Super Pop-Up Shop: September 2009

(thanks George for the detailed notes below!)

Mall/Shopping SITES:

Alameda Towne Centre

Landfill site of formerly proposed bridge. Ferry from the city takes you there?

Embarcadero Center Holiday Ice Rink. managed by Boston Properties, Inc.

• The Embarcadero site is a very accessible location, recognizable by name in San Francisco. Growing up in the city, it is a place I've been going to for many years. It would seem that a show there could make a splash, and catch the attention of many San Franciscans who have seen this site develop over the years. Ideal for projection on the window display.
• Compared to the Alameda site, the Embarcadero would allow us an audience of our friends in the bay area art community, and the mall community.
• Alameda allows the opportunity to present something for “real” mall shoppers, more outside of our art bubble. A Saturday afternoon project might be ideal.
• Alameda site, while it offers quite a large space, and Santa's Hut (which is so great), is that it is removed from San Francisco, and thus less accessible via public transportation. Convincing people to trek from SF might be a challenge. In Alameda, it would be necessary to observe how people move through that space, if our area is a place people walk through. It seemed that the primary way of getting to this site is by car, so most people may be parking outside of stores, going directly in and then back out to their cars. We might have to do something to attract attention, like a giant light display, or playing loud music, so people can locate us in the midst of the expansive mall.

Brainstorming:

Super Pop (up shop)… (up)shop/super pop

Words: Frenzy, Fad, Spree, Buzz, Craze, Jingle, Deeply Whimsical, Deception,

Chameleon-esque (fitting in/ or standing out?

Pop Up "Shop": Are we a store? will things be for sale? “Store” refers to storage.

Traveling circus or carnival, temporarily taking up residence

Hoteling, of early dot com era

Landscape, Commerce, Community, Convenience

Official Words: Timeless, Community, Craftsmen Style, Familiar, Kid Friendly, Inviting, Shop, Dine, Disover

Approved Materials (the mall’s image), wood, stone, tile, brick

“More Yellow Flavor” “New and Improved” “Timeless and In vogue” (contradictory, doesn’t really make sense) “Towne Centre” Supre Poppe Uppe Shoppe

Logo: Blow Pop bursting Logo, How does the logo represent us as a group, is it site, or holiday specific?

“Super” beginning of hyperbole, reminiscent of “Best, Most Awesome, Greatest, Spectacular, Wonderful Traveling Circus” Carnival atmosphere

“Pop” a reference to pop culture, mainstream

Recycling: re-use,

What are our principles? Shopping malls represent what we hate?

Real creative dialogue about consumption?

What is our critical stance?

The form of the Pop up shop is a critique in and of itself? Or is it complicit with a capitalist power structure, and just another cog in the system.

What can we offer that isn’t there? How can we create life within a soulless cavern?

Avoid selling CRAP, or supporting establishments that sell crap.

Psychology Booth

Four square games.

Finger painting with kids, Marlene Dumas painting of child with red hands

Advertising: BIG, lots of Hype, and cocktail party buzz.

How do we take advantage of the existing PR structure of the malls?

Posters, Coupons, On-line Presence, Newspaper Inserts, Auction

Swapping services, materials,

How do we get people to the site to see the work? Hiring a shuttle to take people to Alameda?

Banners for outside.

Embarcadero: Could we hang something over the edge of the walkway, adjacent to the windows?

Alameda, Big wall space above

Mannequins, human surrogates, one of the many strange objects that structures the retail experience, mirroring our human figure.

Ideas:

Czech Dream model: Inducing and making visible the idea of buyers remorse… Advertising is very exciting and then show is sparse, Playing on idea of allure of advertising.

Surveillance: please steal this book, who is watching? Mall security, analogous to other security systems?

Scavenger Hunt: emulating guerrilla shopping propaganda

Employee of the Month, Shopper of the Week, photo postcards, special parking space

Shopping Carts: made to reshape the shopping experience, people pushing around empty carts, bumper carts, cart races (happening at night, Jerry Lewis film). Displaying prototypes

“Ethnic” supermarkets replacing Closed mall shops become, is shopping a segregated experience?

Jay’s gift exchange project: cups/food based on “empty bowls”

Survey Project, based on a survey Pop songs, what people like and what people hate, create a survey or poll that lists what people like or dislike about malls. What rules they like or dislike. Codes of conduct.

Brad’s Consume the Earth Vending Machine

Mini Golf Course: each hole has a message. Non threatening, family oriented, WTO riot cop as an obstacle. Interactive.

Zombies moving around the mall... jumping off from the Dawn of the Dead: the Bay area Version. People trapped in a shopping mall, and Zombies are closing in. Could be a commentary on the "dead" space, being temporarily revived. Following a Zombie, lurching along, walking to the space, could be a video, or perhaps some sort of installation, or painting if we are going to use individual works.

