Final Project

El Sótano Art Space:

For my final project, I decided to consider and further my exploration and work for my own artist-run space in Brooklyn that I co-direct with two other people. The space opened in September 2018. This is a personal project, completely independent from the university and my educational career but I have used my time and resources at this school to further the project by taking classes such as this one to be able to expand my understanding and scope of alternative art space direction.

Please follow the links below to different aspects of this project.


Link to presentation:
 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12hHC1wujHD4CtdC1FNq1eYbq9OSX1ti2y1o3SvfKZzg/edit?usp=sharing

Link to essay/statement:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xbrhRfKrQ4ZVHO9LTED9z_lE13-gSirV7UynqSbbUe8/edit?usp=sharing

Link to website:
https://elsotanoartspace.com/

Link to Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/elsotanoartspace/

Link to online catalog of Crossings Exhibition:
https://indd.adobe.com/view/68dc5d43-6b4b-450f-84be-5298492226f4

In addition to what you see here, we will have a 360 video of the exhibition up on the website next week to give access to a virtual experience of the exhibition for those who cannot attend for whatever reason. We will also have access to the videos and sound piece that were in the exhibit. 

De-Gentrifying the West Village

Link to 10 min run-through presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ou6KciWHD_DrfxASQypFeUj6I0k9Lgrf/view?usp=sharing

Presentation

Project Statement

The project is about Lincoln Center. While I was working on the subway project, I noticed the MTA art was dedicated to Lincoln Center and the subject was celebrating performing arts. So for this project, my attention was caught by Lincoln Center, a landmark in Manhattan that marks the city’s appreciation for performing arts and artists. For this project, I started with the idea of interactive art. I want this public narrative to be interactive so that people would participate in enjoying and celebrating performing arts. Since Lincoln Cetner is a public space with crowds and visitors constantly passing by, the project should be aware of the demographic information of the area as well as the audience it is targeting.
One important consideration is to arrange the space for this project. Since it is an interactive project in a public space where people would passing by constatly, it is important that the project would not cause traffic or danger for visitors. On the other hand, I hope this project could caught attention since it is about celebrating performing art and interact with the audience. It would be a better idea to install this project in an obvious place. My proposal is to embed this project into the stairs. In this way, passengers could just walk and still interact with the project by stepping on it, on their way entering.
The project itself aiming to interact with the audience. It is inspired by the mixing table with blocks. However, instead of blocks, the project interact with the steps people take in different areas. When different areas are stepped upon there will be music coming out. The volume shouldn’t be louder than the voice of chatting. It should be subtle but audible. It is safe for the passengers. The major audiences would be passengers or visitors.

I have an example for this project, which reflects on the My Fair Lady show playing in the Lincoln center. The left and right tracks represent different part of the stairs. When they are stepped upon, the tracks would play. They could be play separately but this is the demo of them playing together.

notes:all stairs would be embedded like the purple and red ones. 

Final Project Questions to Consider

1. Discussion of the site and the pertinent conditions that will have an impact on your project

- My project is located in East Bushwick. This area has seen little gentrification so far and still is home to a large population of low-income Hispanic residents. Keeping that in mind, our presence is not an immediate necessity, which is why El Sótano is focused on making the space an all-inclusive and easily accessible space that appeals to the public in the area and elsewhere. We want to bring art to this area as a way of communication. Much of the public art in the area has the motif of bringing the community together for positive change. Luckily, our presence and the structure of the project is very far from the capitalist structure that causes more gentrification so we hope to not be placed in the same category as art spaces that are a catalyst for that. 

  2. Discussion of how that project intersect with government structures and regulations;

- I plan to register this project as a non-profit organization, which means there is a dependency on the government for resources. These resources will be met through grants that would be used to finance the production of exhibitions, artist talks, and events. We will have to register the space as a non-profit and learn how to write grants, know who to reach out to for sponsorships, and networking to find funds elsewhere. 

3. Discussion of what you see as a realistic planning, development and execution timeline;

-Currently, we are established as an informal space. We have had our first artist talk and we are in the process of setting up for our first exhibition that was achieved through an international open call. I am hoping that in the next 6-9 months we will have at least 3-4 more exhibitions and plenty more artist talks and community outreach events. We plan to host an exhibition for world pride month in June. Hopefully, in September of 2019, we will apply to be a non-profit. We plan to stay in the current space for as long as possible. 

