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Neon Night

  22 July 2015 ,
Cities of consumerism and spending, wherever they are, realize the human desire for energy and movement. Neon Night is a triptych representation of urban life. Each image of city lights is the accidental result of sudden camera movement during the long shutter speed required for night photography.

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Neon NightLeft to right: lights from Newark, Detroit (Fox Theater marquee), and Santander (Spain)

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Reflection on Walking in New York City

  17 July 2015 , ,
Dedicated to Professor Brendan O’Flaherty for helping me apply to Columbia as an undergraduate. The following video lecture contains paintings and photos I compiled while walking in New York.

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Learn more about my New York walks in this collection of photos and drawings. They are organized into ten urban walks, with each day in a different Manhattan neighborhood.
Strolling in New York City is a world tour. The street fairs of Spanish Harlem mesh into college town Columbia. Columbia gives way to the shabby chic of Harlem. A few blocks farther and I am drowned by the tourists of Times Square. Further still and I reach the bustle of Wall Street brokers. I stroll and try to identify the passing languages. Spanish in the outer boroughs. Polish in Greenpoint. Russian in Brighton Beach. Cantonese in Chinatown. French and German shoppers in SoHo. There could be no more fitting a place for the United Nations.
Reading Here is New York by E.B. White, I realizethat  some aspects of New York have changed little in the past seventy years. The streets, cars, and tenements are different, but the essential spirit of dynamic and diverse urbanism remains. Here is New York.
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The Panopticon and Trouble in Utopia

  9 July 2015 ,
Ironically, the most unequal and dystopian of societies are often founded on utopian principles. Utopias, almost by their very nature, have undertones of conformism and oppression. From Plato’s Republic of strict castes and rampant censorship to Thomas More’s Utopia of puritanical laws and slavery, a utopia for the few is often a dystopia for the many. The question then arises: How do the benefactors of utopia confront its detractors? Utopia has several choices. It can maintain its monopoly on media and education, strangling nascent free thought before it grows into free action. Or it can physically punish and oppress free thought, which requires systems to detect and punish dissent. Detection requires gathering information about the populace. Punishment requires control and physical torture: the police, the army, and the prison. Ironically, to maintain power against its critics, utopia often adopts trappings of dystopia.[1]
Despite the seeming differences between them, many utopias and dystopias often resemble the panopticon, a model of the ideal surveillance state. In fact, panopticon, dystopic police state, and utopian society share common goals: total observation, total power, and unquestioned control.

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The panopticon models the workings of a society.

The panopticon was initially an architectural concept for the ideal prison. Conceived in 1791 by Jeremy Bentham, an English-born philosopher, social reformer, and utopian thinker,[2] the panopticon embodies the ideals of observation, control, and discipline. In its physical form, the panopticon is a circular prison with cells ringed around a central tower from which prisoners can be watched at all times. This slender central tower contains a covered guardroom from which one guard simultaneously surveys hundreds of prisoners (see image below). The panopticon aims for constant surveillance and prisoner discomfort. In this all-seeing system, dissent is detected and discipline is enforced.

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View computer simulation of panopticon.

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Public Speech: “Make Newark more bike friendly.”

  1 July 2015 ,

Livable City

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In July 2015, to encourage more bicycle initiatives and to protest the spread of surface parking lots downtown, I joined several members of PLANewark to speak before the Newark City Council:

