UC San Diego

You Are Here/Estas Aqui was a neighborhood-specific project realized in the San Diego community of North Park. Punctuated by two interrelated, experiential components -- a series of public film projections and a mixed-media, group installation -- the project evolved over several months to reflect both the fleeting and sustained daily rhythms and rituals of North Park through the participation of neighborhood individuals. This thesis explores the evolution and manifestation of the project, foregrounding that exploration in a brief discussion of earlier documentary and artistic expressions that inspired my work in general, and the thesis project in particular. Though initially conceived as a visual project anchored in the mediums of photography and film, YOU ARE HERE ultimately came to be defined more by an emphasis on transformative experiences, everyday encounters with residents in my own richly diverse neighborhood, than by transformed objects. As is discussed in the essay, I sought an approach that I hoped might blur the perceived distinctions or boundaries between art and everyday life. The essay elucidates how the dual components of YOU ARE HERE served to hold up a mirror of sorts to the neighborhood and to provide a real-time reflection of the daily intersections, negotiations, and paces that define the character of a pedestrian-driven California community situated amidst the backdrop of the automobile-bound commuter culture prevalent in the region. The essay is populated throughout, and concludes with a series of vignettes and descriptions of the everyday people who became central to the realization of the project