Installation

Futuristic Settlers vs. the GPS Drawing

Our GPS drawing did not turn out the way we expected. Inspired by the Kwon and Rogoff readings, we decided to make a pseudo settlement on the beach. We connected early Milwaukee Fur Traders and the lake, and we were each going to make our own forts using the GPS drawing. However, the GPS in combonation with the Everytrail App was really uncooperative and wouldn't draw straight lines... it even marked us as standing out in the middle of Lake Michigan, which was completely incorrect. After multiple tries, our hopes of a virtually drawn lake settlement was terminated.

Doors Open Milwaukee

During Doors Open Milwaukee, I decided to visit the US Bank observation deck and Marquette's St. Joan of Arc Chapel. At the US Bank building, my main interest was to look at my apartment from the top. The top middle picture shows my building from the top of the observation deck. Every night the US Bank Building obstructs my view of the horizon from my apartment. I wanted to switch the viewpoint by seeing how my own building measured up to the US Bank's perspective.

Afterwards, I took the bus to the St. Joan of Arc Chapel at Marquette. I heard that this was a place where you could experience a holy stone of some sort, so I was pretty interested in checking out. Legend has it that St. Joan of Arc supposedly prayed on this stone and kissed it, and ever since it has been a few degrees colder than the stones around it. The stone in question is featured first in the bottom row of pictures, and it is the flat bottom of the little cubby in the wall. I was encouraged to feel the two "stones" on either side of it before feeling the St. Joan of Arc Stone. The stone did feel a little colder, but perhaps it could have been subconsciously projected...

Micro/Macro

On my walk, there were multiple locations where I connected some of the larger ideas from class to the sites. However, towards the of the exercise, I found a message written in chalk that said: "You're Beautiful". It was pretty deocrative; the writer used blue chalk and also turned the dot on the "i" into a flower. This caught me off guard, for the message and action seemed pretty juvenile, which it probably was, as it reminded me a lot from elementary school. On the second and third ways of walking, I looked for the message every time to check on how faded it became. It turned out to be a rather significant part of the walking experience.

For my intervention, I thought of the message the writer was trying to send. I think that the comment itself, "You're Beautiful" is pretty artificial. Is there a reflection of inner beauty as compensation for any perceptive outside beauty? Is the statement meant to make the public feel "better" about themselves, or just the writer?

I placed a mirror, chair, and wrote the words "YOU ARE" as a response to this. The act of "being" and the recogonition of this fact, is personally more important to me than the artificialness I found the expression to be. The chair and mirror invites the public in to view themselves in the space. The awareness of just 'being' is something I think many of us take for granted.

Monica Miller, 3 Days 3 Ways

Walking, One Perspective, and Bussing

Inspired by the Nato Thompson reading, I took to the alley ways of downtown Milwaukee, used the river walk, and tried to explore some of the city that I was unfamiliar with. My goal was to try to find a route that would really connect with the reading. I used routes that were a bit uncommon, as a way of exploring public places that were slightly less traveled, and also combining within this route places that were highly trafficked and deemed as public hot spots. 

The act of feeling out my route, traveling the city with fresh eyes during the first walk, was the most influential way of the three. This was true exploration for me, for I tried hard to walk to places I have yet explored. The last two ways were not as interesting, based on my modes of transportation, a personal choice, but also because it was a forced exercise. While I enjoy repetition, in the case of these walks, I was not as satisfied. 

The second way I took was walking, but with a bit of a twist. Mortified with the idea of walking backwards or crawling (though I did seriously consider it for longer than I probably should have), I decided to walk the same path, but record my travel with my phone stationed in my pocket. I thought it was kind of a quirky idea, and by using a recorded version of my walk, I would be able to review it after the fact, kind of pushing time limits and places in space. The videos of this walk are strange because the rhythm of the pace in which I walked was so apparent. While I have captured a strange and limited perspective on this walk, I can only stand watching these recordings for so long, for after a while the weird rhythm creates a strange motion sickness feel to them.

Lastly, I took the bus. I could only take it from school to the Milwaukee Public Market, and then from McKinley Street to Brady Street, having to walk the rest of the way, for it was on an unconventional path. Using the bus didn't cut out as much time as I would have thought, considering that I could only use it for short distances, but I also had to wait for them at each point. 

Thinking of Thompson's depiction of human's force on nature, there were some interesting connections I had within the reading and the ways in which I walked. I believe that the River Walk is a perfect example of this force. The city of Milwaukee has used the river as a natural resource that interconnects within the every day lives of the citizens and businesses throughout the area. If the city and its architecture are meant as a representation of those who are living within it, I believe that the River Walk and the buildings and parks that surround it portray us in a decent light. The ways and times in which I traveled varied, but the traffic of the public areas were always in use. After living in a city where the downtown is very dead, seeing Milwaukee being interactive in this way was very refreshing.