Armory Square Playground Project

1. To Do List· Create PowerPoint
1) What the project is: the need for it---Claire
2) History of Armory Square and description of playground--Caryn
3) Analysis of artist that inspired the work and the benefit to families--Mike·
Before Wednesday: go to Armory Square to look at actual site---Claire, Caryn, Mike·
Before Wednesday: map out the area where the playground will go--Claire, Caryn, Mike·
Before Wednesday: take pictures of the area—Claire, Caryn, Mike· Before Wednesday:
Conduct quick interview with people walking around Armory Square to get their opinion on if
a playground were to be put in place--Mike·
Write 2-3 page project narrative: Claire, Caryn, Mike

Mike Lefko’s portion of the presentation: [PowerPoint slides showing Armory Square while I am talking]Our idea to create a playground in Armory Square stems from the work of Maya Lin. [show slide of Lin’s ice skating rink]. Her work, “Eclipstic,” an ice skating rink in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a paradigm of what we want to accomplish with the Armory Square playground. The ice skating rink is in the center of the city, exactly like our park will be. The ice skating rink is a tribute to the history of the city of Grand Rapids, meant to evoke memories of when the rapids flowed near the city. Similarly, our playground will provide a tribute to the history of Armory Square in an enjoyable way by using elements past elements of Armory Square in the building of the playground. [Back to the slide of the playground] As Claire mentioned, the playground will be made so that it resembles Armory Square when the railroad ran right through the area, making the square a profitable business district.Of course, since it is a playground, hopefully children will play on it. Because, children cannot take themselves to the playground, our goal is that families will bring their children to the park and spend more time with them. [Slide showing families] Armory Square today is an area targeted towards people around the age of 18 and up. [Slide of trendy Armory Square places] This neglects the children, therefore adults with kids are likely to leave their children at home, or be forced to drag them along and have nothing for the children to do. [Play interviews of people that I talked to at Armory Square] Therefore, our playground will bring families together and like a work of dialogical art, will enable conversations between parent and child. Similarly, since the playground is outside, children are getting out playing rather than sitting at home on the couch. [Slide of snow covering a playground] Like all playgrounds, nature dictates that for some of the year, the playground will be inaccessible. Nevertheless, when it is cold and snowing, people are less likely to spend a large amount of time at an outdoor venue like Armory Square. It cannot be used all year long but the benefits of children playing outside and being able to share quality time with their parents outweighs the fact that it can only be used for half of the year.

Claire Healey’s part
Amory Square is a very popular place full of shops, restaurants and people. But what was there before the shops and restaurants? Most of the people who go and shop around the Armory Square area probably do not know the history of the place. Also the people who do use the area are couples going to dinner, woman shopping, or business people passing through on their way to or from work, but no families. Our project would take care of these two problems, no families and no one knowing the history of the Armory Square. We feel that if people had a place to bring their kids to have fun while the family can go shopping together. Families together while having fun shopping and eating outside is a very good way to bond and become closer in a world full of video games and internet and all of the other technological advancements that have forced families apart. Also if people knew the history behind Armory Square they would have more of a connection with the place and may want to get there more often. Even if they do not feel the urge to go there more, they now know more about their hometown and where they spend a lot of their time.

Caryn Rothbort’s part Playground:-designed to look like a train station-houses surrounding with company names-pull knobs with historical informationVisuals-plot in Armory that will be used for the project-stereotypical people in the area
This history of Armory Square is an extensive and central part to the significance of the area and the members of the entire Syracuse community. Armory square began to thrive in the early 1820’s with the construction of the Erie Canal because of the close proximity but it really flourished starting in the 1830’s with the introduction of the railroads. Most of the major railroad companies passed through this area causing major corporations and industries to sprout up. This This allowed for a great deal of commercials business and a profitable enterprise for the Syracuse area. Hotels and various other attractions were built and being prosperous. But once railroads were removed Armory went on a steep incline of profit. But in the 1970’s businessmen and artists revived the downtown area. The area is still on the National Register of Historic Places. (Armory Square).Since the history of Armory Square is so important to the understanding and complete enjoyment of the area, it is our idea to incorporate this history into the creation of the playground. The playground itself will be modeled after a train station. It will have mock railroad tracks, a platform, and ticket booth. Also within the play area we will make plastic houses with the names of major corporations industries that influenced the area. In different parts of the playground there will be knobs that when they are pulled up, will reveal brief facts about the area of Armory Square. The playground will not only have the components of conventional playground but will also integrate the vital historical background of Armory Sqaure. The goal by doing this is to educate the children of Syracuse about their neighborhood while at the same time providing them with a more enjoyable experience in Armory Square.