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Here are a few facts:
One: Bikes are affordable.
On the one hand, the average used car costs $16,000 (National Automobile Dealers Association). On the other hand, the average bike costs less than $500. Cars are 32 times more expensive than bikes, and that’s discounting gas, maintenance, and environmental costs. In a city whose average annual wage is almost $30,000 less than the state average, bikes are a sustainable transportation alternative.
Two: Bikes fight poverty.
Over 29% of Newark’s population is below the poverty line. Over 31% of our male and 38% of our female population is obese. Only 30% of our youth receive enough exercise (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation). Poverty, obesity, and lack of exercise are closely correlated. Biking is a form of exercise. Exercise fights obesity and poverty. Newark needs bikes.
Three: Bikes fight childhood obesity.
Newark’s been ranked as one of the least walkable cities in America. We must do something about that: 30% of our youth say our neighborhoods are unfit for walking, running, or biking; 44% of our youth say our neighborhoods are unsafe due to automobile traffic; only 30% of our youth receive enough exercise (Rutgers Center for State Policy). Maybe, there’s a correlation here. Improve the livability of our streets; help our children.
Four: Bikes are sustainable.
Newark is 27 square miles. The average commute within Newark is 11.5 minutes and under 4 miles (US Census). Yet, despite the small size of our city, the average commuter goes by bus and car. Why not by bike? Why not by bike?
Five: We need more bike lanes.
Our city has 320 miles of streets. But our city has few miles of exclusive bike lanes (NJDOT). Bikes are the way to the future. Cars aren’t. We don’t need more room for roads and parking lots. We need more room for bikes.
Now…
The culture of the car caused white flight from our city, gave asthma to our children, and destroyed much of our city’s culture and heritage. Newark needs fewer cars. Newark needs more bikes.
We can’t give every Newarker a car (no should we), but we can give every Newarker access to biking opportunities.
Every idea has a start. It is true that our bike lanes are not as busy as those in Amsterdam or New York. It is also true that our city government is not enforcing legislation intended to protect our bike lanes. Build our bike lanes well and protect them; people will use them with time.
Change takes time. We don’t have the firm roots of a bike culture. We have only the seeds we need. Plant and grow these seeds of green bikes, green bike lanes, a green waterfront and a green city; and these seeds will take root.
If not now, then when…? If not with bikes, then with what…? If not in our city, then where…?
As a Newarker, I see so much potential in our city. Our city, at the doorstep of New York, is currently the confluence of planes, trains, and buses. So, moving forward, we have the foundations for a more sustainable Newark. Starting today, with bikes, we can create a greater Newark for us all.
Thank You.
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Paper Model of the Hudson School

  20 June 2015

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I constructed this model to remember the six formative years I spent at The Hudson School in Hoboken, NJ. The model shows the Hudson School, the neighboring church and rectory, the adjacent tenement house, and the proposed 22,500 square foot addition.

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The model is made of paper folded like origami sheets. Each building is made from a single piece of paper that is colored with ink, painted, cut-out, folded, and then glued together. The trees are made from telephone wire bundled and twisted together to resemble branches. The proposed addition (in white unpainted paper) slides in and out of the model to show what the school will look like before and after the construction.
I created two versions of this model, one copy which I kept for myself and a second that I donated to the school.

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Main entrance
Main entrance
View from the Church
View from the Church
Bird's Eye View
Bird’s Eye View
The church next door
The church next door
The school and its planned addition
The school and its planned addition
Hudson School
Founder Suellen Newman with her school
Founder Suellen Newman with her school
Founder Suellen Newman with her school
Founder Suellen Newman with her school

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Love and Longing in New York

  20 May 2015 , ,
Selected from undergraduate college application essay to Columbia University. Read more.

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Walking is my form of enlightenment.
I live in Newark.  My city is generally ten degrees hotter than its neighboring environment.  The airport.  The port.  The downtown.  All are blanketed in asphalt that turns my city into a hot desert.
Tens of thousands of cars, and one of the largest garbage incinerators in the country, spew their fumes into my city.  Returning home, the smell of burning garbage often greets me.  As a child, I had asthma.
At night, I am alone.  Nobody my age lives in my neighborhood. From my front window, I see a parking lot for corporate commuters. From my back window, I see a vast parking lot for university students.  Both are desolate after dusk. As an infant, my first words were “demolition” and “truck.”  As a child, I never had play dates; my suburban “friends” feared my city.  As an adult, I hope to see my city’s vacant lots developed.  I keep on dreaming.
The streets of my city are not made for walking.  They are made for driving.  I walk.  I stop.  I wait.  Speeding traffic and interminable stoplights hinder my progress.
But I love walking in New York City.
When I walk, I am free to choose.  Each street guides me forward.  Each intersection is a choice.  Each destination is irrelevant.  When I walk, I sometimes choose a random order of directions, left, right, left, right, right, left, left, straight.  I see where they lead me.  I know not where.
When I walk, I am free to move.  I love walking on the High Line.  I float above the cars that prevent the city from realizing itself as a community.  I see the crowded streets twenty feet below.  I see the gardens on either side of me.  I let the verdantly landscaped path channel me forward.
When I walk, I am no longer alone.  I walk in the footsteps of the millions who passed before me.  I am one among millions, all of us on our separate voyages.  Lawyers.  Butchers.  Tourists.  Homeless.  We all walk alone.  Yet, we are together in walking alone.
When I walk, I see the world.  In Spanish Harlem, street fairs sell traditional Mexican foods.  In college town Columbia, well-dressed university students amble on their way to class.  In the Upper West Side, the shabby chic push their grocery prams.  In Times Square, tourists lug their large shopping bags from theater to theater, store to store.  Finally, after many neighborhoods, I reach the ceaseless bustle of Wall Street.  Tired after many miles of walking, I descend the subway steps.
When I walk, I achieve tranquility. I am happy.
One of my recent projects is painting New York City, neighborhood by neighborhood.  Each day, I choose a new district to stroll through.  Then, equipped with my miniature watercolor palette and notepad, I walk and paint.  I discover the city block by block.  I aim to capture a fragment of what I see through painting.
Like a pianist who memorizes music by heart, the flâneur (or urban pedestrian) embraces the street symphony with his soul and feet.  People’s voices and buildings serve different, but equally important, clefs in the symphony.  As le Corbusier wrote, “… first to look, and then to observe, and finally to discover.”  My countless urban walks enhance my passion for cities, their architecture, their history, and their planning.
Living in Newark inspires me to dream.  Walking in New York City enlightens me to walk.  I am ready to walk my next journey.

