Gabrielle Hoad:

Artist who represents space and the phenomenon of bird flight paths, they draw/we draw: inside/outside

'What we observe is not nature itself, but nature
exposed to our method of questioning.'
Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy 1963

I address the gap between the world and our representations of it, often making use of methods that promise objectivity but ultimately highlight the human presence.

Kirsten Lapore: Bottle

Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

is this real..?

wow, what is this? a massive sculpture, photoshop image...? don't know yet. it seems other-worldly, futuristic, awesome...

BERGENOBLIQUSAML by NICOLAS MOULIN, 2008

Google Book Links for Media, Film & Animation 2

Google Books Link to a text on the Globalised Culture of Leisure and Entertainment, in particular regarding Architecture and Animation.

Very tasty spaces

Carl Warner, British photographer love to play with a food, bulding up the real land of milk and honey. http://www.carlwarner.com/index_small.html ,
http://www.moillusions.com/2008/06/carl-warners-food-landscapes-or.html have fun :)

Experience as a tourist

Ideas on representation. Whilst I`m personally not a lover of tacky theme parks prefer places with a sense of historical facts and interests, so I went to Scotland for one week. The beauty of the Scottish scenery was wonderful, the weather for November was great, made this part all worthwhile, but what got on my nerves was, the way that we were ushered around on set tours like animals being taken from a farm to the slaughters House. It was well organised, and you only had a certain amount of time at each destination before going to the next stop.You also had your fill of emit fodder ( tourist gifts) of Tartan and shortbread, you saw the same thing where ever you went.Surely there`s more to Scotland than this!.Finally glad to get back home for that Cornish Pasty.

Mapping and Photography

I probably made my first connection between mapping and photography around the age of five. In this case, the mapping was not for my benefit but for my distraught parents. Faced with a rising five year old who could not be kept in the house, or indeed the neighbourhood, my father, a professional photographer, showed me how to use a simple camera and instructed me to take photographs during my travels. I realise now that this was his way of mapping my illicit journeys. All went well until he developed images of me several miles from home, happily making my way through the North Tyne canal with the local narrow boat community.

I've never looked back, almost literally, and have been walking the landscape ever since; I'm sixty-three now. I loathe being indoors and, contrary to what was said this morning, do all my daydreaming, reflection and contemplation in fields, moors and woodland, where I am most at home. I relate very little to other people, but often feel an instinctive, almost supernatural, connection with place and landscape. It's interesting to me that this morning's lecture brought up the idea of 'soul'; I think that this is what I try to find in my landscape images.

Given the restrictions of lens coverage, landscape photographers must always choose which part of a 360 degree vista to photograph. I do this by internalizing a mental map of the whole view and it is to this map that I turn for my choosing. My images are thus as much part of an internal landscape as an external one.

I am hoping that my Final Major Project later this year will be a book about 'Real Back Gardens' and will concern how people value and use the external spaces around their property. The back garden, rather than the front, is of interest to me because it has no public persona ; a bit like seeing someone before they put their makeup on.

It occurs to me that interesting research for this book might include mapping the ways in which people in a small neighbourhood use this space - drying washing, parking, refuse bins, wildlife, planting etc. It's a line of thought I'll be pursuing as a result of this morning's lecture amd seminar.  Liz Rowett.

The Spaces between Buildings

In the book The Spaces between Buildings, Professor of geography Larry R. Ford analyses the role of Space. The book encompasses three photographic essays: Buildings and the Spaces around Them, Lawns, Trees, and Gardens in the City and Places for Driving, Strolling and Parking.

Ford focuses on particular aspects of Urban Spaces, highlighting the importance of the Spaces in between buildings, as well as the actual physical buildings themselves. For instance, Ford questions 'when does "space between buildings" become "open space containing buildings?"...

Well worth a look...

Ford, L. (2000) The Spaces between Buildings. London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

PCAD 500 Course Content: Session 6 (Click Here)

Sited Art/Sculpted Space: The final session in the series revisits land art; public art; commissioned art for the public realm and the oeuvre of non-galleried, situated artwork.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/may/15/art1

Antony Gormley: Event Horizon, 2007
Sited art discourse is murky territory in that it questions a particular artwork's connectedness to site, that is to say, it is often intangible and irrelevant. What are these spaces, then, if not art 'zones' or, critically, 'zoos' for art; the designated, government funded and sanctioned spaces set aside for creative output having neither connection to or empathy with their respective settings. Do we now view the legacy of land/public art as a rethinking of land/'scapes', temporary or permanent, or are they now looked on as mythological places that can neither be visited or experienced unless we embark on pilgrimages to such inaccessible and distant sites? Read Gormley's comments in the Independent and think on...

A Man Made Puddle

Spanish Architects Alicia Velazquez and Analia Garcia created this 8 metre long puddle from "flabby " reflective silicone rubber. They named it Ablando which means softening. The Albe'niz Theatre borrowed it for the Malaga film festival; it was displayed on the pavement on the outside the main entrance. Velazquez said "we wanted to decelerate people, we created a moment of confusion, so people started looking around, noticing buildings and becoming aware of where they are".

