I really think what is most appealing to locative narrative to me is the ability to show and share other people things you know or have experienced in this setting that they may have been walking through before or show them a specific side of it they haven’t even wandered through before. I want to express that as well as leave something for other people to find to keep on having people, even those who aren’t aware of the narrative, to find something. If there was no limit to simply planting stands in the ground with an attached notebook for people to write on and add to, that would be my suggestion. As is, the trigger points are anything you know about that was changed or have some history to it. This recalls Kaprow’s Happenings because it’s very based on audience interpretation and participation, because they can go on to add or shape the narrative a little more, as well as create their own. Maybe they could walk past the narrative and keep on going, still leaving notes on observations.
Map for this specific narrative:
1. Start at 31st and Spring Garden. Walk across the bridge over the Schuylkill River to Art Museum Drive.
2. In the park closest to the river, go up the path to the gazebos.
3. Continue circling around the art museum until you reach the front.
4. Continue with the parks down Kelly Drive to Von Collns field, a field with two baseball diamonds. Walk alongside it until you reach a park near the Rodin Museum and walk around that to the right.
5. Continue down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway until you reach the Free Library. Take a left down 19th st. until you see a park on the right. Cross the park and arrive on the other side.
This narrative (co-relates to each direction number):
1. You’re around Penn campus and across from center city. As you walk across the bridge, you can see the murals of people painted on the bridge wall sides. These are actual people who have passed the bridge, painted by a mural foundation over a pre-existing mural. You can see train tracks below and a train track above the road.
2. This park is commonly used by bikers and joggers but maybe you see tourists or families here too. Over the side on the Schuylkill you can look and see a small path near the water with a statue. The gazebos overlooking the water are fairly new, replacing previous dilapidated gazebos and poles.
3. To the side of the art museum is a large abstract statue called the Iroquois. It's only been around for a couple of years (in fact, most of the online map software I looked at didn't have it on the satellite coverage), but it's been around long enough to feel strange when you discover something about it. Did you know the part in the middle actually swings back in forth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRfrM51VCUE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCxfDji_mvM
4. This field was dedicated to the memory of a fallen police officer, a Sergeant of the Fairmount Park department, who was shot to death in 1970 by a radical group (who was later apprehended). The field has been commonly used for baseball games for kids and schools, and there’s even a playground for young children and families. Past the Rodin Museum is currently an empty field with a fence around it and signs saying it will be an extension of the Art Museum dedicated to specific artists. Before that, it was a Juvenile Center to jail delinquents, called the Youth Study Center. There were a lot of reports of kids being able to break out of there, apparently.
5. The final park on this map has a ditch beneath it full of overgrown shrubbery and grass. From 1976 to 1999 there was a train that ran along that ditch, the tracks are still there though no longer visible, and the train would run straight to the Philadelphia Inquirer over at 15th and Broad Street to deliver paper. The trains were run by the same company that used the train tracks you walked over at the bridge at the start, the Conrail company. They’re no longer in operations though the tracks remain and the space hasn’t been claimed yet.
Assessment:
I think, while cities obviously have plenty of history, Philadelphia is a pretty good choice for this narrative because there’s a lot of history and reshaping of the city that people could discuss or enlighten others about, and this specific path I chose I wanted to show some things, both of the past and the present, and how they’ve changed. Obviously the most significant pieces involved in the narrative and this project are the constructed pieces of the city around, not just buildings but the pathways and small constructs too. The narrative and notes will create specific experiences by allowing any and all personal knowledge to guide or inform the person experiencing the narrative, which can range from a whole variety of knowledge, whether personal or about the city’s history itself. As a result the place is very much part of the narrative, dedicated to it and shaping it as well as the narrative shaping the perceptions of the city in the eyes of the individual.
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