7 Billion Friends

Plymouth Grid Construction

A quick update on the construction of the 10,000 square inch Plymouth grid that will be physically installed for inchvestors on the first LOVELAND property.

I had a breakthrough the other day after meeting with James Willer, an architect in Detroit and early inchvestor who I’ve been consulting with on how to put a durable grid into the ground, the right way.

I like to create meaningful historical threads throughout the project, taking and referencing things that have happened before and bringing them into the future.

Well, the very first instantiation of the Plymouth grid was taped to the floor of my studio at the Russell Industrial Center. Really, early on in the project all there was was a bunch of blue tape.

When I moved studios I scraped up the tape as best I could and kept it, even using it in a recent art show where we installed a model of Plymouth and a vending machine that dispensed inch deeds.

After talking to James about terraforming the grid on the property and installing it as a series of square foot tiles, I suddenly saw the hallway floor of the Russell with new eyes. A number of tiles have been torn up over time and replaced, with a stack of old tiles piled up in a corner.

Earlier today I brought a stack of the tiles into the studio and laid them out in the shape of Plymouth: 9 x 9 feet with a foot wide public pathway up the middle with a 3 x 2 standing space, allowing people to stand in the middle and reach any part of the grid.

My plan as of right now is to stencil a grid onto the Russell tiles, laminate them, and install them on newly mulched ground on the property. The tiles are really great. Sure, you could get new clean ones, but these ones have character and reflect both the history of the project and some of the history of the Russell: you can see wear and tear and foot prints and scuff marks and all of that accumulation of time and activity.

Here are some pics of what I laid out in the studio, in present work-y form, and, of course, an animated gif up top. Because, why not animated gif up top? :)