urban exercises web
TRANSCRIPT
Urban ExercisesAn Unfi nished Work
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Preface
Prologue
Urban Exercises
Exhibition Proposal
Abstracts From Collaborators Research
Appendix
Bibliography
Stephen McCullough Material 2010 | 2011
Urb
an E
xerc
ises
Ste
phen
McC
ullo
ughThis document presents work carried out during
2010 | 2011 as a student in the Material Masters Unit, Dundee University. The work developed from a desire to further explore architecture as a collaborative art form. Prominence is placed on the role of the architect as collaborator, as opposed to the sole author. Inspired by Geddes’ principle of mutual living, ‘Urban Exercises’ documents a socially engaged process of collaboration in Perth, Scotland. This document is proposed to be referenced against three separate essays titled:
Collect:Collections:CollectivePatrick Geddes, An Unfi nished Work
Broadening our Architectural Practice
The separation of the combined work is due to its non-linear nature, perhaps better described through the illustration of a sprawling map. This non-linear nature is further explored through the development of an evolving online map; a spatial presentation of the thesis topic in the digital realm.
www.stephenmccullough.co.uk/material2010
Dundee School of Architecture
www.stephenmccullough.co.uk
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{Preface}
This document presents work carried out during 2010 | 2011 as a student in the Material Masters Unit, Dundee University. The work developed from a desire to further explore architecture as a collaborative art form. Prominence is placed on the role of the architect as collaborator, as opposed to the sole author. Inspired by Geddes’ principle of mutual living, ‘Urban Exercises’ documents a socially engaged process of collaboration in Perth, Scotland. This document is proposed to be referenced against three separate essays titled: Collect:Collections:Collective PatrickGeddes,AnUnfinishedWork BroadeningourArchitecturalPractice
The separation of the combined work is due to its non-linear nature, perhaps better described through the illustration of a sprawling map. This non-linear nature is further explored through the development of an evolving online map; a spatial presentation of the thesis topic in the digital realm.
www.stephenmccullough.co.uk/material2010
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PrologueThe prologue sets the scene for research carried out through the Material Masters Unit 2010/2011. The work included in the prologue traces a history of architectural thinking and actions, informing work carried out during Year 5. Positions taken in previous work are both in close correlation and opposed to the position taken throughout the masters unit. In essence the research project challenges previously conceived notions of the architects role, through curiosities emerging from previous studies. The following section represents a reflection on work carried out during year 4, seen in the new context of the research carried out during year 5.
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GardenEverywhere
Music:Architecture
AnOccupiedLandscape
GiancarloDeCarloonCulturalRenewal
Prologue|Introduction
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“Strangers inMoabit do not pass byunnoticed. As a residential districtthere exists an incredible sense ofownership, expressed through localuseof,what Iperceived tobepublicspace.Emergingfromanundergroundtube station it is very difficult todetermine an area boundary. Firstimpressions reveal a rigid grid whichappearstooverrulethearea,definingthe street and street intersections; ina sense 4 streets activating a publicsquare at the point of crossover.However, this grid only exists at acertain level and certainly does notprovidetheanswertothesuccessofMoabit as a residential district. Thebuiltenvironmentinitsgridformation,startstoimplyadistinctfront/backorpublic/private space relationship. Itbecame apparent that this grid onlyprovides the framework for anotherform of spatial organization to exist;formingaroundthegrid.Thisnetworkexistsasapermeablelayerthroughoutthebuiltfabric;introducingnewspatialrelationships, breaking down theformalityofgridandstartingtoreinforcethe ideaof ‘gardeneverywhere’.Thisconcept expresses the street as anowned space, and is derived fromthe activities taking place around the
built form. Throughout Moabit theredoes not exist a distinct front andbackspace; it isforthisreasonthat Idonot express the rigidgrid throughSITE|MODEL. The model exists asthe simplest module of this hiddennetwork of space. Themodule couldbe repeated in a manner that wouldformarigidgrid,although,indoingsowoulddilutethespaceinwhichIplacemost value. The model expresses acertain ambiguity of spatial definition;inthatthespacearoundthebuiltformcouldbeperceivedas front,back,orneither. Thematerial used in formingthemodelexpressestheareaintermsof its architectural quality, where therough nature of the building startsto form diverse, inhabited exteriorspace.”
The work sparked an interest in how one could engage with the process of analysis in an urban setting. The projects conception involved arriving at the given site with no other agenda other than a simple brief, a challenge to respond to the salient features by means of site model (whatever that might be?). It could be argued that this was possibly the first case of really engaging with site, without realizing it, entering into a ‘derive’, without a map, drifting from space to space, open to be pulled and instructed by the surrounding built landscape. As a residential district, the streets were of domestic nature, owned by the residents. The street lantern acted as living room lamp, street furniture as living room sofa, and shifting patterns of cobbled street paving as the patchwork of floor coverings often seen in our homes. The exterior was interiorized through a conscious awareness of residents ownership.
Garden EverywhereTitle given to a project entitled ‘site model’ carried out during a study visit to Berlin
Abstract
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“The creative process does notexistswithoutsomeformofdialogue,wether thatbewithinorout-with itsown disciplinary boundaries. RenzoPianoexpressesmusicas‘themostimmaterial architecture;’2 There arenumerous parallels between theperception and process of makingmusic as well as architecture. Inmy own work, both musically andarchitecturally,Ifindmanycrossovers,primarilyexistingwithintheircreativeprocess. It is this process in whichI am extremely interested; whereour methods can open up newwaysof thinking,provideadifferentviewpoint and ultimately enable usto progress in our creative thinking.Conversationbetweentheartsformsa valuable vehicle in order to openupnewvisioninanyformofcreativepractice. It is therefore relevant toallowbothmusicalandarchitecturalthoughttoexistindialogue;inorderfor both to learn from each othersprocesses of creation. StephenScrivener in his paper titled: Theart object does not embody a formof knowledge, defines researchas ‘original creation undertaken togeneratenovelapprehension.’3Newinsight can be gained through theact of creating and interpreting;the art making process as well asthe resulting artifact are thereforevaluable contributors to the fieldof art research. The intention ofmy work is not to express explicitknowledge through the artifact,but rather open up new ways ofseeing. Haridimos Tsoukas in hispaper: Dowe really understand tacitknowledge? writes ‘Tacit knowledgecannot be “captured”, “translated”,
2 Renzo Piano Building Workshop (2002). Architecture and Music. Milan: Lybra Immagine. pg 17.
3 Scrivener, S. (2002) The art object does not embody a form of knowledge. Working Papers in Art and Design 2 Retrieved <23.10.09> from URL http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes/ research/papers/wpades/ vol2/scrivenerfull.html ISSN 1466-4917
or “converted” but only displayedand manifested, in what we do.’4 Ireferencemyownworkinthisrespectwhereit isnot intendedtobedirectlytranslated into knowledge, but ratherintendedasHaridimosTsoukaswritesdrawing ‘our attention to how wedraweachothersattentiontothings.’5My work involves the invention andperformance of ideas generatedfrom the conversation between thetwo disciplines; with anticipation togainnewinsight.Thisessaywillpayparticular attention to the processof composing music as a tangibleartifact...
Notonly is it relevant tousedesignworktoprovideafinishedoutcome,buttoutilizeitasacatalysttowardsthe work we will carry out in thefuture.Inthiswaythedesignprocessshould not be bound by the ideaof start and end, but rather thatof continual revisitation, a circularthough process enabling dialoguewithinourselves...
Renzo Piano writes ‘light andtransparency are not elements youtouch, yet they are crucial. You donot construct atmosphere just byraising walls.”6 Piano alludes to theimportanceofthatwhichisimmaterialin nature. It is this that architectshave to play with in order to createarchitectureratherthanjustbuilding.”
4 Haridimos Tsoukas (2002) Do we really understand tacit knowledge?. University of Strathclyde, UK and ALBA, Greece. Pg 1
5 Haridimos Tsoukas (2002) Do we really understand tacit knowledge?. University of Strathclyde, UK and ALBA, Greece. Pg 1
6 Renzo Piano Building Workshop (2002). Architecture and Music. Milan: Lybra Immagine. pg 19.
Music: Architecture
Abstract
The text has been taken from a design research unit carried out in Year 4, examining architecture as a collaborative art form. The work focused directly on interrelations between both the process of making and the physicality of both music and architecture. Although one could argue that the work as a study of architecture as a collaborative art form had an extremely narrow focus, it raised questions of the architects operational role. Is it only valid to approach architectural design as the sole author, or should the discipline free its self from the shackles of an ultimately imaginary ideal of sole authorship? What potential might exist in approaching work as a creative dialogue, stretching beyond notional boundaries of the discipline of architecture, should we get back onto the street?
‘Westillmixanddrift,butwedon’tdomuchonthestreet.It’sinasoftspace,thevirtualrealm,wherewetellourstoriesandlearn.Butifwecouldgetbackonthestreet,maybesomegoodthingswouldhappeninthishereandnow.’1
1 Paul Guzzardo & Lorens Holm, The Cartographer’s Dilemma, http://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/ TheCartographersDilemmadraft9toAmmanformatted.pdf (accessed 02.04.11)
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AN OCCUPIED LANDSCAPE
Edinburgh Site Analysis: Kevyn lynch
“BasedontheconceptssetoutbyKevinLynchinhisbook‘TheImageofTheCity’andvariousvisitstothesite,alltheanalysiswassimplifiedanddiagrammedin order to form a clear strategy towards thewider context of the site. Thisassistedthedevelopmentofthemasterplanastheyformedthepartidiagramsreferredtothroughouttheentiremasterplanningprocess.”
The diagrams illustrate an analytical approach to an urban design project (Slateford masterplan), analysing both the sites immediate and wider context. The diagrams are used as referencing tools throughout the process of both scheme design and masterplan development. This form of analysis, while a suitably valid approach, identifies and illustrates clearly, yet does not engage at a personal level. The process identifies the need to get back onto the streets, walking, looking and engaging to familiarize and embed yourself in place. A question is raised of how the process of analysis could go further than just identification, becoming engaged through active participation? A curiosity developed toward what the role of the architect as an engaged resident might look like.
Abstract
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‘TheproposalstitchesthefragmentsofSlatefordvillagetogetherwithamajornewlandscapespace.ThisspacewillconnectthenewcommunitytotheUnionCanalpedestrianrouteandcreateanewwalkwayalongsidetheriver.Thesculpturefactoryandartscentrewillbeincorporatedintoanewartsdestinationwithalargeexternalsquare&riverwalkway.’
Abstract
The project is ‘finished’ as the complex brief requirements came to reasonable resolution with initial design intentions. However there is something here that may not be finished, and by no stretch of the imagination be fully resolved. The Slateford masterplan seeks to stitch together a fragmented community, defining the space existing between the rail bridge and Union Canal aqueduct as a node, the very heart of the project, a place to assemble. What if one were to take a more fragmented, resident orientated approach to regeneration, rather than defining an iconic ‘arts orientated’ building as the single generator for public activity, could regeneration be approached from the level of the resident on the street? Such an attack may never reach a stage of completeness, potentially better described as an ongoing current of operation. It could be imagined that the project boundaries would be less distinct, where the extent of urban operation would constantly evolve over time. The approach could be best described as city wide creative activity. It is not argued that the creation of an iconic place changing architecture is in any way the wrong approach, or indeed a redundant one, but rather through active participation in developing a scheme of this nature, an interest to an alternative approach is developed.
In the Slateford proposal: as the user finds the newly formed ground plane, enters the community arts centre, and navigates the buildings celebrated circulation, they arrive at a gallery space. It is at this point that the user would view art and gain a new perspective on the world around them. But what if a new perspective could be gained from the alternative position of the street, without ever entering a typical ‘gallery’ space? What if our view of the city was of its curated potential? The following urban exercises were approached as an opportunity to engage with place in a manner that was found to be unachievable through conventional design practice.
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‘Weneedtoquestionarchitecture’s‘credibility’,i.e.it’scapacity tohavea ‘public’.Andthereforewemuststartbyaddressingafundamentalquestion:what is architecture’s public? The architectsthemselves? The clients who commission thebuildings? The people - all the peoplewho usearchitecture?
Giancarlo De Carloon Cultural renewal
A fitting link
Peter Blundell-Jones, Doina Petrescu and Jeremy Till. Architecture and Participation, Spon, London. [2004] p6
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The following section documents urban operations carried out in Perth Scotland. These exercises have been carried out in order to engage with the constant evolution of the city, favouring the role of the architect as collaborator, as opposed to sole author. The city was approached as an archive, explored from the perspective of the city resident, engaging from the level of the street. Assuming the role of a collector; people, places and things were collected as a result of walking. The collections aim was not to reach the status of completeness, the exercise was never considered to be exhaustive. The collection is rather preferred as incomplete.
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the city resident, engaging from the level of the street. Assuming the role of a collector; people, places and things were collected as a result of walking. The collections aim was not to reach the status of completeness, the exercise was never considered to be exhaustive. The collection is rather preferred as incomplete.
