Field Notes I

Field Notes I
Site: Intersection between Denver Art Museum and Denver Public Library

11:35-11:40 am
Civic park’s sidewalks were heavily crowded; bright sunshine covered the vicinity and the breeze rushed through my body giving a sensation of freshness in what seemed to forecast a hot sunny day with scattered clouds. Made my way to Broadway Street and 13th Avenue. I rushed quickly into the Denver Public Library as I needed the restroom quickly. As I made my way through 13th Avenue, three edifices stood out: the Civic Center Cultural Complex, the Denver Art Museum, and the Denver Public Library. An intersection connected a path for pedestrians to traverse through these three structures. I decided to sit in one of the park benches on the area between the western exit of the library and the north section of the art museum.

Response: At this lapse I felt that this would be a great day to be outdoors as the sunrays didn’t strike with heavy heat and the wind chill cooled my body. I had already decided that this day would be used to see the museum’s external environment and how people seemed to interact with the place, how many actually visited the museum and just make notes from the structure.

11:40-11:55 am
I first observed the various artsy structures surrounding this section. One of the structures was right behind where I stood and it was an array of metallic shapes (semicircles, and rectangular masts) red in color. The next structure was a giant dustpan with trash on it. There were also three columnar pillars in a Stonehenge type of structure and another piece on the roof of the art museum featuring a Native and a Cowboy shooting each other. Then I finally went ahead to observe the Denver Art Museum’s main building. It seems as a mixture of various prismatic shapes such as square pyramids, rectangular blocks. Very unusual arrangement for this museum, it makes it stand out from the surrounding buildings that have a common structural arrangement. At this point I observed that quite a few people were traversing the intersection from the public library to the Art museum and vice-versa. Something interesting was that during this time, most of the pedestrians were old-age white men and women. Then at around 11:50 am a group of teenage skaters spent a brief moment doing tricks in the area between the Cultural complex and the museum. The bright sunny cool day then turned into a gloomy and cold one as a massive nimbus blocked the sunlight and the wind started to blow swiftly. Then a young couple appeared to be browsing through these places taking pictures.

The Museum’s structure surely baffled me; its structure is so random and genuine that I imagine how people feel standing in the triangular shape that’s prominent in the north side of the building. The outside works of art are also intricate and genuine but as I have no acute artistic taste for this type of things, I can’t really make a meaning out of any of them even though I can recognize the structures they resemble; it’s that kind of thing where I wish I had a better taste for contemporary art.

11:55 am-12:10 pm - area between northern section of Art Museum and public library
Cars and people keep traversing now I’m listening to construction work going on in a building across the Civic Center Cultural Complex. The same couple is still wandering around observing the Art museum. I decided to move toward civic park and I observed yet another structure which was a series of red pillars with different words written throughout them all. I observed some people just sitting in this area eating or doing other activities, no one seemed to mind me being taking notes. The structure in civic park was also surrounded by orange tape indicating that construction work was also going on around here.

Questions: Do people actually come to this area of town just to chill? Is there anything that makes them pick this exact spot? What would that be?

12:10-12:25 pm – going towards the entrance of Art Museum

12:12- At this time I observed that the young couple from the preceding observations made their way to the museum’s door, they grabbed the handle and tried to open it but failed. They struggled for a few seconds until they gave up and left.
From here I made my way across the intersection towards the main entrance, and I also tried to open it and failed miserably. Then I looked to the side and finally figured out that the museum is closed on Mondays. I’ve decided to finish by making my way south close to 12th avenue, yet another structure laid there; a cow with a young calf. A person was cleaning the windows of the cultural complex, and then two adult skaters came rushing to this area and started performing tricks. Now I had finished my first set of field observations of the Denver Art Museum, and I made my way out of here towards 16 Street Mall, one of the skaters fell and a giant thump resonated in the otherwise isolated area.

Final response: No wonder I didn’t see anyone entering the Art museum!!! I can’t believe it took me almost 40 minutes to figure that one out. At least a got a good deal of visuals from the museum and its surrounding area that might help me with some of my research. For the next observations, I’m thinking of talking to the employees of the art museum by phone or setting appointments in order to ask question that include: why did you decide to work here? Do you like your job? What do you think about this place? Basically I’m trying to assess how employees feel about their workplace.