Island Assets
Amelyn Ng
2026 Summer Residency
ABOUT THE PROJECT
An asset is an item of value. Public architecture, for example, is an asset that is valued both in a tangible sense, through physically accessible spaces, resources, and systems in a city, as well as in a more intangible sense of contributing to the social life and community of a place. The built environment is full of things that make places amenable to public life. It is upon this belief in the value of public places (and its continual contestation) that Island Assets was created.
Island Assets is a digital-physical asset library of Governors Island. The project samples local objects, spaces, and moments and turns them into life-sized, three-dimensional sketches using augmented reality. As the collection of hand-drawn, animated objects grows over time, it stokes the imagination around the island’s lively public, cultural, and infrastructural assets and encourages playful site activation with the island itself. In architectural terms, an asset library might be a bundle of entourage or components that furnish drawings and models with the possibility of use and sociality. In digital animation and game terms, an asset library is a repository to store and organize digital building blocks used to create a scene or world. Island Assets brings the built environment to life in this double meaning of assets — of physical value and of digital elements.
The project tests a new hybrid genre in Ng’s interdisciplinary practice between architecture, media, and cartoons. Instead of privileging photorealistic renditions of the built environment, as is typical of AI renderings, digital twins, or surveying tools such as photogrammetry, these digital scribbles fall somewhere between architectural entourage and lightweight sketches. Rather than a static capture of reality, this record can be continuously added to as spaces, inhabitants, activities, and ecologies change over time. Island Assets renews our attention to the intangible value and stories built into the places around us.
Island Assets is a digital-physical asset library of Governors Island. The project samples local objects, spaces, and moments and turns them into life-sized, three-dimensional sketches using augmented reality. As the collection of hand-drawn, animated objects grows over time, it stokes the imagination around the island’s lively public, cultural, and infrastructural assets and encourages playful site activation with the island itself. In architectural terms, an asset library might be a bundle of entourage or components that furnish drawings and models with the possibility of use and sociality. In digital animation and game terms, an asset library is a repository to store and organize digital building blocks used to create a scene or world. Island Assets brings the built environment to life in this double meaning of assets — of physical value and of digital elements.
The project tests a new hybrid genre in Ng’s interdisciplinary practice between architecture, media, and cartoons. Instead of privileging photorealistic renditions of the built environment, as is typical of AI renderings, digital twins, or surveying tools such as photogrammetry, these digital scribbles fall somewhere between architectural entourage and lightweight sketches. Rather than a static capture of reality, this record can be continuously added to as spaces, inhabitants, activities, and ecologies change over time. Island Assets renews our attention to the intangible value and stories built into the places around us.
AMELYN NG ON HER PROCESS AND EXPERIENCE AS A FELLOW:
“Governors Island has presented rich subject matter for this experimental work in media and representation. Over the course of the residency, I have been documenting various everyday objects, vehicles, buildings, and events around the island: from the red tables and chairs that move around the park and field, to hydrant-connected hydration stations, protest flyers, and soccer balls from the People’s Final public world cup screening. Photographs and 3D scans are later turned into life-sized 3D models that retain a sketch-like quality and buzz with animation. As digital assets, they can be browsed online and re-projected back into the real world with open-source augmented reality.
There are often bits of island trivia attached to each asset, such as the errant cannonball found in one of the construction digs, to the strange domed oyster habitats or “castles” prototyped on the island for coastal resilience projects. I also play with lineweights: a pair of rocking chairs, for example, are made of exceptionally chunky lines that give it the thickness of wood. On the other hand, a Nolan Park house is drawn as a light, three-dimensional wireframe, inviting AR-wielding viewers to “step in” to the portable drawing and imagine different creative uses of space.
The Block House itself — the site of the IPA residency — has also been a key vantage from which to observe and experience the island as a temporary resident. As such, Island Assets includes a detailed, “scribbled” 3D model of the Block House as a kind of ultimate asset library, rendered as a container or hub that stores, remembers, and holds all the things of the island.
The residency has afforded me an exceptionally fluid process of observation, representation, and digital activation. It has also cultivated a joyful, peaceful, and unrushed space to freely make work and exchange feedback with peers. It is my estimation that this “island time” cannot be replicated anywhere else. This residency period is a time capsule of experiences, creative production, and community that I will keep thinking about in my practice for years to come.”
There are often bits of island trivia attached to each asset, such as the errant cannonball found in one of the construction digs, to the strange domed oyster habitats or “castles” prototyped on the island for coastal resilience projects. I also play with lineweights: a pair of rocking chairs, for example, are made of exceptionally chunky lines that give it the thickness of wood. On the other hand, a Nolan Park house is drawn as a light, three-dimensional wireframe, inviting AR-wielding viewers to “step in” to the portable drawing and imagine different creative uses of space.
The Block House itself — the site of the IPA residency — has also been a key vantage from which to observe and experience the island as a temporary resident. As such, Island Assets includes a detailed, “scribbled” 3D model of the Block House as a kind of ultimate asset library, rendered as a container or hub that stores, remembers, and holds all the things of the island.
The residency has afforded me an exceptionally fluid process of observation, representation, and digital activation. It has also cultivated a joyful, peaceful, and unrushed space to freely make work and exchange feedback with peers. It is my estimation that this “island time” cannot be replicated anywhere else. This residency period is a time capsule of experiences, creative production, and community that I will keep thinking about in my practice for years to come.”
COLLABORATORS/SUPPORT
Thank you to Columbia GSAPP for supporting this residency; to my dear Gabriel for helping me move; to Deborah, Rizek, and all the IPA fellows for being a wonderful band of interlocutors and encouraging this new strand of work.
People
