It’s always energizing to get outside the office to scout out future sites for 2010 01SJ Biennial, and even better if I get to share the adventure with visiting artists. Last week Joshua Walton and James Tichenor from the LAB at Rockwell Group were in town for two days. Just enough time for us to go on a nighttime walking tour of downtown San Jose, meet with folks at the Children’s Discovery Museum, walk the catwalks high on the rotunda of City Hall, get a birds eye view of downtown from the 88 condo complex, participate in the small “meet and greet” reception ZER01 hosted for members of the San Jose Public Art Commission, and sample some Oaxacan mole at Mezcal on San Fernando Street.

View from the rooftop of City Hall Josh and James from the LAB at Rockwell Group looking out over San Jose City Hall Plaza

In case you haven’t heard of the Rockwell Group, it is a New York-based architecture and design firm led by architect David Rockwell. The Rockwell Group has been responsible for creating immersive environments in projects ranging from the staging at the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, to the newly opened Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, to the entrance installation at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale. Cool stuff. And the LAB is Rockwell Group’s digital interaction design team who specializes in creating environments and experiences using digital technology.

It was great to have Josh and James in town—they certainly have a wealth of practical experience! Steve and I and the ZER01 team have been discussing venues for month now, but walking from site to site within a few days certainly made the Biennial plans feel more like a near reality as we imagined all the exciting possibilities to activate the public space of downtown San Jose. Stay tuned…