Radar Twenty-Five: Subway Etiquette | Babelgum

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Radar Twenty-Five: Subway Etiquette

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Radar Twenty-Five: Subway Etiquette

[ 04:04 ]

Jay Shells is the man behind Subway Etiquette, a new project that uses silk screen signs, which look identical to official transit signs, to speak not just to New Yorkers but all commuters, asking for a simple thing: Respect. Jay’s signs request that the reader does not do things like eat messy foods, preach their own religious beliefs or cut their toenails while riding the subway. What seems to be common sense is actually happening at every turn - bothering everyone around them. However our own concern with politeness keeps us from speaking up. We follow Jay from his silk screening studio in The New School, through the stairwells and tunnels of the New York Subway System, posting signs that hopefully remind us all to be a little more courteous.

01:10

Spoiler Alert
The Spoiler Alert signs are faith-enhancing adjustments to New York City subway platforms, creating opportunities for trust in the city's most important institution in the face of its overeager self-quantified broadcasts. In 2007, the New York City Transit Authority began installing LED signs on subway platforms that display estimated wait times for arriving trains. Unfortunately the information is little more than trivia: except for a few stations, it is only visible to travelers after they've paid their fare, so the data has little bearing on commuter decision-making. Their primary effect, then, is to erode faith in the system, to create expectations that can't always be met, to raise false hopes, and to erase the mystery and magic of the wondrous system that transports more than five million riders a day. These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge with the hope of glimpsing headlights from an approaching train. The Spoiler Alert signs warn waiting riders of this potentially unwanted information - allowing them to avert their eyes so they may preserve their spirit of adventure - while still leaving visible the data for travelers who wish to ruin the surprise for themselves.

04:44

Radar Fourteen: Honey, I Shrunk Red Hook
When curator Laura Arena approached MIT’s Luis Blackaller & Andy Cavatorta, her brief was simple: create something that initiates interaction between the inhabitants of the neighborhood. From the Portuguese fisherman to the Projects, to the artists and hipsters, to a new influx of people, Lucky Gallery sits at the crux of several different communities, none of whom talk, but acknowledge each other as familiar strangers. Luis and Andy’s response was to build a miniature version of Red Hook and populate it with photographic doll versions of people they met and talked to on the street. We join Luis and Andy as they prepare for the opening and watch as the element of play in a virtual world impacts communication in the real one.

03:24

Radar Thirteen - Undetermined Measurements
Ten people dressed in stark white "clean suits" and masks disperse amongst picnickers, inspecting the ground in sunny Central Park. Heads turn, unsure, and people start asking questions. Undetermined Measurements is an ongoing performance and documentation project. During each phase of the interventionist series volunteers gather, dress in protective clothes and silently engage with the audience in a non-confrontational manner. Why are they there? The question is left open ended, expressing the ever-changing perception that the United States has transformed from a unique symbol of freedom to a more fragile and fearful representation of uncertainty. We follow Sean Hovendick and his team as he takes Undetermined Measurements to NYC for the first time.

04:00

Radar Fifteen: Art Battles
Sean Bono set up Art Battles as a way to correct a system he saw flawed. With artist friends getting arrested for graffiti, others loosing their individuality in mundane graphic design jobs, and more laboring unrecognized in galleries, he started painting battles in his canvas-lined apartment as a way out. Since then his unique take on live art has grown leaps and bounds with Art Battles now offering competitors a compelling way to get seen, sell their work & win residences at galleries. We follow Lexi Bella & Leif McIlwaine as they prepare for battle.

04:45

Radar Twenty-One: Tape & Mirrors
When artist Aakash Nihalani moved from the suburbs to NYC he was compelled by its symmetry. As an organic response he started laying down tape on the streets and on buildings, creating brightly colored sticker tape boxes framing aspects of the city he wanted to show people, creating tableaus from real life. Both uncomfortable at potentially defacing property by using permanent materials, and enraged at the continued treatment of public artists as vandals, we join him as he brings 3D to his work for the first time, via use of mirrors and passers-by, and discuss why impermanence is important to the acceptance of street art.

04:11

Martha Cooper, Graffiti Icon
Legendary graffiti photographer Martha Cooper tells RJ how she started, what she loves about it and where she thinks it's going.

For more videos from the RJ's Street Art London series, visit babelgum.com/rj

04:46

Graham Day Guerra: Artist
InFrame.tv: A short film on New York artist Graham Day Guerra.

For more InFrame.tv videos, visit babelgum.com/inframetv

04:01

Radar Thirty-Two: FCKD Magazine
Ryan Watkins-Hughes, founder of the FCKD Mag project, is a deconstructionist through and through. In this latest project, Ryan is making a social commentary on advertisements by purchasing the flashiest, advert filled magazines and altering the covers as well as the ads inside of the magazine. By adding his artwork to the already printed magazine Ryan is replacing the “junk food for the brain” with his own work. Once he hacks the magazines he then “shopdrops” them back on the shelf, to be picked up by an unsuspecting consumer.

04:30

Radar Sixteen: Missed Connections
Illustrator Sophie Blackall has read thousands of missed connections posts. A self confessed addict of these intimate, fleeting moments described in haste and posted in public, she trawls through them daily to find the most visual, humorous, lyrical or wierd confessions or pleas, before creating a similarly spontaneous illustration she then posts to her blog. We talk to Sophie about the significance of shared moments between strangers, and create the moments that might have been.

04:29

Radar - BambiFairy
Bambi Killers perform their live act Green Fairy at Fontanas in NYC, May 2009. To see more Bambi Killers, watch Radar Episode 12.

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