Project Brief

Our project to make the popular Syracuse area of Armory Square more family oriented and a more enjoyable experience for children rather than a chore to go around with parents. The project will take the form of a playground. We picked to work in Armory Square because it is an essential part in the life of a Syracuse community member. Armory is geared towards an older crowed and since the site is so important to the city its only proper to make it enjoyable to all. Armory square began to thrive in the early 1820’s with the construction of the Erie Canal and then in the 1830’s with the introduction of the railroads. This allowed for a great deal of commercials business and a profitable enterprise for the Syracuse area. But once railroads were removed Armory went on a steep incline of profit. But in the 1970’s businessmen and artists revived the downtown area. The area is still on the National Register of Historic Places. This site is appropriate for the project because of the rich history that the area has which we will incorporate into the playground. This way kids have an interactive way of learning the history of their community while at the same time having an enjoyable experience in an important historical place. This project will be an integration because it will utilize the space in Armory Square. It will also encompass the area’s rich history and the members of the surrounding communities. Permission for this site will have to come from the owners of which ever area of land we decide would be the most appropriate for the playground. Our project would interrupt the general aesthetics of the area. The playground would be a very unconventional item for the area of upscale boutiques and shops in uniform architecture. Our project is related to that of Daniel Tucker’s projects. He utilized available areas of land to get his and other artists he worked with, their points across. The goal of the project is to educate people on the important history of this landmark area and to also make the area more enjoyable for a wider audience. The success of the project will be able to be seen if there is a new face of people enjoying all that Armory Square has to offer. Our target audience are the families of the Syracuse area. The playground should provide for an overall more enjoyable experience for the families and attract new people to the area. We want families to come and enjoy the playground. Kids to play on it and at the same time learning the Armory history and parents to enjoy having their kids having a positive experience in Armory.

Valery's Ankle Essay

Caryn Rothbort
Valery’s Ankle
11/5/07

Hockey to many is a sport of passion and pride, while others who do not understand the entertainment and gratification see it as a form of legal violence unfit for recreational watching. Brett Kashmere uses the popular art form of documentary to express his audacious feelings towards the disintegration of the meaningful sport of hockey to an extreme violent one due to its tendencies. In his film Valery’s Ankle, he focuses on the idea that hockey has transformed to such a degree that is an endangerment to its players and a defamation of the game and the countries, such as Canada, which it represents. Documentaries are not the most desirable medium for understanding an aspect of a problem because of their bias view points. Kashmere is no stranger to this.

Valery’s Ankle focuses on the detriment of violence to the sport and the barbaric tendencies promoted by players, fan, and coaches. He bases his thesis around the 1972 hockey series between Canada and the Soviet Union. Canada, picked as the underdogs, as a desperate attempt to be victorious had one of their star players Bobby Clarke attack the Soviet’s Valery Kharlamov. From behind, Clarke slashed the ankle of Kharlamov injuring him so severely that it takes him out of the series and contributes an immeasurable amount to the accomplishment of Canada. He continues by showing some of professional hockey’s most brutal hits and explaining that violence has fixed itself as a central part to the game.

