Flock House Project Consists of Three Sculptural Ecosys- Tems and Modular Habitats Choreographed Throughout Urban Centers
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MaryFLOCK Mattingly HOUSE Contents: Introduction Design Prototypes Permits Locations and Inhabitants A Rooftop in Brooklyn Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology Clocktower Gallery Battery Park, Lower Manhattan Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens Pearl Street Triangle, DUMBO Lower East Side, Chinatown 125 Maiden Lane, Lower Manhattan Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx The Bronx Museum Parking Lot, the Bronx Collaborators and Sponsors Introduction The Flock House Project consists of three sculptural ecosys- tems and modular habitats choreographed throughout urban centers. During the spring of 2011 and the summer of 2012, Flock Houses were located in New York City, with sites includ- ing: Battery Park in Lower Manhattan; an atrium of an office building in Manhattan; a public square in DUMBO, Brooklyn; Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens; a parking lot in the Bronx; and a rooftop in Downtown Brooklyn. As I have witnessed urban populations faced with environ- Distilled data-visualization of migration patterns of mental, political, and economic instability, I propose the Flock people, 2011 House Project as a bridge across sociopolitical boundaries of perimeter, property, and polity. Flock Houses suggest migra- tory structures as part of a city’s ecology, and their shape and form visualize patterns of current global human migration and immigration. Tested by temporary residents and fabricated with open source plans, the units were built using reclaimed materials acquired through local barter networks. They promote wider adoption of natural systems such as rainwater capture, inner- city agriculture, and solar energy technologies. The building and installation methods for these living systems were made in collaboration with Appropedia.org, a collective group dedi- cated to Appropriate Technologies. The Flock House Project asks: What if mobile, self-sufficient living units were the building blocks for future cities? What if boundaries were permeable? These sculptures and ques- tions were explored in various media, from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to Fox News, News 12, among others. -Mary Mattingly Metaphorically, Flock House is a migratory, small-scale in- tervention that builds upon preexisting structures inside of urban neighborhoods. It sets out to propel forth a city where structures radiate freely into one another, so as to better reflect the move- ments of life for city dwellers. Flock House attempts to alter the homogenizing and oppressive effects of urban economic development and legislature, by searching for new modes of social sustainability and affordability. The political and economic processes behind the social activism of Flock House brings attention to the role of the bottom-up informal in the contemporary city by creating alternative sites of negotiation and collaboration. Flock House in Red Hook, 2011. Design Left to Right: Flock House sketches, Robert Wall, 2011; Flock House attachment sketches, Robert Wall, 2011-2012; Left to Right: Flock House shell and walls 3D rendering, 2011; Flock House shell 3D rendering, 2011; Flock House shell 3D print, 2011. Previous Pages: Step-by-step Flock House blueprints, Robert Wall, 2012; Flock House 3D rendering, 2011. jeffrey c raynor 206.427.2220 [email protected] www.arcfabricationnyc.com project: FLOCKHOUSE issue date: 05.06.12 DO NOT SCALE OFF DRAWING jeffrey c raynor 206.427.2220 [email protected] www.arcfabricationnyc.com project: FLOCKHOUSE issue date: 05.06.12 DO NOT SCALE OFF DRAWING Flock House living systems, collaboration with Tressie Word, 2010. Prototypes Left to Right: Flock House Egg (prototype) at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Artist Residency, and in the parking lot, 2011; Previous Page: The Island is Also the Origin, 2012. Flock House is an airborne habitat that imag- ines, projects, and adds another level onto the city’s skyline. On June 20, it will be a living pro- totype, inhabitants will imagine and experience some level of the capsule living in a future de- pendent on mobile cities (the flock house will have wheels on the bottom) while the elevated habitat will be able to cope with rising sea levels. In 2025, the Global Urban Observatory pre- dicts that city dwellers will reach 5 billion. New Yorker’s can: move to the water, inhabit Gover- nor’s Island, crowd Long Island, and/or take to the sky. Flock House is a proposal for a space where “the sky’s the limit...” Condensations of the Social Curated by Sara Reisman Smack Mellon’s summer group exhibition Condensations of the Social will feature ar- tistic projects that refer to the strands of the social that contribute to the formation of cul- ture: pedagogy, ritual/performance, politi- cal and ideological engagement, work, and ecology and sustainability as they relate to place. The exhibition raises questions about the boundaries between art and life, while suggesting that social practice, to a greater degree than traditional art forms, has the po- tential to directly change how we