This for me is an ideal example of design in the landscape which altered the way in which people interacted with a space. A simple intervention which would have made many passersby aware and take consideration of a space in totally different way than they had previously.

site specific architecture

Cathedral Of Nature

Miwok Roundhouse

Finding an example of architecture which was site specific using the natural environment was not that easy , I could of easily shown examples of our ancestors use of the land and the way they designed and built their homes, which was all land inclusive . Such as the Miwok Indians who built their homes from pine and cedar poles which were bound together with grape vine or willow, this was then covered cedar bark taken from dead trees . This way of existence treats nature as it should not taking from it but existing within it . However I wanted to try and find an example of a design from now as I said this was not easy, there were examples of buildings that Incorporated the land such as those with grass roofs or walls but none that used just the natural enforcement . The closest I came was the 'Cathedral of Nature' This was the creation of Guilano Mauri he has designed a living building. The cathedral is the same size as a real cathedral it covers 82 x 15 metres and is 12 metres high. The structures used to shape and support the cathedral will eventually rot away, by which tine the the trees will be able to support themselves. The cathedral can be found situated near Malga Costa in Italy. The design was supported by the group Arte Sella (an organisation that exhibits only natural land art) they believe that "the works come from nature they live in it and then over time return to it "

Mauri 's designs control nature bending them to form his designs however they also work with nature allowing it to continue in its growth and movement.

Place and Space

I'm currently reading a book by Nick Kaye, site-specific art (performance, place and documentation), after last week's session I thought that some of the following quotes might be of interest. Each statement makes me consider place and space in a slightly different way:

The moving about that the city multiples and concentrates makes the city itself an immense social experience of lacking a place [ . . . ] The identity furnished by this place is all the more symbolic (named) because, in spite of the inequality of its citizens’ positions and profits, there is only a population of passers-by, a network of residences temporarily appropriated by pedestrian traffic, a shuffling among pretences of the proper, a universe of rented spaces haunted by a nowhere or by dreamed-of places.  (de Certeau 1984: 103)

Space, as frequentation of places rather than a place stems in effect from a double movement: the traveller’s movement, of course, but also a parallel movement of the landscapes which he catches only in partial glimpses, a series of ‘snapshots’ piled hurriedly into his memory and, literally, recomposed in the account he gives of them [ . . . ] Travel [ . . . ] constructs a fictional relationship between gaze and landscape.  (Auge 1995: 86)

Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed; they are like palimpsests on which the scrambled game of identity and relations is ceaselessly rewritten. But non-places are the real measure of our time.  (Auge 1995: 79)

Our encounter with objects in space forces us to reflect on our selves, which can never become ‘other,’ which can never become objects for our external examination. In the domain of real space the subject-object dilemma can never be resolved.  (Morris 1993c: 165)

American Land Art Movement Part 2

Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ is another iconic land art work. Tons of earth and basalt were moved to create a large spiral in the great Salt Lake, Utah. The materials used were local. The work has been changed over time by the formation of salt crystals and the changes in water level, as the artist intended.



Christo & Jeanne-Claude also made many interventions in the landscape which dramatically altered the appearance of the space. They are famous for wrapping buildings- notably the Reichstag, altering it’s appearance and changing perception of what it stood for. They made many works in the landscape, often dividing areas - Valley curtain in Colorado and Running Fence in California - with large sheets of nylon and other materials. The surrounded islands in Florida are very spectacular. The strong message is about boundary and territory. Their works are temporary and involve the use of much labour and materials, but do not leave any impact.


www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/bigart/gallery_2_gallery_2.html
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/its-a-wrap-the-wonderful-world-of-christo-489276.html
www.christojeanneclaude.net/errors.html

American Land Art Movement

The American Land Art movement, started in the 1960s, wanted to move art out from galleries and away from the European traditions of sculpture. Michael Heizer wrote ‘The museums and collections are stuffed….. but real space exists’. They began to work in remote unoccupied areas of America. Many of Michael Heizer’s works were about removing mass to create a work, rather than building with materials. In 1968 he made 9 Nevada Depressions. ‘Rift’ was a large zig-zag shape, measuring 158m x 4.5m x 3m, ‘Isolated mass’ was a loop shape 366m x 36m x 3m, both cut into a dried up lake. ‘Double Negative’ made in 169-70 involved excavating 240,000 tons of earth and rock to create 2 giant trenches facing each other across a valley, with overall measurements of 457 x 15 x 9m. The large scale of the work would overpower any human walking through it, yet it in turn is dwarfed by it’s surroundings. These works are about the human scale in the landscape against the background of time. Many of the works erode and decay. It is impossible to appreciate the scale of these works from photographs. The works are difficult to see in their entirety from the ground and give different appearances from different aspects.They are difficult to visit because of the location. Double Negative still exists and is visited, although locals do not know of it.



www.doublenegative.tarasen.net/double_negative.html/
www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/june/05/sculpture-entrenched-earth
Jeffery Kastner, Brian Wallis 1998 Land & Environmental Art Phaidon

