Hotel Wars
October 4th- November 1st, 2015
In the past decade, dozens of independent and brand name hotels have sprung up alongside the Flux Factory building in Long Island City, and more than twenty hotels are set to break ground. The hotel boom, the result of a delayed 2008 rezoning that allowed for rapid new developments in Dutch Kills’ mixed-use industrial areas, has quickly changed our neighborhood into a shifting environment of passing visitors. How can LIC residents, small businesses, and developers constructively and collectively respond to the complex political and social realities of the hotel industry’s rapid growth in a way that takes all stakeholders’ needs seriously?
To respond to these rapid changes and their implications, Flux Factory is posting three teams of highly collaborative artists, game designers, urban theorists, and performers at hotels within a one-block radius of our building for a month-long Olympic-style competition. Each week, teams will receive a prompt that provokes questions about how hotels serve an existing neighborhood, the effects of tourism, and the communities the industry creates and/or displaces. They’ll have seven days to engage with tourists, hotel employees, neighbors, and local business owners and craft their responses using a variety of media. At the end of each week, works will be unveiled at a series of elaborate awards ceremonies, where Long Island City community stakeholders will award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. Collaborating hotels are: Home2 Suites Long Island City, Holiday Inn L.I. City – Manhattan View, and Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Queens / Queensboro Bridge.
Join the festivities and help Flux Factory crown the first Long Island City Hotel Wars Champions!
Full Schedule:
October 4th, 4 – 5 pm: Opening Ceremonies and Parade circling our block! Email carina@fluxfactory.org to participate (seeking: performers and volunteers), or head over to Flux to watch!
October 11th, 4 – 5 pm: Awards Ceremony #1 at Flux Factory: The first works are unveiled and judged live.
October 18th, 4 – 5 pm: Awards Ceremony #2 at Flux Factory: The second works are unveiled and judged live.
November 1st, 4 – 6 pm: Closing Ceremony and Winner Crowned: The final works are unveiled and judged live, and the Hotel Wars winner is crowned.
Competitors: Abby Entsminger, Abi Inman, Aliya Bonar, Adrian Owen, Gil Lopez, Ida Benedetto, John Locke, Kevin Aranibar, Michelle Levy, Nathaniel Sullivan, Oriana Leckert, Seth Larson, Toni Pizza, Will Owen, and Yoni Brook.
Host Hotels: Home2 Suites Long Island City, Holiday Inn L.I. City – Manhattan View, and Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Queens / Queensboro Bridge.
Brain Trust: Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, Jason Eppink, Laura Lupton, and Prerana Reddy.
Organized by Carina Kaufman and Jason Eppink.
Hotel Wars is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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Challenge #1 : October 12, 2015
Tell the history of your hotel site, using interviews from residents, hotel employees, guests, and more, in any media you choose.
Judges: Fabiola Robles, Mike’s Pizza, Rebekah Gibson, Growing Up Green Charter School, and Jack Eichenbaum, Queens Borough Historian
Judging criteria: quality and quantity of interviews, depth of research, aesthetic treatment, and general fluxiness.
WINNER: TEAM Home2Suites!!!
Aliya Bonar, Nathaniel Sullivan, Will Owen
“Your Voice Here” Brochures for the hotel lobby.
Press :