“Don’t Forget Me”

Posted on October 28, 2015November 22, 2015 by PN2K Team

11903896_10154158384378642_3861488295910772140_n We were recently contacted by an artist from New York who has compiled a 148 page book depicting photographs of ghost bikes from over 50 cities, like the ghost bike on Mass Ave & Vassar St, set up in memory of our dear friend Phyo. Seeing the compilation of ghost bikes like this has the same effect as teaching kids about littering through visualization: “Throw one can to the ground; you see no difference – but how about we look over here where we have 1000 cans piled up high. You see how much we are destroying the earth?” It’s powerful visualisation. Here is Ms Barnes’ story:

Photographer Genea Barnes releases Don’t Forget Me, an art book memorializing Ghost Bikes

Brooklyn, October 21, 2015 – Photographer Genea Barnes is releasing an art book featuring her Ghost Bike art. Ghost Bikes are bicycles that have been painted white and placed near a location where a cyclist was killed. Barnes has traveled to over 50 cities photographing these bikes. The book has two parts. The first part chronicles her travels with journals and snapshots of the bikes. The second part displays Barnes’s memorial art: Ghost Bike images, and photo montages that combines the Ghost Bike images with studio-shot models to represent fallen cyclists. The book is 10.25in x 10.25in x 0.75in, and is 143 pages.

Each year, the US sees more than 600 bicyclist fatalities, and more than 50,000 bicyclists report injuries. Ghost Bikes symbolize the need for drivers and cyclists to be more aware of their surroundings. Barnes lives in Brooklyn, New York and is from San Francisco, CA.

“I started photographing Ghost Bikes because you can pass a memorial hundreds of times and eventually forget what it represents,” said Barnes. Over time, many Ghost Bikes have been removed. ”I hope this project and my book will help raise awareness, and enable the memorials and their sentiment live on.”

In 2010, San Francisco Bay Guardian readers voted Barnes best emerging artist. She has exhibited her photography in world class art hubs like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Milan. Her current projects explore death, decay, and facets of what is left behind.

Genea Barnes Brooklyn, New York (917) 789-3875
http://geneabarnes.com/blog/book/
http://geneabarnes.com/blog/presskit/
geneabarnes@geneabarnes.com
http://geneabarnes.com

Digital Production & Ghost Bike Dedication to Anita Kurmann

Posted on August 20, 2015January 19, 2017 by Ye

All the magic happens behind the scenes sometimes. Dingfang and Yaoming have been editing the video from SidPac's coffee hour with PN2K, and they said our three characters had such diverse personalities that the process of editing was "very funny and so entertaining." I was curious so they invited me along to Northeastern's Snell library where I saw the first version of the finished video. All I can say is that we need more cyclists and folks who are willing to impart their knowledge to the world. (It's more fun watching a video of cool cyclists and learning from your cycling friends than reading a bike safety book, though we definitely do not condemn the latter).

We then grabbed some food at a restaurant nearby and left to the first dock near Harvard Bridge on the esplanade to dine. On the way, we could already see a small crowd gathering for Anita Kurmann's memorial at Mass Ave & Beacon, the intersection where her fatality happened. Shortly thereafter, we joined them.

Phyo's death occurred nearly four years ago. I can remember how painful the experience was but recalling the death of a friend or loved one is not something you can simply relive or re-feel. Either way, I do distinctly know the anxiety and stress of hearing news about a cycling fatality and not knowing who that cyclist is. With every news report, I can only pray and wish really hard that the cyclist is not someone close to me -- that life would not be so cruel as to take away another friend or someone I know and care about in such an unjust way. The way to make cycling safer is to get out there, educate cyclists, and ride more - but I also pray that the current imperfections in the transportation system will make no more martyrs of our cycling community.

In Memoriam (Ghost Bike)

Posted on May 20, 2015October 21, 2015 by PN2K Team

Some of you might have seen the ghost bike set up in memory of Phyo on the corner of Mass Ave & Vassar St about 3 years ago right after the collision on Dec 27, 2011. The ghost bike was originally set up by Andrea, Phyo's co-worker and, in preparation for the winter, was taken inside and stored by MIT Facilities with Norman's help.

Today, we set this bike back up again, in memory of our friend Phyo -- and all the other cyclists out there who have fallen victim to traffic/truck collisions. In fact, thanks to Directing Samurai's prompting, we realized that we wanted to get a bike up in time for the Ride of Silence Boston event this evening (Boston City Hall Plaza, meeting at 6:45 PM).

We hugely thank Chief DiFava for helping us to propel this effort forward and reclaim the bike. I was contacted shortly afterwards by Mr. Ron Nestor who then proceeded to show me his creative engineering genius (and generosity with time!)

Ron tells me the great news about having found the bike and we're ready to go set it up now!

So I ride in their little licensed golf-cart-like vehicle that can go up to 20 mph on the driveway or even up sidewalks (always wanted one of these).

We lock it up (Ron got a chain with a padlock and everything!) -- buuuut we notice the sign is a bit dilapidated. JUUUUUST a bit.

So we decided to make a new one from scratch. In this case, scratch = vanilla folder + laminating sheets + scissors + ruler + pen + pencil + your imagination (of course).

While I was cutting and measuring things to scale and stenciling, Ron made sure I had all the tools I needed! I had a sharpie, pen, pencil, ruler ("Do you need a ruler?" "I think I'm good" "Here's one -- just in case"), vanilla folder, laminating sheets, scissors... He even brought in zip ties later. I was honestly touched by how invested these people were in a project that was not theirs -- I mean, I knew that the MIT community is one, and that Phyo was part of all of us, but the entire experience felt like we were all one big tag team.