Urban Exercises
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A notional Centre Point
Nat
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l Grid
OS
Map
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Perth CityThe City of Perth was chosen as the centre of urban operation, due to its close proximity to Dundee and its compact size. The city originated from a settlement beside an inlet of the River Tay; its principle streets High and South street ran east/west. From the map it was clear to see two open extents of land named the north and South Inches. Historically the land was liable to flooding and was given to the city in 1377 by King Robert I I I. The construction of the city lade began in 1150 forming a mote around the town. The mote was later strengthened by the stone defence of the city wall which ran around the inside line of the lade. The city expanded beyond its medieval boundaries during the 1760’s with the construction of new row and Leonard street, the city gateways are further removed in 1766. This period also seen industries locating in the city, with major exports of linen, leather, bleached products and whisky. The construction of Perth Bridge began from 1760, completed in 1771 enabling wheeled traffic to access High street. Perth acted as a nodal point for the developing Scottish railways, by late the 19th century, it formed the cities single largest form of employment.
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17/11/10 Perth Museum & Art Gallery Archives
City ArchiveThe city has its storehouses, laden with a wealth of historic artefacts, and works of art; rooms full of carefully preserved fragments tracing the evolution of our physical environment. But by nature such a resource often remains beyond the public realm. The carefully organised and thematically catalogued artefacts remaining under the surface of the streets we walk. In the citation opposite, Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara issue a challenge to reveal partially hidden layers of the city, arguing that approaching the urban environment in this way would be essential for the success of further layering in the City. One of the first urban exercises to take place was to engage with what remains behind the scene, hidden away from the speed of our every day movement. Taking a tour of Perth’s Museum and Art Gallery archives revealed the magnitude of artefacts hidden away from an initial view of the city. It was immediately apparent the curatorial potential of such a resource if it were to break free from its institutional boundaries; in effect what if the storehouse was to resurface. An intriguing question was brought to light about how to approach such a task, where the public would become engaged with the archive as they carried out their every day tasks.
‘Thecontemporarycityisahybridstructureinaconstantstateofbecomingthroughmultipleinterventions,conflictingintentionsandmerechance,highlyresistanttototalisinganalysesandnarratives.Revealingthesepartlyerased,mutated,ambiguousandlatentlayersremainsessentialinordertounderstandthecity’spotentialandtohaveanymeasureofsuccessinfurtherinterventions.Thisisakeychallengeofcontemporaryurbanism,whichcallsfordevisingalternativewaysofreadingandinterveningintheurbanfabric.’1
1 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) p 2
City ArchiveCity Archive
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Perth was renowned for it’s vennels; small passageways between the gable ends of buildings. They effectively sliced through the urban fabric forming a minor street. George inn lane was formed as part of a vennel running from the site of the Pullar Dye works (current concert hall), passing the city lade and portion of the city wall, winding down to the River Tay. This route formed an alternative form of navigation through the city. The site was selected to explore the idea of unleashing the archive back onto the street. The investigation began by scraping the surface of the site, as though working like an archeologist. This work reflected the position of John Tuomey as he described the conceptual origin of some recent buildings to have ‘beenderiveddirectly fromourunderstandingof thecharacteristicsoftheirsites.Webeginbythinkinglikearcheologistsmight do,metaphorically prodding theground,searchingfortracesofwhatmadeitthewayitis.’11 John Tuomey (2008). Architecture Craft and Culture. Oysterhaven, Kinsale, Co Cork: Gandon Editions. p 41.
Unleashing the Archive
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1847
1892
1954
2011
Using the local archives in the AK Bell, catalogued information was collected in relation to the lane. Using historic maps and planning references, the lanes development was traced from 1847 up to the current day. It became apparent that the lanes character as a tight vennel diminished between 1892 and the current day as the Victoria Inn has been removed leaving a redundant space in its wake. Paralleled with the removal of buildings was the removal of public residence. Valuation rolls between 1869 and 1870 revealed a print maker taking up residence. Furthermore Leslie’s Perth Directory reveals patterns of both inhabitation and creative operation including a resident bell hanger and brass finisher. The physical pattern of change was illustrated through a series of diagrams. Currently there are two redundant buildings accessed off the lane, as highlighted in the 2011 diagram. These sites formed an interesting back land to normal city life; left to ruin, hidden away from prominent street activities. The sketch design study began to investigate the option of opening this back land back up to public activity. Operating in this way challenges preconceptions of what a public space may be. Alexandra Stara asks a question about where we find public space, arguing that its nature is based on opportunities for urban engagement, rather than a predetermined built type or label given. This was a position reflected in the work of Patrick Geddes as he celebrated the Greek ‘polis’ a combination of people place and culture.
Tracing A History
Where is public space? Is it in designated areas, like main streets, squares and publicbuildings?Isitinmarginal,leftoverspaceslikeabandonedlots,orevenattheboundariesoflegalaccessibility?Perhapspublicspaceisnotaplace,butsituationsforengagement.1
1 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) CURA . Urban fictions with the office for subversive architecture pg. 233
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkA Career of Engagement
P 4
27 28Leslie’s Perth Directory 1887. Bridgend, Craigie, Chererrybank, and scone and the Rural Distrcts in the vicinity of Perth. D Leslie. John Street 1887
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The design exercise was undertaken in order to explore the lane as a publicly engaged space. Its initial goal was to ignite a public interface bringing to new light, work hidden away in the underground archives, reactivating forgotten space in the city. The currently void space as a result of the removal of the Victoria Inn would act as a mediator between the lane and a redundant building once used by the council. Through redefining the previously occupied edge of the lane as new mediating ground plane, the project sought to bring the archive back onto the street. Simply a place to stop and sit, would become a place to begin engaging with a new evolving publicly active archive space. At this stage the project was thought of as a surgical intervention rather than a complete redevelopment. At an early design stage it was apparent that the success of such a resolved project was not really about the quality of architectural intervention but creative residence, moving in to activate such a forgotten space, bringing the archive to new light. Continuing through the design project to complete resolution would narrow the field or urban operation, restricting intentions to really engage with the city. The project acts as a stepping stone to a new way of looking at city space, identifying the city itself as the archive with its forgotten spaces hidden away from immediate public view.
A new Ground Plane?
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkA Career of Engagementconservative surgeryP 4
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkAn Unfinished Work‘city as an evolving archive’P 12
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Sketch design proposal: George Inn Lane
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Paul Noble Nobson Central 1998-99
‘Noble’sseriescritiquesthedestructionof neighbourhoods that results fromunchecked urban developmentwhile demonstrating a simultaneousattractionandrepulsiontotheentropicconditionofdisusedsites’1
1 Robin Clark. Automatic Cities, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2009) p100-101
Lewis Mumford in his text Art and Technics writes:
'Theworkofartspringingoutoftheartistsoriginalexperience,becominganewexperienceforhim,andenrichingtheconsciousnessofthewholecommunity’1
Lewis Mumford, a disciple of Patrick Geddes, belived that the product of an artists’ working practice could provide a new awareness to their surroundings. Perhaps a reflection of Geddes working to promote observation within our local environment.
Mumford goes on to write:‘Man‘rethinks,re-presents,re-patterns,re-shapeseverypartoftheworld,transforminghisphysicalenvironment,hisbiologicalfunc-tions,hissocialcapacitiesintoaculturalritualanddramafullofunexpectedmeaningsandclimaticfulfillments...heprojectsoutsidehimself’2
Mumfordspositiongivesinsightintothe potential role of the creativeoperatingintheurbanenvironment.ThinkingbacktoSarahChaplinandAlexandra Stara’s challenge to re-vealhidden layersofthecity,there
1 Lewis Mumford: Art and Technics London : Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1952. P139
2 Lewis Mumford: Art and Technics London : Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1952. P140
seems to be a fitting link with thecreative’sworkingrolewithinplace,projecting outside themselves re-vealinghiddenlayersasanewcon-sciousness.
Butwhat about the creativework-ingwithintheforgottenspaceofthecitytoday?
Paul Nobels ‘Nodson Newtown’depicts an imagined city spacedrawing our attention to disusedsites, illustrating the strangeattractionand repulsionofdisusedsites within the city. But what ifthere is a fit between the creativeandtheunusedspaceofoururbanenvironment. What is the creativepotential in offering these spacesup for a new life through creativeactivity?
The Role of the Creative
Broadening our Architectural PracticeRole of the Creative?
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Spaces of ‘redundant’ nature were identified through navigating the city by foot, wandering in a similar manner to the flâneur or derive participant. Walking to a certain degree blind and without the distractions of everyday tasks. Spaces were identified and questions raised as to how we could begin to look to the spaces reactivation, focusing public attention back to forgotten space. Perth Railway carriage sidings was found as a result of such an activity. The sidings have run into a state of redundancy and disrepair, a casualty of the change from locomotive haulage to diesel multiple units. Thoughts were projected onto this space as illustrated in the adjacent images. The first image depicts the space used in a temporary way to provide a new route to the railway station platform, passing through archive storage units. The sketch proposal proposed an interface between public activity and the hidden traces of our history. Most importantly was the projection of the publics engagement with the forgotten archive of city space.
Wandering the streets
ALEXANDRA STREET
EARL
'S D
YKES
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ST ANDREW STREET
KINNOULL CAUSEWAY
EXCHANGE LANE
CROSS STREET
LEO
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POMARIUM STREET
Lexicon entry: DériveAppendix: p 101
Collect:Collections:CollectiveTheory of Dérivep 1
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The montage opposite projects the idea of a fitting relationship between the creative and forgotten space within the city. Unused space within the city becomes unnoticed space. Using Geddes’ philosophical approach to actively work in place, should we not be finding use for space not always at the forefront of our minds?
Geddes saw the necessity of working within place becoming directly engaged with community. He relocated to the Slums of Edinburgh with his family in his early career, in pursuit of a level of community engagement that would result in effective urban renewal. Becoming a resident, personally engaged with the city of Perth was of primary importance to all the work carried out. This resulted in a certain ambiguity as to how this process of engagement would result. The project was not attacked with preconceived ideas about an outcome or finished work but rather, opened up to the potentials of working within place.
Artist in residence
Architect in residence
‘findtherightplacesforeachsortofpeople;placeswheretheywillreallyflourish.togivepeopleinfactthesamecarethatwegivewhentransplantingflowers,insteadofharshevictionsandarbitraryinstructionsto"moveon",deliveredinthemannerofofficiousamateurpolicemen.’1
1 Geddes, P., 1915, Report on the towns in the Madras Presidency, 1915, Madura; 91 Quoted in J. Tyrwhitt, ed., 1947, Patrick Geddes in India
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkA Career of EngagementP 4
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The process began as the streets of Perth were walked, allowing the urban environment to instruct movement within the city. This form of navigation was carried out without a map or navigational agenda. The process was in opposition to the increased mindless navigating by use of satellite navigation. This form of movement within the urban environment could be thought of as an example of almost complete disconnection between people and place. The process of walking was similar to the practice of dérive, a process developed by the situationists as a method of working practice.
“Amodeofexperimentalbehaviourlinkedtotheconditionsofurbansociety:Atechniqueofrapidpassagethroughvariedambiances.”1
The collection was focused around the strange attraction and repulsion of redundant space. Treating the city as an archive, the instances of redundancy were collected in a manner so as to represent the city as an archive. The act of performing such a task drew the attention of the public, mostly bewildered to why such an instance would be tagged. Most of the tags remain months after their initial placement, an illustration of the dormant, unnoticed nature of the collected instances. The exercise draws the beginning of a new attention to the redundant space. The collection was never perceived as something that could be finished, avoiding the potential for the process to become exhaustive. The collecting exists as fragments, drawn out from the process of dérive.
1 Internationale Situationniste #1 (June 1958)
Collect
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Collect:Collections:CollectiveTheory of Dérivep 1
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Having previously studied old maps of Perth the collection was plotted onto a historic map from 1943. The original map was reduced to only depict the historic street pattern and the fragments in their immediate context. This process shifted the collection to a time when most of the instances had some degree of use. The fragments could be illustrated using an old map due to the lack of change in their immediate context. The map itself provided a new view of the city, with both the familiarity of the historic street pattern, and in some cases the unfamiliarity of the redundant spaces. The work was inspired by the situationist tendency to look at the city through its fragments. The map was somewhat related to Guy Deboard’s fragmented map of Paris, “THE NAKED CITY”. Differing from Deboard’s plan as the map keeps hold of some usual mapping standards including its orientation and scale.
Mapping
Collect:Collections:CollectiveThe Naked City
p 7
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The map is projected into the future through its application as a new layer of the Perth central local development plan. The purpose of the development plane is to provide detailed guidance on where future development will be encouraged. The plan is used in order to guide day-to day planning decisions. In further layering the development; the fragment map of redundancy acts as a new form of consideration. The process applies the abnormal map of the city, constructed from the process of being lured by the city fragment, back onto what is recognized in the day to day planning of the city. The question is raised as for the need of a new form of cartography, a new way of looking.
Mapping
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Mapping
Collect:Collections:Collective“The Cartographers Dilemma”
p 21
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One of the most important activities carried out through working in place as a resident, was the associated creative dialogue. It acted as a springboard for action. This activity could be thought of as another form of collection. Dialogue provided the front line approach to engaging with city residents, listening as well as communicating your own ideas about the urban environment. Notes from a transcription record main themes from a conversation with Kirsty Duncan on the 18th January 2011.
Creative Dialogue
Meeting : Blackfriars Development Centre, PerthTime: 2pm
Lack of experience as an arts team in working with architects, with associated power and money involved in coming to an architectural solution...