live. The ex- hibition includes projects by Pablo Helguera, Mary Mattingly, Mladen Miljanovic, Tim Rol- lins + K.O.S., Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and a group of eight artists who are students of Harrell Fletcher and Jen Delos Reyes within Portland State University’s MFA concentra- tion in Art and Social Practice. Exhibition cu- rator Sara Reisman selected artists with the Having taken to the water in an experiment in sustainability with The intention of linking current artistic practices to Waterpod in 2009, Mary Mattingly is still focused on how we can re- two historical nodes – the work of Rollins and spond to rising sea levels, this time by testing the limits of living on Ukeles – which serve as early examples of land. Within Condensations of the Social, Mattingly will present a living terms that have gained important currency in prototype for Flock House, an airborne habitat that imagines, projects, contemporary art: the pedagogical turn, re- and adds another level onto the city’s skyline. Built on materials that lational aesthetics, participation, life art, and reference scaffolding, a construction material associated with chang- collaboration, among others. Condensations ing cities, Flock House augments city space, air space, and questions also explores the contradictory qualities of air rights and functions as an observation deck with a view of weather the medium by bringing together a variety of systems and avian migration. Flock House is a collaboration with Kadar artworks and approaches that range from al- Brock and Stephanie Gonzalez-Turner, Ian Daniel, ecoarttech, Kim Hol- truistic and outside the art world to socially leman, Paul Lloyd Sargent, and Tressie Word. - Smack Mellon motivated from within the art system. Left to Right: Flock House at Smack Mellon for “Condensa- tions of the Social”. Artist resident Kim Holle- Responding to Mary's Mattingly's prescient hypothesis that as water levels rise, we man’s installation; will have to look upward towards the sky for our future modes of living, I have chosen Flock House at Smack Mellon for “Condensa- to illustrate a cresting wave following the contour of the Flock House structure. This tions of the Social”. Artist resident Kim Holle- gestural rendition is an ongoing performance that adds to the rising wave over the man’s installation; course of the week of July 10-17 2010. This three dimensional topography will be sculpted and installed over time showing us a future with the rising tides to come. The Flock House at Smack Mellon for “Condensa- tions of the Social”. Artist resident Kim Holle- material will be used to render this watery terrain, but will remain functionally transpar- man’s installation, detail. 2010 ent at the onset and will be filled in with various materials over time, representing the progression of the rising tides, while creating protection from it. - Kim Holleman Previous Page: Flock House mockup rendering, 2011; Flock House indoor prototype in “Condensa- tions of the Social”; Flock House indoor prototype in “Condensa- tions of the Social”. Air Ship Air City (ASAC) was an airborne laboratory augmenting city land while imag- ining future cities in the sky. Designed as an autonomous living system for rising sea lev- els and crowded cities, it instigates repur- posing underutilized spaces. In preparation for an increase in population, a decrease in usable land, and a greater flux in environ- mental conditions, we will need to rely close- ly on our immediate communities and look for alternative living models. As an ecosystem in-progress on a roof- top in Downtown Brooklyn at the Metro- politan Exchange Building (Mex Build- ing), I lived in the first Flock House, built temporarily on an unused watertower in- frastructure in ASAC. Covered yet close to nature, I ate eggs and fresh vegeta- bles, and worked from a small studio that doubled as a bedroom and kitchen. Left to Right: Air Ship Air City living systems, collaboration with Ian Daniel, 2010; Building the Flock House inside Air Ship Air City, 2010. Left to Right: Flock House energy needs chart, 2011; Certificate of Exemption from NYS Workers’ Compensation on the grounds of volunteer-based relationship with all working parties. Permit Process Flock House Blueprints, Robert Wall, 2012. Following Pages: Detailed permit for the Flock House from the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, 2012. Mary Mattingly MTMAT, Inc. 117 Varick Street #5F New York, NY 10013 5. SITE PREPARATIONS LICENSE AGREEMENT Licensee agrees to undertake all necessary work to prepare the Site for exhibition. The City of New York (“City”) by and through the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (“Parks”) and the Artist Mary Mattingly (“Licensee”) hereby enter into a License Agreement (“Agreement”) permitting Licensee to exhibit a temporary art installation entitled 6. INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL “Flock House Project” (“Artwork”) on property under the jurisdiction of Parks in accordance with the terms and conditions set out herein below: (a) Licensee shall be solely responsible for the installation and removal of the Artwork and shall pro- vide, at its sole cost and expense, all labor, services, and supervision necessary.