Power/politics and control, Surveillance, Urban context, Anarchic Spaces

Questions about space versus place: Territory, boundary, affected. Are you being watched? Are you different when you become aware of being watched? How does architecture, planning and social space shape the way we move in it. Who controls space? What about anarchic spaces?

...Move along, keep left, filter, get in lane....

Place and Space

Whilst researching place and space this week, I came across an artist called Krzysztof Wodiczko. His projected images are integrated into the architecture of the building or monument, whether a facade, an arch, a column, a flight of steps, or a statue. These buildings or monuments have often become part of the scenery for passers-by (space). Through images the artist raises questions that renew and update the building's basic function. In a way he enriches, transforms and manipulates the initial message of public architecture in order to shock, to denounce and to arouse public opinion.

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/

Will Alsop Creative Prison

Will Aslop was commissioned to come up with a design idea which would aid prisoners' rehabilitation as well as providing a better, more humane standard of living. He came up with the idea of creating a village of small blocks of self contained cells providing the prisoner with his own key, which would aid in building self respect and also reducing the prisoners' vulnerability from other prisoners. His ideas and approach of course was met with many objections. Prisons should be a place of punishment, why should it ? do two wrongs make things right ? If we take a good look at history it does not seem to have worked very well so far !

Richard Serra

Richard Serra (born 1939 in San Francisco ) is a sculptor who works with large sheet metals. He is concerned with how people move within space. His large scale metal sculptures dictate the relationship you the viewer as with the sculpture itself as well as the space in which the sculptures are placed . The sculptures force you to either move around , within or on its form manipulating your actions within a defined space. As you can see from the above example, 'Matter Of Time ' 2005 Guggenheim Museum Bilboa

mis-GUIDE

mis-GUIDE
On the subject of having to follow defined paths around places we visit I thought this would be relevant.
The idea, instead of setting out a set route from which to experience place, is to give starting points/ideas from which people can get off the routine path and see even familiar sights from a different perspective. Take a peak, break the boredom.

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

Controlled Enviroment: Phenomenon Of Theme Parks and Destinations

Westin Bonaventure is the largest Hotel in Los Angeles California , it is 367 ft (112 mtr ) tall, with 35 floors , the top floor comprises of a revolving restaurant and bar. It was designed and built by John Portman. The building came to my attention whilst reading an exerpt from a writing by Fredric Jameson. He states that this building "typifies the logic of Post-modernism and social organization."

It does this from the very outset of your interaction with it. The hotel has 3 entrances, none of which directly bring you to the reception, ensuring that the design layout is controlling your movement throughout the hotel taking you past in built retail outlets. Jameson believes that the hotel is trying to be a city, a contained controlled environment, " The Bonaventure aspires to being a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city" The positioning of the revolving restaurant ensures you have views of the whole city without you having to leave the hotel. In the book Rethinking Architecture (Cultural logic of late capitalism, pg. 242). Jameson goes on to explain and explore how other aspects of the hotel's design has been created specifically to manipulate the user and also to point out that John Portman the architect is also a businessman and multimillionaire developer !

Group Identity and Stereotypes

Pensioner – Pensioners have a very negative image. ‘Pensioner’ conjures up a group of white-haired elderly people, probably having lost many of their faculties, perhaps living in retirement homes – all sat in chairs around a room. Social events portrayed are usually things like bingo or lunch clubs. Many of the problems that pensioners face – poverty, isolation, ill-health are real and contribute to this image. If older people are active and leading interesting lives they are often treated in a very patronizing manner, particularly by the media. There are numerous older people living rewarding and constructive lives, but as a group they are generally considered apart and not on the same wavelength as the rest of the population.

