About the Box: The Giving Park

Genius Loci: Washington Park, Burlingame
By: Tina Mizukami

Washington Park, just two blocks away from my house, is a place that keeps giving.

We've celebrated birthdays there, we've meet our friends and family there for an afternoon of fun, and most often, you'll find us there throwing tennis balls to our dog, Cali.


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It's also one of her favorite places in our neighborhood.

About the Box: Summerized

Genius Loci: Coral Reefs
By: Summer Powell, San Francisco

My genius loci is coral reefs. I feel so at home drifting around the swaying, colorful animals and plants.

When making this little diorama I was thinking of diving off Kauai, and the shimmering schools of fish undulating around Flintstonian reef formations. At one point a turtle swam above us, and the sunlight glinted at the edges of its silhouette.

About the box: Headquarters?

Genius Loci: Headquarters
By: Susanne Pierce Maddux

I've chosen my design office in San Francisco for my company Hero Bags. This room is a special place in my house on the second floor, an old sun room with windows on all 3 sides.

The room looks out on my south facing garden and all of the gardens and lush trees of my neighbors.

It's quiet, sunny and peaceful.

I love it.
Curator's note: This is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit. This is our one and only contributor who cited their office as their Genius Loci.

About the box: Stealing Print

Genius Loci: Baker neighborhood,Denver, CO
By: Kim Owens

I’ve always dreamed of visiting an old, vacant house and discovering something magical.

Then it happened.

While house hunting, I visited a 1800s house in Denver’s Baker ‘hood and below the vintage linoleum were newspapers dating back to 1925. There was Denver’s history preserved. It was fascinating to see an ad for the new Charlie Chaplin movie; that a cab driver was resisting the fad of new fangled automobiles. I couldn’t resist taking a piece.

Don’t tell anyone.


Curator's note: This is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit. We want to know... have you ever stolen anything at an open house?

About the box: Becky loves the Library

Genius Loci: the Library
By: Becky Geller

A library is the perfect institution.

Denver Public Library provides endless information while respecting privacy. It is simultaneously chaotic & calming, with an underlying current of complete organization. Each branch combines innovative design with homespun comfort that welcomes its patrons. I think the reason I am so taken with the library is that these contradictions sit naturally with each other.

While Denver is celebrated by its library, the information is universal-- please take a call number and learn something new.* Zombie painted by Héctor Cobián.


*Curator's note: This is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit. As you can see in the detail above, Becky had library call numbers that visitors could pick up and head to their local library and search for. Giving them an opportunity to share in her Genius Loci or make one of their own.

About the box: Take Me to the Cleaners

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. It's a bit hard to see in this image, but this box has a transparency in front of it, and behind, it is filled with dryer lint.


Genius Loci: "The World's Largest Discount Laundromat"*
By: Kirsten Vermulen

Smiley's Cleaners has seen a lot of dirty laundry. A classic Colfax haven for cleaning up and drying out, "the world's largest discount laundromat" is a home-away-from-home to all. With 24-7 rumble and spin, Loci finds no shortage of socks to steal or unmentionables to mangle.

*Apparently, there is more to Smiley's than lint. A Google search takes me to:

CD: A Swan at Smiley's
Blog: Life Behind Smiley's
Flickr: Somebody included it in their photostream
Yelp: Smiley's Cleaners

Box detail.

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: 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: Philip's Room

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from the participants, and putting them online. Philip made a dynamic box for the exhibit, and was one of our youngest participants.
This is Philip's box, he is 5.

His Genius Loci is his room, and here he is at the Opening with his piece. He worked on it with his mom, shown below with a picture of Philip and a friend:

Philip states that he chose this as his Loci because:

" You can find all this great toys in my room to build something with."

Looking for Loci: Doug Robinson Links DEN to SF

[As part of our Looking for Loci, participants will be featured on the blog from time to time. This guest post is by Doug Robinson of Denver. Pictured above and below are images of his creation for the exhibition].

MY GENUS LOCI: Platte Valley Rail yards - Denver

The Denver Millennium Foot Bridge marks the site of an unintended memorial to the Beat poets. Standing like a giant push pin at the edge of the Platte Valley Rail yards it connects our two cities. It starts here and ends at North Beach.
It’s here that Ginsberg boiled with unreleased passion, Kerouac wandered in the weeds drinking cheap wine searching for Paradise, and Cassady grabbed the wheel ready to race across America. The energy was building and ready to explode.

The explosion occurred on October 7, 1957 in San Francisco.The Six Gallery hosted a poetry reading. Kerouac spread his arms in poetic benediction while Cassady passed the jug working the crowd. Ginsberg dropped his H-Bomb as Howl shook North Beach. Ferlinghetti put it in print as City Lights shown round the world.
The Millennium Bridge links our cities; poetic inspiration incubated in the Platte Valley, culminating on North Beach. Only few weeded acres of sacred ground remain. Here are some discarded relics I’ve found.
Millennium Bridge: 39 45’ 10.46 North, 105 00’ 09,67 West, elevation 5190’
Doug Robinson, Denver, CO Age: 60

The Unpacking

The Denver and SF "Looking for Loci" boxes are here in the Bay Area, and have been photographed. It's amazing that 37 stories were able to fit into these 2 boxes. We're looking forward to hearing from the Denver folks about their experiences making and exhibiting as the SF leg gets ready to open next week. We'll begin posting those stories shortly.

Welcome to San Francisco, Mobile Museum

Welcome to the San Francisco Mobile Museum blog. This is going to be a place for the public and curators to participate, iterate, and extend the experiences of our exhibits.

Since this is a mobile museum platform, the dates and locations will be evolving. Our opening is on Friday, Aug. 28th, 2009 at the Studio for Urban Projects.

Our first exhibit, "Looking for Loci" is a collaboration with the Denver Community Museum and the good people of Denver and the Bay Area. 37 people children, adults, artists and designers responded to this challenge:

"Cross-City Challenge: Looking for Loci

Have you ever found a place in your home, neighborhood or city, and felt an invisible energy, almost like magic? In Roman culture, this was called "Genius Loci", which referred to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or spirit. In our urban environments these places can be more difficult to find, or lost altogether– but they do exist."

Locate a special place in your city and create a visual tribute to the genius loci of the spot. It can be part of your home, in a park or garden, on a street corner, or just a forgotten place in the alley"

During the Bay Area run, we're inviting folks to call into the exhibit and leave messages which will get transposed to the blog from time to time. There will also be a map of the Bay Area (thanks to Shawn Allen of Stamen Design) where visitors to the exhibit can write/draw/locate their Genius Locis.

For more info, contact us at info [at] sfmobilemuseum [dot] org.