The phrase of the textpiece, As Above, So Below, points towards the contentious (re)valuation of space in the neighborhood, including vertical development and the issue of air rights, which apply to owning the space above plots of land and buildings.
The text, read as abstractions from the ground, will be completely legible from above. While looking into the void of these plots that were once occupied by tenement houses, one may realize that this empty space - now a parking lot –also allows us a glimpse of the future, to what will be. A look at the empty sky that at some point will crystallize and capitalize.
In collaboration with Google Earth the textpiece will be stored in Google's archive to immediately become part of history while this empty site will be developing in time.
The empty space is filled up by the voices and imagination of NY citizens, who are invited to give
The tours will consider not only what is visible at street-level but also those elements of the built environment that have been erased or are yet to exist in three dimensions. The tours are determined by the concept of the void, and potentially move both horizontally and vertically around the empty space, from the parking lot to an aerial view of the project and surrounding Lower East Side.
The tours start inside the Essex Street Market, where the projectspace functions as informationhub and starting point for the tours.
See for other discussions and articles developments on the site: Spura, Spurious, They Kept a Lower East Side Lot Vacant for Decades, NYT, City Plans Redevelopment for Vacant Area in Lower Manhattan, The Lower East Side’s thousands of incoming apartments, mapped