Dawn of the Dead (George A Romero) was shot over approximately four months, from late 1977 to early 1978, in the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh and Monroeville.[2] Its primary location is set in the Monroeville Mall.

Holiday Hybrid, Christmas haunted house

Mall Sleepover: we get a bunch of people together and set up camp in a mall space for a night. One thing that came up when visiting the sites was the feeling that "everything you need to buy is here", thus why not move right in? Do malls go to sleep in the night? Should they be inhabited? Do monsters come out at night?

Camping out at the mall for the opening of a store, Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving.

Embarcadero Ice Rink, staging a performance and making a video to be projected. Exploring the idea of , bikini wearing zombies, Deranged businesspeople and office workers, spandex wearing shoppers, caffinated CEO's, crazy Holiday icons, Goths, Ninjas, Tourists,

Invite Kristi Yamaguchi to make a piece for the show... or curate an exhibition of the artwork famous ice skaters. Or pair this with the Giants Dugout store downstairs, and have artwork of Ice skaters and baseball players. Alex is a former figure skater, could skate circles around costumed clumsy people.

Collaborations: Making work that references the site, creates dialogue between our space and the other establishments.

-Collaborating with the Embarcadero Cinema to do an off-site screening of a film... host a mini film festival.

-Collaborating with the Punchline Comedy club to to an off-site comedy show.

-Working with Alameda Theater… renovated, show local talent before

-Since we will be bringing people to the space and y may offer us things in return for the exposure. Eye-carumba! or the Giants dugout...attracting quite a bit of attention, should we partner with neighboring businesses who might benefit?

Readings/Inspiration:

• "Ghost Malls" Slate.com -Malls as Hunted Houses, Vacancy = inhabited by ghosts, Absence = lingering presence, Old West Ghost Town. Used to be a thriving community of, or enclosed “city” accommodating people of all ages, self contained, people go from home to the mall.
• "101 Uses for a Dead Mall," NY Times Blog
Deadmalls.com Hollowed out spaces. Smaller malls in older suburbs will increasingly house nonconventional, community-serving tenants, including community college classrooms, branch libraries, spaces for nonprofit arts groups, places of worship, immigrant “mom and pop” shops, and public and private office space. The blight that is left behind when one fails is a weight on the community. Lost tax revenue and jobs, increased vandalism and crime and lower property values are just a few of the problems a dead mall creates. Redevelopment into a more sustainable mixed use center is often a good solution if the real estate is valuable. Sometimes dead malls find new life as colleges, government buildings, car dealerships and community centers that can host a variety of events. Most times, if the building is cheaply constructed, and neglected for years, the only viable option is demolition. The fast pace of American lifestyles have led to a decrease in the number of people spending hours strolling the mall, window shopping, people watching and purchasing. Technology has moved many shoppers onto the Internet. And big-box centers with their one-stop shopping have also taken a bite out of mall traffic.
• "Rethinking the Mall" NY Times Blog
Your leisurely stroll is in fact carefully choreographed, and ensures that you will come into contact, however briefly, with every single store in the mall. Having just witnessed the Sony-backed Metreon mall in San Francisco shift from its failed existence as a “state of the art technology and entertainment marketplace” to a modest farmer’s market.
• "Pop-Up Retail" Retailing industry report
From gallery-like shopping spaces with one-off exhibitions to mobile units bringing innercity-chic to rural areas, PLANNED SPONTANEITY: making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be... spontaneous! TRENDWATCHING.COM has noticed an increase in temporary retail manifestations around the world. What concert to see tonight? Whom to casually meet or date within the next hour? Which Southern European city to fly to for the weekend? Consumers soaking up the entertainment economy are increasingly taking advantage of a burgeoning physical and virtual web of no-frills airlines, always-on phones and PDAs, affordable hotels, last-minute/find-and-seek websites, and so on. POP-UP RETAIL fits right in with the Entertainment Economy, the Experience Economy, the Surprise Economy, and so on. It's about surprising consumers with temporary 'performances', guaranteeing exclusivity because of the limited timespan. It provides visibility for e-tailers and allows 'real-world' companies to enter uncharted markets on the cheap. Vacant, the original traveling and temporary store opening for one month only in cities internationally, has launched the Vacant guerilla mobile retail unit, a store on the back of a Hummer H2 which will feature limited edition and exclusive products from major and emerging brands. The guerilla mobile unit features a GPS and webcam system that passes information to a specially designed website, www.guerillashop.com
• "The Pop-Up Shop Phenomenon" Guardian online
• (Note Carsten Holler project)
• Brian Ulrich's website-- notifbutwhen.com -- to familiarize yourselves with his work.
• I'm still working on getting a larger room for that session, will let you know.
• Brian also is scouting for locations so if any of you know of any dead malls in the Bay Area, pass them along. He's looking at Eastmont and Foothill Square Malls in Oakland