more from swoon

more to add to pete's post about swoon... before doing her swimming cities project (summer 2008) she did another very similar project called The Miss Rockaway Armada (summer 2007), which was more focused on a collective of people building/living and performing together, where as swimming cities was apparently more focused artistic expression. anyway, nothing especially new but just some more handmade boats to admire...


photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/missrockaway/pool/tags/forsite/show/
website: http://www.missrockaway.org/wordpress/project-info/ - check the 'raft' page for info on how they built some of the boats.

and news section of the site contains an installation they did in Eindhoven (netherlands) which looks amazing (http://www.missrockaway.org/wordpress/):




they've also been invited to do other installations after these river boating projects - interesting to note how interiors are built and given the same attention as the outside of the boats. these pictures are from an installation currently at the massasuchetts museum of contemporary art which runs till march 2009 (more info here http://massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=370):



"Why are we doing this?
For a bunch of reasons. For the adventure. For the impossibility. But for more than this. We grew up in small towns. We remember the bookmobile and the punk rock band that seeded little pieces of something else. And now, even though we moved to big cities and found people like us, we still live in a country that fights wars so it can consume more. We are taking the urge to flee and heading for the center. We want to meet people who aren’t like us. We want to meet ourselves at age 16. We want to be a living, kicking model of an entirely different world — one that in this case happens to float. Plus we suspect that there is something wildish about seeing the stars night after night from the grand old Mississipi. Yeah sure, the Colorado is prettier, and the Rio Grande is its own divide, but the Mississippi has always been the main artery of this country. We want to start where the blood flows straight from the heart."

- lets not forget we need a reason for what we're doing.