Friday Fotos: 51 Pacific in review

Indiana Jones goes to an alien world and ChatGPT gives us pictures

I’ve become interested in using photographs as prompts for image-making with ChatGPT. I’ve now done quite a bit of this, but have only posted two groups so far, ChatGPT imagines three different backgrounds for three small sculptures, and Friday Fotos: ChatGPT changes Manhattan's West Side. In other posts I’ve used I’ve used a bit of art as a point of departure, such as this post based on a painting I did when I was nine: ChatGPT renders a scene on Mars in three styles.

This time I’ve decided to see what I can do with some of my graffiti photos. The fact is, when I first started tromping the hinterlands of Jersey City in search of graffiti, I felt like I was a ten-year old kid pretending to be Indiana Jones exploring some lost city. That’s what I’ve done in this series of images. I start with one of my graffiti photos and ask ChatGPT to continue the adventure. The adventure quickly heads off-planet to another world. At various points along the way I introduce other photos for reference. Rather than interrupting the flow of ChatGPTs imagery I simply insert an end note into the ongoing image stream and then introduce those photos in notes at the end, along with a note or two about the photo.

The starting point is from an area known locally as “the oaks.” Judging from the photo it’s a densely wooded area. Which it is, but only a very small patch. The bit of masonry you see at the right is the edge of a pillar supporting Exit 14C of the New Jersey Thruway. All of the pillars at this point are covered with graffiti at ground level. We’re at the foot of the Palisades and within one or two hundred yards of 12th Street, which feeds into the Holland Tunnel, which in turn goes under the Hudson River to Manhattan. Thus, this little jungle vignette is in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the United States.

Into the jungle

Note: Click on all images to enlarge them. 

Imagine that we’re on an Indiana Jones adventure. We come to this spot and know that there’s the ruins of an ancient temple somewhere down that river. We start walking. What’s the next thing we see? But not the temple, not yet.

You hack at the trailing vines, and as they fall away you catch sight of something glinting in the dappled sunlight: a low stone plinth, half-submerged at the water’s edge, its top carved with a snarling, feline-headed guardian. The moss has nearly overtaken the bas-relief, but you can still make out its wide, carved eyes staring out at you, almost daring you to proceed farther downriver.

Beyond the plinth, a faint trail of broken pottery shards leads off into the undergrowth, and you can hear the soft drip of water echoing from somewhere ahead—perhaps a hidden grotto or the remnants of an old sluice that once fed the temple’s inner sanctum. A sudden breeze stirs the leaves, and you think you glimpse, deeper in the shadows, the jagged outline of what might be a toppled column, its capital half-buried under a tangle of roots.

Clearly, someone—or something—has been here before. You press on, your hand brushing against the jagged stone face of the plinth, heart hammering as you realize the real adventure is only just beginning.

Now, paint me a photo-realistic picture.

Here’s a photorealistic rendering of our jungle riverbank scene: a moss-covered feline-headed guardian plinth, broken pottery shards underfoot, and the hints of toppled temple columns drifting into the leafy shadows. Let me know what you’d like to explore next!

Very good. We move 100 yards along the right side of the river and the jungle begins to clear away. Draw me a picture of what we see.

Here’s our next scene: the riverbank clearing, with moss-covered steps leading up to a partially reclaimed stone entrance, all bathed in warm, golden light. Let me know where our adventure takes us next!

That must be it! Take me half way up the steps, looking at the entrance. There’s some paint on the walls here and there – pick some motifs from the original photo.

Here’s our close-up perspective, halfway up those mossy steps: a weathered archway etched with vibrant paint motifs inspired by that riverside graffiti. The warm sunlight and creeping vines frame the entrance—just on the threshold of discovery. What do you want to explore next?

Let’s go, say, 25 feet through the door. Light’s still coming from the entrance behind us. We’re in a large chamber. There’s a hole in the ceiling where light enters. There’s a strange object in the middle of the chamber. It looks like it might be a small scout ship from another world.

Here’s our latest discovery: a small alien scout ship bathed in golden shafts of light, sitting quietly in the stone chamber’s center. Let me know what you’d like to investigate next!

We’re now inside the scout ship, sitting in from of the instrument panel. It’s covered with writing and symbols like in this photo. [1]

You’re now seated at the control panel, the alien ship’s cockpit alive with bright, graffiti-like glyphs and tags scrawled across every button and screen, filtered through a cracked dome where jungle vines creep in. What’s your next move on this adventure?

