About 601 Tully

Check out our new website! 601Tully.syr.edu

601 Tully is a center for engaged practice in Syracuse, NY developed by artist and professor Marion Wilson with a rotating collaborative team of 54 students and neighbors and Anda French of French 2Design. It's a site for meaningful exchange between artists, community members, and scholars in the co-production of culture.

601 Tully includes a contemporary art space, a public events space, a bookstore, a teaching garden, and Recess Cafe West.

In 2009, Wilson purchased the condemned two-story home and local drug hub, and throughout five semesters, Wilson's design/build class re-zoned, designed, renovated and now sustains the physical and programmatic aspects of 601 Tully. The collaborative team has consisted of artists, architects, environmentalists, Fowler High School students, Green Train Workforce, neighbors, and the occasional passerby.

601 Tully is made possible by the generous support of the Syracuse University School of Education, The Kauffman Foundation, The Near West Side Initiative, Imagining America, Home HeadQuarters Inc., Say Yes to Education, and National Grid.

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Monday, December 28, 2009

On Collaboration

What is the nature of your collaboration?
For the last four months I have been collaborating with artists and architects from Syracuse University on a design-build project located at 601 Tully Street in the New West Side of Syracuse, NY. The building faces a condemned (but still used) elementary school and a rather large park/playground.

How is it different than your individual practice?
I don't think I've ever collaborated on anything relevant.
Well, I guess that I've never before collaborated on something of this magnitude or importance.
Of course there's been some music that nobody's ever heard (or ever will hear) and then all the various assignments and things for school but never been a part of something so tangible.
And certainly never been part of such a big, talented group like this one.

What, if any, are the effects of the collaborative effort on your individual art practice?
Positives:
-I get things done
-Inspired by those around me
-Learning how to work with people
Negatives:
-As a student of Environmental Policy and Urban Environmental Science (lacking both architecture and artspeak), it was at first difficult for me to know what my place was in the class and where my skill set fit in.
-Setbacks annoyed me. Interruptions in the flow of ideas and dialogue during class time were something I had to learn to deal with.
-Was surprised to learn that I immediately relinquish my input to an idea if I feel as if someone else's vision/justification is stronger or, somehow, better.
Therefore:
I've found that collaboration works for me mostly due to being socially responsible. If others are counting on me, I will always pull through. I can't say the same for my individual art practice as I have literally dozens of half-finished projects laying around my apartment and cluttering my hard drive. I think that if I apply social or group responsibility to the projects I've begun solo, it would really benefit me and help me actualize the half and mal-formed piles cramping my creative life. I've learned that I need some "good" guilt.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Collaboration

The nature of my collaboration is that everyone involved needs to have equal input on the task being completed. When I collaborate I like to consult the group members before making a decision on a project.

It isn’t very different than my individual practice because architecture is based on collaboration. Whether it is between other architects or different disciplines, architecture thrives on collaborating and reaching to other professions in order to thrive. It involves other disciplines in order to be a successful product at the end. Since it takes so much work to design a building, collaboration is very important and necessary.

The effects of collaborative effort on my individual practice are multiple. When working in an architecture firm, you are always in a team with multiple individuals that have different expertise in different aspects of the project. Communicating with them and discussing the work is very important in the success of the project.

collaboration or not?

it is hard to say if i enjoy the collabration or not?
though out this class, or many other collaboration projects i have done in the past. i often come to the feeling that i wish i am working with only myself.
However, collabration, working as a team, is what keep me feel alive in Syracuse. the only reason that i stay. without this notion of shareing, i wouldn't survive.
So, there is this love and hate condition always goes on when i talk about collaboration.
as much as i know how hard is to make a team work together, i guess to not like collaboration is probabely the bueaty of the collaboration. because i know a good design usually comes out with a mind of struggle, or a ballance between let-go and not let-go. and that is a condition that I tend to avoide when I desing on my own. Therefore, a collabration creats a environment that allows me to use my dislikeness to push me in a diraction that i am not comfortable with. which i believe is a good thing.

Pei

Sunday, December 20, 2009

collaboration short and sweet

what is the nature of your collaboration?

how is it different than your individual practice?

what, if any are the effects of the collaborative effort on your individual art practice?

Our 601 tully collaboration and class has been a great addition to a stressful semester. Being able to come to class and work through problems that will some how some time have an effect outside of school is refreshing, even when it takes hours and hours to arrive at a simple decision that later gets reversed, rediscussed and redecided leaving us at our original conclusion. Sometimes you think it'd be better or faster to work individually but other times you realize the progress we make as a group is worth making slowly. I've enjoyed getting the chance to learn from non-architecture students and architecture students I wouldn't have known if I didn't take this class.

The nature of 601 tully collaboration is design-oriented, neighborhood situated, communication heavy, experimental and experientially rewarding.

Individual architecture student work doesn't let you see outside perspectives or the ways people react to how you communicate the way that 601 tully collaboration has.

Introduction to new perspectives and the realities of interacting with a new physical environment and community enrich the academic experience. Real and collaborative projects make it harder to work individually on projects that won't leave the classroom except in portfolios.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Process Images...



Ideas for what to do with (2) 15" x 32"s - Build 1.5 Stow-away-Stools...
and play with color...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

bike dispenser

not that we should have one, butttttt it's cool:

Bike Dispenser

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Agnes Denis Wheatfield in Battery Park Landfill

this is what we should do on the lot next door to 601 Tully!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Relevant Art: room within a room and material/value

A different kind of room within a room:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/17/arts/design/20081018_FRIEZE_SLIDESHOW_6.html

and another room within a room:

here


Arist Susan Collis:
Precious materials inlaid/disguised/inconspicuously used in her objects/installations...look at the materials listed in the titling of the works:

a detail of one of her pieces:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/16/arts/20091017-frieze-slideshow_8.html

her gallery with more examples of her work:
http://www.seventeengallery.com/index.php?p=2&id=16&iid=8

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

I was reflecting on the semester and the ideas and concepts we have discussed as a group and it made me think about my gut instinct. It is interesting how doing something as a group can change that feeling. Sometimes when i think about different concepts we have proposed to do or ideas we have shot down i think about how i agreed/ or disagreed with everyone. Now when sitting by myself i think how i would not agree with myself right now. Working creatively in a group of such diverse people, as we are, is a new concept to me, and i am really enjoying the process. As i reflect i think about the future and how i would like to try to take what i have realized from this semester and try to think and listen to my own instinct when interacting with the group.