Instructor: Ben Aranda
The project aims to introduce a mode of production to an urban landscape in New York, to transform it into a “park machine”. While production is usually considered as energy or material generation, I interpret it to be an opportunity to create an experience through sensory distortion.
Newtown Creek serves as the ground for a new soundscape. Formerly an industrial site, it appears to be contrary to what a park is; but instead of introducing synthetic vegetation, the intervention emphasizes what exists. The existing soundscape within Newtown Creek can be characterized as waves of traffic sounds from both ground and aerial.
Proposed structures will serve as sound oscillation devices, framing a space within which visitors can occupy. I imagine the experience through the site to be a sequence of oscillated sounds, composed of a series of nodes, or architectural follies. The follies serve to signify moments and possibilities of recognizing one’s environment in new lights.
Jingqi Kay Liu 