Sunset Over Sunset Poster
Sunset Over Sunset is a project that explores the sociology, urbanism, and history of the City of Los Angeles. It is centered around the photographs of Ed Ruscha, who is an American artist that took an enormous series of pictures of LA’s iconic Sunset Boulevard. By taking these pictures over such a long period of time, he basically accumulated a massive archive of how the city changed over five decades.
The role of Sunset Over Sunset is really to organize Ruscha’s photographs into a digital archive that analyzes how LA’s urban fabric, culture, and sociology have changed from the mid-1900s to the present day. My role in the project was largely centered around the gathering of census data and a deep dive analysis of greenery along Sunset Boulevard.
This project was deeply tied to my educational experience, as I had just come out of the fall semester having taken several urban studies courses and was interested in how the things I learned might be applied to real-world research and work. A lot of the tools that I gathered from my fall courses I ended up using in Sunset Over Sunset to a much larger scale. Although I was not new to the type of work, I became much more adept at organizing census data, analyzing photographs, and using online programs like Social Explorer.
The most impactful part of being a part of this project was getting to learn and explore the history and culture of another city. I had the opportunity to visit Las Angeles before my research project started, which I felt greatly enhanced by experience. I was able to connect things in my research like LA’s enormous entertainment industry, iconic freeways, and culture of glamor to different places I had seen myself (especially as I drove down Sunset Boulevard). By the time the summer was coming to an end, I felt that I understood Las Angeles on a much deeper level than a tourist or visitor, and more like a historian or planner. And yet, there is still a lot I felt I could learn if I continued my work analyzing Ruscha’s photographs or viewing the demographic data.
Comments
Incredible!
I've never heard about a project like this, and utilizing pictures in this form. I think it is very interesting to see how palm trees aren't native to California yet they attract thousands of people a year! This was something I didn't know before and thinking about it, it makes sense how the increase in number of palm trees may affect the culture and demographic of the city that comes along with it. It attracted a certain population of people who once may have never thought about going to Sunset Boulevard. Thank you for sharing!
Such an original project!
I was so amused to learn about this project. I learned so much about LA and its history through your explanation of social, economic and sociological findings. It shows how much you have learned about the subject through this project! Happy to see.
Family Income before 2000
I think the connection between population density and sunset boulevard is such an interesting subject to study! I noticed that the family income map was based on data from 2000 was wondering whether you plan to look at census data for how the area around sunset boulevard changes through time before 2000?
Creative Project
I have to say, this was a really creative project about surrounding many different features about LA. The research involved a wide variety of things, such as social findings, economic details, and sociological graphics. Would have loved to also see research on the change in climate there over the past few decades, as I feel that would be a big change for the city. It was awesome to learn about this project!