movement@montlake

Brian Monwai

The pace of movement in contemporary urban life at times runs quickly, at other times slowly. We spend a lot of time hurrying from place to place -- whether by car, by bicycle, or on foot. Sometimes we find ourselves standing still against a backdrop of people rushing by.

The direction of movement can travel in parallel lines as in a freeway, in the overlapping, criss-crossing layers of an overpass, or in a randomly dissipating cloud like smoke from a smokestack. People – strangers and friends -- form an aggregate by coming together intentionally or unintentionally, with similar or dissimilar destinations when they depart. Signage may attempt to direct the flow of movement, but most of the everyday urban movement remains uncontrolled.

The Montlake area of Seattle is a hub of variegated patterns of movement. Bus riders, automobiles, gymnasts and their fans, and bicyclists are a sampling of agents in motion. Not shown are the myriad float-planes, automobile exhaust plumes, buses, crows, and joggers that form the dynamic texture of Montlake.

This project was also an experiment at methods of capturing a sense of movement with still pictures. Notes: while the panhandler and speed limit/your speed pictures were not taken at Montlake, they helped illustrate the nuances of urban movement. The pictures in the photo mosaic were also taken from the expanded Seattle area. The mosaic was assembled with AndreaMosaic software.

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Rush. Rush. Wait...

Jenny Hampton

Within the urban landscape, there are often unplanned spaces where people have to wait for the next event to occur. These spaces can be incorporated into the everyday routine of people, or occur at certain times of the day, week, month, or year. These waiting spaces can consist of small groups often forming a larger group that eventually takes up a space in the city.

Waiting spaces are fluidity built upon everyday and develop differently over time. For example, at brunch spots in certain neighborhoods in the city, crowds of people can stand on the sidewalk around the hours of 10-2 on the weekend making a community of people, however any other time of day these city sidewalks would be just ordinary sidewalks.

Waiting spaces also take on a particular form. Some spaces can be shaped in a more sporadic nature, creating clusters and circles with no particular order. Whereas other waiting spaces are formed in a more linear approach, giving a controlled sense to the act of waiting.

Lastly, waiting spaces interrupt movement patterns throughout the city. Groups of people waiting act as yield signs throughout the city sidewalks, where people have to navigate through a temporarily occupied space to reach their destination. People can make a decision to join, pass-through or avoid a group of people creating a space by waiting.

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