GeoThings Inc.

Noodle map square

Team members: Slayer Kuo-Yu Chuang, Heather Leson, Francesco
Ciriaci, Fahed Alhaj Mohamed, Stephen Mather

On Saturday afternoon, Union Square, 5 crisismappers conducted a participatory mapping project to capture stories about the potentially affected community. Who are these humans of New York? What are their roles and activities in this beautiful space?

We determined our best mapping tool and data collection tool to be our phones, specifically the Geo Things app. Our adventure started with a preliminary site walk through to quietly observe with no data collection. This time was used to provide full context into our plan. All our efforts to stay together was thwarted by a busy crowd. Distracted by a hovering helicopter the team got separated. We realized that we did not create a team emergency contact plan and almost had to default to twitter as a communications channel.

Once we reconnected, it was time for a lunch planning session over noodles.

Vignette 0.5: Noodles
We discussed out observations and decided that we were fascinated by the patterns of movement and the striking presence and character of the occupants of the space. Our plan cemented as a story all about flow points and intersections. The title became NOODLE Map.

Stephen created a physical map. We had large goals to also take a time lapse of the whole area but the Mapillary tool GPS was failing. So, we reverted to photos and vignettes.

Vignette 1: Plated with Dee

Vignette 1: Plated with Dee Dee has worked for 3 months at Plated, an online company that delivered uncooked meals to homes with all the supplies.

Vignette 2: Consumption Occasion

They offered us the red or blue pill, er, red or blue Red Bull to sample. Two marketing students were handing out free samples from the Red Bull backpacks. We needed the caffeine after a heavy lunch.
Awake we moved into the heart of the square.

Vignette 3: Free Union Square Tour
Twenty people standing in a semi-circle is bound to catch your eye. Very quickly their moment of learning became ours as we became acquainted with the history of Union Square circa 18th century.

Vignette 4: the solar bin
En route to our next stop we spent some time discovering the Big Belly Compactor.

Vignette 5: Composting in Private
She quietly asked us to not take a picture of her working with the compost bins. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday she collects items for compost and sells bags of fully composted soil.

Vignette 6: A Cauliflower Romance Story
“I hate cauliflowers. Why would anyone eat something so awful.” Said Ron, who surprisingly sells romanceso cauliflowers despite his distain.

Vignette 7: Painting by Numbers
The artist has been painting for 17 years and now sells his art I. Union square. Bundled up, he was ready for January, not an early November day.

Vignette 8: Smells like Baby Powder Art
It started with one girl in a black plastic bag. She poured baby powder all over head. As photographers swarmed, others began pouring baby powder over themselves. The air swirled with powder everywhere.

Vignette 9: Occupy Outreach
Our last stop after food, caffeine, a tour as well as a compost, art and cauliflower education was some political braining. The champion corner is a reminder of the much larger occupy community that met here a few years ago.

To sum, Union Square is a vibrant community of various activities, patterns and random flow. With so many people, cross-streets and Intersections /activities of life any incident would be very chaotic, but the community is super friendly and has a natural feel of partnership and solidarity despite their varying park life uses.