Hockey is an increasingly violent sport where each year more and more players receive life altering strikes. The sport is known for its violence and excitement of inducing fights as a fixed part of the game. Players are at times not idolized for their skill or role model features, but rather for their ability to initiate, react, and withstand a fight on the ice. In the book, Men at Play: A Working Understanding of Professional Hockey the author Michael Robidoux says “In the case of professional hockey, it is apparent that the heroic values placed upon players are largely superficial, and that the hockey player’s ability to physically dominate an opponent has little currency outside the sporting arena.” (Robidoux). Kashmere is angered by concepts like this. Hockey’s violence is accepted and isolated to the arena but Kashmere sees it as a form of brutality that needs to be viewed and handled just as social violence is. He says “…violence only begets more violence. I think that sports violence should be considered in the same terms, and prosecuted the same way, as social violence.”(Kashmere). By holding hockey players on pedestals for the sole purpose of their ability to fight and contribute a violent excitement to the game is like holding street fighters and gangs on the same type of level. Sport violence should be no more acceptable than social violence.

The art form that Brett Kashmere used as his medium is documentary. Documentaries are not always the most effective way to communicate one’s message because of the stigma of portraying bias that they inevitably depict. A documentary shows one side to an issue. It gives off the film maker’s point of view and forces people to look at an issue in a new light. This allows people to shed their ignorance and open them to a new point of view is they have a pervious notion on a topic, but if a person is undecided or unexposed to the issue will be persuaded to the film maker’s point of view. Documentaries take a subjective role in social aspects of life. “If the fundamental principle of conservative politics is to maintain order for the sake of economy, to complement the needs and desires of the economic elite, and to discourage social heterogeneity, then the documentary, as it now stands, is complicit in participating in that order...” (Critical Art Ensemble)

Although simply giving his point of view on the topic, Kashmere’s documentary acts as a blue guide to people’s views on hockey. In his essay the Blue Guide, Roland Barthes says “Generally speaking, the Blue Guide testifies to the futility of all analytical description, those which reject both explanations and phenomenology: it answers in fact none of the questions which a modern traveler can ask himself while crossing a countryside which is real and which exists in real time.” By this he means that people are unreasonably directed towards certain, more popular sites than the more valuable ones. He uses the example of the Roman churches and the Muslim mosques in Italy. The mosques are just as, if not more beautiful than the churches but because of the emphasis put on these attractions to tourists whether they are more beautiful or not. Kashmere’s essay acts in this way as well. Valery’s ankle acts as a Blue Guide for people’s views on hockey’s violence. By subjecting the audience strictly to major and severe hits, Kashmere leaves out all other aspects of hockey including the actual game. Rather, he guides people toward his opinions on the negatives of the sport and does not focus on other, more prominent figures. He makes it seem as though violence is the foremost aspect of the game just as the Blue Guide makes the Catholic Churches seem as the foremost aspect of Italy. Neither gives a fair representation of the idea it is trying to convey to its viewers or visitors.

No matter the violence it envelops, hockey is Canada’s national sport and their identifiable pride. Just as the all-American sport is baseball and countries around the worl recognize it with the United States, hockey is as unifying a feature of Canadian society if not more important. Canada even employed its professional hockey players as pawns to represent and promote the image of Canada around the world. In 1987, Joe Clark, Canada’s external affairs commissioner and Otto Jelinek, amateur sports minister sent players abroad to promote the nation’s image and it was “the first time that the Department of External Affairs had committed itself to the notion that sport could play a positive role in meeting the country’s diplomatic goals.” (Macintosh and Hames). As Kashmere says in Valery’s ankle, children grow up playing hockey, it becomes imbedded in a child since birth. The boys play hockey and the girls support it, there’s no way around growing up and involving hockey into one’s life in Canada. Violence is able to enter the game by toughening players and giving them the ability to play hard and get into fights while playing.

Violence, even though not an aspect of the game, it is a huge fan focal point and does encompass a great deal of the atmosphere of hockey. The game was not based around nor intended for violence to be an attraction for fans, it has developed into such a key factor into the game. Players are conditions to be tough to withstand the beating they receive. The joke is that a hockey player has no teeth because they are too often knocked out in games. They have experienced injuries from broken bones, to missing teeth, to gashes on the face and head, to concussions, to being paralyzed. But violence is not a necessary aspect of the sport. A great example of this is the National Hockey League and Canada’s own Wayne Gretzky. Known to hockey fans and people around the world as “the Great One”, Gretzky never fought in his career of twenty years of NHL hockey. (Turkington). Still, he was exciting to watch and because of his remarkable skill drew a great number of fans and viewer ship. He did not have to stoop to the level of violence is prevalent in the obtaining of fans and using cheap tricks to be entertaining. Rather, Gretzky followed what the game entailed and was established on the grounds of to raise his status, pure skill.

