Streetnotes Winter 2004

Blagovesta Momchedjikova

NYU's Tisch School of the Arts "Writing the Essay"
New York

Student Projects
Alan Denton
Astor Place: Cubed

Evan Moore
Safety and Security in Washington Square Park

Jenna Noel
Solitude in the City

Jillian Riley
Entrapment: Public Space, from Use to Abuse

Kimberly Chalmers
Strawberry Fields (Forever)

Nick Paley
Different Doors

Mary Kate Rix 
Death at the Greenwood Cemetery

Matthew de Mayo
Littly Italy, Big Apple
 
 

The Assignment (for the final essay)

We are about to examine public places in the city: how do these places reflect the ways in which we think, imagine, and spectate the city? How do we inhabit these public places with our private desires, needs, fears? Select a particular architectural site (a street, a street corner, a square, a park, a bridge, a ruin, a cemetery, a building, etc.) in New York City: a site you can visit more than once, take pictures of, explore through other people’s visits and writings. Developing a close relationship with your site will enable you to “write” that site, in other words, to create a narrative about experiencing the city through that site. We will take into consideration issues such as: place (public and private), space, body, exclusion, conflict, history, architecture, and voice of site, and try to formulate our own ideas of the urban in writing. Readings include: Ronald Dorris’ “Cultural Constructs: The New Orleans Levee,” Stephanie Farquihar’s “Gramercy Park: Memories of the City’s Unfamous,” Andre Aciman’s “Shadow Cities,” Zigmund Freud’s, “The Uncanny,” Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: The Power of Black Men to Alter Public Place,” Rosalyn Deutsche’s “Art and Public Space,” Ngugi Twong’o’s “Enactments of Power,” and Jane Jacobs’ “The Uses of Sidewalks.”

Exercise #1: Verbal Shots. Create verbal shots of your site: a close-up, a medium shot, and a long shot. How does your site inhabit these shots? What of your site is in, what’s out? What else is in? What is the setting of your site: the place and space it occupies in the City? Are these day or night shots? Be specific in your observations but at the same time, start interpreting your own site. 1 page, typed, double-spaced. 

Exercise #2: a/ The Body and the Site. Who occupies your site? When? For how long? Why? Explore the dynamics between the people and the site itself: what are some of the fears and desires that the site produces in the people? What do people want of that space? Are certain people excluded from the site? Who? Why? What does the space want of them? What is the tactility of the site: how does it interact with the people and how do people interact with each other there? What is the function of the site in the City anyway? Again, questions like that require your interpretations. 2 pages, typed, double-spaced (include some essentials from your interviews). 

Interview people at the site; take pictures of site, of yourself at the site, of other people at the site. Do you detect any conflicts at the site? 
b/ Markers. Think about what markers and signs (physical and psychological) designate your site as such: gates, guards, fees, lawns, stairs, written signs, special lights, sound effects, etc. Come prepared to discuss this in class. 

Exercise #3: 
a/ The Builders. Dig into the architecture and history of the site. Who built/created the site? When? Why? Are there any preservation concerns associated with the site today? Any political ones? To answer these questions, you have to do some library research about architecture, urban planning, history. Try to find one photograph of your site from the past. This photograph should be able to make a point: to show a change in the site (look, function, etc.). 2 pages, typed, double-spaced, “Works Cited.” 

b/ Voice. If your site could speak, what kind of voice would it have? Male? Female? What would it say? Where would that voice come from? How old would it be? If your site has memory, what does it remember? Be creative. Try to imagine the concerns of the site itself. 1page, typed, double-spaced. 

Exercise #4: Other writers. Has anyone else written about your site before? Who? When? What does he/she say about your site? What context do they examine the site in: urban, historical, cultural, aesthetic, sociological, psychological? This requires some library research. 2 pages, typed, double-spaced, “Works Cited.” (In case your site is mentioned only in guidebooks, try to explore why.)

Exercise #5: 
a/: Walking Tour: This tour of Downtown Manhattan, conducted by Matt Postal, an architectural historian in the Landmarks Preservation Commission and tour guide for the Municipal Arts Society, will help you consider various kinds of public spaces; their development and use. Most importantly, however, the tour will help you understand each public site in the context of another. Please, take notes throughout the tour, ask meaningful questions of the tour guide, and prepare to discuss the various sites individually and in relation to each other in our class following the tour. Sites on the tour include: St. Paul’s Graveyard, City Hall Park, Nassau Street Mall, Federal Reserve Public Place, Louise Nevilson intersection/park, mural open area, Chase Manhattan plaza, and several recently renovated back streets by the Landmarks Commission. (The tour is made possible by the Center for Teaching Excellence and their generous award. A survey about your experience at and as a result of the walking tour will be distributed at the end of the semester. Please, fill this out carefully because I need to incorporate some of your thoughts in my report to CTE.)

b/ Walking Tour of Your Site: Write the opening lines for a walking tour of your site, for 2 different kinds of audiences -- your lover and the Pope (after Fragments). What are you going to emphasize and de-emphasize in the respective versions? 1 paragraph for each audience, so 2 paragraphs. 

Tips for Draft One:
a/ Outline. Write the outline of your essay on a single page: what are some of the major topics regarding your site that you wish to examine? Keep in mind your previous explorations, the readings, and your own research. What sources (2 essays, 1 photograph, 1 interview, for now) are you going to include? Why? 

b/ In the Contexts of Other Sites: While writing your first draft, think of two other public sites (two other contexts) -- one in the proximity of your site, one in the City – in order to point out specific characteristics about your site and thus, develop an idea about your site. For instance, if you are writing about Washington Square Park, evoke Union Square Park, which is in close proximity, and Central Park, which is not, compare and contrast your own park to these other parks, in order to zoom in on something unique about Washington Square Park. In that way, you examine your chosen site in the context of the other two, which makes it easier to extract an intriguing issue, problem, idea from your site. The sites from the walking tour can serve as contexts, so don’t hesitate: use them! 3-4 pages, typed, double-spaced. 

Tips for Draft Two:
a/   Idea Statements: While writing your second draft, try to have formulations of your developing idea throughout. Use the examples from Stephanie’s Gramercy Park essay: “Space becomes power through exclusion.” Think: how is each description, interview, text contributing to my idea, complicating it? What is my idea? State it! Add another textual source! 4-5 pages, typed, double-spaced. 

b/   Metaphors: On a separate piece of paper, make a list of 5 metaphors: each metaphor should help us see something unique about the dynamics at your site. Stay away from clichés. Be prepared to discuss one of the metaphors on your list, after the extended metaphor exercises we do together in class. You are, of course, free to come up with new metaphors in class. 

Schedule Conferences. Before you come to my cube, write down a specific problem you are having drafting this essay. We’ll start with that. Don’t forget to bring your second draft! 

Essay Prompt: The goal of this progression is to teach you how to examine a particular site in the city within particular contexts: theoretical (historical, cultural, aesthetic, sociological), textual (your sources of evidence), and urban (the other sites you bring in for comparison/contrast). Your examination will be based on the interpretation you draw regarding the site you choose. Your familiarity with the site will enable you to come up with a metaphor for that site (used very briefly, in passing), and, ultimately, develop your own, unique style of writing about the city. Take risks in your writing! Include several written texts (2 of the essays you read for this particular progression, 1 other essay from the Tisch Reader, and 1 or 2 sources you came across during your research of the site), a visual image of the site (a photograph, or a sketch), 1 or 2 other sites, as contexts, a brief interview from the site. 5-6 pages, typed, double-spaced, “Works Cited.”

(c)Blagovesta Momchedjikova 2004

contributors' notes