Instructions Given for Take a Journey Assignment
Take a Journey
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Thinking of the stability of the structures that were needed to go in-between floors of the commercial buildings on campus, it made me consider the materials used to make it. Liminality, as a threshold, was present in this instructional journey.
As I stepped across the threshold of the concrete floors onto the elevator, it made me think of how many parts it takes to make it mobile? Once I got to the Akins Building, the elevators were tiny. The vent in the floor let light pass through as the levels passed. Seeing the size, left me with many questions swirling in my head. Was the elevator due to be serviced? Is the floor-covering factored in the total weight capacity posted? How much does the person next to me weigh? How many people can fit (like a clown car) in this elevator? Continually thinking to myself, I believe we must be close to the weight limit because there was not much personal space between me and the people on the elevator. I never really thought about how I would get out of the elevator if it stopped in-between floors, until this assignment. It has made me want to take the stairs whenever possible from now on.
As a participant in this journey, it became clear that I was starting to like the stairs more. The materials used to make this structure used to go from one story to another was predictable and permanent. Unlike the elevators, the stairs allowed one to see what might be coming towards them. As a visual person, I enjoyed the stairs more. In the foyer of the Storrs, there is a spiral staircase that curves around the elevator shaft that has a balance of natural light accented by man-made lights that draw one's eyes to the next floor. At the staircase on the far side of the Storrs building, as one approaches the staircase that goes straight up, it looks like a house roof line with a grin, making one not notice all the steps that they are about to ascend. Unlike the stairs in the Storrs building, the Colvard breezeway stairs and the Rowe building stairs are very ugly and unappealing in their design, which make one take notice of every single step in-between the floors, making the transition between different stories harder to want to venture up or down.
Make a Journey
By: Stone Russell and Jillian Barbee
Our project explores the space between the physical floors of different buildings on the UNCC campus. This concept includes stairs and elevators. The journey we have created asks participants to spend time in the spaces where they are no longer on the first floor, but not quite on the second. Our directions specifically state to not reach the next floor. Every day, people mindlessly walk up a flight of stairs or push buttons on an elevator. Rarely do we stop and think about how interesting these methods of getting from point A to point B are. Stairs, and especially elevators, have given humans the capability to build incredible buildings. The journey our participants will go on simply asks them to appreciate the astounding structures that put them in between floors. They will be required to look at what they’re standing on in a new way.
1. Go to the South Village Dining Hall elevator. Enter on the second floor. Ride the elevator down to the first floor, but remain on the elevator. Take it back up to the second floor.
2. Go to the Atkins Library elevators on the third floor. Take one to the fifth floor. Do not get off the elevator. Take it back down to the third floor.
3. Walk over to the Colvard Breezeway. Walk up the first flight of stairs, but do not step on the second floor platform. Walk back down the stairs.
4. Walk to the Storrs Architecture building elevator. Take it to the second floor. Get off the elevator and take the stairs down to the first floor.
5.Walk to the Rowe Arts building elevator. Take it to the second floor, but do not get out. Take the elevator back down to the first floor.
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Between Floors
By: Cheryl Hoke
By: Malena Bergmann
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How did the journey prompt you to think about the notion of ‘liminality’?
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How did you the journey prompt you to think about your environment differently than you might have before you took it?
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include pictures of each step