A viewshed is an area that encompasses the lines of sight from a fixed location. In 2011 I was commissioned by the Whitney Museum to create three projects about the museum's new neighborhood, presented around the time of the groundbreaking for the new building.
More than 100 people joined two one-hour critical tours that explored sites and histories within the viewshed (of the then-unbuilt museum) that had been obscured by new development. Tour sites were concentrated along the Hudson River, illustrating the remnants of the neighborhood's industrial and infrastructural past and how it was rapidly changing.
A postcard book, Viewshed, was distributed for free. Image fragments from the viewshed were linked with associated artworks, histories, and notes.
A fold-out booklet, The Low Line, was distributed to kids along with a box of chalk. "Hobo signs" were used in the 1890s-1930s by people hitching rides on cargo trains to communicate with each other. The project asked kids to chalk a set of locally-inspired hobo signs (empty space, bling, weeds, etc) to document what they noticed about the changing neighborhood.
In 2013, the museum released four online video segments based on the tour.
Presented:
> Groundbreaking Community Day | 5.21.11 | Whitney Museum, NYC
Links:
> Viewshed videos