Impression Boards ( models are in the making)

My concept and inspiration for the Brooklyn site was history. When first visiting the site, I was quickly able to pick up on the age of the street and its historical attributes. The landmarked buildings, the cobblestone streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge inspired me to look further into the history of Old Fulton Street.

Being that I love to do research and find out the history of certain neighborhoods within New York City, I decided to analyze what history means and is to me.

To me, history is something we experience all the time and is alive. Not only do we make history in the time we are living now, we can see and experience past history. Something historical to me is something that you can see and feel how old it is and its significance. Technically everything is history. If it isn’t yet, it will be; but I feel the strongest sense of history is history we pass or interact with everyday.

The picture of the man with the large missile in front of the bunker is a site I pass along my bike riding route in Fort Tilden. That bunker is still stands (minus the man and missile) and I can feel the history behind this site used during WWI every time I pass it. There were bullets fired almost a century ago that still lay on “bullet hill”.

When I think of history, I think of materials and methods of construction and design of a certain era. Rusted steel with rivets, rotted wood construction with rusted nails, and old skeleton keys all tell me of a time long past. You can touch these things and feel their age and know someone from a previous day and age touched it as well. Then I think about old handwritten letters that are so delicate, they might turn to dust if you were to try to open it. I think of books that were printed before my grandmother was born and the binding is barely holding the pages together.

I love to think about those pennies you get that were made over sixty years ago and you wonder if this penny has circulated throughout the country or sat on someone’s nightstand for years.

The skeleton key is also a reference to how through experience and research, we can unlock the mysteries of the past.

I thought Ellis Island was a good example of historical. Not only does the building have architectural history though its design and preservation, but the actual buildings use was historical as well. This was the first building millions of immigrants passed through when entering America.

I think of how people used to communicate and travel. I think about how women used to dress and the music they danced to. Was romance any different in the early 1900’s than it is today? I think about the picture of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square when WWII ended.

Where does your mind take you when you think of history?

“View is in the eye of the beholder”. I don’t know who said it but someone must have before me just now. When I think of view, I think about how views can be misleading and sometimes you can’t trust your sight.

I could have done a panel showing the views from the Brooklyn site but I find this to be more interesting. What ways can our views be misleading or distorted?

Sometimes when trying to show something three dimensionally in two dimensions can mess up the picture such as the impossible object brain teasers.

Sometimes mirrors in certain locations can fool the eye to think there is more space then there really is. I’ve been a victim of thinking there was more space once and walked straight into a wall with mirrors. So beware; you’ve been forewarned. There’s also the infinite mirror effect that makes objects reflect forever.  Warped mirrors can make things look out of proportion.

Optical illusion pictures always mess with me. The picture may look like its moving but really is not. The objects can be changing in the picture as well. Do you see the women or the man playing music?

Natural reflection of light and distortion of shadows can alter a person’s view or perspective as well.  In Rockaway; when the ocean is so calm and there isn’t a cloud in the sky, it’s hard to look at the horizon and tell where the ocean ends and the sky begins.

Remember when Coyote is chasing Road Runner and Road Runner draws the tunnel on the cliff for him to go through but Coyote smashes into it? That reminds me of the fake street in Disney’s Hollywood Studios that is actually a painted mural of a street in San Francisco. If I wasn’t told it wasn’t real, I would’ve walked right into it like Coyote.

The picture with the women in the purple tunnel doesn’t look all that confusing but it is. The tunnel around the women on the platform is rotating so when she walks across, it looks like the platform is rotating and not the tunnel. This visual tease has whoever walks through holding on for dear life thinking they’ll fall off. I know I was when I walked through one at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum.

When our class was walking to the Brooklyn site on Old Fulton Street, I was a little skeptical about where we were going. The over passes of the Brooklyn Bridge and BQE were a little intimidating. You can’t see the water from this higher elevation so you wouldn’t think such a beautiful place existed down by the river.

Once we made it past the loud threatening overpasses, the area opened up to a much quieter, peaceful area with a cool breeze that made me feel right back in Rockaway. It is always cooler by the water and I felt that once we passed Front Street.

I live on a beach block and when walking up to the boardwalk, you pass through what my nephew calls “the wind tunnel” created by these two buildings. The wind then mellows into a cool breeze and the view opens up to the Atlantic Ocean.

I also thought that the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline would still encroach the area and views around the site but like good neighbors, they didn’t. They were far enough to not feel over crowed but still close enough to be appreciated and create nice views.

I just couldn’t believe the hidden beauty and potential the site has. This street with its history and beauty in like a diamond in the rough or buried treasure I just discovered.

If I were to choose a few words or phrases to describe my impression of the site, they would be:

Intimidating, Relief, Calming, Native, Cool Breeze, Buried Treasure

(This is probably the order in which I felt when walking to the site and the buried treasure also represents history because buried treasure is old)