On the River

Yesterday during class we started out and ended discussing the usual agenda/to do lists. The lists included: -Thursday’s visit by Julie Upmeyer and figuring out food/projection ideas with that. -Our studio work and materializing our ideas… MAKE STUFF! :D! - Short ArtPrize feedback statements.

Around 2:50 we departed for our walk along the river! Our destination? “Punk Island”. “Punk Island” is located in the Grand River just north of the Wealthy Street bridge. The entire class took the walk along the Grand River bank and were instructed to keep silent until our began on our return course. We walked along the rivers sidewalks towards the Eberhard Center on the east bank. After making a mass crossing over Fulton our path became a little less direct. We had to walk through brush, parking lots, around cement dividers, over/around fences, and finally to a railroad bridge! Who knows when this bridge was built but it goes directly over part of “Punk Island”. This would clearly be the best spot to cross considering we were attempting to make our visit to “Punk Island”. Many were hesitant due to the visual and safety state the bridge was in– myself included. The railroad tresses were just far enough apart for your shoe to fit into and for you to clearly see the green Grand River below. It was not exactly a short drop nor was it the safest looking bridge. As we all crossed you could feel the hesitation along with many of my peers adrenalin being kicking in. Once making it halfway across the bridge you could see “Punk Island”. Steve found a handy ladder that led from the bridge down to the island below where foot prints from others danced in the sand. While few stopped and investigated more, I continued on the longer than expected bridge! Once we came to the end many sighs of relief were heard!

Our return route was even more difficult than the route there. This time we walked around/over fences, through what I am calling the “City Garage” and “Dump” (it was simply a city building that housed all of the city trucks, i.e. garbage, plows, etc.), under an expressway with large boulders on the Grand River bank, through parking lots, and back to sidewalks again. Along this path Meghan found a pretty nice jacket balled up in a corner and thought someone could use it, with winter weather approaching us, and left it on top of a fence. Mary and Megan’s creative juices were flowing. When walking under the bridge we came across many clothes, shoes, blankets, and cushions the homeless could not take with them. They spoke of transforming the large boulders into flat areas easier resting spots. This area would also include some trash cans. Our walk ended around 4:00 and by the time we returned to the PODS.

Upon returning to the PODS we began discussing a reading from “The Interventionists”. The excerpt was written by Nato Thompson. The discussion did not get very far today. Who knows if it was because we were someplace else after our journey or if we simply could not grasp the reading fully! Nevertheless, a response assignment was assigned and we will be returning to this article on Thursday, hopefully!

I just wanted to give a quick update of what has been happening during our studio times.

Last Thursday (October 1st) we began to discuss a reading, “Dialogues in Public Art”, by Tom Finkelpearl.  The reading is quite interesting but our discussion and summaries did not get us far that day.  We will be continuing to discuss the article in our next studio at the PODS I believe.

This past Tuesday (October 6th) the weather was a bit on the cold, windy, and rainy side.  Our class met at the Grand Rapids Public library instead of at the bridge.  We met upstairs on the fourth floor in a “conference room” that had some really great wallpaper! The room had long tables set up in a square and many maps, articles, books, and other reference materials about Grand Rapids.  We met with two librarians (their names escape my mind at this moment– my apologies) who were very knowledgeable and helpful to us! It was a spur of the moment decision and they were able to pull so much information together for us.  Some focused on different topics of Grand Rapids such as Transportation, house boats, a scrapbook from the River Raft Races.  Some others found the home they grew up in within Sanborn maps and found people who use to live in their homes.  Large maps showed us the grand land scape and some without bridges even built! After talking with many classmates we have decided we would love to return back to research and explore even more about the area that we have suddenly inhabited with PODS, wireless internet, and electricity as if we were always there.