Violence in hockey is not the only aspect that is necessary for the game, although it is important to the overall experience of the game. Brett Kashmere’s documentary does not show violence integrated into the sport, rather he shows it as a solely negative aspect. It is clear from examples of players like Wayne Gretzky that violence is not needed for the sport to prevail or be exciting, but fighting has become a predominant feature nonetheless. Kashmere is able to show his views on this aggression in hockey and its reflection on Canadian culture and reputation through his documentary, but the form of art he chose is not the most respected. Documentaries are notorious for exerting a bias viewpoint on a subject and sometimes even distorting facts or using them out of context to fit the artist’s needs.

Valery's Ankle Essay Outline

1. Introduction
Thesis: Brett Kashmere uses the popular art form of documentary to express his audacious feelings towards the disintegration of the meaningful sport of hockey to an extreme violent one due to its tendencies.

1. Breif synopsis of documentary
Brett Kashmere’s documentary Valery’s Ankle focuses on the detriment of violence to the sport and the barbaric tendencies promoted by players, fan, and coaches.

2. Defending Brett’s Thesis
Hockey is an increasingly violent sport where each year more and more players receive life altering strikes.
“In the case of professional hockey, it is apparent that the heroic values placed upon players are largely superficial, and that the hockey player’s ability to physically dominate an opponent has little currency outside the sporting arena.” (Robidoux)

3. Documentaries as bias form
Doumentaries are not always the most affective way to communicate one’s message because of the stigma of portraying bias that they inevitably depict.
“The narrative structure must envelop the viewer like a net and
close off all other possible interpretations.” (Critical Art Ensemble)

4. Telling you what to think
Although simply giving his point of view on the topic, Kashmere’s documentary acts as a blue guide to people’s views on hockey.
“Generally speaking, the Blue Guide testifies to the futility of all analytical description, those which reject both explanations and phenomenology: it answers in fact none of the questions which a modern traveler can ask himself while crossing a countryside which is real and which exists in real time.”

5. Hockey’s importance in Canada
No matter the violence it envelops, hockey is Canada’s national sport and their identifiable pride.
(quotation from Macintosh and Hames)

6. The role of violence
Violence, even though not an aspect of the game, it is a huge fan focal point and does encompass a great deal of the atmosphere of hockey.

7. Conclusion
Violence in hockey is not the only aspect that is necessary for the game, although it is important to the overall experience of the game. Brett Kashmere’s documentary does not show violence integrated into the sport, rather he shows it as a solely negative aspect.

In her book One Place After Another, Miwon Kwon discusses an number of public art pieces that fall under the category of a project “Culture in Action”. These projects focus around the involvement of the community and that the projects success relies just as much on the people of the neighborhood as it does the creator of the piece itself. In her lecture, Mary Jane Jacobs explains how she is “interested in making art experiences”. It is about the involvement of people viewing the pieces and creating an interaction. She also comments that museums are inadequate because of their lack of space. Museums limit the work that can be viewed and a person’s interactions.

1- The project I will be writting my essay about it the documentary "Valery's Ankle" by Brett Kashmere.

2- a) Is the documentary too bias?
b) How successful is it as a work of dialogical art?

3- Journals:
a)Hockey Coaches' and Players' Perceptions of Aggression and the Aggressive Behavior of Players
- Journal of Sport Behavior
- By Todd M. Loughead and Larry M. Leith
b) Interview: Brett Kashmere
-Stylus
- By Nancy Keefe Rhodes
Books:
c) Sports and Canadian Diplomacy
-By Donald Macintosh and Michael Hames
d) Men at Play: A Working understanding of Professional Hockey
-By Michael A. Robidoux

Nanook of the North: Robert Flaherty