March 21, 2008
The Narrative...
And so, storytelling becomes slowly forgotten. People run from one activity to the next, forgetting the process, and thinking only of the destination. So much easier to watch a movie or read a book, but the sacrifice we give for that is the loss of human interaction, the spiritual connections between the human souls, from which we gather life.
There must be a place to revisit all this, to gather people together again and show the importance of telling their own stories and experiences to each other directly. Giving people a reason to come to that place, while at the same time, placing them in the storytelling framework, where the stories are evoked from within themselves and passed on to others, without anyone knowing anything of it.
So, there is this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, in the city of Portland. Where people reside to one side, go to a flower-shop on the other, watch a theater performance or visit the Oregon Historical Society across the street. But most of all, people just run by on weekday mornings as they are late for work, or sit in their car in the afternoons stuck in traffic, only thinking about one thing, how to get home faster for dinner and some ‘personal’ time.
On the corner of Broadway and Madison is a place…
Bottom levels take the people off the sidewalks and place them in their current time, into this place. Middle levels engage them to find their own stories and exchange their stories with others as well as watch and listen to others passing their own stories to the rest. Top levels are where the residents reside and collect the stories of the lower floors. The residents collect these stories and then filter them down to the public, to the middle and lower floors through the circulation areas (middle area) of the building.
First Levels:
On the first level, as you are passing the building, following Madison, you enter a coffee shop that begins at one corner, where you enter, and then it follows the Broadway sidewalk and becomes a shop, where you exchange your things with others, exchanging clothes or antiques. The shop then becomes a beauty salon, on the side bordering the building. Then, the side that is bordering the existing apartments is a small alley way where the stories are displayed as art and this art work merges into the circulation space (in the middle of the building) and you can follow it up, along with the ramps, to the middle levels…
Middle Levels:
Looking over Broadway Street is the daycare center. Overlooking that, a couple of feet higher, is a platform for board games, where people can sit and relax, overlooking the city and watching kids play. The perimeter area of the middle floors is where activities take place such as resting, playing games, eating, or watching the kids. In the middle is the circulation place (ramps) with the platforms of those ramps dedicated to public speaking. People sitting in the perimeter can watch the person speak. The walls of the circulation space are filled with written and recorded stories.
Top Levels:
Following the circulation space up, you end at residential units towards the back walls that border the apartment building. Closer to Madison and Broadway, are their studios where they watch the people below, people on the street and create art or written work from the stories they overhear down below, from the city. Then, they bring that work down and display in the circulation areas for the people below to experience and learn from.
The coffee shop on the bottom faces the circulation area, where you can see all the way up to the top levels, where the artwork on the bottom floors changes to books as you follow people going up the ramps. The shop and the hair salon can see up into the upper lounge areas. The game room looks down into the daycare center. The daycare center faces the streets and looks down into the hair salon and the shop. The lounge overlooks all activities based on where you are sitting and is a transition into the residential levels on the top. The residential area overlooks down into all the places and has connection into the circulation areas.
There must be a place to revisit all this, to gather people together again and show the importance of telling their own stories and experiences to each other directly. Giving people a reason to come to that place, while at the same time, placing them in the storytelling framework, where the stories are evoked from within themselves and passed on to others, without anyone knowing anything of it.
So, there is this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, in the city of Portland. Where people reside to one side, go to a flower-shop on the other, watch a theater performance or visit the Oregon Historical Society across the street. But most of all, people just run by on weekday mornings as they are late for work, or sit in their car in the afternoons stuck in traffic, only thinking about one thing, how to get home faster for dinner and some ‘personal’ time.
On the corner of Broadway and Madison is a place…
Bottom levels take the people off the sidewalks and place them in their current time, into this place. Middle levels engage them to find their own stories and exchange their stories with others as well as watch and listen to others passing their own stories to the rest. Top levels are where the residents reside and collect the stories of the lower floors. The residents collect these stories and then filter them down to the public, to the middle and lower floors through the circulation areas (middle area) of the building.