Garden Visiting

Day visiting by residents is the biggest area of tourism in the UK with 870 million tourist days spent per year. This was first popular in Victorian times when the advent of the railways enabled ordinary working men and women to go out for day trips. Garden visiting is one of the most popular activities for the ‘day-out’ which is such a part of English Family life. In the crowded cities, most people have small gardens and live in close proximity to their neighbours. By visiting a garden they get the benefits of the countryside, fresh air, pleasant surroundings but without any risk. They have the security of the being in a safe environment among other people, but without any need to interact with them. They know they are entitled to be there as they are members or have paid their fee and there is the comfort and confidence of nearby facilities, - toilets, restaurants. Gardens evolve throughout the year, so visiting in different seasons gives different experiences. Many gardens now stress their environmental credentials by having wildflower and wildlife habitats. These all contribute to the visitors feeling of well-being and of taking part in a worthwhile activity. Many of the great gardens have substantial visitor numbers. For example Wisley , the home of the Royal Horticultural Society - 800,000, Kew gardens and Wakehurst Place (housing the Millenium seed bank) joint visitor numbers of 1,900,000 .
http://www.torismtrade.org.uk/
http://www.hortweek.com/

Alton Towers

Alton Towers has 2.7 million visitors a year. It started life as an attraction in 1814 when the owner developed the garden in the ‘picturesque’ style, by filling it with a collection of foreign buildings – a greek monument, roman colonnade, gothic temple, greek temple, a Chinese pagoda, fountains , grottos and many other decorative features.. These were sited in a bare valley and planted with sapling trees. John Loudon a noted horticulturist of the time said it was ‘ in excessively bad taste…the mark of a morbid imagination joined to the command of unlimited resources’
150 years on the trees have grown up around the buildings and mellowed them and the park is home to a new collection of bizarre buildings , forming the Alton Towers theme park. The attractions are mainly aimed at teenagers on day visits, although the site has been trying to appeal to families more without losing its attraction to the younger thrill-seeking audience. The fanzine website of Alton Towers claims it is considering cloud-seeding as a way of controlling the climate and giving visitors a perfect day out weatherwise. If true, this would be the ultimate in manipulating the environment in pursuit of profits.
Arthur Hellyer 1980 Gardens of genius Hamlyn page 31
http://www.towersalmanac.com/

Click Here to Listen: Niagara Stories from This American Life

'The classic story of America is the story of people who started with nothing, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and made something of themselves. The story of the town of Niagara Falls is the opposite. The town started with something huge — the Falls — and built nothing lasting from it. The modern history of Niagara Falls can be divided roughly into three phases: schemers who came in trying to exploit the Falls for tourism, and failed; schemers who came in and tried to exploit the Falls for hydroelectric power, who've all gone; and the people who are left in Niagara today. Our show is about this last group: people who live in the aftermath.'

Ira Glass: This American Life, Niagara, 1999

PCAD 500: The Phenomena of Theme Parks and Other Destinations

The relentless demand for entertainment 'experiences' and 'difference,' away from home, is discussed in this session. Are we seeking real, authentic experiences? Or something else? Perhaps something fake, merely similar to reality, or even inauthentic, because it seems we do appreciate the dissonance between the 'real' and the 'representation.' Baudrillard's theories: Simulacra and Simulation, and the hyper real have been discussed as well as ideas of globalism and localism.


The 'Real' Middle Earth

Experiential landscape

Kevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins 2007 Experiential landscape Routledge
This book explains the theories of experiential landscape. That is, describing areas, particularly urban areas in terms of the experiences had as one moves through them, and how these experiences interact, rather than in terms of physical landscape features - buildings, terrain etc. This is relevant for architects and planners, but is also relevant for artists, particularly sculptors. Although some sculptures are created to be site specific, many have no relevance to the area they are sited. Many are aimed to create an impression, to attract attention only to themselves and the surroundings are irrelevant. Some are created to be deliberately provocative in the area they are placed. Richard Serra’s ‘Tilted Arc’, created in 1981 was 3 sheets of corten steel measuring 12ft by 120ft and slightly tilted. It was placed in the middle of a public plaza, dominating and disrupting the space. Such was the public outcry, that after public hearings it was removed.

Charles Jencks:Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Throughout History great Gardens have been created to symbolize high ideals, to symbolize philosophical ideas and to depict perfect edens. Charles Jencks garden is a modern take on this theme, He is an intellectual with a history in architecture and design. His garden uses shapes and formulas from science and astronomy to create a ‘garden of the mind’. The video from the culture show by Andrew Graham Dixon gives a good idea of what it is about. It is a very ambitious idea, but I am not sure what I think about it. Is it just Disney for the intellectuals? As a gardener I think it must be a nightmare to maintain. As it is so artificial they must be continually battling with nature to keep it in a pristine condition. This is a problem of many very artificial land art works and one I find hard to justify.
www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2008/06/s5_e2_land/
www.hubreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/garden-of-sonic-recapitulation.html
www.offthefence.com/content/programme.php?EpID=125&ID=42&categories=7/