How much ‘architecture’ is
required, is architecture only a fully resolved building?
Are there ties between architecture and how one interacts with space? Value of an architect working in collaboration with a drama
worker... Light house Exhibition, re-visioning Glasgow, with the interaction of a 2 dimensional
map and plasticine models.
Public allowed to engage with remoulding the city...
The idea behind the curated city might be
someone with an overview, a holistic view. How are creative operations surfaced within the city?
How could reconnect the public with the place they reside through city care? A derivative of curate... Currently roles are separated for city roads, signage and parks. Who hangs all this together? What if a forum were to be introduced in order to have a
holistic approach?
There is a gap between gallery and archive, could there exist a hybrid?
What if the gallery space was “go through space?”
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Often a term used to describe the arrangement of artworks within a gallery setting; this method is appropriated for use to further explore possibilities of urban engagement. What good would a collection be if it was hidden, always concealed? Assuming the role of curator, the architect/urbanist could begin to explore the research potentials involved with finding new ways of engaging with city residents. In this context, working with the collected instances of redundancy, one could imagine their curation to offer up a new view of this forgotten space, opening it up to new potentials. It is imagined that such a process would provide a new forum for public discourse, enabling the formation of an ‘social laboratory’. This process would begin to free the curatorial role from its traditionally ‘known’ context, a further exploration of unleashing the archive (now in the case of the city), bringing its fragments into a new light.
The curation of the city offers a new architectural attitude of care toward both the built and unbuilt urban environment.
Architecture and urbanism ‘offeranidealcontextforcuratingtorealiseitspotentialascaring-for,constructingandconsuming/consummatingofthedialecticentitythatisthecity.’1
1 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) p 2
Curate
‘Approachingthecityasacollectiontobecurated,whetherthroughrepresentationsorinsitu,opensupnewpossibilitiesforexploringandenrichingtheurbanfabricandtheurbanconditionasawhole.Thearchitecturalexhibition,thepublicgallery,theregenerationproject,aswellasthecitytour,theheritagearchiveandtheurbanartinstallation,canrevealunexpectedaspectsofthecityandwaysofinhabitingit.’1
1 AlexandraStaraCuratingArchitectureandtheCity(London: Routledge 2009)pg.2
‘how shall we respond to man and his objects affixed to the surface of the earth?’1
Sverre Fehn
1 Per Olaf Fjeld (2009). Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts. Monacelli Press. p 108.
Unleashing the ArchiveGeorge inn Lanep22
Project No. 250: An exhibition in “Schaulager” of the by-products produced during thought processes from Herzog &
de Meuron. Picture: A. Burger
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkThe Outlook Tower: A City ObservatoryP 8[‘Social laboratory’: term used by Patrick Geddes describing his Outlook tower.]
Lexicon entry: CurateAppendix: p 103
51 52
Tim Gough in his essay ‘cura’ considers the interplay between inhabitation and the spatial realm. He explores the figure of ‘cura’, the name of a divine figure meaning care or concern. Gough applies the principle of care as the beginning of curatorship, ‘Care allows the experience of curation to occur’1 If care is the by nature assumed through curatorial practice, how is the city cared for? In this respect the city could become a cared space, with care acting as the residents engagement with the city. This model of curatorial operation is explored through direct engagement with the smallest collected instance of redundancy, the Gas Lamp. Stripping the lamp down to its bare metal, prepares it for further use. This act references the thinking of Patrick Geddes, as he sought practical action and personal responsibility through his diverse career. Geddes believed that real change would be brought about through the interaction of social processes and the built environment. In order to stay in this condition, the lamp will need further care. It is, therefore, inevitable that this act is not an end in itself, rather a beginning. The value of this small act is not just the direct output; rather the greater value held through its potential to convey a message of city care.
1 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) CURA . Tim Gough. P95
‘CURA’TE | CARE
‘Whenthetaskofthedesignerbecomesnotprimarilytheconsiderationofbuiltformbutthewidertaskoftheconsiderationoftheinterplayofpeopleandspace,peoplesandplace,inthiscasetheresultingpeople-work,theresulting‘liturgy’,givesresponsibilityandthusthepossibilityofcurationtotheotherswhowillcometoinhabitandcometoview.Theperfectionofwomanis‘fulfilledbycare(cura)’;thismeansthatthereisaresponsibility–apoliticalone–toallowforcare,toallowforcuration.’1
1 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) CURA . Tim Gough. P101
Lexicon entry: CurateAppendix: p 103
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkA Career of EngagementP 4
53 54
Marcel Duchamp Boite-en-valise ‘Theboîte verte, Rotorelief and boîte-en-valise served to underline the inaccessibility of the originals, while at the same time acting as a catalyst for public response.’1
1 Bonk, Eck. Marcel Duchamp :the portable museum: the making of the Boite-en-valise. Thames and Hudson, 1989. p21
How to go about the task of curating city fragments? The process of representation was seen as an appropriate method. The process allowed the repositioning of found instances in relation to one another and their wider city environment. The method was seen to be the most applicable as it enabled individual elements of the collection to be taken out of their original context, engaging with the city in a new way. Marcel Duchamp explores the use of facsimile reproductions as an appropriate method to deal with the inaccessibility of original artworks. The problem of inaccessibility remains true with the collection of Perth’s city fragments, often remaining locked away through their lack of use. Duchamp produces scaled replicas of artworks using time consuming techniques to convey something of their original physical quality. Scaling down the horizontals and verticals of a room into a structure that holds the work in place. Packed up, the structure can be taken on tour as a travelling museum, freeing the artwork from its original source. Inspired by this work the fragments of the city were selected where appropriate to be modelled as facsimiles. Somewhat reduced from Duchamp’s goal to reproduce exactly, the models aim to respond to the contentious nature of each site, embodying this through their material construction. Building the models as travelling exhibits was of primary importance in both illustrating the transitory potential of redundancy, as well as the ability to be repositioned in the public realm.
Facsimile
Marcel Duchamp Boite-en-vaalise: Bonk, Eck. Marcel Duchamp :the portable museum: the making of the Boite-en-valise. Thames and Hudson, 1989.
Bolte-en- valise - Series AParis 1941 - New York 1942-49_ 20 copies
Dimensions: approximately 39 x 35 x 8 cm / 15 x 14x 3 in. (box) ; 41 x 38 x 10.5 cm / 16 x 15 x 4 in.
(val ise)
Lexicon entry: FacsimileAppendix: p 107
55 56
57 58
Positioning the facsimile model of the Train Holdings within a charity shop was the first instance of the models engagement with the general public. Handing over the model was not done with a certain outcome in mind but rather sought to engage with the unpredictable nature of placing an ’exhibit’ within the context of Bric-à-brac on the street. In this way the task could be thought as an appropriation of unleashing the archive. The exhibits positioning within a street marketplace, surrounded with many low value items that may also be seen as redundant, achieves the status of ‘up for grabs’. This exercise explored alternative methods of public exhibition, challenging the notion that art is only for known ‘gallery space’ under strict environmental conditions. The environmental conditions of a charity shop were seen to be the most fitting with such a model. Another aspect of the items placement was the associated dialogue through negotiating the item into place. This direct engagement with Perth’s public opened up opportunities for discussion around the thesis topic, with the challenge of communicating ideas outside a studio based environment.
The model received a lot of public interest, people noticeably stopping in the street to have a look. The strict instructions of “do not sell” had to be enforced a number of times as a few people tried to buy the item, including a local model railway enthusiast. The Salvation Army Charity shop who were willing participants in housing the case over a few days achieved record sales in the shop takings. The shop manager was keen to be involved due to the associated increase in traffic through the shop.
Fragment for Sale?
Outcome:
59 60
The facsimile models placement within the city recorded as a video documentery.
61 62
Plans to position the facsimile model in the context of an auction house for public viewing was halted; the proposal was refused. This exercise was proposed in conjunction with the models placement in a charity shop. The auction house environment was seen to offer another suitable viewing context for the model. An interesting conversation took place, fuelled by the comment:
“That sort of thing isnotforhere.”Perth Museum and Art Gallery was suggested as a more appropriate venue for the work. This response presumed that a typical ‘gallery space’ would be more appropriate. This conversation was arguably more important than the items placement as it brought to light the prevailing notion of containing what is deemed as artwork in its known context, that of gallery space.
Up for auction?
63 64
JosephyMichaelGandy,ArialviewofthebankofEnglandbyJohnSoaneshownasaRomanRuin1830
HerzoganddemeuronTateModern,London(1994-2000)
photograph-MarcusLeith/tatePhotographer,1997
Philip Ursprung in the text Herzog & De Meuron| Natural History, writes:
‘Historycanonlyberepresentedintheguiseoffragmentsorruins,butthereareinnumerablelinksthatrunbetweenpastandpresent.’1
Ursprung contrasts the work of Herzog and de Meuron to the great Exhibition held in Crystal Palace. He explained that its representation of the spectacle, resulted in time standing still. Herzog and de Meuron seek an alternative form of representation through exhibition, where the buildings themselves act as exhibits in a larger unfinished public display. Corinna Dean makes comments on their work in her essay ‘From flash art to flash mob’: ‘Bybeinginaconstantprocessofexperimentationratherthanaresolvedresoluteform,theirworkcreatesasearchfornewaestheticrepresentation’2
It could be argued that the representation in the form of fragments may be more appropriate in looking to the future. One could argue that the unfinished exhibition is a more dynamic work, allowing the works further projection.
1 Philip Ursprung (2009) Caruso St. John :Almost Everything. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona. Pg166
2 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) ‘From flash art to flash mob’ p 129-130
John Soane’s Bank of England is depicted as a ruin to solve the problem of representing a finished work. Here we see a shift in praxis to what constitutes a completed work. Ursprung argues that the spectacle, in its obsession with a finished product restricts an exhibition of reality.
Taking a similar approach to that of the depiction of the Bank of England in ruin, Herzog & de Meuron place importance on the representation the building site. Both the bank of England in ruin and the turbine hall under construction depict the spaces in a constantly evolving transitional state. These works challenge what we might perceive as a finished work. Herzog & De Meuron’s exhibition ‘Archaeology of the mind’ embraces the representation of fragments, through the display of unfinished work, in a true representation of their working practice.
Representation | the parts and the whole
Collect:Collections:CollectiveJohn Soane: Soane Museum
p 17
Collect:Collections:CollectiveArthur Watson : Poetic Conceptualist
p 19
65 66
The building was selected from the collection to be modelled as facsimile due to its contentious nature. Various plans have fallen through for the buildings regeneration and reuse, leaving much debate over the future of the Edwardian building. Current plans are for its demolition leaving a large piazza. The current proposals were put forward as ‘creating a new public space’ but such a vast space begs the question of how it would become active, after all we have to ask how such a space offers opportunities for urban engagement. The facsimile model takes on the buildings material nature as a powerfully solid structure. By casting the model in fragmented sections, the model was constructed so as to depict its deconstruction. The three dimensional shift in exploding the sections from one another is conceived as though the reversal of the diagrams used to construct flat pack furniture. The nature of the method of casting requires the model to be broken away from its form-work, projecting the built fabric into the future, either as a ruin, or its accelerated ruin through purposeful deconstruction. Suspended on wooden supports the model was laid to rest in a storage trunk, almost as through the built fabric has met its death and has been packaged away.
Perth City Hall Tracing a Historyp26
67 6867
The Model was inspired from press coverage over many years, documenting the various decisions and fallen plans for the buildings future. Collections were made from records held in the A.K. Bell Library depicting a vivid picture of the buildings contentious nature. Also uncovered were various plans for its construction along with a rare photograph of the building while under construction. The picture provided an interesting dialogue between the model, both depicting the building in a fragmented state, one at birth and the other death.
Perth City Hall
Celebration of Perth City Hall construction
69 70
71 72
ExhibitionProposal The conception of an exhibition stretches
back to the principle of survey set out by Patrick Geddes. He believed that city improvement would begun through a conscious awareness of the environment around us. Geddes developed the Outlook Tower in Edinburgh as the most physical extension of his philosophical thinking. An exhibition to take place in Perth was pursued in order to form a civic observatory, extending a conscious awareness of collected city space to city users. It was thought that if the exhibition were to take place in one of the found spaces, the physical presence of the building would act as part of the overall exhibition. The proposal came full cycle,
returning to the intention of small design proposals investigating the reactivation of forgotten space through a new use. The underlying theme of the exhibition was re-mapping city space through repositioning redundant fragments, bringing into existence a new level of consciousness within the city. The map developed as a new layer on the city development plan, is proposed to be brought into a tangible reality. From conception the exhibition was not proposed as a finishing point, but rather as a further development towards engaging with the constant evolution of the city.
‘Isthereaformofpresentationthatmakessenseoftheobjectsanddocuments,thatcaptivatesvisitors,
mobilizestheirentireattentionandalltheirreceptiveandperceptivefaculties?Isitpossibletocreateaplace
inanexhibitionspacethat,likeanactualbuildingsiteoutside,inthetownitself,wouldbearealityinitsown
rightandatthesametimewouldreflecttherealityofthebuildingitwasdocumenting?1
‘ForGeddesthefirststeptowardstheimprovementofcitieswasasurvey.Onitsmostbasiclevel,a
surveywasnothingmorethanaconsciousfamiliarisationwiththeenvironment’2
“We need to give everyone the outlook of the artist, who begins with the art of seeing- and then in time
we shall follow him into the seeing of art, even the creating of it.”3
1 Herzog & de Meuron, in Zaugg, p41
2 Dr Volker M. Welter, collecting cities :images from Patrick Geddes’ cities and town planning exhibition, Glasgow : Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, 2000 pg 10
3 Patrick Geddes, Cities in Evolution (London: William & Norgate, 1949) new and revised edition, p227
72
the found spaces, the physical presence of the building would act as part of the overall exhibition. The proposal came full cycle,
of the city.