First Levels:
On the first level, as you are passing the building, following Madison, you enter a coffee shop that begins at one corner, where you enter, and then it follows the Broadway sidewalk and becomes a shop, where you exchange your things with others, exchanging clothes or antiques. The shop then becomes a beauty salon, on the side bordering the building. Then, the side that is bordering the existing apartments is a small alley way where the stories are displayed as art and this art work merges into the circulation space (in the middle of the building) and you can follow it up, along with the ramps, to the middle levels…
Middle Levels:
Looking over Broadway Street is the daycare center. Overlooking that, a couple of feet higher, is a platform for board games, where people can sit and relax, overlooking the city and watching kids play. The perimeter area of the middle floors is where activities take place such as resting, playing games, eating, or watching the kids. In the middle is the circulation place (ramps) with the platforms of those ramps dedicated to public speaking. People sitting in the perimeter can watch the person speak. The walls of the circulation space are filled with written and recorded stories.
Top Levels:
Following the circulation space up, you end at residential units towards the back walls that border the apartment building. Closer to Madison and Broadway, are their studios where they watch the people below, people on the street and create art or written work from the stories they overhear down below, from the city. Then, they bring that work down and display in the circulation areas for the people below to experience and learn from.
The coffee shop on the bottom faces the circulation area, where you can see all the way up to the top levels, where the artwork on the bottom floors changes to books as you follow people going up the ramps. The shop and the hair salon can see up into the upper lounge areas. The game room looks down into the daycare center. The daycare center faces the streets and looks down into the hair salon and the shop. The lounge overlooks all activities based on where you are sitting and is a transition into the residential levels on the top. The residential area overlooks down into all the places and has connection into the circulation areas.
February 23, 2008
Ideas for a Narratorium
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou
My Narratorium: Taking one from their everyday experiences and activities and placing them in a particular place, a different time, where each space encourages them to express their thoughts and experiences to others through a narrative.
February 14, 2008
A Monday
Every day you run through time. Never noticing the daylight, then the darkness passing. You just ‘drive’ though it, but are you part of it? Sometimes, one doesn’t notice the life in which they live. Time is not a line one can quickly pass through. If time were a line, we would only be living in the present, but at any one point you think and are influenced by the past, or constantly run to the future.
So, there is this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, in the city of Portland. Where people reside to one side, go to a flower-shop on the other, watch a theater performance or visit the Oregon Historical Society across the street. But most of all, people just run by on weekday mornings as they are late for work, or sit in their car in the afternoons stuck in traffic, only thinking about one thing, how to get home faster for dinner and some personal time.
What is personal time? Why do people hurry so fast through days for it? What is it in that 'personal' time that gives them some sort of satisfaction? Work for money in order to have enough money for a vacation afterwards, or so one can live in luxury (their own definition of luxury). Has everyone forgotten what is the point of all the work?
So, in this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, is a structure...and a person is walking fast by it….
...You are hurrying to grab a quick cup of coffee before your full day of work, and are obliged to step into this coffee shop, since it's right on the way, while constantly looking at your watch in order to make it to work on time.
As you walk in to the coffee shop, at first you notice the general: coffee tables, people sitting, reading the paper, or chatting with each other. As you step in line to order a cup of coffee, you start looking around. You look towards the back wall and notice artwork displayed on a glass wall. You follow the glass wall and the paintings up and see the paintings on canvas change to shelves containing books and audio and video recordings. Higher, against the glass wall, are ramps, which end at different levels. Each level holds something different…people constantly moving through the ramps. By this time, it is your turn to order. The Barista asks what you would like to drink and after your response, she points to the back wall and says you should go look at a painting while your coffee is being poured. She says that a painting has been drawn of you, and even a story has been written. Curiously, you walk up to the glass wall and notice it extends farther into a hallway and borders a small shop farther down, then extends into an area outside. There is one painting...it is very familiar. The painting is not of you or anything similar for that matter, but still, something interesting. Then you notice a couple of feet above you, is a platform, as a stage, where a person is standing, looking straight ahead and talking about Mondays!
