About the Box: Cat Lady's House

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible. Since it's almost Halloween, this box seemed appropriate to post.
Genius Loci: 39 46’33.94” N 105 02’29.85” W 1644 m.
By Nikki Raschbacher, Denver

I lived next door to this house from age 8-13. I think of it now as “The Cat House” because the woman who lived there had at least 20 cats. At one time, the interior of the house must’ve been elegant. But, when the cat woman lived there, all the furniture was covered with sheets and cats draped themselves on the fireplace mantel, the stairs and the furniture. And, yet it seems sort of mystical. Oh yeah, I’m allergic to cats.

About the box: New Meaning to Navy Seals

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible.
Genius Loci: Alameda Point
By Danielle Guidici Wallis & Patrick Wallis

Our Genius Loci is at Alameda Point, formerly the Alameda Naval Air Station.
Active from 1936 through 1997, it is vast, windy and mostly empty. It sits patiently awaiting redevelopment which has yet to happen due to the cost of remediation... it was identified as a superfund cleanup site on July 22, 1999.

Our Loci is just East of the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that now serves as a military museum. There is a breakwall where folks fish and seals sun bathe on the decrepit docks. Pelicans dive into the waters and snowy egrets wade in the shallows. It is a strangely beautiful place.

About the Box: Fun House Mirror

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible.
Genius Loci: 1999 Broadway, Denver
By Samantha Schmitz

This is a place downtown that makes me feel like a child. It is a bit of unnoticed whimsy in the middle of offices and traffic. This mirrored column outside of the offices at 1999 Broadway is like a fun house mirror on the sidewalk. I can stand there for long periods of time watching the traffic and light rail bend around the way, appearing to almost crash into the surrounding buildings. Also it is 1999 Broadway, so that’s cool.

Note: we don't personally know Samantha here at the SFMM, so we did a little sleuthing. Turns out 1999 Broadway is a quite tall building, designed by Fentress Architects. From Wikipedia:

"1999 Broadway is a 544ft (166m) tall skyscraper in Denver, Colorado. It was completed in 1985 and has 43 floors. The building was designed by Fentress Architects and is the 4th tallest in Denver. 1999 Broadway has a unique shape, it is shaped like a triangle with a scoop in the side. This is caused by the desire to retain the historical Holy Ghost Catholic Church at the base."

About the box: Nina Simon takes us into the Trees

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from participants, and putting them online. Nina Simon is a museum experience developer and force behind Museum 2.0. Call 1-641-715-3900, ext. 74622# for an audio tour of her diorama.


Looking for Loci, by Nina Simon
Genius Loci: Tree House

I've always been obsessed with treehouses. In 2007, we moved off the grid in the Santa Cruz mountains from Washington DC. After much bushwhacking and deliberation, we found a redwood on the edge of our property with huge spiraling branches and incredible ocean views. It took five months to build a simple plywood platform 80 feet up in the tree. The tree platform is a magical expression of the risk and reward of living this crazy, creative rural life.

I've always dreamed of living in one - the more fantastical, the better. When my partner and I got married, we decided to get tattoos of treehouses instead of rings to mark our commitment. To me, they symbolize both imagination and rootedness, the beauty of nature and the power of human engineering. Ours is very humble (a platform, really), and this diorama shows the partial view from the platform. I'd like to believe we will build more but that first effort was so time-consuming that I think it will be several years before we have an Ewok village in the sky.

I've played with voicemail boxes as a simple audio device for exhibits before. In this case, I thought some people might stay on the line to answer the question I ask at the end ("What is that place for you?") but the question is pretty heady and goes by quickly, which I think disincentivizes answering. It sounds too rhetorical and last minute. And so instead of answers, I get a bunch of hang-ups after a few seconds. Those are nice too - I get to hear a bit of what's going on at that particular exhibit event, and it's like being transported into a social world where this little box I made months ago lives on.

Visitors sharing a cell phone listen to Nina's audio tour of her treehouse:

PS: if you're a treehouse design fan, this simple google search [as of this posting] finds some amazing resources of all types, and some fab designs:

http://bit.ly/Qq988

However, if you're looking for the magical possibilities that a treehouse can bring, then we'll leave that to your imagination, ingenuity, and choice of tree.

A Day in the Park

As mentioned, this weekend began San Francisco Open Studios month. We at the Mobile Museum attempted to situate ourselves in the center of Weekend 1 at Dolores Park. It was a beautiful day and the park was full.

Having our exhibit Looking for Loci - a collection of shadow-box style dioramas and their stories - outdoors was interesting. The contrast of the great outdoors to tiny intimate stories was something we weren't sure about.


We set up the Museum in the round. Visitors carefully circled; reading, looking, and then writing about their own Genius Loci on the Bay Area map. Sometimes the notes were sweet, sometimes snarky (more about the map later), but all were welcome:


Seems that the experiment worked, and worked well. We got to witness the delight of many visitors as they read stories, called in and listened to Nina Simon's box that has an audio tour, or laughed about Rebecca Grey's refrigerator (more about those soon).


Participant Chris Luomanen dubbed us the "museum version of the food cart". Not sure we're quite THAT mobile. Chris has some typically smart musings about the SF food cart scene here:

http://thing-tank.blogspot.com/2009/10/recession-foodies-twitter-food-cart.html

Weather permitting, we'll move the museum to the center of the next Open Studios. Come find us - or follow us on twitter @sfmobilemuseum.

Looking for Loci Showing in Dolores Park today in SF

Come by the this afternoon and see Looking for Loci in the park! It's also Weekend 1 of Open Studios nearby, so come walk around, and expand your local art horizons.

The original map is from ArtSpan, the force behind Open Studios. We're showing a segment of it to see where we'll be in relation to them, but for the entire map of weekend 1, please click here.

About the Box: Simon Powers takes us to the Beach

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from participants, and putting them online. Simon Powers is from Denver, so I don't know him/her. Oddly enough, I grew up near this location so it has special meaning for me too.

Looking for Loci, by Simon Powers (Denver)

My Genius Loci is at Rye Beach. I practically grew up on this beach. Rye Beach/Playland is located on Long Island Sound. My sister and I would watch the sailboats go by as we played for endless hours in the sand and water. We could glimpse the ferris wheel of the nearby amusement park as it went endlessly round and round. We could hear the happy laughter of the children playing.

The beach and the romance of those times is always with me. A special place where both my mother and father and aunt and uncle had their first dates. Sun, Sand and Sea - on a summer afternoon everything anyone could want.

About the Box: Kevin Fine Takes on Silicon Valley

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from the participants, and putting them online. Kevin gets the humor award. Or is it irony? You tell us.

Genius Loci: The Stock Option

One of the protective spirits of Silicon Valley is the stock option. It helps to create the environment that we love - creative & energetic people working together to build amazing things.

Unfortunately the stock option can be bit of a trickster spirit, luring people away from their families with promises of riches... often only to disappoint.

- Kevin Fine

At the time of making his box, Kevin had been recently laid off, and his stock options were worth nothing.

He is now gainfully employed.