73 74
Found SpaceThe research extends the field of operation to directly engage with found space around the city. Particular attention is placed on a disused seed potato warehouse which forms as part of the collection. The building remains hidden in a landlocked site accessed from New Row. Geddes’ principles of active survey are fully acted out as meetings take place with the building’s owners. Access and permission are granted to re-activate the space through a city exhibition. The politically sensitive space has been without use for over 30 years. Many
proposals have been rejected for its re-use, and therefore it lies in a state of dormancy. Staging an exhibition in this locations explores the territories of regeneration through participation, emphasising the value of working in place (in residence). Through collaboration with the owners, the aim is to care for and activate the space. The process of housing the exhibits will be the means of injecting a new life. The event is not seen as an end in itself, rather a thinking machine to develop thinking towards the space itself as well as the wider aspect of Perth’s curation. Initial access to the property is recorded as a short video documentary.
75 76
First Entry to Alaxander and Brown Seed Potato Warehouse, 69 South Methven Street PH1 5NX
Stills taken from video documentery
77 78
79 80
ActiveSurveyAfter accessing the warehouse, a survey was carried out of the entire space; Looking, learning and recording what the space had to offer. Active survey is carried out, and translated into the representation of the space through Detailed drawing. This process is a further enactment of geddesian principle of active survey, promoting real engagement with both communities and the surrounding landscape. The process of survey required an active dialogue with the owners about the buildings
future, the beginnings of anti authoritarian planning process takes place whereby people take responsibility in the translation of the surrounding built environment. This active process enabled projection of philosophical thinking into the reality of urban engagement. The working practice is explored in order to find out how to serve in the extension of the world around. The survey is carried out as a set of working drawings, representing the buildings transitional state.
79
“Getbeyondbooks,andevenballgames,andintoactivesurvey”
PatrickGeddes
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkA Career of Engagement ‘Active Survey”P 6
Broadening our Architectural PracticeArchitectures Public?
P 3
81 82
Conceptual ApproachThe exhibition is approached from the idea of shrinking the city. In a similar manner to Geddes’ distinction between the floors of his outlook tower; each level is given an identity. The ground floor of the warehouse acts as an extension of the street; its identity and purpose to display the collected fragments of the city. Where the upper level, being slightly removed from the street plane, has been given the identity of exhibition in evolution. This level would act as a work in progress, a
manifestation of unfinished ongoing work. It is imagined that this level could instruct further activity on the ground (back on the street). The exhibition proposal is a true manifestation of both the reality of personal work and its hopeful future projection as an evolving process.
Patrick Geddes | An Unfinished WorkThe Outlook Tower: A City Observatory
p 8
83 84
Landscape-that, in fact, is what Paris becomes for the flâneur. Or, more precisely: the city splits for him into
its dialectical poles. It opens up to him as a landscape, even as it closes around him as a room.1 [M1,4]
1 Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002, p417
The drawing developed as a map of the collected fragments,
is further used to apply an initial order to the space. The Seed
warehouse being located at the centre of the space, allowed
its physical presence to act as an equally ordered exhibit
within the exhibition. The initial order was applied at the
scale of 1:50, a familiar scale for architects working through
detailed drawings. The 1:50 drawing has been proposed to
break the boundaries of its paper origin, and applied directly
to the buildings fabric. This ordering rational is proposed to be
drawn in chalk on the vast concrete floor of the warehouse,
as though the beginning of a construction drawings layout.
This drawing will leave a trace on the built fabric, wearing
off as visitors navigate the space. From here on, a shift in
both scale and positioning takes place. Models presented
in some cases at the correct scale for the city map, and
others not. This shift could be thought of as a new enacting
of Guy Debord’s screen print ‘The Naked City’, where the
shifts in usual mapping standards take place through the
physical realisation of the exhibition. The vast space of the
warehouse was never thought to be filled to capacity with
exhibition material, but rather used to enable a creative play.
This will allow the exhibition of the models to take place in an
equally fragmented manner to their existence within the city.
The vast differences in scale between the exhibition space an
the exhibits instructs the user to walk, constructing the city as
they navigate through a constellation of city fragments. The
user revisits the tradition of flâneur.
The Plan
Collect:Collections:CollectiveThe Naked City p 7
Lexicon entry: FlâneurAppendix: p 110
85 86
Pe
rth
Exh
ibit
ion
: A
rtis
ts B
rief
Ob
ject
ive:
The
imag
e of
city
redu
ndan
cy
Pat
rick
Ged
des
desc
ribes
the
Out
look
Tow
er in
E
dinb
urgh
as
a ci
ty o
bser
vato
ry, c
once
rned
with
th
e co
nditi
ons
of th
e pr
esen
t. W
ith a
sim
ilar
obje
c-tiv
e, th
e P
erth
City
Exh
ibiti
on a
ttem
pts
to e
xam
ine
urba
n re
dund
ancy
as
it pr
esen
tly e
xist
s. R
epos
i-tio
ning
redu
ndan
t ins
tanc
es in
ord
er to
dia
logu
e w
ith th
e us
ers,
offe
rs re
dund
ancy
bac
k to
the
city
as
a v
isib
le, m
ould
able
con
ditio
n. T
he p
roce
ss o
f co
llect
ing
and
arch
ivin
g le
ads
up to
the
conc
ep-
tion
of a
city
exh
ibiti
on, w
here
the
cura
toria
l rol
e of
‘re
posi
tioni
ng’ e
nter
s in
to th
e eq
uatio
n.
You
are
invi
ted
to p
artic
ipat
e in
this
pro
cess
:
Rol
es:
Exh
ibiti
on C
urat
or: S
teph
en M
cCul
loug
hC
omm
isio
ned
Art
ists
: Ale
x R
icha
rds,
Ada
m C
urrie
Pro
pos
ed T
imel
ine:
1st -
15t
h M
arch
, Ini
tial c
olla
bora
tion
wor
k
15th
Mar
ch -
2nd
May
. Pre
para
tion
of w
ork
2nd
May
- 6
th M
ay E
xhib
ition
cur
atio
n
Pro
pose
d E
vent
: 6th
May
Exp
ress
ion
of in
tere
st
Site
: Per
th
The
site
is o
nly
defin
ed th
roug
h a
notio
nal
cent
re p
oint
: Per
th’s
Urb
an C
ore.
The
ext
ents
of
the
stud
y ar
e op
en to
rein
terp
reta
tion.
O
utpu
t wor
k cr
eate
d th
roug
hout
the
colle
ct
arch
ive
cura
te p
roce
ss, i
s no
t see
n to
hav
e fix
ed a
bode
, its
hom
e co
uld
be s
een
as
Per
th b
ut ju
st a
resi
dent
s m
ove
from
hom
e to
ho
me
with
in th
e bo
unds
of a
city
, so
may
the
artw
ork.
The
initi
al s
ite fo
r di
spla
y is
a d
isus
ed
seed
pot
ato
war
ehou
se lo
cate
d w
ithin
the
urba
n co
re. W
ork
will
be h
ouse
d w
ithin
this
lo
catio
n fo
r a
num
ber
of d
ays
as a
n ex
hibi
-tio
n ev
ent.
Your
Com
mis
sion
: ‘ge
t on
boar
d’
Wal
k th
e st
reet
s ‘b
ecom
e a
resi
dent
’R
ecor
d re
dund
ancy
as
you
enco
unte
r it.
Sta
ge th
e re
cord
ing
proc
edur
e as
an
even
t in
itse
lf (p
erfo
rman
ce a
rt?)
Pro
cess
is im
port
ant:
the
outp
ut s
houl
d no
t dr
ive
the
proc
ess,
rat
her
the
proc
ess
driv
ing
the
outc
ome.
Fo
rm a
nd s
cale
of o
utpu
t is
to b
e ju
dged
by
the
artis
t.
Obj
ectiv
e: to
wor
k bo
th in
depe
nden
tly a
nd
corr
obor
ativ
ely.
The
pro
cess
beg
ins
by g
et-
ting
invo
lved
thro
ugh
part
icip
atio
n.
Ala
xand
er a
nd B
row
n S
eed
Pot
ato
War
ehou
se69
Sou
th M
ethv
en S
tree
t PH
1 5N
XTh
is p
oliti
cally
sen
sitiv
e sp
ace
has
been
with
out
use
for
over
30
year
s. M
any
prop
osal
s ha
ve b
een
reje
cted
for
its re
-use
, and
ther
efor
e it
lies
in a
st
ate
of fl
ux. S
tagi
ng a
n ex
hibi
tion
in th
is lo
catio
ns
expl
ores
the
terr
itorie
s of
rege
nera
tion
thro
ugh
part
icip
atio
n, e
mph
asis
ing
the
valu
e of
wor
king
in
pla
ce (i
n re
side
nce)
. Wor
king
alo
ng s
ide
the
owne
rs J
ack
& M
arga
ret G
arvi
e, th
e ai
m is
to c
are
for
the
spac
e an
d ac
tivat
e it
brie
fly, h
ousi
ng th
e ou
tput
exh
ibits
as
the
mea
ns to
inje
ct n
ew li
fe.
This
eve
nt is
not
see
n as
an
end
in it
self,
as
man
y ex
hibi
tions
are
, but
rat
her
a th
inki
ng m
achi
ne th
at
may
be
used
tow
ards
furt
her
rege
nera
tion.
collect|archive|curate
Aim
: cre
ate
a se
ries
of im
ages
from
indi
vidu
al
‘eve
nts’
whi
ch w
ill ta
ke p
lace
with
in th
e ur
ban
core
of P
erth
. As
the
cam
era
sits
and
mov
es
with
in th
e ci
ty, (
the
even
t) it
beco
mes
an
occu
pant
for
a br
ief p
erio
d tim
e.
cam
era
[occ
upat
ion
| obs
erva
tion
| rec
ordi
ng] +
city
= re
pres
enta
tion
a.cu
rrie
Par
ticip
atio
n pr
opos
al -
the
expr
essi
on o
f int
eres
t:
To re
pres
ent r
edun
danc
y as
a fo
rm o
f int
erst
ice.
Thro
ugh
the
pres
enta
tion
of re
dund
ant s
pace
s th
e
aim
is to
pro
mot
e an
unc
omfo
rtab
le in
tera
ctio
n
thro
ugh
imag
e. T
his
wou
ld p
erso
nify
the
tran
sitio
nal n
atur
e of
redu
ndan
cy.
a.ric
hard
s
Objectives of the commissioner: The city exhibition was seen to offer up new creative potentials through a collaborative working partnership. The exhibition has a history through the beginning of its travelling display on the streets of Perth. But where and how does such an activity evolve? The proposal of the city exhibition as a multi authored installation will allow a new dialogue to take place between past works while projecting the work further into the future.
The work is not solely carried out by one person. It is believed that there is a new creative potential often not seen in the learning environment through collaboration, sharing in the skills and research oriented thinking of others. Opening the exhibition up to other work will allow the existence of a new creative dialogue throughout the process of curation. Two students interested in the prospect of a city exhibition took up the challenge of a working in collaboration. This process allows for the further extension of research in the process undertaken in the representation of reality. Themes of ‘consciousness’ and ‘the representation of reality’ are identified as common threads throughout all the research.
Sole Author
Aim: create a series of images from individual ‘events’ which will take place within
the urban core of Perth. As the camera sits and moves within the city, (the event)
it becomes an occupant for a brief period time.
camera [occupation | observation | recording] + city = representation
a.currie
Participation proposal - the expression of interest:To represent redundancy as a form of interstice. Through the presentation of redundant
spaces the aim is to promote an uncomfortable interaction through image. This would personify the transitional nature of redundancy.
a.richards
Expressions of interest:
Collect:Collections:CollectiveArthur Watson : Poetic Conceptualistp 19
87 88
Abstracts from collaborators research
Alexander Mark RichardsSubconscious of the perspectiveoptic
“Thisisaninvestigationintothespacethatliesbetween
theoptic(lens)andviewingplane(film).Throughaseries
ofstudiesIinterrogatetheinformationthatexistsinthis
realmwiththeaimofdiscoveringthingsapparentlylostto
twodimensions.
Myjourneystartsatthecameraobscuraandfollows
throughapinholecameratoaperspectivedrawing
technique,finallyendingupatholography.Thehologram
actingasarepresentationofreality.Thisisnotand
exhaustiveorconclusivestudy,simplyanongoing
investigation.”
