from the events of the past.

Dan’s part of the intervention involved designing a t-shirt that kids at Lick-Wilmerding could wear as well as a newspaper article talking about the proposed moves. His ideas are written out in his blog.

Logo Jamming

This is my culture jamming project in two parts. The first is a logo from the media giant Comcast that I changed to read .com costs. For me it was a given, changing it in this way. Having lived in the Bay Area in the late ninties, early 2000 and hearing and reading about the new internet businesses that were making millions overnight and then failing horribly. It wasn't a stretch to associate an internet provider with a boom and bust business model that is now referred to as the .com bubble in an obvious way, they provide access to the internet. At the time, I thought .com businesses were largely a huge scam, hearing about new internet companies that make their stock public and are worth millions, literally, overnight. Although I didn't understand how the market worked, and it seemed possible that millions of people were buying something from a location on the web and that somewhere there was an office with a server housing a website that sold light bulbs and somewhere else there was a warehouse shipping these light bulbs, etc. It seemed idiotic not to invest in these businesses since they were an extention of the technology that was already wildly successful. Not that I played the stock market, but even I could see that reading along in the papers and watching my parents fix up their house with the money they were borrowing against their stocks. Microsoft stocks kept doubling their value, it seemed every three months. People who had invested money in it, say their 401k retirement money, were suddenly "successful". Their was a steady feeling about things, nobody wanted to rock the boat, just let it keep doubling. It didn't seem that weird that people would carry this mentality into investing in an internet business. Like "oh, a computer business" let's watch these stocks double up.

Most of the early businesses survived on investor's money alone without ever being profitable, until they weren't reporting profits, people pulled their money out and the business went bankrupt. When the bubble burst, meaning the inflated idea of what a company was worth was replaced with the reality of what it was actually worth, the value of many of these companies dropped dramatically, all in the span of one weekend. Many businesses failed and many people were forced to put their fabulous lives on hold.

There are other "costs" that come to mind stemming from the .com boom. Namely the cost of living going up. Especially in the Bay Area. While these businesses were working hard to look good on paper and raking in dough, they were also hiring some pretty well groomed, highly paid associates. It's like suddenly some jerk was willing to pay double, triple the rent of an SF apartment and your landlord would either evict you or in some cases buy you out of the lease. Some of these lease buy out deals were for thousands of dollars. I would hear of people being paid 10 thousand to move out of their SF loft. Then move to Portland and buy a house! It was like a transfusion happening, driven by people needing to take advantage of these people with money to spend. At one point there was a 1% vacancy rate in SF. People couldn't find a place to live. Living in Oakland, I started to see the same trend. People getting evicted on "legal" grounds, like "my family is moving in". A friend of mine won a settlement when his landlord evicted him only to double the rent on the place. Trying to rent at that time meant showing up to some crappy apartment to compete with 25 other people and pay a "processing" fee in excess of $150! That was just to turn in your application and be rejected! Suckers!

Yeah, internet businesses failed leaving investors with an urge to somehow win their money back and we're still paying inflated rents if you ask me, but what does an internet provider have to do with it? Maybe nothing? Relating Comcast to the .com bubble is admittedly a pretty loose connection. But anyone who uses Comcast, with their inflated, ever increasing rates on packaged channels could get the reference as well. Plus .com is short for commerce, so there's always the literal reference.

Culture Jamming

My second project is a spoof on a poster for the movie Junior with Arnold Schwartzenegger. I replaced the other character's with the heads of Comcast's Ceo, as the doctor, and the chairman of the FCC, as the onlooker. The idea revolves around an interesting debate happening right now over an idea held by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), among others like Google, called "net neutrality". The idea seems to be to keep the internet open to everyone and free of discrimination. Businesses like Comcast, who provide internet access say they should have the right to regulate the internet how they see fit. Comcast was recently sued by the FCC for slowing down the rate in which people could download from certain sites, like sites where people download movies. In April 2010 the courts ruled in favor of Comcast because of some deregulation of broadband in 2005. It seems to me that in the past regulations have been put in place to protect consumers from businesses who owned the infrastructure which their competitors had to use as well. From the railroads, to electric and water, businesses and utilities seem to have needed some kind of regulation...not to mention today's banking industry. But the internet is like a child that no one really knows how to care for, and the debate of who the caretaker will be is going on right now. In light of all of the irresponsibility of big business in the last 10 years, Enron, banks, it seems like a bad movie leaving the internet in the care of a cable company. Of course there's DSL and wireless, but those businesses have the same rights based on this recent ruling, to regulate content with broadband, rights that people fear will create discrimination because all these providers have their own products to keep competitive as well. People against this also fear it will destroy the idea of the internet which makes it a great open source for all information.