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Weathered old man braves Canal Street.
Weathered old man braves Canal Street.
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Musicians in Chinatown
Musicians in Chinatown
Retired Russians in Brighton Beach
Retired Russians in Brighton Beach
Hasidic Jews are averse to photography.
Hasidic Jews are averse to photography.
Trash collector on Mulberry Street
Trash collector on Mulberry Street
Eccentric family in Washington Square Park
Eccentric family in Washington Square Park
Justin the street performer
Justin the street performer
Dwayne the "Bird Dude"
Dwayne the “Bird Dude”
Sleeping citizen
Sleeping citizen
Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square
Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square
Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square
Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square
"Jesus Loves You" at City Hall
“Jesus Loves You” at City Hall
German expatriat turned traveling artist in Grand Central Terminal
German expatriat turned traveling artist in Grand Central Terminal
South Bronx haircut
South Bronx haircut
Washington Heights street fair
Washington Heights street fair
Sidewalk voyeur
Sidewalk voyeur
South Bronx: his shirt reads, "Valley of scum. Here I come."
South Bronx: his shirt reads, “Valley of scum. Here I come.”
Love and luck in the West Village
Love and luck in the West Village
Frozen kiss in Central Park
Frozen kiss in Central Park
Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights
Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights
Seen on Valentine's Day in SoHo
Seen on Valentine’s Day in SoHo
Romantic graffiti in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Romantic graffiti in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Sidewalk shrine in Washington Heights
Sidewalk shrine in Washington Heights
Cardplayers in Chinatown
Cardplayers in Chinatown
Musician in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Musician in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Old age in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Old age in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Greengrocer on Canal Street
Greengrocer on Canal Street
Origami artist
Origami artist
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Chinatown: a living neighborhood

  7 May 2015 ,

View more artwork like this about my experiences walking in New York City.

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Mother and daughter
Mother and daughter
"Loiterer"
“Loiterer”
Baker
Baker
Trash collector
Trash collector
Trash collector
Trash collector
Senior citizen in Columbus Park
Senior citizen in Columbus Park

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Chinatown is both static and dynamic: Static in its resilience against gentrification, dynamic in its cultural interplay between past and present, immigrant and American.
Everywhere in Chinatown, past and present intermingle. Dusty and decrepit Jewish textile stores struggle onward; their elderly owners wait to close up shop and sell out for millions to developers. By Division Street rests a former synagogue with an AT&T outlet on one side and a Chinese-language job agency on the other. Bustling bakeries and bodegas abut reminders of past immigration. Lyricist Ira Gershwin’s birthplace is still inhabited up the street, red paint flaking off its brick walls. Weathered brick tenements, serving successive waves of Germans, Italians, and Irish, still serve elderly Asians and urban “hipsters.” Chinatown is still a living, breathing being in constant flux.
On select corners sprout feeble tendrils of gentrification: a pricey café, a garish painted crêperie, a chic souvenir shop advertising “I love Chinatown” tote bags. This neighborhood is devoid of its youth; little children and wizened elderly remain. The rest have left to work in the America beyond the dense city. Beneath the Manhattan Bridge a sign reads in Mandarin: “Chinese-American special carrier to return infants to China.” The shabby A Train rumbles in the sky.
On the neighborhood’s fringes is the touristed Tenement Museum. The museum’s cycling documentary chronicles life on the Lower East Side. Black and white imagery flickers across the screen: Italians and Irish, Germans, and Jews, the immigrant experience, dreams of coming to America. It is all too convenient to reflect on the past and to conclude: That what was New York no longer is.  That its immigrant travails have now vanished. That overcrowding and grime is no more.
Much has changed. Much has not. The city awaits the next tide of tired, poor, and huddled masses.

