Journey toward a thesis

This has been an experiment in the act of creating place by walking different parts of Albuquerque, NM with a smartphone and placing symbols (5 QR codes/objects) with embedded information. These symbols, while an interesting aesthetic attraction also contain an embedded narrative only revealed by using your smartphone. They are signifiers of your presence in the place that is Landscape Elucidate that is a subset of the city.  Landscape Elucidate then can be defined not only as a method employed to better understand your urban environment but it also becomes a unique place to inhabit during exploration.  For those of you that visit this site, this will be the final entry for the project, but not the final entry period.  My goal is to continue this research after graduation and have it take the form of a software application for your smartphone.  I ask that you continue to check back for future developments.  I welcome feedback from you about your own walks with a smartphone.

Downtown to Robinson

The final QR code/object was placed at Robinson Park. I seem to only go downtown for three reasons: to see a movie, to go to a bar, or to study the built environment. I happened to be downtown for a movie and decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to walk to the final QR code at Robinson Park. Out of the five QR code/objects I have placed in Albuquerque, I thought the fifth and final QR code/object would be the least likely to remain situated where I placed it. Downtown Albuquerque is an interesting place and not for the best of reasons. There is an identity that wants to be expressed from the buildings and spaces in downtown Albuquerque but in the end it communicates more of a collection of disparate parts with many missing "teeth". There are people downtown however, occupying apartments and hotels, but I do not think that there are people who are truly able to thrive downtown. Walking around you pass through more than one empty lot. Some buildings reveal their hidden underbelly where the cracked facade permits the sun. There is pocket park built by students off of Gold Street that provides one area of respite in the downtown jumble. I want to want to go downtown and hang out but it still does not feel welcoming, despite the earnest efforts of the Downtown Action Team so I go there only there to watch, drink and observe.

I meandered around downtown for about 2 miles until I arrived at Robinson park. Surprisingly, the QR code/object was still there and I was glad for it. Another interest space that I have come across during my expeditions into the city are picnic tables placed out front of office buildings, usually next to the street and only one them is installed. I tend to think that these are for the population of smoking employees but they strike me also as these stark oasis. Somewhat of refreshing place to relax yet they also seem to say "sure, go ahead and smoke or eat your lunch, but do it quickly." Another element in the city that I have come across in great abundance has been objects for sitting (chairs, couches, benches, etc.) left in little nooks and crannies. These objects are mobile i.e. they are not bolted to, or chained down to something. It speaks to the dynamic nature of place and how the simplest act of placing a chair in the landscape can create a space that someone will be drawn to inhabit during unknown moments. I have added a few of these places to Foursquare so if you are out and about check in and be merry.


View 2011-04-17 14:51 in a larger map

Walk #9

Walking to Object #4

I have visited all the sites where I placed the QR Codes/Objects but I felt like I needed to also walk to these objects. The #4 QR code is located at the Western gate of the Rio Grande Nature Center. The walk started at a park just off of Montano Boulevard. The park had a large number of wooden sculptures carved from dead tree trunks. It reminded me of sculptures I encountered during a walk in front of an apartment building off of Washington near Lomas. I wondered if they were created by the same artist? It was a Saturday that I took this walk along the Rio Grande and the pathway that winds next to the river is a popular place to enjoy a walk, run or bike ride on a Saturday. I took notice of both the wide swath of dirt path that follows along the paved path. Some runners were running on the dirt path and all bicyclists were on the paved trail. I assume that the volume of traffic that the path sees they've had to employ a more automotive street approach, complete with a center divide and demarcation of where one should pass. There is also an area where I came across stairway made from railroad ties that descended to the irrigation channel and a bridge across. This particular area and bridge was unique in that it seemed to lead to an area completely fenced off. There were no signs as to where the bridge provided access to. It was only further down that I found a sign noting that the the area was a riparian sanctuary. I also noticed a sign for the Aldo Leopold preserve, a somewhat mundane event yet the fact that it is a preserved place that has corporate sponsorship...all things seem to need sponsorship these days, from professional sport arenas to nature preserves.


View 2011-04-16 15:16 in a larger map

Walk #8



Rio Grande Walk by itajan

A walk to film, a film of walking

I started this walk in the hopes that I could also film what I was doing at the same time...a difficult task indeed.  I found my attention being pulled in too many directions so I concentrated on making the film and just set my phone to record my track.  I did however snap a few photos and pass a guitar player as well as some Physical Plant sounds near the AMAFCA channel on North Campus.  I notice more areas to explore every time I walk this same route.  There are places forgotten that also continue to cry out for attention.  On the way back toward George Pearl Hall I noticed someone sitting under a large drain pipe and thought it a could place to rest and take shelter from the sun.  While secretly desiring a more urban playground (not so secret anymore) than Albuquerque, I have discovered that the mix of the urban and wild makes for an interesting dichotomy.  There are so many "unfinished" corners of the city and the walking has indeed revealed that notion to me.

I was able to create and place the QR code/objects throughout various locales in the city.  Two will be directly available to the people volunteering to take my walk and elucidate some landscape using a smart phone.  I will post photos of the process of making these objects and some photos of their placement throughout the city.  It was cathartic to make something physical for this project and I believe grounds the work by alluding to a possible design intervention one might make when attempting to cater to a smart phone using crowd.  I wonder if people will know what to do with them and indeed this may be a shortcoming of the finished product.  I wanted to keep the objects mysterious to only the most curious of user but I fear that may be too limiting.  Two days out in the environment however, and we will see what results more time may bring. 




View 2011-03-28 10:17 in a larger map

Walk #7



Sounds from Monday morning by itajan

A walk to a grassy parking lot

This walk came about as a result of the Fall 2010 semester.  We initially visited the old parking lot of a long since close car dealership in order to get a feel for the scale of a garden design we were working on.  The grass outlined polygons in the asphalt and created this puzzle of parking lot.  Nature always finds a way to weave its way into the forgotten crevices of society.  Earlier in the walk, in the neighborhood directly west of UNM's main campus I walked on a street that had no sidewalks...I guess an unnecessary addition to this particular residential street.  This was also the first time I was able to test out the SoundCloud app following an update to the program that allowed it to work on my smart phone.  It was fortuitous because that very day a bird was joyously signaling the first days of spring and his/her enthusiasm was noteworthy.  I also happened upon Merlin's door.  It was a small door on the side of someones backyard fence and I can imagine only a magician being able to fit through such a door...or a cat...named Merlin.




View 2011-03-18 17:50 in a larger map

Walk #6




Spring Bird by itajan