Chance Project: Chance Collage Using Images and Text

My project uses Googleʼs search engine to find and download images to then import and
manipulate in Photoshop.
Part 1: Gathering Your Images into Photoshop and Naming them as Layers.
1.Use the number of the month of your birthday to extract letters from your first and last
name. If you have a double digit month like December (12), add the two numbers
together.
ex: December = 1 2= 1+2 = 3

If your birthday is in January or October, use your birth day. If your born on January 1st or October 1st, then add your month and day together.

Continueing from the example, then extract every third letter from your name.
ex: anDy zEvaLloS
Every third letter spells “DELS” in this example.
2.Search this random word in Google. Use the spell corrected version if necessary.
- if nothing comes up, invert the letters and search again. ex: SLED
3.Look into the “images” for your search result. Using the number of letters in your
searched word, ex: d.e.l.s = “4”, select the “4th” image displayed on the page
beginning from the upper left position moving right. (This number will also determine
how many images you will download). If your number is greater than the number of
images displayed horizontally on the first line, continue to the next line.
4.From this point you will collect two things: the image, which will be opened in
Photoshop as a layer and the word directly next to your search word in the images
caption. You will use this along with the number of letters in the word to name the
layer.
ex: caption under images reads: Mapa general dels Països. This layer would be named
“Paisos6” .
This image will also be a starting point from which to collect the remaining images
(unless your number is 1). Collect the remainder of your images and layer names
beginning with the image directly under your first image, then the image under that
one, etc. If the number of images exceeds the number of images displayed vertically
on the search page, continue to the next page continuing in the same column from
the previous page.
5.Save and name as you go or copy and paste directly into Photoshop..doesnʼt matter.
This does- The size of your canvas will be determined by the first image loaded into
Photoshop. This first layer is referred to as the “background”. Open it up in Photoshop
and rename the “background” layer so you can manipulate it. You can do this by
“control” clicking on the “background” in the layers window and selecting “layer from
background”. Name it using the information from the example in step 4. Now import
all of your images into Photoshop as their own layer with their own “chance” name
and number.
-Using my DELS example I now have 4 layers in Photoshop all having a specific
name and number associated with them.

Part 2: Manipulate Images and Layers.
More than likely your images will be of various sizes at this point. So weʼll size them to
the canvas, which was determined by our first image. Donʼt change the resolution of the
images. Weʼll use the Transform function to size the images.
1.In your “layers window”, highlight the top layer. On your keyboard hold down the open
Apple key, next to the spacebar, and hit the letter “t”. A wire box will appear around the
image size. This will either be larger or smaller than the canvas size. Notice there are
smaller wire boxes around the wire frame. Moving your mouse over the smaller box
creates an arrow icon. Click and drag this in the direction needed to fill the canvases
space. Do this for each side of the image until it is the same size as the canvas. This
will pixelate and/or warp your image, but so what. Double-click with the mouse within
the larger wire frame box. This sets the image size. Now proceed to do this with the rest
of your images. Notice the top layer obscures your view of the layer underneath. Donʼt
worry, use the wire frame as guides and size all the layers.

