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Laurie Jo Reynolds – Tamms Year Ten (TY10)

Mar 23, ’11 4:12 AM

Laurie Jo Reynolds – Tamms Year Ten (TY10)

Tamms Year Ten (TY10) is a all-volunteer grassroots coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, families, attorneys, artists and other concerned citizens who came together in 2008, on the ten-year anniversary of the opening of the supermax, to call for an end to these misguided and inhumane policies. After 17 months of campaigning, the pressure brought upon state legislators, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the governor’s office prompted Governor Quinn to announce that “he takes this problem very seriously” and that he was appointing a new IDOC director whose top priority was to review the supermax. In September of 2009 the IDOC unveiled a 10-Point Plan for reform of the supermax. As of 2011, it has not been implemented and advocates are still fighting for the IDOC to keep its promises.

This drawing was made for Tamms Year Ten, the campaign to reform Tamms Prison launched at the ten-year anniversary of the Supermax%u2019s opening. It depicts the experience of long-term isolation. When the facility opened in 1998, prisoners were told they would only be there for one year. Ten years later, one-third of them had been in isolation for the entire decade. Illustration by Bear Cub, a prisoner in Tamms Supermax.

 

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Michael Rakowitz – paraSITE

Mar 23, ’11 4:07 AM

Michael Rakowitz – paraSITE

ParaSITE: Custom built inflatable shelters designed for homeless people that attach to the exterior outtake vents of a building’s Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. The warm air leaving the building simultaneously inflates and heats the double membrane structure. Built and distributed to over 30 homeless people in Boston and Cambridge, MA and New York City.

PARASITISM IS DESCRIBED AS A RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH A PARASITE TEMPORARILY OR PERMANENTLY EXPLOITS THE ENERGY OF A HOST.1

paraSITE proposes the appropriation of the exterior ventilation systems on existing architecture as a means for providing temporary shelter for homeless people.

 

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Michael Rakowitz

Mar 23, ’11 4:00 AM

Michael Rakowitz

(P)LOT questions the occupation and dedication of public space and encourages reconsiderations of “legitimate” participation in city life. Contrary to the common procedure of using municipal parking spaces as storage surfaces for vehicles, (P)LOT proposes the rental of these parcels of land for alternative purposes. The acquisition of municipal permits and simple payment of parking meters could enable citizens to, for example, establish temporary encampments or use the leased ground for different kinds of activities, such as temporary gardens, outdoor dining, game playing, etc.

 

A first initiative for this re-dedication is realized through the conversion of ordinary car covers to portable tents for use as living units or leisure spaces. Ranging from a common sedan to a luxurious Porsche or Lexus, the tents enable a broadcast of desire within the marginalized space of need.

 

 

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Krzysztof Wodiczko – The Homeless Vehicle Project

Mar 23, ’11 3:52 AM


Krzysztof Wodiczko – The Homeless Vehicle Project

This vehicle is neither a temporary nor a permanent solution to the housing problem, it articulates the fact that people are compelled to live on the street and that this is unacceptable. Through discussions with those people in New York City, a proposal for a vehicle to be used both for personal shelter and can and bottle collection and storage was developed. An earlier design was shown to potential users and modified according to their criticism and suggestions. It is not put forward as a finished product, ready for use on the streets, it attempts to function as a visual analog to everyday objects of consumption, such as food vendor carts. It bears a resemblance to a weapon, the movement of carts through New York are acts of resistance.

 

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Ernesto Costa

Mar 23, ’11 3:43 AM

Street Works.

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