Archives for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

A 10 year lemonade stand

Hello Renee, Thank you for your thoughts. To answer your questions: The conceptual keywords behind the lemonade stand are long term commitment, platform to interact, building trust, exposure and space for opportunity. We consider the lot at meadow street as our temporary studio. The lemonade stand is our first mark on that green and otherwise […]

Questions and funding

Hello Franzy and Hajoe, I feel really sad that the rest of the videos did not live.  That is so disappointing.  I would love to see the original video if you have time to send it one day.  Do you want me to return the camera to you? Lena and I had a chance to […]

What to expect

Hello Renee, Great to hear back from you and to answer your last question first, we have received one video of Ngani, but there should have been others, too. Now it seems there isn’t any other, so at least we have what we got from her so far. We have watched it before and can […]

considerations

Hello Hajoe and Franzy, I am sorry it has taken me so long to write you back.  We have just finished the installation on a project and are preparing for the reception tomorrow.  It’s been busy, probably more so with the two of you. Please forgive me. I also wanted to spend some time thinking […]

10 years

Dear Renee, thanks for checking in…. We were about to send you an email as well. The Larimer project is simmering – not on the back burner but in the front line with a couple of other projects we have been cooking for some time. We have been discussing the Larimer project for the last […]

checking in …

Hello Franzy and Hajoe, I hope you both and Louie are doing well and having a good summer. I am sorry you have not heard from me in a while. My optimistic side is hoping that you both have been writing letters to people in Wilkinsburg, making interesting connections with people, still thinking of the […]

closing email from Ngani

Confirming receipt of this message. I’ve sent camera, the portable HD, and 1 video card along to Renee today via US Post. I had to move 2 weeks ago so I have the other card within my things I will send it along as soon as I recover it. If I haven’t opened a box […]

signs of Ngani

Today we received the videos in the mail and a letter explaining why we hadn’t heard from Ngani since December 15th. We had tried multiple times to call and email her, but she never responded. It wasn’t a good excuse and we decided to terminate our relationship since we needed someone reliable to represent us […]

conference call

Call with Eteam December 23, 2010 On Call: Lea, Lena, Renee, Hajoe, Franzy +++++++++++++++ Tech Issues: Hajoe described some logistics issues.  Ngani has shipped the card to them, but it has not arrived yet.  They have Monday Skype calls with her, but this past Monday, there was no phone call.  They are having trouble getting […]

skype with Ngani

today at 9:00 pm like every week

SD cards

Finally the SD cards for the video camera have arrived at Ngani’s place. We had ordered them to speed things up, but the post office and maybe B&H messed all our plans up. It took over two weeks from NY to Pittsburgh for two SD cards.

Renee, eteam and Kingsley Phone Call November 17, 2010

incomplete transcript of one of the phone conferences scheduled to be held every two weeks 11/10 – 12-10 Eteam and Kingsley Phone Call November 17, 2010 Maria and Ngani met two weeks ago.  Ngani is going to be setting up shop at LA Grocery to do videos from there. Six people were at a Kingsley […]

some reference projects for discussion

email from eteam For us the primary idea about the video, the camera and the camera operator is, to have a representation in the community, hopefully building, extending and capturing the relationships we had started while we were there. If the video helps in securing grant money, the better and we are excited if this […]

Evaluation and plans

Today is the deadline for sending a general report about our August experience and our plans for the future to Pittsburgh. Here is what we put together: eteam’s report, Sept.13, 2010 1 It’s the end of the summer. We are back in NYC and after weeks of sun and heat, the sky turned grey and […]

last day of the lemonade stand

In the morning we had breakfast with with Renee, Lena and Maria to evaluate what had happened the last two weeks and to talk about the next steps. We decided to return in the fall. In the mean time, we will hire Ngani to be our studio assistant. She will start mid-September by doing some […]

back on Meadow Street

What can we do right now besides showing that we are here?  How do we communicate some kind of commitment without waving around a glossy print out of a five year plan? If we could have thought of a better way we would have done it, but nothing came to mind. So, here we were […]

mhhhh

Got rejection letter from Jerome Foundation. We had applied for the Travel and Study Grant Program to support another research trip to Pittsburgh in August 2010.

www.contact

Terence Valencheck, Director of Video & Technology at the Mount Ararat Baptist Church contacted us via email. He had found our blog through google maps, liked it and encouraged us to “keep on dreaming”.

Pittsburgh dancing traffic cop

The idea of an unusual traffic direction has a history in Pittsburgh…

Foam steel beams

Liked the “foam steel beams” mentioned in the article, as well as the description of the steel producing Pittsburgh attitude… link here

feral houses

some pictures from Detroit

The house where nobody lives

http://popup.lala.com/popup/360569466643087300

landownership questions

$100 and $200 lots in Larimer View Larimer $100 in a larger map View Larimer $200 in a larger map

Map of Larimer

A pretty thorough neighborhood map of Larimer by Alexandra Woolsey Puffer and Jeff Maki View larimer in a larger map

Possible next steps

Since we are making our working process public, the back and forth between ideas and revelations might seem confusing for an “outsider”, but it demonstrates our dialog with the site, the conditions and our ideas. (- And as stated earlier, this process usually happens in the privacy of our studio, now our studio practice is […]

Questions

Two questions: Why is the URA actually interested in working with artists on a project in Larimer? And why are we actually interested to work with the URA on a project in Larimer? What interests eteam to work in Pittsburgh? urban setting urban history and historical development landscape exciting partners in the form of Renee, […]

Telephone Feedback

In order to get feedback on the first ideas we proposed, Renee organized a conference call with Lea, Lena, herself and us. Here is a summary of what we discussed. From the first ideas we proposed, the Pittsburgh Team liked the “Golf Course” and the “Village” idea. After having discussed the ideas among themselves the […]

Larimer

Even though we like the appeal of both neighborhoods, there is something about Larimer that immediatley is more compelling to us than Garfield. Larimer is flat. It’s half abandoned character reminds us of the left over settlements of former gold rush towns we visited in the West. There are associations that for us come with […]

Our Second Day in Pittsburgh

We met in the morning with Renee and Morton in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel and together went on to a second tour through Pittsburgh, this time listening to Morton’s version of the stories behind the things we were seeing. We first went on top of Mount Washington. a spot which USA Weekend Magazine […]

Our First Tour through Pittsburgh

November 19th, 2009 After we ate some lunch, Renee, Lea and Lena took us on a tour through Pittsburgh. We paid special attention to two neighborhoods, that are possible places for a project that deals with vacant land and population loss. Larimer and Garfield. While driving Lena told us through what we were seeing and […]

Our first meeting in Pittsburgh

We arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport in the morning, rented a car, checked into the Renaissance Hotel and met 12:30 pm at the URA offices with: Renee Piechocki (Office of Public Art) Lea Donatelli (Office of Public Art) Rob Stephany (URA) Lena Andrews (URA) Morton Brown (City of Pittsburgh) What follows is a rough transcript […]

Invitation to Pittsburgh

email from Renee: Hello Hajoe and Franzy, I hope you both are doing well.  I have some good news. The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh) is able to fund a research trip for you to come to Pittsburgh!