The Gaming House
Unrealized Project, 2022
Competition Entry for the Creative Time NYC 22/23
Location: NYC, NY
Perspective concept sketch.
Occluding the sun, a hovering scrim is suspended in the air by drone-guided balloons. Pedestrians below find themselves in a shadow that slowly moves in accordance with the sun’s trajectory.
Occluding the sun, a hovering scrim is suspended in the air by drone-guided balloons. Pedestrians below find themselves in a shadow that slowly moves in accordance with the sun’s trajectory.
Time-lapsed plan diagram of shadow creation in lower Manhattan depicting scrim locations on the hour from 11am to 3pm.
A pair of boats guides a scrim that is large enough to create a large shadow on the ground. Accounting for wind, the boats communicate with drone-guided weather balloons above to chart an effective course throughout the installation.
A pair of boats guides a scrim that is large enough to create a large shadow on the ground. Accounting for wind, the boats communicate with drone-guided weather balloons above to chart an effective course throughout the installation.
On a bright day in Lower Manhattan, a temporary spectacle is created through the masking of the sun’s rays, casting a shadow below by means of an artificial eclipse. Whether knowingly or simply caught up in the spectacle as it unfolds, pedestrians on the streets find themselves as participants in this symbolic act of quiet erasure. Out of curiosity, workers suspend their routines and pour out of their offices becoming unwitting members of the audience while creating a secondary spectacle in the streets.
What is causing this anomalous event? An enormous opaque scrim is suspended by drone-guided weather balloons and tethered to moving barges in New York Harbor around the Southern tip of Manhattan. The scrim’s course is precisely calculated and charted according to wind patterns and the sun’s path.
What is causing this anomalous event? An enormous opaque scrim is suspended by drone-guided weather balloons and tethered to moving barges in New York Harbor around the Southern tip of Manhattan. The scrim’s course is precisely calculated and charted according to wind patterns and the sun’s path.
Lower Manhattan is chosen as a site for which the shadow is cast. Today this area stands simultaneously as an emblem of freedom, the American Dream, and unrelenting capitalism. But, who’s freedom, who’s dream and to what end? Whether perceived or not, as a compression of history the brutal events and global impact of this locale span from well before New Amsterdam was self-declared on February 2nd, 1653 to the events of September 11th, 2001, through to today and beyond.
This proposal is part of a larger meta-project, relating to the American Dream (see related project).
This proposal is part of a larger meta-project, relating to the American Dream (see related project).
Precedent event, a total Solar Eclipse on August 17, 2017; Park Avenue, NYC.
Office workers flood Park Avenue in order to witness a total solar eclipse, creating a secondary spectacle on the streets.
Team
LUCITO, concept, images, texts and photos
LUCITO, concept, images, texts and photos