"... it's the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday,” he says. “It gets its name from the Moon, which in turn gets its name from Mani (Old English Mona), the Germanic Moon god. Similarly, the names in Latin-based languages such as the Italian name (Lunedì), the French name (lundi), the Spanish name (Lunes), and the Romanian name (Luni) come from the Latin name for Moon, luna. The Russian word, eschewing pagan names, is “poniediélnik”, meaning "after Sunday." In most of the Indian Languages, the word for Monday is Somvar..."
As you look at what he is facing, you see two people sitting on the other side, crisscross on the floor, listening and making notes.
You want to stay and listen to the end, but your name is called. Your coffee is ready, and you remember your watch.
But today is a Monday...you start thinking about Mondays as you step outside and begin walking towards your work. Somehow, that painting comes to mind as you think of Mondays...but what is that painting of? You look back at the building, and make a note to come back another day, to see what will be said about Saturday, which is the day you were born. That will be more exciting, since you’ll be able to stay longer on that day…
So, there is this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, in the city of Portland. Where people reside to one side, go to a flower-shop on the other, watch a theater performance or visit the Oregon Historical Society across the street. But most of all, people just run by on weekday mornings as they are late for work, or sit in their car in the afternoons stuck in traffic, only thinking about one thing, how to get home faster for dinner and some personal time.
What is personal time? Why do people hurry so fast through days for it? What is it in that 'personal' time that gives them some sort of satisfaction? Work for money in order to have enough money for a vacation afterwards, or so one can live in luxury (their own definition of luxury). Has everyone forgotten what is the point of all the work?
So, in this space, on the corner of Broadway and Madison, is a structure...and a person is walking fast by it….
...You are hurrying to grab a quick cup of coffee before your full day of work, and are obliged to step into this coffee shop, since it's right on the way, while constantly looking at your watch in order to make it to work on time.
As you walk in to the coffee shop, at first you notice the general: coffee tables, people sitting, reading the paper, or chatting with each other. As you step in line to order a cup of coffee, you start looking around. You look towards the back wall and notice artwork displayed on a glass wall. You follow the glass wall and the paintings up and see the paintings on canvas change to shelves containing books and audio and video recordings. Higher, against the glass wall, are ramps, which end at different levels. Each level holds something different…people constantly moving through the ramps. By this time, it is your turn to order. The Barista asks what you would like to drink and after your response, she points to the back wall and says you should go look at a painting while your coffee is being poured. She says that a painting has been drawn of you, and even a story has been written. Curiously, you walk up to the glass wall and notice it extends farther into a hallway and borders a small shop farther down, then extends into an area outside. There is one painting...it is very familiar. The painting is not of you or anything similar for that matter, but still, something interesting. Then you notice a couple of feet above you, is a platform, as a stage, where a person is standing, looking straight ahead and talking about Mondays!
"... it's the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday,” he says. “It gets its name from the Moon, which in turn gets its name from Mani (Old English Mona), the Germanic Moon god. Similarly, the names in Latin-based languages such as the Italian name (Lunedì), the French name (lundi), the Spanish name (Lunes), and the Romanian name (Luni) come from the Latin name for Moon, luna. The Russian word, eschewing pagan names, is “poniediélnik”, meaning "after Sunday." In most of the Indian Languages, the word for Monday is Somvar..."
As you look at what he is facing, you see two people sitting on the other side, crisscross on the floor, listening and making notes.
You want to stay and listen to the end, but your name is called. Your coffee is ready, and you remember your watch.
But today is a Monday...you start thinking about Mondays as you step outside and begin walking towards your work. Somehow, that painting comes to mind as you think of Mondays...but what is that painting of? You look back at the building, and make a note to come back another day, to see what will be said about Saturday, which is the day you were born. That will be more exciting, since you’ll be able to stay longer on that day…
February 10, 2008
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