Adam Currie1030 x 875 | mk I
[060005039]
“Thisresearchprojectisaboutevaluatingtheperceptionand
importanceofprocess.Acriticalreviewofvisualimagery
throughthemediumofphotographyinanattemptto
understandandengagewithitasatoolandartform.Itisa
processhoweverwhichistobeconsidered,fromtheinitial
designtothecapturingandrevealingoftheimage.Thisattempt
todelveintolookingatmanyoftheaspectsandqualitiesof
capturinganimagehaveaclearlinktoourworldinthebuilt
form,examplesofwhichare-[objects,space,experience,
consciousness,intimacy,seduction]Throughresearch,
journals,articles,tutorials,manuals,onlineforums,blogs,
pastexperiences,analyzing,sketching,models,literature,
conversations,arguments,chanceandthenthroughthemethod
of[making]conveywhathasbeenanexperiencetounderstand
theimportanceoftheprocessofimagemaking.”
89 90
Collaborative thought driven from distinct obsessions.
We have obsessions that inevitably reveal themselves at some stage
during the creative process. These obsessions are not restrained by the
end of a single project; rather, they continually evolve.
What if the collective understanding of the city were to be positioned
against the endoscopic view of a small fragment. Hejduk and Rosi’s
architectural work could be best described as decisively different.
Despite this, they have continually embarked in joint exhibition. While
Rossi addressed the collective understanding of the city, Hejduk focused
on individual poetic meanings.
unCommon ground:Just as all the other fragments, the site of ‘A Machine For Dying’ exists
as a fragment of redundant Perth. It’s inclusion in the exhibition awakens
a hidden unconsciousness of the city. Unlike the other fragments,
the Toll House has taken form from an identity, derived from the
unconsciousness of the city. Its inclusion creates a tension with other
city fragments, inviting them to realise consciousness.
The city exhibition and ‘A Machine For Dying’
A dialogue
SM: Stephen McCullough
KS: Khalid Al-Shairrawi
SM: The underlying theme within the proposal of a
city exhibition is the remapping of the city through
repositioning redundant fragments to reveal a
previously hidden layer of consciousness within the
city.
KS: Soutar is a Perth born writer that passed away
more than a century ago. Still, the city refuses to
lose her memory of him. Soutar became part of the
city unconscious… Also, in the middle of the city,
there stands a war monument with one of Soutar’s
poems scripted on. Soutar does not belong to his house
anymore. Soutar is spread across Perth.
SM,KS: The unconsciousness of city inhabitants resides
external to them, in the city itself… redundancy
provides a separation between subject and object... The
city exhibition could bring to surface an invisible
level of consciousness, allowing city users to navigate
the city through its fragments, while questioning its
perception...
SM: For a fragment to be Included in the exhibition, it
does not have to satisfy certain scientific requirements
that qualifies it for selection...
KS: it is the buildings that decided to be part of the
exhibition… the building chooses itself.
Bookends collide
91 92
Appendix
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PlanningRequired?
PublicEngagement
FutureProjections
MindMap
Lexicon
Appendix
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3YORK PLACECOUNTY PLACE
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0 5 15 25 35 M
69 South Methven StreetLocation PlanScale: 1:500 @A4
69 South Methven StreetSignage LayoutScale: 1:200@A40 5 15 M
Proposed Location of exhibition Signage
Pullar House 35 Kinnoull Street Perth PH1 5GD
Tel: 01738 475300
Fax: 01738 475310
Email: [email protected]
Planning Department
Applications cannot be validated until all necessary documentation has been submitted and the required fee has been paid.
Thank you for completing this application form:
ONLINE REFERENCE 000020568-001
The online ref number is the unique reference for your online form only. The Planning Authority will allocate an Application Numberwhen your form is validated. Please quote this reference if you need to contact the Planning Authority about this application.
Type of ApplicationWhat is this application for? Please select one of the following: *
We strongly recommend that you refer to the help text before you complete this section.
Application for Planning Permission (including changes of use and surface mineral working)
Application for Planning Permission in Principle
Further Application, (including renewal of planning permission, modification, variation or removal of a planning condition etc)
Application for Approval of Matters specified in conditions
Description of ProposalPlease describe the proposal including any change of use: * (Max 500 characters)
Reactivation of a currently redundant warehouse property. Redevelopment proposal consists of its change in use from an inactivenegative space within the city, to a Civic Laboratory and exhibition space. Initial exhibition proposal would touch the property aslightly as possible, with no permanent alterations made to the built fabric.
Is this a temporary permission? * Yes No
Please state how long permission is required for and why: * (Max 500 characters)
Temporary permission is required for an unknown period of time. If temporary permission is granted, the contentious nature of thesite would be reviewed for redevelopment opportunities on a yearly basis, up to a maximum period of 5 years.
If a change of use is to be included in the proposal has it already taken place?(Answer 'No' if there is no change of use.) * Yes No
Have the works already been started or completed? *
No Yes - Started Yes - Completed
Page 1 of 7
As the exhibition plans are underway, an interest is raised to wether or not a proposal of this nature would be applicable to be put through the planning process. The first question raised is wether or not such an activity would require planning permission. It could be argued that in activating the space (all be it of temporary nature), it’s use is changed and therefore coxanstitutes planning
consent. Another question, regardless of the first, is if such an application was submitted to the local planning department, would raise a new awareness of the need to reinterpret forgotten space within the city.
Further thought:Could an architectural thesis take the form of a planning application?
Planning Required?
95 96
inprogress1-3-11
Stephen McCullough: Final year student of Dundee School of Architecture (SM)
Andrew Siddall: Civic Architects
Creative Participation (a suitable title?)
SM- Lets begin with a quote from a transcription from a Lecture given by De Carlo in Liege 1969:
“By distancing itself from the real context of society and its most concrete environmental needs,
the elite attitude of the Modern Movement just accentuated the superfluity of architecture.”
Peter Blundell-Jones, Doina Petrescu and Jeremy Till. Architecture and Participation, Spon, London. [2004] p7
De Carlo placed an emphasis on a user (public?) engaged planning process urging architects and
urban planners to practice their disciplines alongside the user, rather than in total isolation.
It was through this community engagement that De Carlo believed would bring a new credibility
to the way we engage with our environment. Is this a position reflected in your own work as an
architect and artist working alongside communities?
After initial Dialogue with Perth City Council, an invitation was made to become involved in the Perth Pathways Public Art Project, ran by Andy Siddall (civic architects). The project aims were: to engage with the local community to raise awarness of cycling, and to develop ideas expressing relationships through public art. Involvement in the project allowed first hand experience of a collaboritive communitity steered design process. This formed as part of the ground work carried out during the year, leaving the comforts of an academic environment for first hand experience. My involvemnt was through supporting Andy in delivering some of the Phase 1 collaborative conversation sessions with community groups. This allowed a clear view of Andy’s process, whereby his role as an architect and artist, was to
connect with local communities in order to steer the briefing stage of the commision. These initial conversations were based on mapping, identifying favourite places, and hot spots within the local. An outcome from this creative dialogue was a distinct desire to gain new perspective, hot spots such as Kinnoull Hill were identified as points of new view (former home of Patrick Geddes). It is proposed that a dialogue should take place in order to document the creative process in developing work with communities, in parallel to the discussed thesis topic. It is imagined that such a dialogue would allow the work to further generate, rather than provide a glossy presentation of finished work. The dialogue begins with Giancarlo De Carlo’s theory of process planning.
Public Engagement
Broadening our Architectural PracticeArchitectures Public?
process planning P 3
First Ideas presentation: Andrew Siddall: Civic Architects Ltd
97 98
Loch Leven Community Campus Public Art Commission
Outcome: ‘a work or works to be sited within the Campus, either indoors or outdoors, temporary, semi or outdoors, temporary, semi permanent or permanent’, responding to the local area: the camppermanent or permanent’, responding to the local area: the camppermanent or permanent’, responding to the local area: the campus ,local heritage, geography and us ,local heritage, geography and us ,local heritage, geography and us ,local heritage, geography and communities.
‘non traditional media including projections, film, book or performance are welcomed’
An Approach:An Approach:“get beyond books, and even ball games, and into active survey, always growing and “get beyond books, and even ball games, and into active survey, always growing and extending, of the real world around you. And seeking out, and finding out, what your finding out, what your extending, of the real world around you. And seeking out, and finding out, what your extending, of the real world around you. And seeking out, andlife can best do to help in that, to be of service to it”
Patrick GeddesPatrick Geddes
In approaching a project that seeks to engage with the community, it is nearly impossible to avoid In approaching a project that seeks to engage with the community, it is nearly impossible to avoid Patrick Geddes. It was his belief that we live within a constantly evolving archive, and that if we only tly evolving archive, and that if we only new how to look at it, we would be able to make a huge difference to our surroundings. The focus of new how to look at it, we would be able to make a huge difference to our surroundings. The focus of this proposal is to get back onto the streets for what Geddes referred to as ‘active survey’. Local this proposal is to get back onto the streets for what Geddes referred to as ‘active survey’. Local participation in such an activity is key to the success of a public art commission of this nature.blic art commission of this nature.
The local community would become involved from the very beginning of the project, through creative The local community would become involved from the very beginning of the project, through creative dialogue, allowing the locals to gain ownership over the direction such a commission would take. dialogue, allowing the locals to gain ownership over the direction such a commission would take. Beginning with pre-conceived ideas of a finished piece of public art would restrict the projects Beginning with pre-conceived ideas of a finished piece of public art would restrict the projects potential to be truly public.
Residents would be encouraged through the creative dialogue to begin surveying their immediate Residents would be encouraged through the creative dialogue to begin surveying their immediate environment, by walking the streets, seeking out what is important to them in their local environment. environment, by walking the streets, seeking out what is important to them in their local environment. This would become part of the process whereby ideas could be developed towards the conception of This would become part of the process whereby ideas could be developed towards the conception of public art.
After initial community engagement has taken place, focus would be directed on the community be directed on the community campus as a centre for creative operation. Developing a piece of public art that would begin to point campus as a centre for creative operation. Developing a piece of public art that would begin to point to the surrounding area. It is imagined that the work in its finished installed form would provide the to the surrounding area. It is imagined that the work in its finished installed form would provide the beginnings of a local observatory, and as the passer by views the work, their focus would be directed beginnings of a local observatory, and as the passer by views the work, their focus would be directed back to the local environment. It would be important to develop the project as a spark plug for further back to the local environment. It would be important to develop the project as a spark plug for further creative operations in the area, where the finished piece does not become static, but has potential to creative operations in the area, where the finished piece does not become static, but has potential to be further developed and layered by the the local community. The form of such a work may be of be further developed and layered by the the local community. The form of such a work may be of mixed media, both digital and physical coming together to produce a more dynamic work.mixed media, both digital and physical coming together to produce a more dynamic work.
An initial budget allocation of 50% of the fee for time time associated in developing the work, while the sociated in developing the work, while the remaining 50% allocated to the physical realization of the artwork and its maintenance. The allocation remaining 50% allocated to the physical realization of the artwork and its maintenance. The allocation of funds for the artworks realization and maintenance is directly linked to the community engagement. It would be seen appropriate to review the funding allocation as various project development stages, allowing a more suitable judgment to be made about fee allocation. As I am based in Dundee, costs associated in traveling will be kept to a minimum.
My availability is extremely flexible at present as I am planning to graduate on Thursday 23 June. Work could start immediately over the summer months if applicable.
Stephen McCulloughStephen McCullough
Future Projections
A K Bell Library SketchYork PlacePERTHPH2 8EP
Through the process of urban engagement, the project has been projected out with educational boundaries. Connections made through working within place instructs potential for future work to be carried out. Orevious work with the Archives in Perth Library has opened an oppertunity for the work to be displayed there as an exhibit. By this measure the ‘travelling museum’ comes to full fruition, not as a finished work, but as a travelling museum. Having worked alongside Perth City Council, an invitatation was made to apply for a commision to work along the
community of Loch Leven. The text opposite documents an application made to be part of this work, acting as a potential extension of the work.
99 100
The process of visually mapping research material is carried out as an extension of group work undertaken in the form of an analogue blog. The analogue blog is a simple way of sharing information in physical form, providing a forum for studio based discussion and peer critique. The maps are developed into various essays, yet do not cover the breadth of the material contained within the original maps. These maps are further developed into a nonlinear digital resource (an online map), a full expression of the nonlinear nature of research carried out. It is imagined that such a research could be used as an evolving research generating tool, as well as form a digital site for sharing information. The digital resource remaining on a personal blog1 provides a way of allowing loose strands to remain, linking to other forms of digital media as possible avenues of future communication and investigation.
1 http://www.stephenmccullough.co.uk/material/
Mind Map
'Simply putting a poem into a public place, says Sue, like putting poems on the underground, does not amount to poetry as public art. "its nice, but there's no relationship with the architecture, the space or the ambience". For poetry to become public art, she says in Opening Spaces, "the work needs to grow out of and engage with the space in which it is to be situated rather than be imposed on it". Vivienne Rosch | When the walls start to speak | Art & Architecture journal 71
'research shows that art does not have to be placed within an art gallery to have a profound effect on people.' arq . vol 12 . no 3/4 . 2008 pg217
‘how shall we respond to man and his objects affixed to the surface of the earth?’, as he introduces the idea of a second museum at Hamar [1969-1973] explores historic layering through manipulation of horizon. Amidst a Hamar [1969-1973] explores historic layering through manipulation of horizon. Amidst a Hamar
Fenn uncovers the artifact, bringing it into the light, placing them above and below the viewers horizon. This becomes a tool in order to understand spacial conceptions throughout the building, where ramps rise over the almost untouched ground, forming a sequence of spaces. Per Olaf Fjeld (2009). Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts.
