planned chaos?

"Planned Chaos?"
6"x48"x36"
aluminum cans

sources for ideas:




urban sprawl: general concepts


marcel duchamp "the fountain"

answers to questions:
the sources will make my ideas richer because i will know more about what it is
the audience would be anyone. i kinda want it to be a learning experience
the audience could walk up to it, walk around it, and get a birds eye view of sprawl
i think photos will be able to show you everything you need to see


i am deciding to major in urban studies and one problem that is always arising is that of urban sprawl. urban sprawl is basically development that is either unplanned or not carefully planned. it is low density development, single family suburban housing, that is usually spread out across the land. it is not very efficient at any means. it has more negative effects than positive ones on things like environment, transportation systems, etc.





i was thinking alot about what to use and in art history we saw works of art by marcel duchamp. he seemed to questions alot of things, for instance what is art?, how do we make art?, is it even something that we make? his piece "the fountain" is a urinal that was flipped upside down and he concidered it art. he even signed it? but it really make you think about art in a different way. he made me want to make something that might not be considered art?




















i chose to use soda cans as my media. first off, because its something that is mass produced and i didnt make, so could that be considered art? i wanted my piece to be one that might not be typical art but got peiople thinking about what art is and what my subject is. secondly i used cans because with sprawl, you usually get these buildings, mainly houses, that basically look the same but have small differences. i call them cookie cutter houses. other than the brand of soda, the cans look the same.





the way i chose to arrange this on the site kinda gives the viewer my attitude toward the subject. since i want to become an architect, i will need to think about originality, plan with the city, and use specific site which is exacty what sprawl doesnt do. i think sprawl is trashy, unorganized, and chaotic; this is why i just dumped the cans everywhere.





i chose to put my piece on a piece of cleared out empty area because that is what sprawl does. the developers bulldoze the land and there is nothing underneath it. sprawl doesnt interact or take the environment into account. it also shows my negative view because there is nothing spectacular about that site. if i were to put it in a place that had green grass or flowers mhy attitude may be a little more cheerful, but thats not my view. the place also helps to achieve my trashy look.








source quotations:


Samuel R. Staley, Ph.D., "The Sprawling of America:In Defense of the Dynamic City", http://www.reason.org/ps251.html#_Toc440269869, april 18, 2008








Bonnie Nobles, class lecture on April 7, 2008