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Presumptions and Site Visit

First impressions! New experiences! and a whole lot of walking!

     "Prior to our site visit, I had a distinct view of Newark being one of New Jersey’s major cities that I pass on the way to New York City. It never had any special meaning to me because I never thought about it. I had no business there, no reason to go and hangout. I’ve been warned throughout my life to take precautions when visiting places such as Newark. As a landscape architect, I feel like it our duty to help those less fortunate. I believe everybody deserves a clean and safe space within their surroundings. This belief of mine pushes me to get out of my comfort zone in order to experience to the best of my ability how to help improve open space in urban cities." - Alex Ciorlian    

     Rather than using traditional forms of data collection, the studio explored Newark from a psycho-geographical perspective to invent personal perceptions of the city.  A brief orientation was held where methods of documentation were assigned to each student, such as: sky-eye-ground level photography to get a kind of panoramic collage of the neighborhoods; photographs of the facades along our study site to be stitched into one long section at a later date; random photography in which a few students took pictures of anything that was considered to be interesting or important such as landmarks, open spaces, supermarkets and bodegas, businesses and storefronts, as well as people interacting with others and their surroundings; a video taken along the entirety of the walk using a camera fastened to the front of a student with duct tape; reflective note taking; and lastly, mapping of our route. Once field tasks were established, the 24-hour Newark experience began. 

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