2. Notice there is an area directly under the layer tab in the layers window that says
“normal” with a blue end on it that has arrows. By clicking on the blue area, 25
options appear. Using the number associated with the layer name, in my example in
part 1-step 4 it was 6. Divide 25 (the number of options in the layer blending mode)
by your number and round it up or down to a whole number, below .5 down, above .
51 up. Use your divided number to select an option for each layer, starting at the top
of the options and moving downward. Start with “normal” = 0. If you happen to have a
negative number, then start from the bottom up. Repeat with every layer.
3. Now, use the same number in each layer, to set the “opacity” of the layer, located to
the right of the layer blending mode scroll in the layer window. Only divide the number
100 by each layers number (the total percentage value). Round to a whole number and
use this number to set each layers opacity.
4.Click on the type tool in the “tools palette”. Click anywhere on the picture, the less
thought the better. Type out a sentence stringing together the words from each layer.
Start with the top layers word and move downward. Do not use the numbers in the
sentence.
5. Lastly, set the font size and color. Multiply each number in sequence, top to bottom,
the sum of each two numbers multiplied by the next number, etc. Then divide the total
by the number of layers. This number in your font size and your color. Highlight the
sentence you just wrote by double clicking on it with the type tool. Change the font size
to this number. Then select the “eyedropper tool” from the tool palette and click on your
canvas, anywhere. This will change your selected color in the tool palette area. Double
click on this color, this will bring up the color picker. If the color displayed on the screen
looks red to you change the “R” value to the number you multiplied and divided (mine
was 144 for type size and color). If it looks more blue to you, change the “B” value, more
green, change “G” value.
Almost done. Notice in the layers palette, when you scroll the mouse over the layers a
hand appears. By clicking and holding you can drag each layer, up or down. This places
the layer on top, or below the other layers. Like me, your image may be too transparent,
if this is the case, add a layer, use the paint bucket to paint it white, and drag it to the
bottom of your sequence of layers. To change things up a bit, use your original birthday
month number to determine the number of moves you can make rearranging the layer
sequence. Moving one layer and then moving it back counts as two moves.
Save and your done!

What Are The Chances.

My results to following the instructions in Tane's Project.
Tane's project required that I make a couple of choices: one choose a medium in which get the data from, in my case I chose Pandora, since I didn't have my Mp3 player with me. Second, choose a medium in which to present the results. I chose Illustrator, since we're learning about that right now and the practice is welcome.
A word on Pandora. After skipping through the songs several times, Pandora makes you start a whole new radio station. I had to do this three times. Every time I chose to start a radio station, I used the last artist as a starting point.

Tane's Project instructions:

1 - Choose a medium (I chose Sharpie on paper)
2 - Create a 9 box by 9 box grid
3 - Put music player of choice on shuffle (if you don't have a suitable music player, either create a Pandora or
use the radio)
4 - The first and last letter of the band name (ignore "The") corresponds with a box on the grid. Letters =
numbers based on alphabet sequence (a=1, b=2, and so on) For double digit letter/numbers add the 2 digits
together (m=13, 1+3=4). First number is horizontal, second number is vertical.
5 - Number of words in the song title denote shape (see key below)
6 - Number of letters in the last word of the song title denote color (see key)
5a/6a - If any double digits occur add them together
7 - Use only as many songs as your age. If using the radio, use all songs between one commercial break. If
using Pandora, use all your skips.

Note: if using your own music you may end up with the same box in the grid being used multiple times. This is
ok. You can either make shapes not fill up the entire box or you can just overlap shapes. Toss a coin to decide
which you do: heads for smalled shapes, tails for overlapping shapes.

Key:
1 - triangle/silver (or grey)
2 - square/black
3 - circle/red
4 - star/blue
5 - cresent moon/green
6 - arrow/purple
7 - spiral/orange
8 - dot/yellow
9 - zigzag/brown

Note: I didn't use chance to decide which color/shape was which number, I just randomly assigned them...

Google Earth: Remote Locations Tour

To take my tour, click here

At last! Version 13 of my now memorized tour of remote islands and locations in Google's Earth. It contains 9o-some percent of the discriptive information I had intended, with the exception of Isla Pescaso, Boliva...which is a kind-of island within a sea-like salt flat, the largest in the world. Also believed to be a, mostly dried up, prehistoric lake that resides at 11,000 ft. above the median sea level.
Alright so places visited in this tour:

-SFSU
-Galapagos Islands
-Isla Pescaso, Bolivia
-Antarctica
-South Pole, Antarctica
-Tristan de Cunha
-Bouvet Island
-Migingo Island
-Motuo, China
-Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
-Ahmed Awa, Iraq
-Dikson, Russia
-Alert, Canada
-ATOW1996, closest land to the North Pole
-Bering Straat
-Red Rock Island

