Subject to change without notice By Chloë Bass

Subject to change without notice is a photography and color-mapping project originally produced as the seventh chapter of Chloë Bass’ project The Book of Everyday Instruction. Each chapter of The Book of Everyday Instruction focuses on a different element of one-on-one intimacy, asking a central inquiry question. Chapter Seven’s focus is the partnership between a person and their city, asking the question, “How do we recognize an ongoing coupling in spite of change?” The chapter’s title is taken from a line of text that appears on all historic and contemporary public transportation maps in New Orleans: subject to change without notice. This sentence also serves as a good description of urban life in the time of rampant gentrification: for the resident, local change often occurs without warning, request, or consideration—something that happens to, rather than with, a neighborhood.

This version of the project features a photograph of Pittsburgh taken at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers: two rivers becoming one, the Ohio. In this context, the sentence Subject to change without notice offers commentary on climate change in addition to shifts in urban life. The colors overlaid on the photo were produced using Bass’ app City Palette: a photo and design app interpreting locations through color collections. The photograph was taken by Margaret Cox in December 2020.

To collect colors for your own location, or to access colors uploaded by people near you, download City Palette (iOS and Android) via the QR code, or visit paletteapp.city