HyperCare! is a site-specific, participatory work inspired by the visual cues of caution within the built environment. HyperCare! will consist of several small-scale pennant flag banners sewn from scraps of orange fabric, signaling a hybridization of construction markers and party banners. Banners will not exceed one foot in length. I will place the fabric banners on a variety of small, overlooked moments that intrigue me on my usual walk in my neighborhood. By placing my handmade perimeter pennants on these little moments—a hole in a fence or a tree support—I am signaling a shift in attention from caution to curiosity, both requiring care. My perimeter pennants will invite others in the area to see the same overlooked moments and celebrate them. By repurposing this language of alert into one of curiosity, celebration, and care, the project invites viewers to reconsider their relationship to the spaces they move through every day.

Banners will include QR codes that lead to an online project site where a photo and short reflection about the flagged moment will be available. Each flagged moment will have its own callout on the site. Additionally the project site will have a map of the walking route with an invitation to walk it as well as a form to recommend a moment on the route that should have a banner.

Once installed, I will follow this set of rules during the duration of Uncommissioned:

1. Walk the route 3-4 times a week (this is how often I usually walk the route)

2. During walks, document each of the banner locations - through photographs and writing, identify how the flags have changed, been destroyed, or removed

3. For destroyed flags that can be fixed - mend on the spot

4. Banners that have been completely removed, replace with a new banner

5. Place new banners if and when a new moment of intrigue pops up on the walk or when a moment is recommended throughout the project site - update map and project site to reflect this addition

6. At the end of the project, collect what remains of the banners for final documentation

My banners will act as a gesture of care, reminiscent of Nina Katchadourian’s mended spiderwebs or David Wilson’s self-guided walks through San Francisco. They will quietly ask passersby to pause, notice, and reflect. The world is pleading for us to care; to care about global crises, political turmoil, the climate. Undeniably urgent, this continual demand often leads to a sense of overwhelm or numbness. HyperCare! explores a radical re-centering of care at the hyper-local scale. What happens when we redirect our attention to the overlooked, the familiar, the immediate? HyperCare! suggests that care for the small things is an act of resistance, particularly when it is grounded in slowness, presence, and locality.