Project #1:

Title of Project:      Build Your Own Cities, Public installation

Approximate Start and End Dates:  September 22-23, 2012

Location of Project: Albuquerque, NM
 
Requested Funding amount (up to $400):   $ 400

While final numbers are not yet confirmed, Shipping estimates to get the work to Albuquerque come in at around $800. This grant would be to offset the shipping and installation costs. This is quoted from a discounted UPS store who works with Maine College of Art on large shipping jobs.

Project Description:

I am applying for funds to help offset the cost of shipping and installation for a project that is already most of the way finished. I have been invited to publicly install my work Build Your Own Cities at this year’s International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) being hosted in Albuquerque New Mexico. This work, which has been exhibited in San Diego in its initial iteration, consists of a wooden constructed 25’ long map of a Southwestern Neighborhood as seen from satellite imagery on Google Earth. The map consists of a long string of mutated sawhorse forms that take the shape of a scale version of this suburban neighborhood. The only landmarks represented across the top are the swimming pools, which are carved into the top in the exact locations where each exists in the real neighborhood. These pools are lined with brilliant blue resin and filled with water. Each pool has one LED embedded in it, which causes the water to glow bright “swimming pool blue” at night. Spread out across the top, I will be placing piles of small wooden building blocks. Visitors will be invited to “build their own cities, developments, neighborhoods, and structures” amongst the space populated by the small pools.

This work is intended as a fun and interactive way for viewers to question the ways in which we inhabit our land and spaces, and to try their hand at rethinking that, in a playful and impermanent way. This work has been exhibited in a similar form at the San Diego Museum of art, and the interactive nature of the work drew in numerous curious visitors, who would try to construct the most elaborate structures with the blocks, before the next person added to it or destroyed it. This work has undergone some changes since it was first created, and each time it is shown, the interactive quality changes slightly.

I have been invited to install this piece during one of the large outdoor events at this year’s ISEA, which is a great honor, and an unbeatable opportunity. I will also be presenting on the work in a lecture setting at the main event.

I am requesting funds to offset the cost of shipping this large installation to and from Albuquerque for this event. Below are some installation photos of the work in various iterations.

Thank you for your consideration.