Neighborhood Watch @ Hampton Terrace

Luminous Sculpture of a bone.

Last Saturday, an unusual art event took place. "Neighborhood Watch", wherein houses become the screens for projected art works, and the streets become the art space. It took place in the Hampton Terrace neighborhood, just North of East Hillsborough at 14th street, for only one night. It featured the following artists:

Felici Ancatar, Toni Danette Billick, Jaime Bird, The Church of Holy Colors, Michael Covello, Vanessa Diaz, JD Durham, Stephen Ellis, Dave End, Kale Roberts, Robb Fladry, Adam Hill, Aaron Hutcheson, Reiko Kawahara, Vincent Kral, Sarah Krupp, Culture Laboratory, Ben Lewis, Chalice Mitchell, Desiree Moore, Ellen Mueller and her Practical Preparedness videos and the Book of Enid, Brinson Renda, Selina Roman, Noah Simblist, Kirk Ke Wang, and many more.

Artist waiting for video to begin

This is the fifth year for Neighborhood Watch. It still has an aura of a grassroots event, one that recontextualizes the quiet streets of Hampton Terrace into a temporary art space. There was an intimate quality to this. Small groups of people meandered freely on the streets (which were not closed down, or full of police) taking in the installations. It felt like an arts version of Halloween, as one wandered from house to house. I've included a lot of pictures of this because it is a charming event that few people are aware of or attend. Hopefully this will encourage them to do so next year.



One of the problems I found was that it was nearly impossible to tell whose work was being projected (and this is not the only video installation event in the area with this issue). With all those laptops on tables, wouldn't it be possible to have the title of the video and the artist's name made visible onscreen? A handout might also be a good idea.

 This installation was interactive, and children enjoyed playing with the images and voice-over. Here you can see the child in the lower right pointing to an item onscreen responding to the audio.

Seeing homes transformed via the projection of light was a marvelous experience. This is very different from the conceptually similar light shows that are staged in downtown Tampa.








 On the right, two of the artists at work on their computers & projectors.

On the right, an aluminum foil animal sculpture next to the sidewalk. It presented at about four feet high and 3.5 feet long.

Projection on house

 There were people in theatrical costumes as shown on the right. Next to them was the Bicycle parking area.

Viewers on the street

 There was a Live Paint going on, from a canvas hung off the front of a house.

Live Painter

Dollhouse installation, Live Paint in background.

Interior of Dollhouse

This dollhouse installation (or was it a kid's dollhouse?) was on the front yard of a full-sized home.

"SOS"

"SOS" spelled out with smiley-faced balloons, backlit on a front yard.

Mixed Media Sculpture

People Enjoying an enchanting evening

This is a wonderful, unique, almost underground event. It deserves a higher profile, but it is at a sweet spot right now.