4. The initial outline of aspects of the project that will have associated costs, make notes about what is required to determine real costs

- The most basic cost is rent but due to our situation, that is already covered within our personal rent for living, meaning that having the space is at no additional cost to us. The other costs include all materials for exhibitions such as flyers, posters, catalogs, installation materials, and shipment of artworks. So far, we are asking artists to provide everything necessary for their individual pieces to be shipped and installed and then reshipped to them. We are paying out of our own pocket for other materials. We wish to, in the near future, be able to have grants for the production of events and exhibitions. 

Grand Central installation - Kristiana

Dating sites attempt to make users describe themselves, define themselves in 200 words or less—highlighting the most important things about themselves. By visually looking at what people say about themselves and what they look for in a relationship, one can map a mosaic of human relationships based on what people want from a partner. The end result of the project will take the form of an interactive infographic that would be projection mapped onto the constellation ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. 750,000 people pass through the station every day, these are our potential users. They can parse through or contribute to the data via interactive screens placed throughout the terminal. There is something poetic about seeing and forming connections at places that connect us to other places—I can see this installation being installed in airports such as JFK or LaGuardia, but Grand Central's constellation ceiling has a very satisfying shape, perfect for an immersive dome experience.

Through the process of web scraping multiple online dating sites such as Tinder, OkCupid, Coffee and Bagel, etc, one can categorize words and phrases and separate them with gender, sexuality, and age. By examining the datasets of these sites, I can ask questions such as, “what are the top first dates?” or “what are the top turn-ons?” As of this month (November 2018), the top turn-on qualities are intelligence, nice smile, and a sense of humor. After the user shares their interests and qualities, they can upload their profile and send it off onto the projection ceiling. I think there should be a haptic quality embedded into the experience such as a touch pad making a short vibration when someone else touches a pad on the other side of the building or if the interface were a mobile app it can vibrate when you are matched. This aspect is still in progress.

This project is for those who seek a relationship and the participants are willing to share themselves onto the projected screen and open space under the constellation. This would certainly be a group effort that consists of engineers—particularly for projection rigging and web/interface development, interaction designers, and motion graphics designers. Permission is needed by the MTA Arts and Design and Grand Central authorities. Safety and space use permits are needed as well. 

Final Project Essay

El Sótano Art Space

El Sótano Art Space was born out of a need for a space for underrepresented artists to share, collaborate, create, and most importantly, discuss art in a vacuum that emphasizes the cultural and social value over the capitalistic value of art.

Over the past years, for my personal interest and practice, I have researched and studied alternative spaces and how they came into existence. It began in the 60s when the MoMA was rethinking the set up of exhibitions due to artist demand. Museums and galleries were not catching up to the rapid changing structures of modernist art which caused for a push by artists on institutions to create spaces for art that were more politically and socially conscious of the work and of the public domain. This started with the Spaces exhibition in the MoMA and permeated across the art world, creating the concept of “alternative spaces” which has changed throughout the years due to the changing nature of the function of these spaces, but they have stayed true to providing spaces that maintain the artist in mind and reject the formalities and the white-cute aesthetics and mentality of galleries.

After Spaces at the MoMA, spaces such as 112 Greene Street or 112 Workshop came into being in New York City. 112 Greene St was a space that was created out of the need “for radical change in the art-showing process.” It was situated in the basement of a large building in SoHo where artists had full freedom and control to use and manipulate the space to exhibit their work or to create new works. The space was considered to be “raw” in that the owners never polished the basement but instead left the original architectural and interior structures and aesthetics to exemplify the natural and unrefined look that parallels the freedom and liberty that the space gives artists to make and exhibit work.

Fast forward to the 2000s and the art world in NYC has moved from downtown Manhattan to parts of Brooklyn and Queens. NY artists and curators were seeking an alternative to the traditional gallery context which brought a push, specifically by those whose work stems from conceptualism and performance, to exhibit in spaces that were not commercial and that could flourish in an environment separate to that which had been created by the art market. Orchard founded by Andrea Fraser, Fareth James, and Christian Philip-Muller were involved in this revolutionary movement by creating a space where money was secondary and the space does not advertise fame and fortune through artwork but rather focuses on a variety of artists showing their work in the context appropriate for their medium and purpose.

