Promotion and Distribution

Selecting sites for You Are Here meant balancing locations that were widely and freely accessible to the public, but were also home to distinct communities. Logistically this presented something of a challenge when it came to physically installing the devices—while small and unobtrusive, they do require two standard power connections, as well as protection from the elements.

Initially, we explored the possibility of “guerilla” installations near our locations. The High Line, for example, has a variety of covered or semi-protected areas, some of which have accessible power outlets that are used by food vendors in good weather. Early site visits generated a range of ideas about possibilities for installing and protecting the devices. As Marzec described:

We went up the High Line and…I was going in the pipes—there’s a little pipe in the ground that looks like it could be an electrical thing. And then the rat traps—that was a good moment. Because they have these black boxes up and down the High Line and I was like, “Worst-case scenario: We can hide it in one of these rat traps.”…We were [also] thinking about putting it in a rock—you know how people have a fake rock for their keys?

Naturally, though, there were serious drawbacks to the idea of attempting to “hide” the You Are Here devices in otherwise public spaces. Apart from obvious safety and legal considerations, there was the challenge of trying to create community engagement around a device whose location, to some extent, would need to be kept secret.

We therefore took a different approach to establishing the You Are Here sites, and partnered instead with local businesses near our sites. In each case we were fortunate to find community-minded, local establishments that agreed to let us install a You Are Here unit for several weeks, as well as let us leave informational postcards about the project accessible to their customers. In turn, these businesses—a barber shop/bar in the East Village and a well-known pub in Chelsea—served as venues for launching each instance of the project. These events gave us an opportunity to introduce the You Are Here concept to attendees and other patrons.

Tompkins Square Park: Beyond a Bellwether

“With Tompkins Square Park we got to tie it to an actual news story,” says Walker. He describes the park as a “bellwether” whose resurgent homeless population in recent years has drawn the attention of local news reporters. At the same time, “We did try to branch out . . . so you hear about other communities.”

For this piece, Walker collaborated with audio producer Hilary Brueck to construct a site-specific audio tour of Tompkins Square using homelessness as a starting—but not an ending point—for listeners to experience and appreciate the many dynamics within the park.

On the tour, listeners meet current and former homeless individuals, as well as a local who has lived across from the park since 1988, creating a piece that would outlive a given news cycle but still provide listeners with an opportunity to participate in a timely conversation.

“For everyone who works with site-specific audio, tying it to a temporal event is dangerous,” says Walker. “I feel like this was a nice challenge, and shows that it’s something that you shouldn’t just block off—especially for projects with a local community.”

He continues: “A lot of audio ‘tours’ need to stay evergreen. We decided to go in the local direction of ‘You are here - right now.’”

Anchoring the audio to a topic like homelessness—which is temporal, but also politically charged—required delicacy and balance. “The challenge became how to branch out from it,” he adds.

In working with Brueck, Walker says, “I wanted her to look at the homeless issue, but not be limited by it. There are so many different communities in this park, from parents to punk rockers to sun bathers. You see people with cameras—especially in the spring with the hawks.”

While it does capture many of these voices, in the end Brueck and Walker’s piece is primarily meant to be a jumping-off point for listeners to contribute their own observations about the park. “Is the park really defined by homelessness?” asks Walker. “How would you define it?”

You Are Here Host—The Blind Barber

Although two of our team members were long-time visitors to Tompkins Square Park and had some contacts in the area, the search for a host site in the area began in the way many partnerships do: with simple conversations. On a weekday afternoon in June of 2016, team members Susan McGregor and Benjamen Walker, equipped with a prototype of the You Are Here unit, began scanning the edges of Tompkins Square Park for businesses that might make suitable installation sites. Apart from an establishment’s willingness to host, it was important that the device be positioned close to the street, ideally in a window.

Fortunately, team member Dan Phiffer had previously collaborated on art installations with Ninth Street Espresso, a local coffee bar that faced right on the park. Though the coffee shop was not able to host You Are Here, the folks there did share the name of a person to contact at the Blind Barber—a barbershop-by-day, speakeasy-by-night located right next door.

That first afternoon we were lucky enough to meet Rob McMillen, who, in addition to his work at the Blind Barber, has a background in educational technology. An enthusiastic supporter from the start, Rob agreed to discuss the project with the owners of the Blind Barber and quickly secured their approval. Within weeks, the Tompkins Square Park installation of You Are Here was up and running, broadcasting a signal that was publicly accessible more than half a block away.

The High Line: Not Just for Tourists

On the far side of town, the High Line has been a major tourist destination since it first opened in 2009, attracting over five million visitors a year. Though not even a decade old, it has been—and continues to be—a major influence on both the sensibility and direction of the neighborhood. “It’s one of New York’s newest sites, and it’s gotten its reputation as being a tourist site,” says Walker. But as producer Dasha Lisitsina illustrates in her audio collage, there are “a lot of New York City residents who are drawn to this place, for reasons which are quite surprising,” says Walker.

Part of the uniqueness of the High Line is its actual topography: It is a relatively narrow walkway that stretches from Gansevoort Street to West 34th Street. “Because it’s this long strip, it’s kind of hard to describe as a place,” he says.

To overcome the difficulty of picking a “where” within this beautiful, but ultimately transient space, Lisitsina decided to focus on “who.” “There are not only a lot of artists and musicians who are camping out there and doing something, there are also quite a lot of New Yorkers who use it,” says Walker.

Lisitsina’s audio collage introduces listeners to artists working or performing on the High Line, as well as tourists who have come to participate and marvel. The highlight of this tour, though, are the New Yorkers who all have different reasons for coming to the High Line. “A lot of people are looking for a place to be more contemplative in the crowd,” says Walker, which he also sees as meshing well with the audio piece itself. “If you were wearing headphones and people-watching, which is what people do there, it would be kind of great,” he says. “The other theme that I think comes out is how artists are using the space. They’re all battling for a little atmosphere to connect with audiences and not step on each other—which also feels very New York, the battle over space.”

Despite its many differences from Tompkins Square Park, the audio story at the High Line You Are Here station also uses the interaction of communities and ambiguity of the space as a way to inspire contributors. “If it’s not a tourist space,” says Walker, “what is it? The point of the piece is that you are hearing from people who are trying to define what this place is.”

You Are Here Host—The Half King

Despite the team’s earlier explorations, we quickly realized that installing You Are Here somewhere along the High Line itself was probably not tenable; fortunately, we quickly identified a promising alternative in The Half King bar and restaurant, whose entrance on West 23rd Street is just steps from the nearest staircase entrance to the High Line and whose outdoor “backyard” is overlooked by the park itself. Although we had no explicit connections with The Half King, its history as a venue for book launches and literary discussions was well known to us, as were the backgrounds of its three co-owners: journalists Sebastian Junger and Scott Anderson, and filmmaker Nanette Burstein.

Without an introduction to work with, team member Susan McGregor approached The Half King the old-fashioned way: by showing up. Stopping by before the evening rush on a Friday afternoon, McGregor was able to make contact with the day manager, Chelsea White. Once again, we were fortunate to find an employee excited about the project, and several days later McGregor was able to sit down with White and The Half King’s general manager to discuss the installation.

Like the Blind Barber, The Half King was well suited as a site for You Are Here in part because of its location, but also thanks to its large, plate-glass window facing the street. In this case, we were able to simply set the You Are Here unit on an existing armoire, where a power strip and cable box were already set up.