Unbinding Boundaries is an ongoing series of projects which explore the socio-spatial divisions and potential connections between two adjacent districts in Champaign. (With a population of approximately 60,000 people, the town is located in rural central Illinois, two hours south of Chicago.) The two districts are bisected by the north-south railroad: to the west, downtown Champaign and, to the east, a working-class residential neighborhood and a commercial area known to be the historic center of Champaign. These projects focus on one site in particular: a pedestrian underpass located just north of University Avenue.

Project 01: Line Drawing

The first project in the series is perhaps best described as a statement of the problem at hand, a kind of declaration. A narrow band of sand is spread from one side of the underpass to the other, running north-south, and a line is drawn the entire length of the band. The evidence of passing over this boundary is mapped by the displacement and disturbance of the sand.
Documentation: day 1 | day 2 | day 5 | day 8 | day 17 | day 25 | day 49 | day 83

Project 02: Clean Sweep

For the second intervention in the underpass, the entire area was swept clean with a push broom of all its accumulated debris and trash—rusted metal flakes and chipped concrete, broken glass and wood scraps, mud, rocks, and left-over sand. The material was formed into a gentle arc bisecting the underpass, reminiscent of the intial band of sand in the first project.
Documentation: the first day and the last day

Project 03: Clean Sweep Hemisphere

Again, all debris within the underpass is meticulously swept into a half-circle protruding from the southern wall. The serial nature of these (and future) interventions creates an anonymous community between myself and the other habitual users of the underpass, while also mapping an entropic cycle: the organization of trash and its subsequent dispersal, and over and over again.
Documentation: the first day

looking east towards the underpass

location map