"Poetry and text-based art can give identity to our public spaces and humanize our urban environment. It can forge a strong connection between a new building or public space and the history and diversity of the community living in or around it. As such the appetite for exciting new work of this sort is set to grow."
| When the walls start to speak | Art & Architecture journal 71
Clegg- working from the stories held within the records...shedding new light on archival memories.
Immaterial Existence The reality of architecture is not built architecture: an architecture creates its own reality outside the state of built or unbuilt and is comparable to the autonomous reality of a painting and a sculpture. Philip Ursprung (2002) Herzog & De Meuron : Natural History. Canadian Centre for Architecture. Lars Muller Publishers p 35
Architect in residenceProactive role of architect, attitude of practice that can benefit from working from within. Engaged role of architect
Lewis Mumford
Art and technics pg. 139 'The work of art springing out of the artists original experience, becoming a new experience for him, and enriching the consciousness of the whole community
Art and technics pg. 140 'Man 'rethinks, re-presents, re-patterns, re-shapes every part of the world, transforming his physical environment, his biological functions, his social capacities into a cultural ritual and drama full of unexpected meanings and climatic fulfillments ... he projects outside himself in forms and sequences not given in nature.'
Positioning of the creative
Reaction against the current attitude taken towards current public exhibition
Collecting redundant fragments of the city, drawing redundancy into the eye of the public. Can this be used as a tool for research and inform spatial thinking + making within the City?
Layering [attitude towards the new]
When we think of the verb ‘to use’, we think of the thing we use as being reduced through the using of it. Therefore, to use = to consume, and to spend = to use up. When we conserve something, whether it is nature or a building, we refrain from ‘using’ it . . . and try to keep people away from it. Buildings, however, decline to ruins when they are not used. Of course, if we use them in the sense of consuming however, decline to ruins when they are not used. Of course, if we use them in the sense of consuming however, decline to ruins when they are not used. Of course, ifthem [reuse the materials of which they are made] then their ruin is hastened, but if they are used and maintained, then use = conservation.8 [Expanding the public realm through curated collaborative action The Echigo Tsumari abandoned house project Carol Mancke Pg 181 Curating Architecture and the City
John Toumey in his book, Architecture Craft and Culture explains that ‘if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change,’ he introduces the idea of permanence as ‘creative reinterpretation of existing forms.’ John Toumey describes the idea of change as a fundamental necessity for a buildings survival, and it is this attitude of reinterpretation that will drive my intention to further layer on the redundant forms.
Re modeling of Shinkel's Neue Wache Berlin Pg 196 Curating Architecture and the City
Archaeology [attitude towards the old]
Tuomey proposes the process by which we could begin to change a place as ‘thinking like archaeologist might do,’throughout the process of finding, I will search for traces of what made the found spaces the way they are, in order to seek pointers toward the further transformation of the site.
Archaeology of the mind sets out to explore how these things - in the sanctuary of an institution - can find their voice again... we imagined we were archaeologists from the future.' Philip Ursprung (2002) Herzog & De Meuron : Natural History. Canadian Centre for Architecture. Lars Muller Publishers p 36
'It is only by understanding and reflecting on the past that architecture can continue to be a relevant social and artistic discipline.' Adam Caruso The feeling of things p25
‘All buildings are capable of good design. Good architecture should not just be reserved for signature buildings’ arq . vol 12 . no 3/4 . 2008 pg217
Herzog & de Muron's architecture 'does not function as a stage set for an aging praxis of representation but operates rather as though the buildings themselves were exhibits in a larger unfinished exhibition - part of a "city in the making" Philip Ursprung (2009) Caruso St. John :Almost Everything. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona. Pg28 (architecture hanging on the wall- reference on pg 28)
As this last area of research suggests, architecture is about far more than just individual buildings or even important building types such as houses, schools or museums, because we must also appreciate and understand the relevance of architecture on a much larger, urban scale. In particular, some of the most important architectural research is now concerned with how architecture can contribute to the development of cities and urban forms. arq . vol 12 . no 3/4 . 2008 pg219
Approaching the city as a collection to be curated, whether through representations or in situ, opens up new possibilities for exploring and enriching the urban fabric and the urban condition as a whole. The architectural exhibition, the public gallery, the regeneration project, as well as the city tour, the heritage archive and the urban art installation, can reveal unexpected aspects of the city and ways of inhabiting it. Curating Architecture and the City p 2
Temporary nature of the exhibition | Permanence of building? 'Our concept aims at a Kunsthalle whose architecture is interpreted as a material cycle....we created a spatial inventory for such diverse sites as cal-shops, banks or gyms, on the basis on what you have named post-public space....the spacial strategy was to create coherence within the idea of temporariness and fragmentation.' European Kunsthall pp 36-37pp 36-37pp 'time-based growing institution...that is built collectively from individual segments, a network of routes from one beginning to many possible endings...the architecture becomes the exhibition, but under conditions set by the curators and artists. European Kunsthall pp 38-39pp 38-39pp
Hollistic view: Charles Landry, creatives in the city. How we acknowledge the publics connection with place
‘history can only be represented in the guise of fragments or ruins, but there are innumerable links that run between past andPhilip Ursprung (2009) Caruso St. John :Almost Everything. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona. Pg166
Fragmented nature of the Soane Museum + Arthur Watsons Working practice [singing for dead singers]
Walter Benjamin, The arcades project. To construct the city topographically -tenfold and a hundredfold - from out of its arcades and its gateways, its cemeteries and cordellos, its railroad stations and its ..., just as formerly it was defichurches and its markets. And the more secret, more deeply embedded figures of the city: murders and rebellions, the bloody knots in the notwork of the streets, lairs of love, and conflnotwork of the streets, lairs of love, and conflnotwork agrations.' Philip Ursprung (2002) Herzog & De Natural History. Canadian Centre for Architecture. Lars Muller Publishers p 269
Gaps [the space between]
Public Participation
Nature of Public Space
Where is public space? Is it in designated areas, like main streets, squares and public buildings? Is it in marginal, leftover spaces like abandoned lots, or even at the boundaries of legal accessibility? Perhaps public space is not a place, but situations for engagement. Urban fictions with the office for subversive architecture Alexandra Stara Curating Architecture and the City pg. 233
Approach taken in Belfast, arq . vol13 . no2 . 2009 ' securing public spaces for universal use, opening up information technologies for wider access, providing different types of building responses to different needs, and decommissioning and recycling ideological symbols and spaces'
Perth Pathways Public Art project (walking and cycling networks in Perth)
His urgent appeal to planners and architects was ‘that the should physically survey in every possible aspect (geographical, historical, cultural, economic, social) all areas that they were asked to develop or restore. Only then would they be equipped to find humane, practical and comely solutions.’
The optimism that this engendered amongst Geddes and his friends thus had some grounds. They worked along in the wake of the activities of the cityʼs improvement schemes, as narrow closes were opened up and dilapidated property removed.
History
Ballater, West Aberdeenshire 02/10/1854
Family moving to a small cottage on the slopes of Kinnoull Hill, overlooking the small city of Perth, this was the centre of his childhood 'its atmosphere of family love, practical learning, and spiritual faith, leavened with an appreciation of both created and natural beauty, held until the death of his parents some forty years later.'
‘Geddes’s intimate family life and public work are inseparable, and they interweave in this study.’
Career [general]
His first major step towards practical civic renewal was taken in 1886 when, as a university lecturer of thirty-two, he rook his new wife, Anna, to live in the tenement slums of old Edinburgh in order to teach the impoverished community how to renew their environment.’Parallel to working within place, in residence‘He persuaded neighbours to put colour washes on the walls of the old dank closes, to brighten the tenement facades with window boxes... he pointed out colour washes on the walls of the old dank closes, to brighten the tenement facades with window boxes... he pointed out colourto the authorities the follies of demolition when it left the native citizens of a town with nowhere to live.’
GEDDESʼ ENTHUSIASM WAS TO ENSURE THAT FROM THE earliest moment of his return to Edinburgh at the end of 1879 he was to pursue his interests in the social sciences on a voluntary basis. His problem was that his biological viewpoint, his use of his ʻthinking machinesʼ, and his belief that sociology was a discipline which must grow through an interaction of thought and action, made him an outsider in the debate about sociological studies. He was to spend the decade of the 1880s developing his ideas and testing them in a specific context, the city of Edinburgh.This sense of vision, and the search for the evolutionary potential of present activities for the future was what he wanted to explore and reveal to others. But first he had to establish his theoretical base for a study of social change, and for this he drew on his experiences of the debates in the social sciences as much as his biological viewpoint. He cast himself in the role of a student of social evolution and his activities in these years, both theory and practice, were experiments in pursuing this goal.What Geddes achieved in the decade 1886–96 was quite remarkable. He worked alongside the Edinburgh Social Union which continued to acquire properties and manage them along Octavia Hill lines. Geddes found ways, however, of financing his own activities independently.His socio-biological perspective directed him to concentrate on improving both the organism and the environment by controlling the interaction of one with the other. What he wanted to do was to train young people to understand their environment so that they could interpret the direction of evolutionary trends and reinforce the most promising ones. To do this, of course, was no easy matter. It required an ability to look at a specific practical context from every conceivable viewpoint. To meet this demand it was essential that students were trained as scientific observers to gather the visual information about every aspect of a particular place.
Ethos [general]
‘he demonstrated his conviction that education, participatory citizenship, and appreciation of the natural world, would save industrial society.’
Symbol- 3 doves, Geddes calling them the 3 S’s, SYMPATHY, SYNTHESIS AND SYNERGY‘Sympathy for the people and environment affected by any social remedy; synthesis of all the factors relevant to the case; and synergy- the combined, co-operative action of everyone involved- in order to achieve the best result
‘he strove to inspire others with his vision of a combined knowledge, where the arts and sciences harmonised for the benefit of society’
Botany was ‘perhaps his fundimental love
‘Experience always came first’
Practical activity for the benefit of the community as a whole seemed the only moral response to the distressing spectacle of great poverty to be found in British cities one century after the beginning of industrialisation and the massive increase in the growth of wealth.1 Right from the earliest days in the 1880s, however, in all his practical activities Geddes was always looking beyond immediate objectives, towards medium- and long-term goals.Geddes had an anarchic vision of the individual development of people and place. The community, taking responsibility for its own future, he believed, would want its own culture-institute, its Outlook Tower, its powerhouse, to co-ordinate all the activities in developing the interrelations of Place, Work, Folk.The starting point for interdisciplinary studies and the training of the eye was Geddesʼ own ʻthinking machinesʼ. He had developed them constantly over the past decade and was ready to use them to present information in graphic form. He hoped that by this method, he would be able not only to transmit information but also to highlight the connections between disciplines, between ideas, between movements, all at the same time.
A most unsettling person [character]
Co-operation
‘Patrick Geddes believed passionately that, given reasonable social conditions, man is a co-operative animal. He aimed to find out how to achieve those “reasonable social conditions” and to teach people how their environment might be “treated properly” He was the most comprehensive, if least acknowledged, father of civic renewal and bio-social ecology as we are begining to understand them today ’
Geddes was able to demonstrate the necessity of engendering in people as sense of civic understanding in order to equip them to contribute usefully to the improvement of their own surroundings, an thus he created the new discipline which he called “geotechnics”: the applied science of making the earth more habitable.
Politics
Conventional politics had virtually no relevance to Geddes ‘opposing parties was quite contrary to his belief in co-operation, and could not, in his view, lead to anything abidingly useful for the community.’
Geddes took the fateful step of ignoring the political debate. He concentrated his energies instead on becoming an informed sociologist undertaking practical action. In his evolutionary perspective, present political tensions were of little importance, although current events of all kinds were vital subjects of study. This paradox was at the heart of much of the confusion Geddes created in the minds of those who tried to follow him.34 While social questions were still a matter of political debate, Geddes was seeking practical solutions that could be implemented immediately. This was the message he tried to put across in another influential pamphlet, ʻOn the Conditions of Progress of the Capitalist and the Labourerʼ published in 1886. In his apolitical approach he believed that ʻrealʼ change was brought about by the fruitful interaction of social processes and spatial form.State intervention of whatever kind could only be clumsy and harmful because it upset delicate balances about which little was known. Significant details were different in each particular context. Every city in its region, he believed, should be an autonomous unit responsible for its own development, though sharing economic and cultural links with others. While developing his views in his series of pamphlets and lectures, he set out in the 1880s to give Edinburghʼs individual response to modern social change a unique and Positivist flavour.
