I though I would talk about one of the only objects on my desk right now other than books, a pair of crocs.

But before that I will give you a quick studio update. Studio/ Cooper life has been stressful and intense. I will take this as a good sign for the program. Partly stressed by pressure I am putting on myself and partly from professors. Within the last three weeks we (m.arch II students) have settled into libraries across NYC, researching Shanghai or Chicago, Shanghai in my case. I am becoming a book hoarder, sorry NYU students, your shanghai collection is on my desk. We have shared library access with a number of schools in the city. Only recently I have started producing work from my research, mainly just mappings. One of the first topics I became interested in is parking, and now it has developed into the places of exchange between transportation systems. Shanghai is one big mess of a traffic jamb waiting to happen. A good percent of the population is shifting from bicycle use to car use yet the infrastructure is not there. This shift will have drastic changes in the way people interact with the city. These places of transportation transfer I am finding are becoming an interesting topic to focus on. The places between bus stop and metro, between parking and walking, between transportation access points and destinations. Where are the traffic jambs going to happen? Hopefully this will lead me to a project. I have always been fascinated with how Chinatown buses seem to make the most convenient corner the stop; I have been dropped off in front of Friendly’s, at the on-ramp of a highway, and the random city corner. As apposed to the western notice that we need to mark everything with a grand station. Chinatown bus is the closest I will be getting to China and Chinese transportation culture.

Oh yeah, Crocs! Lately, I have been super interested (almost obsessed) with Crocs. I started talking about them in Prof. Turnbull’s seminar class and have been using them as a window of interpretation into our culture and how they relate to our floor surfaces and spaces. The continual adaptability of public/private spaces and floor surfaces requires an equally responsive piece of footwear. Crocs are a symbol for our leisure culture and a symbol of adolescent adults. What is the nature of our current public spaces when we are allowed to and can wear Crocs in them? Crocs are the free plan of footwear. They free the barriers of the floor surface; sand to water to hospital, to home, to kitchen, to 5th Ave. No other shoe can achieve such a diversity of surfaces. They democratize footwear and break gender barriers. They are worn by presidents and have even been shipped to needy Iraqi school children, ‘Operation Iraqi Children’. They are made of anti-microbial and odor resistant foam allowing one to not worry about the fungal and odor problems associated with other pieces of footwear. Unfortunately for social reasons a certain someone is not letting me purchase a pair for myself to wear. It would be such a great studio shoe! A small pair of Caymans (size 4/5) and I had a little photo shoot in studio. For research purposes I sliced one in half.