Community Intersections Tangent Interests Environments and Situations
(C.I.T.I.E.S.): A Drawing of Monumental Scale

by Prof. Stephen Mishol and Prof. Jim Jeffers
Art Department, UMass Lowell

Everyday we travel through the history of the Merrimack: old mill towns, red brick walls, bridges, smokeless smoke stacks, and canals – shaped by the flow of this river, Lawrence, Lowell, and Nashua have persevered as living artifacts. We propose an artwork on the ground of these three cities, focusing on a site of historical loss in each, which takes the viewer / participant on an unexpected journey through experience, perception, and digital artifact.

As artists we have been exploring urban space for years: Mishol, through Painting and Drawing; and Jeffers, through Video, Performance, and Web-Art.

We propose finding one site in each of these three cites, lost to history, and in grand form create drawings on the ground, that in profound fashion illuminate the space for engaged participant and casual viewer alike. As these drawings are being performed for live audience, the signal would feed to a remote exhibition of multi channel video, and recorded for a lasting visual record on a permanent website. The performance / drawings themselves would be created with only ephemeral permanence out of non-toxic materials, utilizing drawing equipment of the type and scale of an athletic field.
(Please see the attached appendix of images of our related work)

We feel deeply that this proposed artwork is a contemporary exploration of the ties we have to the Merrimack valley as artists and educators living and working in Lowell.

We will be utilizing the skills of UMass Lowell Art majors or any interested undergraduate students in this endeavor in joint faculty-student research, as a project of this scale will require at least 15-20 individuals to realize.

Finding places, and revealing spaces, new ways of looking and thinking about our everyday experience is philosophically underpinning both our respective creative research models. Bringing to bear an intermedia approach to an artwork, while presenting a problem solvable only with the resources of undergraduate student participation, and community involvement is an ideal for both of us as contemporary artists and educators.

Budget:

Materials:
3 field chalk lining machines $1200.00
*purchase would allow
re-presentation of the piece
Chalk, in 50lbs quantities, in various colors $1000.00

Video Production Costs:
Videography and wireless feed costs $800.00
3 Scissor Lifts (“cherry pickers”) rentals $800.00
*to allow for aerial video
Dedicated digital archive system / website costs $1500.00

Artist and Crew Costs: $2000.00
Including research time,
Transportation, framing, conventional art materials