Before the playground extension several other concepts for public space were developed, of which two can be seen here:
Plastic Bags in NYC
Plastic Bags in NYC was developed during a week in New York City, in summer 2006. The main idea was to use the Marilyn-Monroe-Effect: Above the subway track there are grids on the street. Once a train runs through a very strong flow of air is blown up.
The chosen objects to get lifted by this wind were plastic bags. The subway line, which connects very different parts of the city, was supposed to be visualized by several plastic bags, each from on of these districts (i.e. green line: spanish harlem, upper east side, chinatown etc.)
Thus the subway line, which can not be seen on the street, would be made visible, but also the different (sub)cultures and communities which exist in these neighbourhoods.
Unfortunately, I was too idealistic about this, after spending a whole day cycling from 125th street down to 1st, collecting more than 50 plastic bags, I realized most of them were to heavy for the wind, and the concept would not have worked, would not have been readable.
So i realized it with one of the cheapest standard bags, which can be found in all of these districts.
Ear-Rail
Ear-Rail uses a handrail as a medium. It should be situated in a well frequented place in the city, where people pause by it, to enjoy the view, or at specific viewpoints.
The installation is marked with a small unobtrusive sticker.
Once somebody leans upon the handrail, she hears a sonic message which hasn’t been heard before. This is possible through bone conduction, a technology which uses our bones to conduct sound to our inner ear. A possible content would have been the history of deportation in WWII, which we worked on in the project Sonderzug, thus for example the handrail of a bridge crossing train tracks.
The Concept has not been realised but Markus Kison did so beautifully!