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Seafood restaurant displays its produce.
Seafood restaurant displays its produce.
Religious iconography for sale next door.
Religious iconography for sale next door.
Seafood restaurant displays its produce.
Seafood restaurant displays its produce.
Henry Street
Henry Street
Allan and Broome Street
Allan and Broome Street
East Broadway window reflections
East Broadway window reflections
Forsyth Street fire escape
Forsyth Street fire escape
Mott and Canal Street
Mott and Canal Street
Eldridge and Division Street
Eldridge and Division Street
Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street
Eldridge Street
Eldridge Street
Columbus Park
Columbus Park
Columbus Park
Columbus Park
Mott Street
Mott Street
Eldridge Street tenement
Eldridge Street tenement
Job prospectors
Job prospectors
Job agencies on Eldridge Street
Job agencies on Eldridge Street
Pamphlet man
Pamphlet man
Canal Street
Canal Street
Grand and Allen Street
Grand and Allen Street
Mott Street
Mott Street
Pell Street
Pell Street
Shoe repair beneath Manhattan Bridge
Shoe repair beneath Manhattan Bridge
New China Barbershop
New China Barbershop
New China Barbershop
New China Barbershop
New China Barbershop
New China Barbershop
Mott Street Laundry
Mott Street Laundry
Broome Street Laundry
Broome Street Laundry
Eldridge and Broome Street trash can
Eldridge and Broome Street trash can
Vanessa's Dumpling House
Vanessa’s Dumpling House
Henry Street dumpling factory
Henry Street dumpling factory
Mott Street kitchen
Mott Street kitchen
Butcher on Mott Street
Butcher on Mott Street
Paris: Vietnamese Cuisine (Colonialism leaves long tendrils.)
Paris: Vietnamese Cuisine (Colonialism leaves long tendrils.)
Multicultural grocery
Multicultural grocery
Mott Street grocery
Mott Street grocery
Mott Street grocery
Mott Street grocery
Bayard Street bodega
Bayard Street bodega
Seafood on Mott Street
Seafood on Mott Street
Seafood on Mott Street
Seafood on Mott Street
Advertised as "Field Chicken," these frogs are sold for $5.19 each.
Advertised as “Field Chicken,” these frogs are sold for $5.19 each.
God Bless America
God Bless America
Church of the Transfiguration
Church of the Transfiguration
Broome Street temple
Broome Street temple
"All-purpose Flower Shop and Funeral Services"
“All-purpose Flower Shop and Funeral Services”
"Prosperity" jewelry made of metal thinly coated in low-karat gold.
“Prosperity” jewelry made of metal thinly coated in low-karat gold.
A neighborhood in need of serendipity
A neighborhood in need of serendipity
The "serendipitous" ones
The “serendipitous” ones
Mulberry Street fortune teller (center)
Mulberry Street fortune teller (center)
Doyers and Pell Street
Doyers and Pell Street
People Watching on Broome Street
People Watching on Broome Street
Eldridge and Broome Street
Eldridge and Broome Street
Broome Street
Broome Street
Chinese New Year's shoppers
Chinese New Year’s shoppers
Martial Art Gifts Shop
Martial Art Gifts Shop
Mondrian in Chinatown
Mondrian in Chinatown
Bayard Street
Bayard Street
Origami artist
Origami artist
Greengrocer on Canal Street
Greengrocer on Canal Street
Old age in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Old age in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Musician in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Musician in Columbus Park, Chinatown
Cardplayers in Chinatown
Cardplayers in Chinatown

 

 

Henry and Market Street
Henry and Market Street
Storefronts near Eldridge Street Synagogue
Storefronts near Eldridge Street Synagogue
Kenmare Street
Kenmare Street
Eldridge and Division Street
Eldridge and Division Street
Canal and Mott Street
Canal and Mott Street
Bayard and Mulberry Street grocery
Bayard and Mulberry Street grocery
Eldridge Street Synagogue
Eldridge Street Synagogue
Forsyth and Delancey street grocery
Forsyth and Delancey street grocery
Mosco Alley and Mulberry Street
Mosco Alley and Mulberry Street
Doyers Street - Barbershop Row
Doyers Street – Barbershop Row

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IMG_6173

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This high-density tenement on Eldridge Street is home to a myriad of businesses including:
– Third Brother’s Fuzhou Snack Bar
– Green Forest Internet Bar
– United Express and Lottery Tickets
– Universal Phone Cards
– Everything OK Job Agency
– International Job Agency
– Twinkling Star Job Agency

.Field Chicken

These frogs, marketed as seafood and known as “Field Chicken,” are sold for $5.19 each.

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All Purpose Flower Shop and Funeral Services

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This all purpose establishment advertises the following services:
– Weddings
– Conferences
– Concerts
– Gatherings
– Ceremonies
– Western Chinese Music
– Performing Arts
– Potted Plants
– Floral Arrangements
– Funerary Flowers
– Funerals and Birthdays

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