Overview
The city is constantly changing. Every inhabitant contributes to a city’s evolution, whether actively or passively involved.  How does the pedestrian, through daily activities and thoughts, effect the physical environment? This is a fundamental question for Variable City, a project examining the impact of small-scale human activities such as walking, talking, shopping, working, observing and daydreaming on large-scale, permanent changes in public space.

Variable City manifests out of a hypothesis that performance art could be used as a tool in urban planning.  Through the intersection of these two seemingly distinct disciplines, Mandle’s company of performance artists had a unique capacity to interpret and illustrate urban dynamics and engage the public in the early stages of design development.

The project had three phases: 1. Research; 2. Intervention; and 3. Dissemination of Findings. Begun in 2001 in a first-time collaboration with urban designer Ariel Krasnow, the project was initiated with a question: can performance art be employed as an analytical tool in an inquiry into public space? To explore an answer to this question, we chose a site: Fox Square in downtown Brooklyn, a critical, but overlooked intersection in the heart of the rapidly developing borough.

Phase 1 Research: Finding the Variables
Collaboration: Ariel Krasnow, Julia Mandle, Urban Design Team
Over two years, this team explored a range of questions by conducting in depth research of Fox Square: its history, current use, and future development prospects. The urban design team interviewed pedestrians about their perceptions of the area. They discovered that main issue undermining the area is that it had no identity- thousands passed through the busy intersection each day with little awareness of its historical significance and future potential.

The research team developed the following core questions:
Can performance art be used as a method for investigating public space and its inhabitants? Can it reveal and/or alter public perceptions of place; engage the community; affect the outcome of new development policies?

Phase 2 Performance Intervention: Engage
Collaboration: Ariel Krasnow, Julia Mandle, Choreographer Mark Jarecke, Graphic Designer Bethany Koby, Production Manager David Szlasa, Urban Design Team
During 2003,Variable City proposed adding a new dimension to the city planning process by integrating it with performance art. In the fall, we created a series of interventions designed to inspire people to reconsider the identity of Fox Square, envision potential for change, and express their ideas.

With twelve people, we performed on-site over one hundred times during four weeks. Each week we changed one variable to explore whether it provoked new responses from passers-by. The first week, the performers stood still for one hour per day holding a large orange newspaper. The second week, the performers wore a bright costume, and in the third week the choreographer added a movement score that was cued by the traffic light. The forth week, the performers moved through the intersection, adding the final variable of ‘space’ in to the mix.

We also produced an informative “newspaper” and handed it out as a way of alerting people to the aims of the project and to the site; its history and future potential, as well as offering people a way to respond to the issues raised. We distributed over 6,000 newspapers during the month.

During each performance, the urban design team also engaged with the public through interviews about their perceptions of Fox Square. Hundreds of people offered their enthusiastic opinions. This engagement stood in stark contrast to the phase prior to the performance when the urban designers had had great difficulty getting anyone in the area to stop for an interview. Of this finding Krasnow wrote, “We determined that the variable of “performance” as an acutely responsive medium can affect people’s attitudes and physical trajectories, while at the same time can cause reactions to site occurrences.

”Phase 3 Dissemination of Findings: Exhibit
Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture
Collaboration: Ariel Krasnow, Julia Mandle, Exhibit Designers Bethany Koby and Sidney Blank, VAI Curator Zoe Ryan

In Fall 2004, the Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture exhibited the findings of the project in a three-gallery presentation, catalogue and panel discussion. The exhibition was designed to follow the project’s development chronologically. The first gallery displayed two floor-to-ceiling photographs of Fox Square, the second gallery contained twenty-two plinths relaying information about the development process and findings. The final gallery projected two large videos, one showed the dynamics of the intersection through a time-lapsed aerial view of Fox Square, and the second video showed the performance’s impact over four weeks.

As one of our intentions was to encourage people to gain awareness of this overlooked intersection, we were pleased to gain the active support of the Brooklyn Office of NYC Planning Department, Department of Transportation, BAM Local Development Corporation and numerous local advocacy groups. The collection and distribution of findings from our investigations was an essential component of the project. The Van Alen Institute supported all phases of Variable City, and critically through the curation of the exhibit and catalogue Van Alen Report: October 2004, which illustrated Variable City and its precedents and overall contribution to interdisciplinary approaches in urban design and planning. as a series of movements that they perform according to active queues from Fox Square.