Let’s imagine we take the scout ship up to the mother ship and then journey to the home planet. We’re in the mothership, docked at the home planet. We look out a window. What do we see?

A third, a third, and a third, approximately || Two hallways in 51 Pacific [graffiti]

Babe of the future [51 Pacific]

51 Pacific and the Green Villain @ 3 Quarks Daily

My current article at 3 Quarks Daily is about a very special space, now defunct, the 3rd floor loft space at 51 Pacific Avenue in Jersey City: 51 Pacific and the Green Villain: Welcome to the Fun House. The loft and the alleyway beyind the building were covered in graffiti, which changed several times a year. The writers were local, regional, and occasionally international as well. The show was curated by Greg Edgell, aka the Green Villain.

Here’s what was behind the bar for awhile; it’s freighted with markers of identity (click on photo to enlarge):

At the upper left, “Jersey City.” At the upper right, “Destiny.” That may also be a reference to a short film about Salvador Dali, Destino, which is name-checked on the Dali mural in the other room. Across the middle in white letters: “Green Villain.” Notice that the second “e” is rendered as a face, a common feature in graffiti. The hooded figure in the center (the Villain?) has “Versace” on his T-shirt, betraying an obsession with designer labels. But there’s a gun beneath it. Why? Notice the green bird to the right of the figure and then the little brown creature below the bird. “Chill Town” is a local moniker for Jersey City. Looks like the work of Mustart.

Here’s some more photos showing life at the space:

Photos of the loft space, 51 Pacific; photos of the alleyway, 51 Alley.

Friday Fotos: The circular saw at 51 Pacific

West side, East side

By the bye, I spotted this on some walls somewhere [51 Pacific]

Graffiti mythology: "G" is for Ghetto; the shield, well you know what the shield's for, don't you?

Comiing and going: the alley behind 51 Pacific Avenue in Jersey City

Another view of Dali

Everyone Poops: Graffiti on the Psychoanalytic Tip

Take a quick look at this photo and then close your eyes and think about it a bit:

I’m guessing that your overall impression is that it’s a mess, just a lot of visual crap. If you are of a psychoanalytic cast of mind, you might even think it rather anal expulsive. And then you might notice that hey! there’s a toilet there, or perhaps you have to take another look and focus a bit to see it amid all the, you know, crap.

Holy crap! you’re thinking, I was right. Anal as hell.

And then you might wonder how and why that particular bathroom got to be such a mess. After all, that’s not how bathrooms are in our culture. We like them clean and neat, like this one in a men’s rooming house:

The Underground

Well, that first bathroom, I assure you, is not in a men’s rooming house, though a few guys do make their home in that space from time to time. It’s in an old industrial building – used to belong to Clorox – in a second or third tier neighborhood in Jersey City. It’s part of a 5000 sq. ft. suite that’s used as an event space for an underground cultural scene. That’s the building there to the left, though this particular suite is at the other end:

We’re looking into the alley behind the building. Though you can’t quite see it, the walls of the alley are lined with graffiti from one end to the other. Here’s the entrance hall to the suite:

The same stairway

Stairway to ... what?

The difference color makes

[i really darkened up on that one]

Some Things at the Green Villain

Here's a shot I took of the bar one afternoon. The sunglasses and the liquor bottle I recognize, but what's the white fuzzy?

When was the last time you saw a circular saw and a rake together?

Funny Money

“Knowledge,” the new mural at the Green Villain just asks you to interpret its imagery. After all, it was created for a specific occasion, Thanksgiving, there’s a big “Thank” up there in Gothic letters, flanked by two figures obviously representing Native Americans, albeit with some distinctive “modern” touches. But no turkeys to speak of.

So, yeah, what’s I mean?

But I don’t want to take on the whole mural. Just a segment. Look here at the lower left, just above the stage:

I really really want to see that as a parody of paper money, American style. It is green, after all, the traditional color attributed to money—green backs and all. And the proprietor of the place, when asked about the name, Green Villain, did say something about money as the root of all evil. So, money. Funny money.

Austerity at the Villain

Somewhat more austere art than the flamboyance of Knowledge (seen here in process and when done) right around the corner and through a door.

Notice the door left of center. It gives you a sense of scale.

During and After @ the Villain

"Knowledge," a Green Giving mural by Mr. Mustart, Distort, and Serringe (Element Tree). 

But what's it all mean?

Up Close and Personal