For the mapping project, urban e/merging, our group was assigned the spoke that runs from the “Terzi” through Porta Camolia. As a preliminary mapping exercise, in order to get a subjective understanding of this segment of Siena, our group chose to derive around the spoke and record observations as we moved. We all met at the “porta”. The following map expresses our individual routes.
As one moves north up our spoke the social density on the street decompresses gradually along with sudden shifts in built typologies. Within the city walls the street is defined by pedestrian dominated movement and moments of spatial decompression provided by crossings and piazzas. The built typology outside of the walls is defined by contemporary development and circulation is vehicle-dominated.
Early on our group became interested in the perceptual experience of Siena’s urban environment and how this experience shapes social behaviors. This interest was reinforced and heightened by Lorenzo’s (one of our “resident” crits) insistence that to really experience an urban environment, one must challenge perceived spatial and social limitations. Here is a sketch I made while on our walk with Lorenzo displaying the formless and imprecise environments we are constantly mapping in our own minds:
To further investigate our spoke, each member of the group chose a certain facet of the city that interested them and performed a related mapping exercise. Andre mapped people taking photos and their corresponding subjects, Eric mapped couples being publicly intimate, Josh mapped people sitting, Laura mapped sounds, smells and signals related to dining (ie clanking dinner plates), Rich mapped people eating gelato and I mapped street performers.
I observed two full-time street performers and mapped their daily schedules:
EXPERIMENT 1
Our next group exercise consisted of us orchestrating our own “street performance”. At this point we had all developed a strong interest in what it might take to get people’s attention. We decided that a successful way to do this would be to take people’s used gelato cups (from hands or the garbage) and begin to build a sculpture using the cups. Intuitively we felt that taking an element typically seen around Siena and using it in an atypical way would naturally spark interest. Rich acted as the sculptor and Laura acted as his assistant while Andres and Eric pretended to be tourists and Josh and I documented the whole thing. The performance received a significant deal of attention, mainly from tourists. After about 2 hours it also got the attention of the police and Rich was asked to clean up…a rather pleasing result.
EXPERIMENT 2
Now that we had tested how people react to a performance, or others interacting with their environment, we wanted to introduce a disturbance that would force people to interact directly with us. The scheme we developed had 4 group members stationed along the spoke as “subjects” and 2 group members as stalkers. The “subject” closest to the gate would approach a random person and ask them to take his picture. While being photographed the “subject” would pose in a very distinct way that the group had discussed beforehand. The “stalker” would then follow this “photographer” down the spoke to give a signal to the next “subject” so that he may perform the same operation as the first “subject”, with the same exact pose. This routine would continue to “subject” 3 and 4 long as the “photographer” stayed walking on the spoke.
Our initial attempts proved cumbersome, as we stationed ourselves too far apart. We made the decision to come closer together and were subsequently able to gather some convincing subjective observations. Normally by the third “subject” the photograph has a “deja vu” moment, recognizing that something is not right.
EXPERIMENTS 3+4
Our final experiments dealt with the way in which people interact with/remember objects. In experiment 3 we arranged empty gelato cups in unfinished patterns, with the hope that people would take notice of this arrangement feel compelled to finish or rearrange the pattern. The experiment, however, elicited little attention or activity.
For the fourth and final experiment we placed rocks inside of the gelato cups and arranged them around thresholds as to lead people from their current path down another. This experiment managed to elicit a diverse set of reactions. People followed the path laid out by the gelato cups, locals argued over the reason for the cups and children insisted on playing with the cups. We placed a map of Siena at the end of the gelato cup path with the three mapping spokes filled in thus rendering the street the figure.
Some images from our final presentation:
