The Nomadic Museum.Extending 672 feet along Pier 54 on the Hudson River Hudson River River, New York, U.S. Originating in the Adirondack Mountains and flowing for about 315 mi (507 km) to New York City, it was named for Henry Hudson, who explored it in 1609. Dutch settlement of the Hudson valley began in 1629. , the Nomadic See nomadic computing. Museum's checkerboard checkerboard the pattern of a chess or draft board; used in many circumstances to display the results of mixing a specific number of variables. The variables are listed in columns designated along the horizontal border and the same or different variables in lines along the vertical walls contained cargo crates that had traveled all over the world. Inside the museum, the exhibition "Ashes and Snow Ashes and Snow is an ongoing project by Gregory Colbert, who has made more than forty expeditions to India, Egypt, Myanmar, Tonga, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Kenya, Antarctica, the Azores, Borneo, Belize, and many other locations to photograph interactions between man and nature’s " documented a different kind of odyssey, artist Gregory Colbert's thirteen-year photographic journey. The photographs, along with a film and novel, are the components of Colbert's installation, "Ashes and Snow," for which the Nomadic Museum The Nomadic Museum is the name given to a temporary structure composed of 156 shipping containers, housing the Ashes and Snow photography exhibit of Gregory Colbert. Gregory Colbert originally conceived of the idea for a sustainable traveling museum in 1999. , which opened in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. on March 5, 2005, was created. The Structure Architect Shigeru Ban Shigeru Ban (坂茂, Ban Shigeru; born 1957 in Tokyo, Japan) is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper created the temple-like museum by stacking and securing together 148 steel cargo crates. A double row of pillars supported the high ceiling, both pillars and ceiling made from recycled paper. Long translucent curtains sewn from a delicate patchwork of used tea bags hung from the ceiling, swaying gently. White stones covered the ground inside the structure, with a wooden walkway running down the center. On either side, unframed photographs, printed on 9 x 6' sheets of handmade Japanese paper, were wired to the ceiling and to the ground, each lit by a spotlight that outlined its shape on the rocks behind it. The photographs are evocative, sepia-toned scenes of human/animal interaction. At the end of the walkway, a continuously running film showed moving images of the subjects in the photographs, and its atmospheric music filled the space. The Photographs A small boy reads a book, facing a kneeling (and listening?) elephant; a crouching girl leans against an elegant, nonchalant non·cha·lant adj. Seeming to be coolly unconcerned or indifferent. See Synonyms at cool. [French, from Old French, present participle of nonchaloir, to be unconcerned : non-, cheetah cheetah (chē`tə), carnivore of the cat family, Acinonyx jubatus, native to Africa S of the Sahara and SW Asia as far east as India. ; a woman holding a feather in each hand dances through a mortuary temple as a hawk flies above her head. One especially compelling image shows an elephant swimming on the water's surface above an underwater camera. In most of the photographs, the human subjects' eyes are closed or their faces turned away from the camera, while the animals are alert and sometimes even look out at the viewer. The compositions bring to mind myths, folktales, or dreams. Students looked at the photographs on their own, then later, gathered to discuss how the work was presented, to identify the rare and endangered animals and the part of the world they represented. At the end of the walkway, students watched a portion of the film, which included sequences of Colbert himself swimming with whales. Ecology in Design Kerry Dawson, vice-president of Environment in Education for the Hudson River Park Hudson River Park is a waterside park on the Hudson River that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Bicycle and pedestrian paths span the park north to south, opening up the waterfront for recreational use. Trust, reported that over fifty school groups, from all over the country, visited the Nomadic Museum. Dawson explained that visiting groups were given an introduction to the museum itself. The first of its kind, the entire structure can be disassembled and reassembled anywhere in the world, and interpretation focused on the idea of using sustainable resources. The sheer availability of shipping containers for a project of this size points to a consumer society and trade imbalance, as more goods enter this country than leave it. The tea bag curtains and architectural elements made from paper demonstrate the recycling of materials that might otherwise go to landfills. Suggested Activity An art class can construct their own temporary "museum" from materials that they find in the school, using it to display their own works of art about the natural world, ecology, or recycling. Like Colbert, they may include music or writings, and invite parents or other students to explore their multimedia exhibition. Rebecca Arkenberg is a museum consultant from Stratford. Connecticut. RJNA@aol. com WEB LINK www.hudsonriverpark.org www.ashesandsnow.org. |
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