John Howe's house on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota

House designed by architect John Howe, who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright. Some say he had more input into the design of this and other usonian style houses than the bard himself. The motif of the equilateral triangle dominated this compact but expansive house on the bluffs over Lake Minnetonka.

LEED GUIDE

LEED NC 2.2

Lake Cadillac

The Arkansas

Toiling away in revit trying to model the theatre.

Flame Dancers

On the roof in downtown Champaign.

Sitting still as a form of empowerment. - Take 1

Peregrine Drop

Stills from collaboration between dance and landscape architecture students in realizing a site-specific dance piece born from discussions of Darfur.

Video to come.

Pink Uggs

Certain characteristics (North Face, Uggs, iPod, Cell Phones, etc.) were picked. People having these characteristics were followed. If someone crossed our path in the other direction with one of the characteristics, we turned and followed them.

This video relates to Darfur. Why should we, students in the cornfields of Illinois, care about connecting to refugees in Sudan when we cannot connect with each other? We connect and communicate our status to each other via the clothes and items that we display. There is no need for discussion or rapport to understand our situation. But if this is the only way to connect to those in our community, how will be able to understand, much less communicate with and help those living a completely different life in an entirely different place?

Out of two hours of filming and following unsuspecting strangers around the quad not one person turned around and only one person questioned our actions. And he didn't even put up much of an argument to why our filming of people behind their backs was so unsettling.

darfur dance

(click to see big)

Preliminary collages exploring possible dance/landscape interventions on the quad. How does one create a new experience of space, implicitly ones body within the space, without explicitly creating a place for bodies. Namely, blurring the boundary between the two disciplines. Once again, the theme of confronting and revealing apathy within the situation of our campus is the target.

The top collage outlines a potential event in which dancers slowly make their way across the quad following the white lines. Maybe the lines have the narratives written on them, or perhaps they are pure symbolic representations of the paths trod by refugees through their lives. Regardless of what the final incarnation of the physical prop, the slow movement of the dancers through the expanse of the quad would serve to charge the space and give the piece meaning. A multi-faceted and programmed space, the quad is usually a place of either casual aloofness in which people participate in their own forms of theatre. Whether they intend to attract an audience or are simply basking in the sun and crowd with no attention to the swarms of humanity passing them by, there are certain modes of use within which peoples range of actions remained confined within. Even the most artistic of protests and demonstrations tend to rile with their blatent movement and shock value. I propose a more discrete, subtle, and unnerving intervention that tries to encompass the vastness of the space with subtle movements spanned over a long period of time. Blending seamlessly into the space, yet dominating it. Have no literal meaning, but a plethora of interpretations.

The second collage illustrates a more primary way of invading the corporeal space of the viewer. Three different ways of manipulating space in such a way to impede people's path in a physical way. Hopefully when their comings and goings are slowed or stopped, they will think about their place in the world. First frame shows the ugg-clad gang traversing a path strewn with obstacles. The second frame shows people forced to duck and do the limbo on their way to class. Maybe then they would actually think about people whose lives are actually in limbo. The tied-up person in the center of the third frame could either be a dancer or just a passerby. Either way, it embodies the most extreme way to "grab" somebodies attention and make them slow down and think.

Blue