Studio: Veterans Community Park and Pavilion

Instructors: John Blood, Elizabeth Danze, Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg

Semester: Fall 2013

Less than 1 percent of the American population has been on active military duty at any given time in the past 12 years.  Today’s technologically advanced warfare requires fewer soldiers while medical advancements have helped to save a greater percentage of those injured in battle.  However, upon return our military men and women are now experiencing higher rates of PTSD – more appropriately called “Combat Stress Reaction” – higher rates of Traumatic Brain Injury, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and violent behavior.  Young veterans are nearly three times more likely to commit suicide than civilians of the same age.  In 2012, we lost more active-duty soldiers to suicide than to the enemy.  This is unacceptable.

The aim of this studio was to address the growing divide between the military and civilian communities; to design a place and program that believes in the power of shared experience for developing a greater understanding of the human costs of war and promoting wellness within our society.

Where the Waller Creek master plan meets UT's new Dell Medical School District on the corner of 15th Street and Trinity in Austin, Texas, there is an oblong acre of land straddling Waller Creek with beautiful live oaks and pecan trees.  Carved out between the trees, a café, archive, gallery, public plaza, and 150-seat theater comprise a new facility for reconnecting veterans and civilians.  This project is designed specifically to address the growing gap between the military and civilian communities by engaging memory and fostering relationships.  These strategies are further described below.

ENGAGING MEMORY

HOLDING.  It is important to recognize the permanence of memories.  These are things that continue as a part of us, not to be forgotten.  Tattoos and MIA-POW-KIA bracelets are examples of holding memories.  Here, the archive is designed to serve this purpose. 

SHARING.  To share a memory can be a very powerful experience.  This is a moment of release, where we relinquish control.  It is an active step against isolation.  Efforts like The Telling Project utilize performance as a tool for sharing memories.  Here, the theater, café, and plaza are designed to promote sharing memories at a variety of scales and contexts.

RECEIVING.  The reception of these memories must be done without judgment.  The archive and gallery are focused on informing visitors of the human costs of war, more than the historical data.  A better understanding of what war is like from a human perspective will promote empathy.  The theater is designed as an inversion of the typical theater.  Here, the audience is at the center in swivel seats with a series of stages at the perimeter.  Opposite to the traditional division between the dark seats and the lighted stage, the central audience is an engaged participant.

FOSTERING RELATIONSHIPS

1:1   The project will connect people on an individual basis.   For a civilian, the reality of war is more fully felt when given someone to identify with -- to imagine yourself in his or her boots.  This can happen informally with a cup of coffee at the café, formally in a reserved meeting room, or on your own in the gallery and archive. 

1:ALL   The project must also encourage relationships on a collective basis.  How do I consider myself as part of a community?  For civilians, this is a more complete recognition of themselves as part of a whole and to understand their role in our country's military activity.  For veterans, this is re-establishing their relation to a community that has never seen the effects of war.  

ANDREW GREEN

andrew green