The Agora
In the past few weeks for the final unit of the Junior humanities course, Rhetoric, we have been in the unit "Unite". In this unit we focused on using what we had been learning previously in the course to bring people together. We've specifically been studying the way that art can be used to bring people together. We traveled over an hour to Marquette Park to speak with a representative from the Inner City Muslim Action Network about a monument they had built in remembrance of a protest Martin Luther King Jr. led in Marquette Park in which protestors were violently attacked by locals. We reflected on the intentions of this monument, and monuments in general. We discussed if and why monuments were necessary, and the difference between this one and monuments like those in Washington DC. To finish the unit we each designed our own piece of art. I'm not the most artistically inclined but I was still very excited about this project. You can view mine and read my artist statement below.
I'm MD and I'm a 16 year old from Chicago, IL. This is a sketch of my idea for a public installation called the Agora. I chose to do a sketch because obviously making an actual public piece of this scale would be time and cost prohibitive. It's meant to be in an area accessible to many, like a park. I designed it to try to address two issues that I'm passionate about. One is the lack of places for teens to exist outside of their houses for free, and the other is hostile architecture. I love seeing my friends outside of my house, but a lot of times, specifically in winter, this can be difficult. In the summer we're perfectly comfortable going to the beach, or hanging out in parks. In the winter though, it's much harder. We can still go to parks, but in the cold Chicago weather it isn't nearly as pleasant. There aren't many other free options, so we typically end up trying to see if anyone has cash (sometimes it's still a no), and if anyone does we try to find an inexpensive restaurant to get snacks at and loiter in for long after whoever springs for food is finished. At least in the case of my friends, we don't like doing this, it feels pretty awkward, and still requires spending some money. The over-repeated criticism of my generation is that we don't care about anything in real life, and we only talk to our friends online. A space like this would serve as a place for youth who have outgrown the playground but still have the need for public social spaces similar to them to sit and relax with no time limit or cost.
The other problem, hostile architecture, is something I've observed in my neighborhood and across the city. Hostile architecture is the purposeful design of things in public to be in the way. Usually we think of it as benches with bars that are in the way of homeless people sleeping, and this is a main one, though it can also be designed to impede activities like skateboarding. In doing this cities are made more difficult to navigate for homeless people, an already extremely vulnerable group, disabled people, the elderly, pregnant people, and even people who aren't in any of these categories but just want to sit on a bench in wherever they may be instead of leaning on a "leaning bench". The MTA went viral back in February for openly admitting that they had removed benches from stations to prevent homeless people from laying on them. They were widely criticized for making the stations less comfortable for everyone through this. While the subway is by no means a substitute for adequate homeless services, the fact is that we don't have them, and until we do, focusing on keeping the homeless out of public spaces is cruel.
The Agora is designed with a large stone circle in the middle, and rows of stone benches around it. There are outdoor heaters in the middle rows of the benches so that the space can be used in the winter or summer. The shape is meant to appeal to pathos by inviting people to gather. It would be placed in parks with the idea being that people would see it and be drawn to it as a place to sit. Since it is made of stone I think it would have the ethos of looking like it's supposed to be there, and when people see others using it they might feel like they should too. The logos of it is that people need a place to sit and exist and this is a reasonable way to do that. In Ancient Greece the Agora was a multipurpose space. The design references the Agora of Athens. In Athens the agora would have politicians, philosophers, merchants, and regular people just walking around. Ancient philosopher Diogenes of Sinope even lived there. A visitor could hear a prominent thinker, buy food, and simply observe the bustle of the city all in one place. I believe the space I've designed could serve as a multipurpose space. People could sit and relax with friends regardless of temperature. Events like open mics, or soapbox type events like the Bughouse Square Debates. It would be a great place for anyone in the area to enjoy unrestricted. The heaters would run 24/7 in the winters. If people who needed it stayed there overnight, they would hopefully be undisturbed. Ideally if it were successful more neighborhoods could adopt spaces like it.
Works Cited:
Hu, Winnie. “'Hostile Architecture': How Public Spaces Keep the Public out (Published 2019).” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/nyregion/hostile-architecture-nyc.amp.html.
Mark, Joshua J. “Agora.” World History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, 11 Nov. 2021, https://www.worldhistory.org/agora/.
Nessen, Stephen. “MTA Deletes Tweet Explaining Why Subway Station Benches Were Removed.” Gothamist, https://gothamist.com/news/mta-deletes-tweet-explaining-why-subway-station-benches-were-removed.
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