Intervention 3: Final Project

 

 

For our final, we have continued to work on the topic of anti-hostile architecture. We’ve decided to work on this topic for the entire semester because it’s something that impacts people every day, even if we aren’t directly seeing it happen. This type of architecture happens in direct response to gentrification and that is an issue that we see rapidly increasing in our city. Journal Square and Downtown look almost unrecognizable if you compare them to what they looked like 10 years ago. There are new condos, restaurants, and people moving from New York to live here. All of these things sound great, but ultimately, they only benefit newcomers and push out the people who already live here since it is too expensive. "For some, stepping off the curb may be like an epiphany, a blinding moment of clarity in which the injustices of the world are dramatically revealed, while for others it may be a slow awakening, learned indirectly." p.18 (Steve Duncombe & Steve Lambert). This quote perfectly words our experiences with seeing gentrification slowly taking over Jersey City. It was a slow awakening as new developments appeared every other month. Eventually, painting a bigger picture.

This projects topic isn’t one that really fits our professional aspirations and portfolio since it is the first time we’ve ever created something like this. As two separate musicians, we often speak about our own personal experiences and memories. In my own personal work *Angelica*, I’ve written and uploaded a song based on domestic violence. Someone from South Korea who happened to be following me came across it and used the song in their student final a few years ago so that was great. It made me realize that talking about more political topics was worthwhile in my own efforts and moved people emotionally. 

 For our first step, we decided to actually post our music video to YouTube. At first, we didn’t but after our second intervention’s success, we decided it would be a good idea. Our song talks about the world being a better place if we were to show more kindness to the people around us. We also show various locations in Jersey City that have hostile architecture. In the Art of Activism, Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert note, "Storytelling tactics are powerful and effective tools for artistic activists." p.194. This particular quote stands out to us because it's the same idea we had for creating a song. We wanted to tell a story not only through our words but through the video. It's the city we live in and we see that these changes are impacting people. We also created a sticker (found at the beginning of this post) that we would like to hand out during our presentation and leave around on campus. This is a simple and effective way to get people involved. What we would hope to see is our stickers around the campus and throughout the city. So far only this class and our families have seen our project. One of Royer’s friends even said our video looked like it could be on the news one day. Lastly, we decided to create a blog that we will continue to run even after our time in this class is over."After a few months of research, I decided that I should start my own blog. (I am still at a loss for where I got the confidence to do so, but I a forever grateful to the version of myself that said yes. Yes to learning more about Black art. Yes to making things that I knew I needed to see in the world." p.20, Kimberly Drew. Just like Drew, we figured the best way to keep up with any updates on hostile architecture, gentrification etc. is through a blog. We will also be posting our own original posts of our stickers in various places around Jersey City. Our overall message we’d like to share with our audience or whoever happens to stumble upon our work is just to be a little more empathetic and aware of their surroundings. Acknowledge the changes you see happening in your neighborhood and know that there are people who suffer from these changes.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Blog : https://www.tumblr.com/humilityoverhostility

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/cmwb44/to_stop_homeless_people_from_sleeping_in_this/ : This is an image that began circulating on reddit of a man sleeping on a mattress on top of spikes. Its super inspirational because it shows this man combatting society's ignorance by still making himself a comfortable place to sleep in a place where they wanted him out. 

https://theworld.org/stories/2015-07-22/group-artists-found-perfect-way-protest-anti-homeless-spikes 

This group goes around protesting hostile architecture by placing mattresses on top of spikes and putting small bookshelves to transform the hostility into a small livable space.  

War: This group is a huge inspiration to us for our project. Their song "Why Can't We Be friends?" showcases how silly it is to judge others based on differences and we should accept one another. We shdould understand each persons struggles because we are only human after all. That is a message that we hope to share with whoever encounters our work.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Their album “Infest the Rats Nest” is entirely a work of activism as they speak about the changes the world is undergoing with climate change and gentrification. They also discuss how the rich only benefit from these changes.  

 

Resources:

This is What I Know About Art, Kimberly Drew

The Art of Activism, Steve Duncombe & Steve Lambert.

As NJ experiences development boom, gentrification concerns grow among longtime residents, Andrew Ramos. 

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/new-jersey/as-nj-experiences-development-boom-gentrification-concerns-grow-among-longtime-residents/

Gentrification changes Jersey City, Amy Espin. 

https://uachsvoice.com/5186/opinion/gentrification-changes-jersey-city/

NYC Mayor Eric Adams begins his clearance of 150 homeless encampments across the city after saying the Big Apple has become a national 'laughingstock' because of crime, Harriet Alexander.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10662405/NYC-mayor-begins-clearance-150-homeless-camps-claimed-city-laughingstock.html