Unlimited Free Space: Comprehensive Waterfront Plan
BK & ND are at one end of the bar with James Gallagher and his friend, Tracy, while VJ sits at the other end of the bar with two women (not recorded). Shades of sexism???
| ND |
Do you have any experience in unlimited free space? |
| JG |
Yes. But not here on New York's waterfront... In the western United States or in Central, South America. |
| BK |
Why is it difficult here? |
|
JG |
I think that it doesn't exist here on the borderline of Manhattan because I live there and I'm aware constantly of the many overlaying grids of authority and restriction that exist there. So, it is not, to me, unlimited free space, except in the most superficial - no - not superficial - in certain visual ways it is. But, there are many many levels of authority that control the waterfront. So, it is not unlimited free space. |
| BK |
Why did you choose the waterfront to live? |
| JG |
Because I have a big boat. |
| BK |
The only reason is that you have the boat? You bought the boat here? |
| JG |
Yes. The place serves the boat rather than the other way around. |
| BK |
So, you came with the boat here? |
| JG |
Yes. |
| BK |
Where did you come from? |
| JG |
I came from Providence, Rhode Island. It's a very old boat. But one of the things it did was the Block Island ferry. So, it ended up in Rhode island. |
| BK |
What was the reason to come here, if unlimited free space is so limited? |
| JG |
In a way, I guess it wasn't unlimited free space. It was inexpensive space. I was invited to come here for free a long time ago because I had a very old boat. Another boat. A tug boat. Although it was free - ya know, I didn't have to pay at that time. I think I had to pay around three hundred dollars a month, which is sort of incidental. It wasn't free at all, in the way that I just stayed there. As soon as I came, it was laid on me, the idea that I had to leave. As soon as the agency that invited me there, the Department of Transportation of New York, told me I had to leave. So, so much for unlimited free space. |
| BK |
Why did you choose a boat to live in? |
|
JG |
I foolishly thought that the rents in
New York were absurdly high. And that investing in a building would
be stupid, because it was all gonna fall apart. And so, I go, well,
I'll go buy a boat, so I can move around. So I won't collapse when
the real estate market falls. That was thirteen years ago. That's
not exactly it. But that's one reason... Why do you think it's important to dress alike? |
| BK |
What do you think? |
| JG |
I guess one thing. |
| TRACY |
Why are you dressed like this today and no other days? Is this your first day? |
| ND |
Yeah. It's the first day of the project. The first day we've dressed like this. |
| TRACY |
So, why? |
| ND |
Well, it attracts people and we want people to ask us questions because we want to ask them questions. And it works. |
| JG |
Does it really? It doesn't look that scary to me. |
|
TRACY |
It does look like the Ghostbusters. They look like real uniforms. |
| ND |
They don't look like real uniforms. We wanted to use uniforms that don't look like real uniforms. |
| BK |
I think the task we had is to appropriate something for our profession, which is, in a sense, an anti-profession; because we are called Unlimited Specialist International. So, what suit does an unlimited specialist wear? |
| TRACY |
So, you're wearing this kind of uniform to cause people to talk to you. Because you're not really trying to look like official government employees. |
| BK |
How should they look like? |
| ND |
Like suits and ties, right? |
| TRACY |
Then you'd look like the FBI. Men in Black. |
| BK |
We don't want to be categorized. "Oh, these are the guys from the government." That wouldn't be so much about unlimited free space. So our suits deal with a kind of-- |
| TRACY |
You look like a joke. You just look like people who are doing their own art project. |
| JG |
Are you having a pretty good time? |
|
TRACY |
Actually, I'm real impressed by what you have in your knapsacks. When you guys unpacked your packs that was really great. The fluorescent tape, the Krylon spray, the Polaroid film... |
| JG |
We've been hearing the lore from your friend that you're marking the space when you take something. When you take something, what do you do with it? |
| ND |
Place it in a plastic bag. |
| JG |
Precisely. Of course you would. I'd do that, too. But, why? Then what happens? Is it returned or anything to the site? |
| TRACY |
They don't have to return it. |
| JG |
Is it like an archeological type of thing? |
| TRACY |
No, it's like a dog marking its space. |
| BK |
We mark the site. |
| TRACY |
They take what they find there, they piss there and, they leave. |
| ND |
We spray paint there. We're like graffiti artists. |
| JG |
But, where does it go? Where does it go when you take something? |
| ND |
It goes back to our studio and then we'll figure out something once we get it there. We're not really sure yet. It's a very open-ended project at this point and the research - hopefully - will guide the results. |
| TRACY |
Today's the first day? |
| JG |
That goes totally against the scientific method... |
| TRACY |
Do you feel you have a different direction after today than you did this morning? |
| JG |
In the sense that, well, what do you prove or disprove at all? |
| BK |
We would have to be against that because the scientific method is very much about specialization. If you think about the term "unlimited specialist," there is a contradiction in the term itself. |
|
JG |
Tracy, I just heard the most beautiful thing. I don't know if I can repeat it: Well, unlimited specialist is a contradiction in terms, obviously. Therefore, the scientific method cannot apply to this research, because of the general nature of unlimited space. |
| TRACY |
It's not scientific, it's art. |
| JG |
We're not getting into that. |
| TRACY |
They're calling it scientific but it is art. |
| ND |
We're calling it what? |
| TRACY |
Scientific. |
| ND |
No, we're not calling it scientific. |
| BK |
And it's not an art project, because that would be a specialization, too. |
| TRACY |
Right. But, you can't say that when it's specialization. |
|
BK |
The difficulty is to decide a definition of unlimited specialist because there is no limit for the definition. Each definition means a limit. And that's the problem of the discussion. I think we have to be very open-minded. |
|
JG |
If the project evolves, soon, language itself will become too specialized to continue. We'll have to just somehow move through the explored area without any output because even defining and speechifying will limit the unlimitedness of the project... It's funny that this occurs now, on the very cusp of the time when the final frontier of free space is about to be conquered. Of course, it'll take about two million years. But, today, the United States sent a probe to Mars. The very beginning of even confining the heavens. The unlimited nature of the heavens is on the way to becoming territorial. |
| BK |
You're right. |
| JG |
It's absolutely fascinating. |
| BK |
It's more about the direct experience we have along our trip now. And research. It's not only about dodging. It's defining. It's a sort of immediate leaking that we don't expect. Because we don't know that we will meet you. For example, I studied architecture... |
| JG |
You must meet the Nutrinos, these people that live on those barges, those funny boats near my boat. Did you notice them? They have really gorgeous movements. They truly live - truly, in the most possible sense of the word - in unlimited free space. The world for them is just a sphere to be traveled over, looked at, lived in. The entire earth is under their heel. They're taking a piece of junk. A boat that - by any architectural standards - should not exist. It didn't even float for more than a month. They're taking this - all the effort they built - to Norway. They have some fantastic idea of meeting the king of Norway and selling videotapes of their experience in a nightclub in New York. It's unbelievably far-fetched. That's the plan. The plan rarely comes true but, something even better happens... I can see that idiotic babble and genius share the same bed. So, you are an educated architect. That's a funny way to put it. [to ND] What was your job - your last job before doing this? |
| ND |
I was working at Bell Laboratories in multimedia communication research. |
| JG |
Whoa! I'm impressed! |
| ND |
Sounds a lot more heavy than it was. |
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Modified December 23, 1997