Indivisible Cities . Puzzle Dialogues

Puzzle Dialogues

psychogeographic walking and mapping of received instructions

project background

The Brooklyn street art collective Toyshop is participating in an event taking place this summer and fall at Kunstamt Kreuzberg in Berlin called "Backjumps - The Live Issue" on the theme of urban communication and aesthetics.

For "Backjumps", Toyshop is organizing a project called Indivisible Cities, described as "a visual and cultural exchange focusing on artistic interventions in the urban landscape." The project involves the "cooperation of people in different locations all over the world who are willing to participate by executing projects sent to them, and who would like to see their own impulses carried out on the streets of cities they may have never even seen. This is a one-on-one personal exchange, where the result of one person's interpretation of another's work is part of the project."

I was invited by Toyshop to participate in the Indivisible Cities project, and was partnered with Sami Ala-Eddin of Berlin. I received a one-page description of his project Puzzle Dialogues, a set of instructions that involve mapping and object-placement in cities; I sent my own project to Sami in return. I've now completed Puzzle Dialogues, and will present the results on this page.

Puzzle Dialogues instructions

These are the instructions I received from Sami for Puzzle Dialogues:

Idea:
Main Idea is to produce 8 Objects that you have to put into public space under my instructions! Instructions that will show you the place where you have to paste, to install, to paint, to build...

Material:
Wood, Plastic, Posters, Stickers, Grass...it is up to you what material you want to use.
Only condition is that it has to arrange Words in it!!!
So you have to create one Objects for each word. The Objects have to be numbered by you, too!
You will even need a map of your City to mark the places where your objects are.

Action:
Find a place in the City where you wanna start.

2 streets forward, left
stop! -------------------- nr. 3

1 street forward, left next right
stop! -------------------- nr. 1

2 streets backwards, right 3 streets forward, left
stop! -------------------- nr. 8

next street right, 2 streets forward, right
stop! -------------------- nr. 4

go 1 street backwards, right, second left
stop! -------------------- nr. 2

go 1 street forward, left
stop! -------------------- nr. 5

go 1 street forward right, second left
stop! -------------------- nr. 7

next street right, second right, left
stop! -------------------- nr. 6

Just mark the Places on the map.
Now go to nr. 1 and even write the instructions down like I gave you to nr. 8. mission completed!
Please send me these Instruction, 8 new words/sentence (splitted into 8 parts) so I can keep it going in my city...

1. explore
2. cue
3. direction
4. speak
5. connection
6. play
7. watch
8. dialogue

walking Puzzle Dialogues

After I read Sami's instructions, I thought about how I would carry out his mission. I concluded that rather than create new objects to place around the city, I would instead look for pre-existing places and objects that correspond to his 8 categories. In effect I would be creating new objects in the form of photographs. With this idea in mind, I set out to walk through the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon in late July.

I walked for about two hours, following the directions. At each stop I took photographs. What I found at each place didn't always match Sami's categories. I experimented with writing words with chalk on sidewalks and making little sculptures out of found objects, but this wasn't very exciting so I kept walking and taking pictures. It was more enjoyable for me to remain aware of the categories of objects and look for these in the form of street art, signage, people and sidewalk detritus.

When I reached the end of the walk, I returned home to look at the photographs. I've now organized them into the 8 original categories [to view images, click on the categories at the top left of the page]. While I operated under a very loose interpretation of the original instructions, I found I ended up with a nice composite picture of the neighborhood.

Puzzle Dialogues map

At the first stop, look for "#3: direction"
At the second stop, look for "#1: explore"
At the third stop, look for "#8: dialogue"
At the fourth stop, look for "#4: speak"
At the fifth stop, look for "#2: cue"
At the sixth stop, look for "#5: connection"
At the seventh stop, look for "#7: watch"
At the eighth stop, look for "#6: play"

new words and instructions

In the original instructions, Sami writes:
"Now go to nr. 1 and even write the instructions down like I gave you to nr. 8. mission completed!
Please send me these Instruction, 8 new words/sentence (splitted into 8 parts) so I can keep it going in my city..."

Here are the new instructions:

Action:
1st left
2nd right
3rd left

repeat 7 times.

Words:
[taken from results of a Google search on the word 'Wander'.]

1. Sadness
2. Smile
3. Lucky
4. Space
5. Mind
6. Eye
7. Lost
8. Fantasy

01. explore

The Domino Sugar factory on Kent Avenue.

01. explore

Street art disintegrating into a creepy miniature person walking among the weeds.

01. explore

View from S. 2nd Street toward my friend's house on S. 3rd Street.

01. explore

Pouring concrete on a hot Saturday afternoon.