Concepts
Art in the Community Media Center
This document outlines the working plans and ideas for art in the Community Media Center as it is renovated.
Art work will relate to the experience of people involved with the community media center. It will work in the space of the organization ( it's ideals, mission, actions, and work) the place (the building, it's material and location, in the physical terrain; neighborhood to world), and the community.
The following text discusses the context within which the art is being considered, intended, selected, and placed. Community, Media, Access, and Center.
Prominent in the mission of the organization is the Community. It is an organization that is truly open to the public, and whose goal it is to serve the forming, holding, and binding of community.
Initial emphasis in the art will be towards positioning the physical parts of the organization in the community, virtually and actually.
Also prominent in the mission of the organization is "media". While the organization facilitates work in up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology, it does not lock it's mission or future to any particular technology. In this broad view of "media" the organization focuses on the development of community through media. Emphasis firstly on community development, secondly on media. While this view is predominately a projection forward, a view back in time to look at the relationship of media and community is also productive.
While the contemporary actions of the organization involve electronic digital media, initial emphasis in the art will be on physical/static objects. This is not a nostalgic "remember when" but meant as a demonstration/celebration of how "things" (objects, images, video, sounds, e-stuff) " mediate" thoughts, ideas, movements, organizations, cultures, communities.
The organization is committed to providing access to media for the community. This commitment to openness, involvement, and interaction will be incorporated in the art in several ways. Many of the art projects will be objects of regular use by the organization. Many of the art projects will be movable, rearrangeable, and adjustable. Emphasis will be on placing art projects in the most public areas. The organization is committed to a progressive development of the art. It will start with large integrated permanent projects and progress to object oriented art pieces.
It will be exciting to have artwork throughout this facility. It does bring up some issues for both the art selection and the organization. This is not an art museum or a gallery; so the art must accommodate as well as support the function of the organization. Still, the organization will have a new burden of maintaining and housing art. Consideration should be given to original intent for projects and objects as the facility and organization progresses. As much as possible this will be considered and outlined as projects are enacted, and objects selected.
The organization is committed to providing a center to which members of the community go to work in media. The reconstruction of the space as planned will serve this end once one has arrived beyond the door in the renovated area. The place will feel like a center energizing and demonstrating media, access, and community all synergistically together. However, getting to that door, and knowing one has arrived when one gets close, is still as planned unclear and flat.
This zone between the neighborhood and the organization is critical. The context around the organization, the transition from the organization's space and "public" space, and the path from the world to the center are all critical and charged areas.
A few additional challenges make this more difficult.
The Media Center will be housed on the second floor of the West Side Library. The access to the second floor area is through a door that is around the side and back of the Main Library Entrance. This door is not visible from Leonard Avenue, the front facing street. (access through the Library will be available when it is open to the public). The existing side double doors are standard utility grade metal doors with no glass in them. There is a large glass window above the doors. The doors enter into a stairwell that leads to the second floor. At the top of the stairs are two more doors; one will lead to the Center's Lobby, the other to the Community Room. Originally, both of these doorways were double doors. The one leading to the Lobby originally had a semicircular glass above it. Some years ago these original details were changed to accommodate the fire code. The window above the Lobby door was blocked in and both doors were changed to single doors with 5" X 20" windows. It is not clear what is beyond the doors. The Lobby is darkened because of the blocked off window. These doorways require a 2 hour fire rating which restricts the material used and restricts the glass to 100 square inches per door. There is transparent material that is fire-rated at this level, but it is very expensive.
These design problems, having to do with making the center accessible and memorable, will take some priority of focus in the development of the art for the Center. These have to do with making the path seem open, planned, and designed. This involves doing something with the doors, installing art along the path, lighting, and signs. As the projects progress, the lawn and sidewalk areas around the door and the whole east side of the building are fertile areas for significant public art projects. These ideas coordinate with some concerns in the Access notes involving putting the art in the most publicly accessible areas.
These problems are practical, but they are also virtual. The role of an organization is to practically serve the public through its mission and for this the public needs to easily find its space. Also though, and maybe more importantly, an organization's role is to virtually serve the public through being easily and definitively thought of as being the place where community is formed through media. For this the space between the organization and the community needs to be visible, dynamic, and memorable. A museum is important if it provides significant experiences when one goes there. It is also important for how easily those experiences can be recalled. A dynamic and memorable place will serve both the practical and virtual ends of being a Center.
The Media Center has set aside funds for art as an integral part of this renovation project. It is hopeful to continue evolving and developing its cultural environment with regular additions of art to its facility.
This evolutionary approach can be optimal, and dovetails nicely with the primary goal of making the art experientially significant for the people involved with the organization. Following is a description of how it can progress.
1. Concurrent with the demolition/construction phase, projects that are integrally a part of the space will be implemented.
Floors and preparation for the audiocast system. Some work on Doors.
2. Concurrent and subsequent to demolition/construction phase, projects adjacent to main renovation are implemented.
Stairwell renovation, stairwell hanging object, Doors.
3. Subsequent to Construction, projects that are not integral to Construction progress as funded, commissioned, and completed.
Initially the "Audiocast system".
Later, outdoor areas, fabric collection, signage, small paintings (monitors), paintings, media collection, tower sculpture, chime system. . . . .
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Art in the Media Center | ||
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Concepts | ||
email curator: Paul Wittenbraker