In 2003, Kelly Taxter and Pascal Spengemann organized Taxer’s apartment in Chelsea for art shows. In Bushwick, Paul D’Agostino currently runs the oldest running gallery in Bushwick which has not only been a staple for the Bushwick art scene but a model for many alternative spaces in the area. The concept of the intimacy of the living-room essence is important for the dynamic of the alternative living room gallery to work. The psychological manipulation of the audience causes for authority and professionalism not be established by the space but rather by the artists, the art, and the visitors. The importance I see here is the separation from the traditional white-cube setting that becomes an antagonist for fruitful discussion.

The outlook alternative spaces have on art and their position with the art market could be described as Olav Velthuis’ description of “Hostile Worlds”. Velthuis defines Hostile Worlds as a framework that focuses on the “detrimental effects of the confrontation between the logic of the arts and the logic of capitalist markets.” This viewpoint elucidates the negative outcomes that evidently separate the artist from their work as well as the audience due to the introduction of capitalist view that causes this alienation. It states that, when viewed through a capitalist lens, art becomes a commodity or a fetish due to its market value being more important than its intrinsic value. This is the inevitable outcome that the art market brings into play within traditional gallery settings which alters the view of the artwork.

The white-cube exists because of the art market. Although they are not always directly paired (the separation of the concepts of the “front room” and the “back room” in galleries) the set up is made so that the front room implies the commercial aspects of the art that then happens in the back room. The gallery space is defaulted to fall into the norms of being bare minimalistic, with each work having a certain autonomy with the space between the works. Galleries, therefore, create an atmosphere through their architectural and interior designs that psychologically manipulate the behavior of the viewer. The implied cultural and social value of the work that is given an invisible price tag by the space assures that viewers maintain their distance, regard the space in a professional and conservative way, speak quietly, and become aware and self-conscious of themselves within the space. The artist is rarely seeing, if ever, and information about the work is often limited to what is said in the press release or by tags near the works limited to 80 words. The elitist implications of the space skew the experience of the viewer and therefore skewes the true meaning of the works.

Arjo Klamer’s concepts of cultural goods is also evident within alternative  spaces. Klamer’s definition of cultural goods and their ties to “cultural conversations” touches on the idea that cultural goods are shaped by the conversations that are held about and around them. These conversations create a set of rules and principles in which the cultural good lives within which produces values and meaning for the work. Alternative spaces emphasize the intention to raise the cultural value rather than the monetary value of the piece.

Martin Beck, nearing the end of his essay, Alternative: Space raises the concern that due to the rapid changing mainstream culture, alternative spaces have been put into question as an increase in the availability of cultural venues continues to expand. This increase in different spaces jeopardizes the visibility of true alternative spaces and the paradigms for alternative spaces. Beck claims that alternative spaces were a movement that was time-based and contingent upon the social, political, and aesthetical positions of the time and therefore reliant upon these conditions to merely exist. As time continues, these factors change, yet the need for alternative spaces is still necessary, especially in the contemporary scene where art fairs, the expansion of Chelsea, Williamsburg, and Bushwick art galleries, and the technological effects on the art market (now being digital e.g. Artsy) have increased the consumerist and capitalistic notions are prevalent now more than ever.   

Using this as a foundation for El Sótano, I wish to bring these historical contexts into the contemporary realm and see how these will shift, what new approaches need to be made, and how the contemporary atmosphere of the art world will react with El Sótano. El Sótano grew out of a realization that there was a lack of space for representation of the diverse and inspiring new creative minds that are underrepresented within the art world. As artists in New York City, we have experienced the dividing limitations and boundaries that need to be crossed to be seen in the art world and want to create a space free of them. El Sótano seeks to cultivate a space for conversation that focuses on the cultural and social value of the arts. As we work to catalyze change, we seek to not only provide a space, but also support to all those who come to make El Sótano an artistic community.