Dustin York

Josette Melchor was a visiting lecturer to Art Center as part of the Design Dialogues series. Melchor is the Executive Director of Gray Area Foundation For The Arts (GAFFTA), a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization “dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture.” She has rooted her foundation in the long distressed Tenderloin district, and Melchor sees her presence as an opportunity for neighborhood renewal. Upon locating to the neighborhood, Melchor recounted how the Chronicle wrote an article about the gallery, bringing her wide exposure. The city, seeing an opportunity, immediately coined the term “Mid-Market Arts District”. The impression Ms. Melchor gave is that she feels she must indulge in the theater of publicity in being a promoter to the nonprofit, as well as the curator to keep it going forward, all in addition to having a positive social message that she seeks to spread all at once.

Josette Melchor from Dustin York on Vimeo.

Josette cited the statistic that the Tenderloin has the highest density of single room occupancies in the nation, as an extreme example of the disadvantaged nature to the neighborhood. In my response I endeavored to make that fairly vague statistic explicit, and by visualizing what that specific example means I was able to create the setting for my animation. The Tenderloin has the highest density of single room occupancies in the nation because it is populated with residency hotels built in the early part of the twentieth century, and occupied by mostly lower-income families. These old hotels are particularly poignant symbols to the stark economic inequities that exists within San Francisco, as live-in hotels that are adjacent to the nearby wealthy Nob Hill district, (what is termed the Tendernob) have been by now converted to boutique hotels and bed and breakfast type of establishments. The process of shrinking the Tenderloin has actually been occurring for decades, and it is doubtless a beneficial thing that GAFFTA has replaced an abandoned adult theater and a liquor store, what is yet to be demonstrated is whether the Foundation can be seen as a positive and engaging player to its surroundings rather than a glaring exception. The choices I have made in the animation reflect that sentiment, by placing pictures of the beautiful gallery and dazzling digital artwork in contrast to a bleak and gritty surrounding, I aim to place the two realities in close proximity, while leaving open the question of whether the gleaming setting can positively affect the disadvantaged.