"Visuel"‘Geddes once described himself as “a visuel (learning be eye-gate rather than the ear)”
Not enough was known about how social networks in cities operated, how people understood their environment, what kind of improvements would transform their lives. Geddes and Barnett were united in the view that the prime necessity was to investigate how people lived and to experiment on ways of improving the cultural environment as a precursor of a better future.10
The museum could be described in short as ʻa catalogue raisonée of the world, from the point of view of the American exporterʼ. It was divided into three sections, the museum, the laboratory, and the bureau of information. There was, however, constant cross referencing of material between these sections. In admiration of this achievement, Branford quoted Sir W.H.Fowlerʼs dictum that ʻwhat a museum really depends on for its success and usefulness is not its buildings, not its cases, not even its specimens, but its curatorʼ.48 V.V.Branford (1902) The Philadelphia Commercial Museumʼ Scottish Geographical Magazine XVIII:243–7.Scottish Geographical Magazine XVIII:243–7.Scottish Geographical Magazine
Outlook Tower
Latin motto: vivendo discimus - by living we learn; or fieldwork and civic action are better than indoor study and book-writing
ʻVivendo discimusʼ was Geddesʼ motto which he had carved over the door of his museum, the Outlook Tower. The visitors to the Summer Meetings felt themselves to be an elite in Britain, studying subjects not yet incorporated in British universities, in ways which were patently unconventional. Yet the attendance at the Summer Meetings was never very large. It peaked in 1893 when about 120 people attended the School, but most years it was considerably less. Geddes had been the pioneer of Summer Schools in Britain, but only by a very short margin.
the display ‘he instigated at the outlook tower during 1890’s included a survey of edinburgh made with this thoroughness, and it foreshadowed the city exhibitions which he organised in Britain, Europe and India between 1910 and 1920.’
Patrick Abercrombie claimed that Geddes’s involvement in the Royal Academy exhibition ‘was a major factor in some peoples realisation that a new approach, which must include more than just a grandiose aesthetic solution, was needed to town planning.’
Geddes corrospondance with Marr: [engaged as Geddes’s winter assistant at Dundee. Twelve months later he was invited to continue the running of the tower]‘Some of you may think it finished. That has been the way with most colleges...In this connection pray look up my own notes marked “collaborations, Elaboration, Independence” and let us try to organise a real students’ workshop in which a man could steadily progress (as you yourself have been doing) from one to the other
‘the Outlook Tower represented on huge, personal experiment and he was forever seeing ways of modifying, expanding or changing its many faceted components. Life a sculptor, he could mould, elide, enlarge and attenuate, but he could not bring himself to the stage of completion.’
The Halls of Residence and the Outlook Tower were not ends in themselves. They were the means of educating the young about social and cultural change and making them more self-aware. Geddes was always seeking new ways of furthering these ends to promote what he called ʻhigher and higher individuationʼ59 and thus social evolution.
From Outlook Tower to Index Museum: the prospect of international concernsGradually over the next five years or so, Geddes began to dream of what he was to call an Index Museum.53 Giving full rein to his imagination, he began to piece together his ideas by drawing on the appropriate cultural traditions of Edinburgh, and by giving himself further practical experience by extending the activities of the Outlook Tower to achieve an adequate prototype of his vision.
Geddes was not prepared to stay in Edinburgh. Ideas of further developing both his civic museum movement and his own abilities constantly drew him away from Edinburgh.
Pioneering work
Cosmo Burton: “the solid or three-dimensional” expression of Geddes’s thought, the one which contained his real pioneer work, the Outlook Tower is the most significant.’
Regional education and the Edinburgh Summer MeetingsThe question was, how? Geddesʼ answer was to study its geography and its history and this was the initial function of the work undertaken at the Outlook Tower. What he was pioneering was the study of place and people which hitherto had been largely ignored in the formal educational system.
Tower Operation
‘Beside being a sociological museum, carefully planned so as to have a cumulative effect on the visitor, it also provided a centre for its active members where new creative and educational practices, particularly in the fields of geography, nature study and art, could be catalogued and performed.’
‘Geddes prefered visitors to start their journey through the tower from the top. This could be reached by a winding staircase, which bypassed all the rooms, and he liked to lead people up it a breakneck speed. When they emerged onto the narrow balcony around the turret they would be gasping for breath, and he claimed that they would experienced the sudden panoramic views more intensely when the blood was circulating rapidly through their bodies. Soon they would be led into the darkened turret room, where the images from the camera obscura were projected onto a white table.’ The effect of the device was to concentrate the images of the surrounding environs, both near and far, in a manner which Geddes likened to modern painting - both the perspective and colour being compressed into a form easily assimilable to the eye. to go immediately after this experience onto the flat roof below the turret, with the wide Edinburgh landscape streaching all around and the sharp light making it difficult immediately to focus the gaze at all, was for Geddes a symbol of the change from the artist’s view - the aesthetic and emotional view - to the limitless panorama, impossible to absorb in one go, of the geographical or scientific view’
‘ This flat turret roof...was called the Prospect...the camera obscura view had been the child’s view - naturally integrating everything into a harmonious whole, the Prospect view was that of the questioning adolescent or adult, anxious to know what elements made up the pieces that fitted together into such a complex city.’
Room descriptions, see Paddy Kitchen, An introduction to the ideas and life of Patrick Geddes pg132
Walking Blind
But his objective had never been just the renovation of the old parts of the city and the housing of students. In 1892 Geddes acquired the old Observatory at the end of the Castle Esplanade, with its camera obscura on the roof as an attraction for visitors. He was not sure what to do with it at first, but once again turned to his experience of Ruskin’s initiatives for guidance. When a student at London in the 1870s, Geddes had visited Sheffield to view Ruskin’s Museum for working men which Ruskin had encouraged as a means of preserving the cultural traditions and standards of local craftsmanship.58 It had 58 It had 58
been part of a scheme to set up a small-scale self-supporting community settlement.
The fact remained that, with his Outlook Tower, and in his work in the Old City, only Geddes and one or two of his closest friends and disciples appeared to understand fully what he was trying to do. He himself never lost sight of the fact that his activities were part of a scientific experiment in social evolution.
Prototype Museum
Role: New Museum, the nature of?
The Outlook Tower as a regional study centre was to give form to educational activities of a totally new kind, outside the confines of conventional academic study.
Geddes was convinced that conventional methods of study produced apathy amongst students. Their creative faculties were blunted by the arid academic diet they were offered, and the last shreds of interest in any subject were killed by the threat of examinations. He wanted to concentrate on stimulating interest, inspiring enthusiasm, and thus releasing the potential creativity of every student. This interest could be sustained only if the student was actively involved in his or her studies beyond book study. This meant that there had to be practical activities such as laboratory work and field studies; that the student should not be allowed to specialise too narrowly in any one field without being aware of what was going on in other disciplines; and that all students should be trained to learn independently through observation.
the development of activities at the Outlook Tower became even more crucial to him as a means of escape. He had always held that progress in understanding came through a combination of thought and action. Since theory was getting more and more difficult, the way forward had to be the further development of his museum. So far he had established a ʻsocial laboratoryʼ and educational activities. He had tried to deepen the experience of people of their local region.
Geddes began to see that, as the creator and curator of a new style of museum, he might find a more congenial future career for himself than as a part-time Professor of Botany.
By 1895 Geddes had begun to feel that this was the role he wanted to play. The time seemed right for an experiment in museum-making dedicated to social evolution, bringing together art and science (in this case especially the work of Ruskin and Le Play), and instigating what might become a new museum movement, or at least a centre of sociological studies in the UK.
At the centre of the debate about setting up such an enterprise was the question of classification. Geddes was vitally interested in this issue as he saw how it might affect his own work in the Outlook Tower. At the back of his mind was a vision of a museum system which would complement the libraries ... If he could invent a museum which could be an active study centre and not just a repository of artefacts, this would be the perfect complement to the role of the first-class library.
From the earliest days of the Outlook Tower and before, Geddes had been using artistic symbolism as a way of conveying to others the implications of his work. The demand he created for the artistic realisation of his symbols had created a minor outburst of artistic endeavour in the city... Geddesambition was that the artists would provide the ideals for regeneration, mostly through the allegorical meaning of their work.
Collaborative Nature
Walking Blind [unpredictable nature]
Geddesian Principles of investigation
Collective participation introduces a plurality of objectives and actions whose outcomes cannot be foreseen.
No Standard Operation
ExperimentationGeddesian Principles of investigation
“get beyond books, and even ball games, and into active survey, always growing and extending, of the real world around you. And seeking out, and finding out, what your life can best do to help in that, to be of service to it” Geddes
art world was more open to to spatial experimentation and research
The User
'Driving all the contributors is a belief that participation can make a difference to the way that we all, users and experts alike, engage with our built environment.'
To discover the real needs of the users therefore means exposing and acknowledging their rights to have things and their rights to express themselves; it means provoking a direct participation and measuring oneself with all the subversive consequences that this implies; it means questioning all the traditional value systems which, since they were built on non-participation, must be revised or replaced when participation becomes part of the process, unleashing energies that have not yet been explored.
'Architecture also, however, has another role to play, this time in a more dispersed yet equally pervasive manner. This is architecture as it engages with the wider context of other creative arts, design practices and cultural activities'
architecture and all of the creative arts and industries are able to learn from each other
- 'Some of their buildings have involved close collaboration with artists and some have names that could equally well be given to works of art.
collaboration offers them the opportunity to establish a challenging relationship with a wider audience.
echnics:
'my underlying purpose was to use the development of art and technics as a means of throwing some light upon the major problems of our all too "interesting" age; particularly the problem of cultural and personal integration... We have lost the essential capacity of self-governing persons...'
'Our technics has become compulsive and tyrannical ... our art has become either increasingly empty of content or downright irrational
'the work of art springs out of the artist's original experience, becomes a new experience, both for him and the participator, and then further by its independent existence enriches the consciousness of the whole community. In the arts, man builds a shell that outlasts the creature that originally inhabited it, encouraging other men to similar responses and similar acts of creativity; so that, in time every part of the world bears some imprint of the human personality
Western mans mastery of mechanical inventions: 'those who understood their fate would give up lyric poetry in favor of business enterprise... This suicide of the inner man ...
'Spengler's notion, that days of art were over and that the time for technics, divorced from all other human values ha come, struck a note that found many echoes in contemporary life and thought."
The fact that his division between culture and civilization, between the organic and the mechanical, between (in our immediate terms of reference) art and technics, transfers to the beginning and the end of cultural cycle process that are in fact constantly in operation at every stage.' {Spengler's general interpretation of human cultural development}
'dynamic equilibrium in which state alone the higher functions- those that
Architectural Framework
were established by local authorities to enable a percentage of funds for public projects to be set aside to incorporate art Into a building through stand-alone sculptures, murals, paintings or more functional items such as seating, walkways and plaza designs...such collaboration all too often reduced art to a banal supplementary add-on
Procedures of Architectural practice
But identifying with the users’ needs does not mean planning ‘for’ them, but planning ‘with’ them.
If we plan ‘with’ people, consensus remains permanently open...stimulating a multiple and continuous participation.
'for when ‘neutrally’ dealing with the problems of ‘how’, the problems of ‘why’ are forgotten.'
Working on ‘how’ without rigorous control of ‘why’ inevitably excludes reality from the planning process.
We must change the whole range of objects and subjects which participate in the architectural process at present. There is no other way to recover architecture’s historical legitimacy, or indeed, restore its credibility.
For artists, it is important that they are able to contribute to discussions concerning the shaping of our environment without having to reach any pre-determined end point'
Small Scale public action
...largescale planning of cities and regions tends to fail even when drawn up according to the most conscientious analyses and accurate forecasts...
Its not linear
This process begins with the discovery of the users’ needs, passing through the formulation of formal and hypotheses before entering the phase of use.... The three phases – discovery of needs, formulation of hypotheses, and actual use – not only follow sequentially but also have a cyclical relationship....
The sequence is suspended when a point of equilibrium is reached which permits the putting into effect – the in physical space – of the last hypothesis considered satisfactory. Afterwards it starts up again, along a further line of experience, in the phase of use.
A vast set of variables which institutional culture and practice had suppressed come back into play, and the field of reality in which architecture intervenes becomes macroscopic and complex...new objectives can be set and new practical instruments be developed to produce a balanced and stimulating physical environment.
Role
Architecture = Art + Technology
A real metamorphosis is necessary to develop new characteristics in the practice of architecture and new behaviour patterns in its authors...behaviour patterns in its authors...behaviour
it produces concrete images of what the physical environment could be like if the structure of society were different. ..
Sole Author
Collaboration
Architecture is too important to be left to architects
Threat of the user
Nicolaus Schafhausen: 'I think architecture is a form of art; one that is deeply and problematically involved in pragmatism...the threat posed by other realities is what makes architecture so specific. ..I see it as a potential.
Anti-Authoritarian {PROCESS} Planing
... culture, art, architecture ... are bearers of new values which already exist potentially, manifested sporadically in the margins not already controlled by institutional power. ...
Thus the function of planning is ... to open up a dialectical process in which reality expands continuously... In other words, unlike authoritarian planning, which imposes fiformulates a sequence of hypotheses aiming at (and launched by) participation.
Authoritarian planning cannot question the basic choices of the event it produces because it takes them as read, as already predecided by higher authority.
And, in any case, what interests us here is the defienvironment that are based on direct action and therefore independent, by defiautomatisms of the productive system and the power structure.
Process planning instead introduces the user as the fundamental legitimacy of the constraints which are imposed, including those on resources and standards.
In process planning, the plan does not end with the construction of the architectural object. Instead, from that moment a new line of development begins which is consistent with the preceding one but by different qualities ... For this relationship to be dialectical, it is necessary for each side to possess aptitudes for change through a continuous alternation of reciprocal identifi
The Death of the author- Questioning through what authority does the architect work or practice? ‘Use’ as a creative activity
Our resistance to change
But in the framework of authoritarian planning, these devices are immediately blocked at the point at which they contradict a structural and formal order which is by definition pre-established and unalterable.
