Ren Wei and I decided to introduce Washington Square Park through the sense of touch and texture. Our project began with a sign that read, 'Touch my hand,' while we covered our eyes with sleeping masks and adorned our hands with glitter. Seated on a bench, we encouraged people to touch our glittering hands. Upon contact, we interviewed them, asking questions like, 'What do you feel about Washington Square Park?' and 'Which area do you enjoy the most when you're here?'

 

Next, we embarked on a tactile journey, physically touching the places and objects that people had expressed a liking for in the park. Our efforts culminated in the creation of a short video, accompanied by the soothing strains of 'Canon in D.' The video featured recorded interviews, as well as our experiences exploring the park while blindfolded.

 

We then crafted a 3D box with an aperture, enabling people to reach inside and 'feel' the various textures we'd collected from the park, including leaves. To add an element of fun, we concealed candies among the leaves, encouraging our classmates to search for them. As they savored the candies, we collected the wrappers and assembled them into a treasure map, highlighting the spots where we had collected the leaves.

 

The exterior of the box featured a black-and-white rendition of the Washington Square Park map, reinforcing the theme of closing one's eyes to experience the park. Upon opening the box, a 3D map with trees, a sand-made path, and red flags marking our journey locations came into view.

 

For the final component of our project, we created a garment by weaving wire webbing on a mannequin to form a dress with an anti-gravity appearance. We then applied acrylic modeling paste, forming textures on the dress using our hands to connect it to our project. To complete the piece, we adorned it with glitters to convey the sparkles we perceived when closing our eyes. The dress was intentionally kept white to maintain the focus on the textures and sensory experience of Washington Square Park, avoiding distractions from color.