All of these places, with the exception of Boulet Island, ATOW 1996 and the Berring Straat (which really symobolizes more of a concept to me...migration) are inhabbited by people...well maybe the Berring Straat too...at one time- hairy, ape-like men and women groaning and screeching across frozen land with animal skin, bronze and thick souls? Yeah...A few things that got me thinking while making this tour, namely Google Earth's ability to put these remote places, not only into our view in a visual context, but also within a geographical context. This context readily makes use of macro and micro perspectives of the world and put me into a frame of mind to do some research on certain places based on their unique character from a macro perspective. For example, from a perspective somewhere in the stratosphere, the salt flats at Isla Pescaso appear as a large white spot. Similarly Lake Victoria appears to be a large black spot on the earth. As I zoomed in I discovered islands within this large lake and began searching databases for information on these islands which related to the theme of remoteness, or seclusion. What I found was a story of a border dispute that is happening in the current time, one that disputes a "border" that lies somewhere along the ripples of water created by the boatloads of fisherman who are making their living. I guess this idea of remoteness can carry over into borders, in the sense of where is it forbidden to go and for what purposes is it forbidden. Remote in this sense could be the distance two leaders can create from reaching an understanding for their countries. The posturing of their leaders to control the lucrative fishing industries that drive a portion, or in Uganda's case a large portion, of their countries economies seems to be driving these governments to further disagreement. (more info here:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/world/africa/17victoria.html). In the case of Iraq though it becomes posturing by our own government and leaders. What is seemingly a hiking adventure, becomes a complicated political matter by the fact that a country we have no "official"relations with, decided to enforce the crossing of the "border line". Most people who travel, do so under the radar of countries political agendas. I suppose in this case it's not the border that is promoting the distance between people's governments, rather, drawing attention to their differences in a matter that seemingly has nothing to do with their political differences or otherwise. When it comes down to it, isn't that why we create borders though, to logically state, with GPS acuracy, exactly where my property begins and your property ends. A sticky area for realty. One where it helps to have at least an idea of a border to discuss and then the reality that no country really wants to acknowledge a ridged boarder when it doesn't suite there interests....ahhh the hairier times...a time when we could mark out our home with foot steps and listen to the symphony of nature and predators over freeways and sirens....[?!?]
In making this tour I was also interested in checking out some virtual sights such as the Northern and Southern Poles, by coordinates of where the lines of latitude meet. I was surprised by what I found at the southern most point...as well as the story behind the northern most point of land. It seems this is the advantage to traveling virtually, a glimpse at a simulation of what the world holds. It's definitely the coolest globe I've ever used, despite the difficulty in recording this tour.

Thanks for checking it out.

An Imaginary Hybrid Animal:The Psychic Cheetah

My creation of a hybrid creature mixes the following: wireless communication technology, in the form of cellular communication and video cameras; man, in the form of a walking guy in leather (undercover security type); animal, in the form of the cheetah; and plant, in the form of poisonous fungus.

My idea stems from horror movies that use monsters as a metaphor for social ills. For example Dracula as a means for exploring disease as an epidemic, like Werner Herzog did with his remake of Nosferatu. I thought it would be interesting to explore the uncertainties and fears of wireless technology, through a creature that lives in the cellular tree-like antennas that are used to boost wireless signals and are located on, ever-increasing, hilltops through out the world. The fears and uncertainties being whether or not exposure to low levels of radiation from boosting the wireless signal will have an effect on people in the long term.

A bit about the Psychic Cheetah: it is A-sexual, doesn’t eat and doesn’t sleep. It can project itself into people’s thoughts via their telephone calls and video screens. Similar to the cheetah’s head, exposure to its influence turns a person’s head into poisonous fungus. It steadily feeds on people’s psychic energy in a parasitic way, but can completely turn your head to rotting fungus if you become aware of it. It can materialize itself, as shown in the picture, but can also take the form of gas or voltage. In this way it is always, potentially, present in all of our wireless communications.