a moment in time - ben sang

I walked until I saw something fucked up and then continued 100 steps and related my immediate surroundings back to the fucked up aspect of the previous situation. I originally saw two homemade "NO PARKING" signs on a homeowner's street-facing fence with two cars parked directly in front of them. Where I ended up I encountered a florescent orange wooden stake with hi-vis orange safety tape tied around its top end. I related both of these encounters back to the current cultural development/urban planning situation that Ephraim faces as a town, and that Utah seems to be facing in general. I am currently reading up on different articles that research the intended city planning exercised by Joseph Smith and the Mormons as well as culturally-typical Nordic urban planning that some of Ephraim's earliest settlers would have possibly had reference to. My goal is to replicate these orange stakes and tape and arrange them in an array that would replicate the intended formation of a Mormon town full of people with Scandinavian heritage. This would then be suspended in a space with fishing line so as to exist without foundation or permanence.

UPDATE 3/9/18

Until now this has definitely been my most underdeveloped project. I have a really big idea for it in which I would create an installation of property markers (made by me, not stolen) aligned in grids to represent city/town blocks. While researching I've found that Joseph Smith's urban planning ideas almost completely revolve around the Mormon way of thought in which they constantly refer to themselves as "a people" rather than a collective of individuals. A grid system with a central point of emphasis and navigation completely based on that central point of emphasis is an indicator that regardless of what function one performs, the center of their identity is The Church and they have constant subtle reminders of it. In drawing up sketches for how this installation might look like, I decided the most universal way to express this central importance was by creating multiple tiers of these property markers, the higher stacked the tiers, the more important the city block. I initially imagined it consisting of a sprawling grid of single tier markers, with the important blocks that would include the town/city hall and important public buildings occupying both the bottom and second tier, with only a few markers on the third tier, representing the place of worship on which the entire grid is based.

After making a maquette I quickly realized that I would need A LOT of wooden markers and A LOT of bright orange tape and that the installation would take up A LOT of space. I want the first iteration to be small enough to be included in shows with other works and I would rather not spend an insane amount of money on making it so large. I found a way to simplify the design down to two tiers of hanging property markers in which the second tier represents the place of worship (temple or meetinghouse) and the first tier shows the blocks representing the main street, the blocks directing adjacent to the place of worship, as well as being in a pattern that more or less indicates that the city blocks do spread beyond what is shown.

What was really excited for me was making the maquettes and seeing their resemblance to the designs of LDS meetinghouses and contemporary temples.

I love that these property markers indicate affirmation, property, and growth, but at the same time reference being under construction and change. Having them suspended in air in a space rather than driven into a surface like they are in the outside world at once both elevates their pattern and the stakes themselves to an otherworldly or spiritual plane of consideration and references their impermanence and lack of foundation/susceptibility to change.

This might end up being my final project that I decide to extend if I don't feel ready to take more steps with SYYYSTEM in time.

UPDATE : 3/26/18

UPDATE: 3/29/18