Object Oriented Investigations

These investigations take an inventory of park related ‘objects,’ describe their behaviors, relations, and changes of state.

Annotated Topography

“Following a rambling conversation with his dear friend Robert Filliou, Daniel Spoerri one day mapped the objects lying at random on the table of his room, adding a rigorously scientific decription of each. These objects subsequently evoked associations, memories, anecdotes; not only from the original author, but from his friends as well: a beguiling creation was born. Many of the principal participants of FLUXUS make an appearance. It is a novel of digressions in the manner of Tristram Shandy or Robbe-Grillet; it’s a game, a poem, an encyclopaedia, a cabinet of wonders: a celebration of friendship and creativity. The Topography personifies (and pre-dates) the whole FLUXUS spirit and constitutes one of the strangest and most compelling insights into the artist’s life. From out of the banal detritus of the everyday a virtual autobiography emerges.”

Instructions

Most maps refer to a field of objects.  All of these objects and spaces are triggers for other associations, They trigger memories of other objects, remind one of other landscapes, or scenes from literature, television cinema, politics, or advertising.  Some help us understand cultural or social contexts.  Some relate to the law or literature.  Some relate to scientific knowledge.  Some relate to non-human occupants of the site, and so on..

1. Referencing drawings or aerials of a Chicago park, trace the perimeter boundaries of all objects, territories, spaces, landmarks, and other measurable features.
   
2. Number every object.
   
3. Annotate, associatiating each number to a complementary encyclopedia.  Each entry of the encyclopedia can include instructions on use, historic information, an analysis of related socio-cultural practices, general associations, personal memories, daydreams and other relations.
   

Possible Tools:

Drawing on Paper
Adobe Illustrator

Relevant Texts:

Spoerri, Daniel. Anecdoted Topography of Chance.
George Perec, Think Classify.

Other Inspiration:

Michael Landy, “Breakdown” (link)

ChicagoParks to Reference:

Use any park in the (list) as a constraint or reference, exhausting the landscape, space by space, object by object,  Try not to ‘overmine’, or ‘undermine’ the survey,  Objects contain objects.  Objects are contained by other objects.  Spaces contain spaces.  Spaces may be contained by spaces.

Class Diagram

In computer science, class structure diagrams show the static structure of a system being modeled.  These focus on the relevant elements of a system, disregarding time.  The class diagram shows how different entities (people, things, information, phenomena, etc.) relate to each other. 

Different objects often have attributes in common.  For example, tigers, zebras, and skunks all have ‘stripes.’  Each of these creatures also has attributes that make them different.  As an analytic tool, the goal of the class diagram is to make an exhaustive inventory of relevant objects, classifying each  according to families, behaviors and attributes, to identify dependencies and relations within the system.  This drawing will expose relations, and expose possible opportunities for reorganizing a system, its hierarchies, or its expression.

How it could be useful.

Sports fields, parking lots, bicycle and running paths, street intersections - all inherit systems of graphic  markings on surfaces to inform use.  If these marks are an active ingredient that informs the way we interpet these spaces, then one can speculate about the power of graphic markings as a potential medium of design.

Similarly — toilet rooms, water fountains, bird baths, swimming pools, hockey rinks, irrigation systems, and fountains all depend on (inherit) water, and plumbing systems as an attribute.   If plumbing is an active ingredient contributing to the use or interpretation of these spaces, one could manipulate plumbing as medium of design.

Possible Tools

Hand Drawing, Adobe Illustrator
Astah free UML software (link)

References

IBM Class Diagram (link)

ChicagoParks to Reference:

Use any park in the list as a constraint or reference, exhausting the landscape, space by space, object by object,  

Try not to ‘overmine’, or ‘undermine’ the survey,  Objects contain objects.  Objects are contained by other objects.  Spaces contain spaces.  Spaces may be contained by spaces.

Sequence Diagram

Sequence diagrams are used primarily to understand the time-elapsed interactions between objects (things, actors, phenomae, etc.) in the sequence that those interactions occur.   

In computer science, these diagrams establish a dashed vertical lifeline for every object in the system.  There can be as many as needed to describe all the objects participating in the system.  When an object is active, a narrow rectangle shows the duration that it is “on.”   Perpendicular to the lifelines are arrows denoting some kind of message (a call, a transaction, or other interaction between objects).  Sometimes there are conditions that must be met before an action can continue (e.g. you must show an id, or pay a fee, before acess is granted or an item is received.)

Instructions

Identify all participants: humans, objects, atmospheres, non-human actors, environmental changes - everything that plays a role in shaping interactions on site.  Construct a notation on a roll of paper, in Astah, or Adobe Illustrator.  

When a participant (environment, human, non-human, object) acts, a slender rectangle indicates the start and end of that action. Interactions are drawn with various kinds of arrows to indicate that one object/participant has sent a request, object etc. to another.  Sometimes a request is literally verbal - “please pass the salt”, but it can take different forms - like a gesture,  a non-verbal trigger, a reaction, or an environmental change - “the lights dim”.  Sometimes the recipient of a message reacts (passes the salt).  Sometimes the recipient replies with a message -“I don’t have the salt.”  Sometimes there is no response.  And sometimes there are conditions that must be met before a response is generated to a request.

Questions

What kinds of durations are useful for you to observe?  Seasons, months, weeks, days, hours? Do events repeat, do they remain, do they differ in time?  Do some short-term sequences fit within longer term sequences ?

References

IBM Sequence Diagrams, also here.
Stan Allen, Notations + Diagrams: Mapping the Unmappable.
Lyster, Clare, Landscapes of Exchange.

Possible Tools

Hand Drawing, Adobe Illustrator
Astah free UML software.

Relational Diagram

Many spaces and systems within a park can be associated with a collection of people who participate or activate them.   Playgrounds tend to draw a range of constituencies.  Basketball courts a different range.  Dog parks and trees are sites that engage non-human beings.  And so on.

Similarly, there are often direct and indirect partipicipants.  A guardian may accompany and supervise a child as they play.  A human may accompany a dog.  Each of these indirect participants may discover and particpate in secondary, unanticipated or unscripted activities.   For example, they may socialize, fall in love, or assist each other.

Instructions

1. Evaluate an existing park to establish an exhaustive inventory of its spaces and systems.
   
2. Add a second layer, to make an exhaustive inventory of who or what might directly engage those spaces.
   
3. Continue... building successive layers to identify secondary companions or caretakers.
   
4. Are there derivative or unintended activities that result from companions interacting?

How it might be useful

These diagrams can help expose latent patterns of use and relation as a basis for speculation.  Once exposed, one can develop an agenda about what activies shoudl be intended or sanctioned, adjusting or eliminating the hierarchies of activity, and consequently the range of constituencies, spaces and infrastructures that might serve them.

References

Stan Allen, Notations + Diagrams: Mapping the Unmappable.
Lyster, Clare, Landscapes of Exchange.
IBM Sequence Diagrams, also here. 

Possible Tools

Hand Drawing, Adobe Illustrator.

ChicagoParks to Reference:

Use any park in the (list) as a constraint or reference, exhausting the landscape, space by space, object by object. Try not to ‘overmine’, or ‘undermine’ the survey,  Objects contain objects.  Objects are contained by other objects.  Spaces contain spaces.  Spaces may be contained by spaces.