Walk the back of the building, or "Hug the Wall"

One of the aspects of commercial buildings that I always think about is how these places present the visitor a facade, an image of 'building' in which they will receive something in exchange for their money. Some of them have prosthetic pediments made of plywood, others, pretend surfaces in their walls simulating rock, wood and other materials.

However, no attention is given to the backs of these buildings. These walls, and the areas that surround them, become un-sites, forbidding territories which hide the hard labor of business. Small black holes within our cities that are swallowing the possibilities of social interaction, negative space, vacuums. The visitor/consumer's eyes are to keep strictly to the image presented, void of information about how the products even get there, supporting the automatic, un-questioned exchange.

With today's walk, we re-discovered, we re-claimed one of these lost spaces, and found signs and sounds that revealed some different uses.

...a couch, grafiti, the sound of a plane, of cars, a mattress, smell of pee, white on white, a toilet, musical electricity meters, sealed doors, a guy who saves who's been "saved"...