Artists Meeting Minutes 07.22.08
In attendance: James Andrews, Daniel Blochwitz, G.H. Hovagimyan, Marie-Joao Salema, Raphaele Shirley

The group came to the idea that the “psycho-geographical” map should be the main focal point for the group. Raphaele talked about Steven Parrino’s conceptual project that was a brochure handout and felt that was an elegant way to tie all the disparate projects and ideas for the group together.

Raphaele has put up a website for the map and gh + raphaele will try to build it so that everyone can add content to the map. The idea is that the map will be the product as well as any actions we do or propose. The suggestions are to collate as much psycho-geographical material for the 44 sites and have that be the lasting residue.  We are looking at printing out a one-color newsprint map.
Everyone should suggest what they want to include in this map.  This came was inspired by two alternative arts catalogs that Lee had sent with Joao for the group to look at.  

The group should make their own psycho-geographical maps and send them to the artistmeeeting email list for everyone to look at.  Good formats are photo & text in pdf or odt or msword doc.  

Members can also add content directly to the Artists Meeting site under the recent projects section.
http://www.artistsmeeting.org/index.php/Current-Projects/
You need log in as a user and then click on the  

 If you add anything alert the group via email.  GH needs to make your post visible after you submit it.

GH says that the conflux people are not really responding to any questions and that we need to proceed without any support from them.  The material for the arts was a question because he group needed to get a letter of intent from conflux. Raphaele suggested we call up and make and appointment with material for the arts and see how far we get.  (note: I just called MFTA and spoke with a person who will hopefully get in  touch with Christina @ conflux)

The signs for the various plazas were discussed. GH says that the plastic laminate signs 8’ x 10” cost $45 each. Daniel suggested pursuing a corporate critique theme. Lee had suggested small message readers that can be had for $10.00 a piece on ebay.  Everyone likes the message readers but felt they would probably be stolen and the battery only lasts 24 hours.   Daniel suggested putting a lot of them in a line and have them synced in some way. Raphaele said it would be cool to stick a bunch of them up on a plaza wall in a random pattern.  
There’s many other suggestion for ways to produce signage. The problem is that many of the corporate plaza don’t have the privately owned public signs up.

Daniel has suggested superimposing the private/public logo on the map of lower manhattan as a psycho-geo map.

The group looked at images taken by Raphaele during the first walk around to view the plazas. James said that we should paint smiley faces on the awful Plexiglas circles that are “sculptures in one of the plazas. GH said we can do it with electricians black tape.

One of the psycho-geo maps suggestion was to make a scale of measurements, a rubric, for all the plazas on the map. At first the group thught of practical measures such as tables, benches etc.. but then GH said it should be personal and aesthetic maybe even a non-sensical rating code such as friendly to clowns, good place of fire hydrants, best audio echos,  Most number of ugly planter boxes, etc.. Each person could pick any number of plazas and rate them according to their personal system. These could be overlayed onto the pycho-map on the web and included in the newsprint out.

The newsprint out map should also have locations and times for any events we are actually producing.  One of the suggestions was to conduct Psycho-geo tours. We could take turns walking around and pointing out really absurd things in our walk.

One of the interesting psycho-geo intersections occurred as Raphaele, James & GH were at the Herman Mellville wall plaque.  Right underneath was a homeless man doing Moslem prayers on a plastic garbage bag.

Other quicky psycho-geo takes – Daniel suggested to pill a bunch of stuffed teddy bears around the bronze bull at the end of broadway. This is a pretty terrific idea. Anyone know where to get a hundred teddy bears?

Security was discussed as was the potential to be arrested. James suggested we make up some letters from Artists Meeting that a person can carry saying they are part of the group and part of Conflux Festival. They other ting is to print up business cards for Artists Meeting. GH say’s he has the card stock and can print up the cards.

Raphaele is pursuing having a closing party event that features a melting city that relates to the psycho-geo idea. Part of the discussion was the 60 wall street plaza and how to get that closed off for an event. LMCC may be able to help with this.   

GH also remarked that Christina McPhee will be coming in from California to do some pieces for conflux as part of the Artists Meeting umbrella. Christina is pursuing the possibility of inclusion the center for Architecture through a connection there. She is talking about doing layered c-prints. She has invited everyone in the group to work with her to incorporate content into the layers. This is a really cool collaborative idea.  Contact Christina This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Finally, Many  people in the group are out of town  or can only partially commit to this festival and can devote their time to making this work.
Here’s the list thus far for Sept. 11-14

In town and able to work – gh, maria-joao, james, lee, Eliza, Christina, Thomas

Maybe can work or part time – Daniel & Raphaele

The jobs walking tours, putting up signs, taping up benches, sewing cushions, Distributing brochures, Photo documentation, Video documentation,
Gluing message readers etc..   Also finding a printer, laying out the psycho geo map, taking the art work to the printer, picking ou the art work etc..

James Says that he is begining to organize the office temp events and will have a first get together this Thursday at Raphaele’s loft.

Finally we are meeting again for a walkaround at 60 wall Street in the esplanade at 6:30 on Tuesday Jul.29th. We will continue to look at all the plazas on the map.  Come if you can. If you cannot please take the privately owned public space map and look at the sites on your own. It is very important to see them and add your psycho-geo takes.