Client: NYC Parks Department, Riverside Park Conservancy

Overview

Upstream Downstream augmented reality project was developed during the lockdown to take part in Re: Growth, a site-specific public art exhibition along the Hudson River, celebrating the emerge from the pandemic. Drawing inspiration from the unique properties of the Hudson River, I create artwork that aims to emphasize the temporariness of time and of the ever-flowing water by making virtual ethereal objects which are simultaneously visible and invisible. I create oblate-shaped augmented logograms reflecting ecological, topographic, and technological wisdom metaphorically carried by the River. A matrix of memory, the river is a flowing conduit between space and time. https://www.shulisade.com/news

Goals

Commissioned art is a generous gift supporting the creative process. it is an acknowledgment of the importance of public art, especially during the lockdown. It is a sign of hope and of resiliency.  NYC Parks Department sponsored Re: Growth public art exhibition together with Riverside Park Conservancy non-profit support organization for the Park. Sadé Studio is grateful for such support as it is an acknowledgment of the importance of art in our lives.

Process

Curator Karin Bravin of Bravin Lee Programs reached out to invite me to take part in Re: Growth public art exhibition as the only AR project among other sculptures.  We have been working closely for a few months, during which we scouted the sites many times to verify WiFi accessibility for  AR, we design signage and QR codes, installed the signage, and worked closely with Riverside Parks Conservancy press releases and announcements. Both Ms. Bravin and Sade Studio were energized by this opportunity to create a positive public artwork to uplift the spirits of New Yorkers during this time. Our collaboration was an engaging and wonderful process

Additional Information

Drawing inspiration from the unique properties of the Hudson River, I create ethereal oblate-shaped augmented logograms reflecting Ecological, Topographic, and Technological wisdom metaphorically carried by the River. Mahicantuck, the River that Flows Both Ways, streams from Lake Tears of the Clouds to the Atlantic Ocean, symbolically witnessing accumulated ephemeral wisdom embedded by humans and nature, linking rural and urban together. A conduit between past and future, the Hudson River is enriched by rare dualities: it alternates between sweet and salty water and its unique tidal estuary of a flow that goes both ways. Three kinds of logograms, metaphorically representing a potential vanishing language. Data based on technology, ecology, and topography are imprinted in the augmented logograms which resemble Phaistos disks, overwritten with iconography. I use types of Algae found in the Hudson River to create ecological logograms. The topographic logograms are created by capturing the route of the river, and technological logograms capture urban data, retrieved traces of city zoning. Spinning gently above the water, slowing down the rhythm of the city or of a fast current they hover in both directions, like the river, facing past and future above the ever-flowing present.