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 it is raining. We check our smart phone for the weather in Pittsburgh. It’s supposed to be 71 Degrees. It looks like there are some clouds, but no rain. In fact, no rain until Thursday. What happens if it rains in Larimer? We wonder. Will the weeds on the vacant lots grow again? Do the streets get cleaned? Will Mrs. Jones’ rain barrel fill up? And what will she do with the water? Will the rain dribble into the attics – of how many houses? We picture how the wood is getting wet, turning dark, the air dampens, the growth of mold picks up, there is this special smell. It’s not healthy, that’s why somebody is sleeping on the couch in the living room since two years. That same somebody who grew up in Larimer. He was, at some point a little boy who pinned two postcards on the wall above his bunk bed. What postcards we can not even imagine. We do a google search: “Black Kids Postcards”. The first result is 100 years old. That’s how far behind we are. Literally. A vintage postcard, tinted, depicting naked and semi nude African boys fighting for money. The inscription reads: Negerknaben kaempfen um Geldstuecke. The postcard has been sent from Monrovia to Wien. The German Deutsch – Suedwest Afrika – stamp has been tied by a Swakopmund 1910 – strike. Fine condition. Price $48. So? Yes, the postcard could have been pinned up on a wall in Vienna. Yes, we can picture that scenario perfectly. But what about Larimer? What do we know by heart about that place? Still, not much. We fall into the google trap again: the empty lot syndrome, shrinking cities, blight, crime, African American community, temporary urbanism is filling the void, dead malls, instant parks, rain gardens, mushroom farms, compost bins, community gardens, outdoor markets, short-term retail outlets and event locations, activists, grass roots, revitalizing, murals, short term, high impact, potential, possibility. There are more words on the web than weeds on vacant lots in Larimer that describe the post-industrial inner city phenomena not only in American cities, but all over the world.

2

No, the Internet is not going to solve this one for us.  There is too much pre-digested information out there. And, even if we wanted to start anew… it’s overpriced. You can buy www.emptylots.com for  $2495 from HugeDomains.com.

We don’t know what happens when it rains in Larimer. We assume that the rain will leak through some roofs, causing the mold to spread, like the stereotypes. “Why is this a bad place?”, we had asked the guy. “Bang bang”, he said and shot his two index fingers into the air. We have only been there for ten hot days in August operating an afternoon Lemonade stand on a vacant lot on Meadow Street.

What was the result of that? We spent time on site.
What kind of time? It’s hard to say. Setting up was scary. For the first hour we felt uncomfortable. Like intruders. We nervously waited for the first costumer. Once he crossed the street and bought a lemonade without asking anything but the price, the possibility that our presence could be accepted went from 0 to 100%. To realize that we had a chance was a great relief. We could have packed up after that, but we stayed to test the hypothesis. Count the people. Take in the reactions. Observe how they walked down the street. Since there were only 1-2 lemonade exchanges per hour, we had a lot of extra time. Time to sit and look at the houses across the street. Time to look at the grass, the bees, the sky, the clouds. Time to sit on a folding chair and sip on an iced coffee. Time to listen to the crickets, to look at a butterfly. Time to do nothing. Every day we liked the place a little bit more. There was beauty in the simplicity of things. Something direct. Something real. We were able to see it there. A plot of nature. Along comes a man. He likes the place. He builds a house to protect him. Wind and weather stay outside. What destroys the house from within eventually is man’s own nature. So he leaves and starts over some place else, which might be the same place. Or the same nature some place else. Whichever way, it will take some time until the remaining destruction becomes a starting point for the next man, who – for example – comes of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with materialistic society is giving rise to a new appreciation of spirituality. His name is Caspar David Friedrich. He is a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, best known for his allegorical paintings which feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or ruins. The figures are small, allowing the landscape to hint towards its metaphysical dimension. There is something powerful about the contemplative depictions of stillness. To experience the void is impossible, but in Larimer there is at least some emptiness one can get close to. If we allow the luxury of taking the time to drift off.

3

What do we see when we look at the ocean? A lawless domain where brute economics trump moral considerations? Vast? Wild? Mysterious? Chaos? Crime? Is that what people think, when they spend their family vacation sitting in front of the big empty blue?  What do people see when they look at the vacant lots in Larimer? It probably depends on the people.

4

When we return in the fall we need to look at the vacant lots again. And we need to see how others look at them. If we felt like we were missing 100 years of combined personal histories in Larimer during our last visit, let’s skip another 100 years backwards, and approach the situation truly out of context, like two romantic German Plein Air Landscape painters, who are intrigued by the idea of employing the Rückenfigur – a person seen from behind, contemplating the view. In August we made ourselves visible, and have seen a little bit for ourselves. But, you only see what you know. At our next visit we need to see what people see when they look at the vacant lots. How the landscape changes through their eyes.

In more practical terms: The three returning customers of our lemonade stand meant a lot to us. They didn’t “check us out” the second time, they returned, because we offered something what they liked. Larimer offers things we value, so we would like to return. Ideally the returns will be a week each time. This should suffice to establish a mutual familiarity with people, which is necessary for the development of collaborations. We would like to spend time in Larimer again towards the end of October and in the beginning of January. We expect these two shorter visits will deepen our relationships, and our understanding of the place. We will use these visits for collaborative test runs with individuals or smaller groups.

In the mean time – we purchased a high definition video camera, which we’ll send to Ngani, our artist assistant on site, so she can start doing video-interviews, and some landscape shots in Larimer. These video interviews will have several functions. For once they allow us to maintain a continued presence in Larimer, a presence, which is not as immediate as us being there, but one, which reminds people that other people are looking at the place. Secondly people get used to the video- camera – or Ngani with the video camera. And lastly, when Ngani sends us the footage, we will have continued access to what is going on, what people think, catch up on some history, and can have her ask specific questions. Based on these recordings, we will be able to develop the first test runs for October. Since many of our process-based projects are documented (and fictionalized) in form of video, the collected footage could become part of this type of docu-fiction.

1 Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818
2 Caspar David Friedrich, Abbey in an Oak Forest, 1809 – eteam, behind the lot on Meadow street, August 2010
3 Caspar David Friedrich, The Sea of Ice/The Wreck of Hope, 1823-24 – eteam, Emma’s store on Meadow street, August 2010

4 Caspar David Friedrich, Woman before the rising sun, 1818-1820 – eteam, Mrs. Jones in front of the furniture Warehouse, 2010

5 Caspar David Friedrich, Evening Landscape with two Men, 1830-35, Larimer resident, eteam’s lemonade stand, August 2010