Last summer, I rented a car and went to travel around America for 45 days to capture and retell a story of what America was as through a series of images. I was traveling from city to city, letting the signs lead me to discover more. When I explored the realm of street art, I, accidentally, found that people attached their messages to a post in the street in hopes to communicate their message: commonly related to advertising, warnings, prohibitions, sales, patterns and political agendas. Moreover, people continuously attaches new posters over another creating a palimpsest of meaning. It made me exciting because of its spontaneous beauty and messages in the public space. This experience allowed me to re-recognize the role of medium and the public space in our society and made me decide to observe the spontaneous moments in this space.

In order to experiment this beauty, I designed a modified phone that makes a random bell sound to attract people’s attention. When people pick up the phone, they will listen to the message, “please leave a message”. They can leave any message including political issues, self advertising, and personal secrets. The new messages that people continuously leave over others are recorded by the phone creating layered, covered, deteriorated, and renewed meanings similar to posters on a post.

This leaves traces of ordinary people trying to communicate with other people who are telling stories in their unique voices. I devoted my time to investigate their spontaneous meanings produced by the voice over recoding in the public and to concentrate how these messages can create aesthetics as a symphony in conjunction with each other.

Before I began my education in graphic design at RISD in Providence, Rhode Island. I imagined America to be a place where woman walked the streets wearing glittering accessories that reflect off of glass skyscrapers. I was amazed to find it be a foundation built on far more than glass and mirrors. America to me, was a whole culture of signs and symbols displaced upon brick and painted walls. These old and fading marks represented a former American story that was far different from the one I imagined while living in Seoul. When I looked at the buildings of New York, I became aware of the story of industrialism left over from the Cold War of 1950 and the emerging Modernism of today.

I searched for marks that expressed political issues, and old advertisements that spanned entire walls, while taking note in the small expressions individuals left upon the street as in graffiti and indications of a road most taken.

Together Eroon, and I packed up our car and left sharing a plan to travel around America for 40 days to capture and retell a story of what America was through a series of images. We ran into several problems as to how we were going to accomplish this endeavor after only being in the US for six months(in my case). We decided that we would let the road decide. Traveling from city to city and letting the signs lead us to discovering more. Our trip lead us to visit the following cities

(in order):New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Jersey City, Orlando, Cocoa Beach, Miami, Key West, Everglades, Tampa, Jacksonville, Savannah, Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Hot Sulphur Springs, Omaha, Chicago, South bend, ending back in the wonderful city of Providence.

Departing from New York heading towards Baltimore on May 27th, 2006, we arrived at Providence on July 10th, 2006. During the journey of the 45 days, we have visited total over 30 cities cataloging pictures taken exhibiting street arts, graphics, and gratifies. Sleeping for a mere four hours a night, we drove from city to city taking over 6,500 photos, over 3,500 of those example of street art and graffiti.

Everything from a line drawings of mice poking out from corners of a building to wonderful antique advertising signs of company’ of yesterday, propelled us forward. In the end we had a myriad of photos displaying advertising, warning, prohibitions, sales, and patterns and messages made from various mediums- spray paint, markers, paints, stencils, and wheat-pastes. I documented every symbol, even derogatory sayings that were written on walls. Traces of ordinary people trying to communicate with other people telling stories in their unique voices. I had devoted my time to concentrating how these signs can act as a symphony in conjunction with each other.

Stemming from these travels, is a published photo diary called ‘Street’ comprised of 260 photos carefully chosen from all of our images working through VINYL, a design company in Korea. This book stands as what I now understand America to be, an awesome portrayal of the many hand made messages Americans create in the everyday.