Pensioner Space.
In America there are ‘retirement communities’ where the whole population is over 55. Although at first sight these look a bit like ‘the Trueman Show’, there are many benefits for people living in these communities. You have to be quite comfortably off to afford to live in such a place, but the facilities are excellent, there are sports activities and social activities of all kinds and they are set in large acreages, often in areas with a good climate such as Florida. Here pensioners do not have to face the many difficulties of the wider world that older people often fear– random crime, aggression, isolation. However it is very false to live with such a limited range of similar people in a small community.
http://www.thevillages.com/

Southerner. I was born in Brighton and consider myself a southerner and feel more at home in the south. The general image of southerners, particularly those from the south east is probably slightly stand-offish and well-off as opposed to friendly, down-to-earth northerners with ever open doors. These are both a false stereotypes, but reinforced by advertising and television programmes.
I lived in Norfolk for 25 years, a county notorious for being unwelcome to non-Norfolk people and having a ‘drawbridge’ mentality. Geography is often cited as the reason for the closedness of Norfolk society – Norfolk is not on the way to anywhere else, it is the end of the road. I had a good life there and did have some good friends who were Norfolk-born, but most of my friends were incomers whose husbands job’s had taken them to Norfolk and who were more open to outsiders. The Norfolk accent is very particular. Regional (and class) accents are another way a group of people can recognise each other and join together or exclude others.

The Strange Maps Blog

Just a quick link before I forget to post it at all.

The Strange Maps blog gathers together a unique selection of maps - some humourous, some artistic, but all interesting - which should prove useful to anyone looking to explore the concept of mapping further for their essay.

Session 2: Mapping and Territories

Following last weeks discussion on borders and identity, I started to look at fine artists that use mapping in their work. I came across Guillermo Kuitca, whose work is predominantly influenced by maps, landscapes, location and sometimes the represssive recent history of Argentina and his own childhood memories. This also brought me to the link that also included Amar Kanwar, whose work deals with the theme "borders", definitely worth a look.

Community Conservation Development of Lake Turkana Kenya

Report on the development of eco-tourism as a source of income and a way to preserve the culture of the Turkana and wildlife of lake turkana.

The Turkana nomadic pastoralists of Lake Turkana (the jade sea) Kenya

Most of Turkana are cattle herders, some engage in small-scale agriculture and fishing on Lake Turkana. Their traditional way of life is threatened due drought.In order to assist the Turkana combat drought conditions, water wells are being drilled and the water stored in concrete basins. With year round access to water, the Turkana are now becoming less nomadic and starting to settle.

My Own Private Idaho - My Own Private Idaho movie scene Photo

My Own Private Idaho - Movie Scene Photo

From what I remember this scene sees River Phoenixs' character stood at the side of yet another road wating for someone to pick him up and take him somewhere else; doesn't really seem to matter where. Talks about how he's seen the road before, always looks the same; ' like a fucked up face'. Most poignant at the end where he collapses at side of the never ending road and as the camera slowly pulls away you see cars pull up, people rifle his pockets and take his shoes- till good old Hans turns up and loads the sleeping body into the backseat of his car, again.
So theres the classic American road movie vistas but also the spaces of the underclass/subculture in the squats and hang outs of the beggers and hustlers.

Neue Nationalgalerie

The Neue Nationalgalerie was designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe in Berlin in 1964. As the name suggests it was intended to be used as a gallery for contemporary art however its design never lent itself to this purpose. Mies designed this building in response to his personal feelings on Berlin, its identity and its future. The building consists of floor to ceiling glass windows on each of the external walls, the interior has no walls (how were paintings meant to be displayed?) Mies wanted to create a public space that was free, open and see through, he his quoted as saying "it was a universal space " This was obviously his response to the Berlin wall , which 20 years after the war separated and divided a city blocking the view from one place to another stumping and inhibiting growth and freedom. Mies design although not successful in its original purpose, stands today as it did when it was built as strong opposition to the restraints imposed on people by design put in place to try and force a sense of restrained identity.

Site Research

Within any design process research / mapping of the existing site is the starting point for all designers. Several factors have to be considered before creating new ideas, these include.

. Existing features

. Geometry of building, doors , windows.

. Scale and proportion

. Rhythm, repetitions

. Texture, exploring materials

. Light and shade

. Does it function well

. What will improve it