Growth and flexibility in an architectural organism are not really possible except under a new conception of architectural quality. This new conception cannot be formulated except through a more attentive exploration of those phenomena of creative participation currently dismissed as ‘disorder’
User as a leading character
ʻFor wider society, what matters much more than the presence of an architect is the quality of the actual buildings that are produced, and how these buildings impact uponall of us.ʼ
There is hardly a magazine or newspaper column that illustrates architecture taking the user into account...
An architectural work has no sense if dissociated from use, and the way in which it is used,... As an empty vessel, it cannot represent itself or establish purposeful relations with nature and history; because its purpose lies in its ‘fullness’ – in the whole set of relationships established with those for whom it was designed.
‘Just as the reader can make a new book through reading, the viewer can make a new architectural project through viewing, and the user can make a new building through using.’
'modern architecture chose the same public as academic or business architecture; that is, when it took an elite position on the side of the client rather than on the side of the user.'
The role of the user- User as threat to the Architect as sole authorThe creativity of use should be central to architectural design.Montage of fragments: ‘montage involves the appropriation and dialectical juxtaposition of often unrelated fragments’
...it is precisely the point of view that counts... When the community becomes conscious of its state, it moves to direct action and takes up arms for change.
Facsimile?
Where is public space? Is it in designated areas, like main streets, squares and public buildings? Is it in marginal, leftover spaces like abandoned lots, or even at the boundaries of legal accessibility? Perhaps public space is not a place, but situations for engagement.
Approach taken in Belfast, ' securing public spaces for universal use, opening up information technologies for wider access, providing different types of building responses to different needs, and decommissioning and recycling ideological symbols and spaces'
Perth Pathways Public Art project (walking and cycling networks in Perth)
"Poetry and text-based art can give identity to our public spaces and humanize our urban environment. It can forge a strong connection between a new building or public space and the history and diversity of the community living in or around it. As such the appetite for exciting new work of this sort is set to grow."
Lewis Mumford
'The work of art springing out of the artists original experience, becoming a new experience for him, and enriching the consciousness of the whole community
'Man 'rethinks, re-presents, re-patterns, re-shapes every part of the world, transforming his physical environment, his biological functions, his social capacities into a cultural ritual and drama full of unexpected meanings and climatic fulfillments ... he projects outside himself in forms and sequences not given in nature.'
I believe that the relations between art and technics give us a significant clue to every other type of activity, and may even provide an understanding of the way to integration. The great problem of our time is to restore modern man's balance and wholeness.
Art / Architecture
Artists and architects speak different languages and think In different ways but there are many parallels to be drawn between their practices
Bernini and Michaelangelo referred to themselves as architects as well as sculptors and painters.
new form of architecture which allowed architects, painters, sculptors and town planners to work closely together with the aim of creating buildings which went beyond the strictly functional, thereby allowing new possibilities of expression in the built environment.
The seepage of architecture into the art world is becoming ever more visible: architecture installations, pavilions and exhibitions increasingly form part of contemporary art gallery programming
Joep van Lieshout states that "... architects like to build a building that is slick, fixed and suitable" while " the artist is searching for a more brute, independent and confronting approach."
A public Relationship
The streets of corporate America, in particular, became awash with 'plaza art' by artists such as Alexander Calder and Joan Mira.' The much reviled postmodern period of the 1980 opened up possibilities for/architecture to loosen its shackles to Modernism and create a more dynamic relationship with the public ; t his was the beginning of what was to become an interesting and creative dialogue between artists and architects.
the development of collaborative practice has coincided with a noticeable increase in artists' ability to obtain and retain power in the public realm.
Urban Sanctuary: 'public sculpture in the form of a book... exploration into the notion of "sanctuary"' 'members of the public were presented with an opportunity to consider their relationship to their immediate environment and the form that their own private sanctuary might take.'
'he considers issues relating to users, audience, location and context and relishes the opportunity of assessing structures of production asking
101 102
LexiconCurateDériveFacsimileFlâneurRedundant
101
DériveFacsimileFlâneurRedundant
transitiveverb,curator,curation
‘drift’(literaltranslation)
Fac·sim·i·lenoun,verb
noun
adjective
103 104
To select, organize, arrange and look after the items in a collection or exhibition. By nature the act of curation requires a direct subject and tangible objects; often existing as fragments. Sverre Fenn asks ‘howshallwerespondtomanandhisobjectsaffixedtothesurfaceoftheearth?’1, Fenn’s museum at Hamar explores the idea of organizing and arranging artifacts throughout his architectural practice, the bringing of artifact into a new light (its curation) forms a clear methodology as he introduces a second horizon.
Nicolaus Schafhausen and Nicholaus Hirsch discuss the relationships between the disciplines of art and architecture as they respond to the ‘Bilbao Effect’. They state that the next logical step in a post-Bilbao era would be that ‘thearchitecturebecomestheexhibition,butunderconditionssetbythecuratorsandartists...whereeverynewpieceofthebuildingbecomesanewpieceoftheartexhibition.’2 This not only sets up a collaborative working framework for the curator, architect and artist but a way for the discipline of curation to break free from its institutional boundaries out into the city. A curated city might be a collection of buildings within a city, carefully arranged and positioned in relation to one another, or it could be about non building (the space between), or even a careful collection of both. To curate, may offer us a new way of thinking towards the arts and architecture as collaborative art-forms.
Reinvented Curatorial Practice - Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara explain that Architecture and urbanism ‘offeranidealcontextforcuratingtorealiseitspotentialascaring-for,constructingandconsuming/consummatingofthedialecticentitythatisthecity.’3 The curation of the city offers a new architectural attitude of care toward both the built and unbuilt urban environment, considering relationship between city fragments.
1 Per Olaf Fjeld (2009). Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts. Monacelli Press. p 108.
2 Hirsch, Nikolaus (2007). On Boundaries. City: Lukas & Sternberg, New York. pp 39-40
3 Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City (London: Routledge 2009) p 2
Curate transitiveverb,curator,curation
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Origin: From Drift, walking aimlessly or casually through a space without a pragmatic goal.
Derive: A basic practice of experimental behaviour, engaging with city life, carried out by the Situationists (group of international revolutionaries founded in 1957 led by Guy Debord). A primary technique for exploring and engaging with the urban landscape
Guy Debord defines Dérive:“amodeofexperimentalbehaviorlinkedtotheconditionsofurbansociety:Atechniqueofrapidpassagethroughvariedambiances.”1
The practice could be carried out by one or more persons, where they would drop their conventional relations and negotiations within the city, letting themselves drift according to the attractions of their immediate context. The practice of exploring urban neighborhoods is derived from the traditional 19th Century practice of flâneur, (see flâneur). Deviating from the flâneur tradition, Dérive focuses on its visibility to others rather than the personal focus of flâneur.The dérive takes place on the streets, replacing the God like vision of the city, with the perspective the city walker.
“Thelessonsdrawnfromdérivesenableustodrawupthefirstsurveysofthepsychogeographicalarticulationsofamoderncity”2
Through this method of city engagement, the fragmented nature of the city can be brought into to a visible reality.
1 Internationale Situationniste #1 (June 1958)
2 Guy-Ernest Debord, Internationale Situationniste #2 1958 Guy
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107 108
Origin: Late 16th Century, used in reference to the making of an exact copy. From the Latin fac simile, to ‘make similar’. Fac- imperitive of facere ‘to make’. Simile- neuter of similis ‘like’.
Noun: An exact copy or reproduction, [replica, likeness, reprint]. Marcel Duchamp, through his work of portable museum ‘Boite-en-valise’ responds to the inaccessibility of original art works. Duchamp carefully presents the pieces in miniature replica form as an ordered whole, the facsimile itself, a work art.
Verb: To make a an exact copy of. Differing from common forms or reproduction is the endeavor to ‘make similar’ throughout the work of facsimile. Throughout the production of the replicas included in ‘Boite-en-valise’, Duchamp used time consuming techniques blurring the distinction between the original and is reproduced form.
Site model: a common starting point for architectural design or intervention is the reproduction of site, common threads of intent and value transfer between the production of Duchamp’s portable museum and this common architectural practice. This generic practice is born out of the sites ‘inaccessibility’ and is used in order to bring the site into a new light. The value of site facsimile is its transformation in preparation for reinterpretation. Duchamp used his work to provoke a public reaction in a similar manor to that of the architects preparation of site as a scaled replica.
Facsimile Fac·sim·i·lenoun,verb
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Bolte-en- valise - Series AParis 1941 - New York 1942-49_ 20 copiesDimensions: approximately 39 x 35 x 8 cm / 15 x 14x 3 in. (box) ; 41 x 38 x 10.5 cm / 16 x 15 x 4 in.(val ise)
109 110
Origin: From the French verb flâner ‘to stroll’.
Noun: Basic meaning: ‘idler’ ‘lounger ‘ ‘saunterer’. Charles Baudelaire develops its meaning as “apersonwhowalksthecityinordertoexperienceit”. Typical understood as a nineteenth century gentleman aimlessly wandering, separate from the crowds, a personal observation and experience of the city. The term ‘Flâneur’ is adopted in the twentieth century as a‘figureforarchitectswishingtoaddpedestriancachettoprojectssuchasshoppingmallsthatmimicpublicplazas’1
The term is typical masculine, alluding to the ‘idleman-about-townwhoobservedandcommentedontheurbanscene’2. This detached gaze provided a freedom to move around the city, without the fixed goal of city interaction.
“TheFlâneursymbolizestheprivilegeorfreedomtomoveaboutthepublicarenasofthecityobservingbutneverinteracting,consumingthesightsthroughacontrollingbutrarelyacknowledgedgaze....TheFlâneurembodiesthegazeofmodernitywhichisbothcovetousanderotic.”3
Joseph Hart points out that this 19th Century tradition has is influences on modern psychogeographers (see psychogeography). ‘Themostflaneur-likestyleofpsychogeography,ofcourse,isalgorithmicwalking--that“firstright,secondleft”approach.’4
The situationists engagement with city life, “dérive” has its roots in the tradition of flâneur, although shifts its concern from the personal of flâneur to the visibility to others. (see dérive)
1 Martha Rosler Culture Class: Art, Creativity,Urbanism. e-flux journal #21. December 2010
2 Joseph Hart, A new way of walking. http://www.utne.com/2004-07-01/a-new-way-of-walking.aspx
3 Griselda Pollock, Vision & Difference (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), p. 67.
4 Joseph Hart, A new way of walking. http://www.utne.com/2004-07-01/a-new-way-of-walking.aspx
Flâneur noun
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111 112
Redundant adjective
Opposite definition of ‘use’ verb - accomplishing a purpose or achieving a result
A characteristic of no use or to no longer be needed. A redundant building is one that has run into a state that is no longer required or fitting for a particular use. The process by which a building would fall into such a state may be as a result of changing social patterns, the lack of desire to inhabit or the changing condition of the built fabric itself. The point at which a building would be classified as redundant could be described as the instance of no foreseeable human interaction or engagement. Traces of this condition can be found at various scales throughout the urban environment, usually as a result of the failure to reconfigure. Inevitability, as time passes, the existence of such a condition within the city is suppressed into the subconscious, greatly limiting their perceived significance, as part of the built environment. The state of redundancy is almost always associated with lack of care, where the lack of awareness results in neglect. As a result many approach instances of redundancy with further lack of desire, rather than a fueled desire to see transformation.
‘Whenwethinkoftheverb‘touse’,wethinkofthethingweuseasbeingreducedthroughtheusingofit.Therefore,touse=toconsume,andtospend=touseup.Whenweconservesomething,whetheritisnatureorabuilding,werefrainfrom‘using’it...andtrytokeeppeopleawayfromit.Buildings,however,declinetoruinswhentheyarenotused.Ofcourse,ifweusetheminthesenseofconsumingthem[reusethematerialsofwhichtheyaremade]thentheirruinishastened,butiftheyareusedandmaintained,thenuse=conservation.’1
1 Alexandra Stara: Curating Architecture and the City [Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon] {Expanding the public realm through curated collaborative action The Echigo Tsumari abandoned house project Carol Mancke} P 181
Redundant adjective
113 114
Books
Arthur Watson. Singing for dead singers & other works. Aberdeen City Council. Tipografia Gianotti s.r.l. Montalto Dora (TO) - Italy. 2000.
Bonk, Eck. Marcel Duchamp :the portable museum: the making of the Boite-en-valise. Thames and Hudson, 1989.
Buzas, Stefan. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Berlin : Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1994.
Frank G. Novak. Lewis Mumford and Patrick Geddes : the correspondence. London : Routledge, 1995.
Griselda Pollock, Vision & Difference (London and New York: Routledge, 1988.
Guy-Ernest Debord. Internationale Situationniste #1
Guy-Ernest Debord, Internationale Situationniste #2 1958.
Hirsch, Nikolaus. On Boundaries. City: Lukas & Sternberg, New York. 2007.
Iain Borden, The value of arts and humanities research to life in the UK. ARQ . Vol 12 . no 3/4. 2008.
Jes Fernie. Two Minds: Atrists and Architects in collaboration. Black Dog Publishing. London, 2006.
John Tuomey. Architecture Craft and Culture. Oysterhaven, Kinsale, Co Cork: Gandon Editions, 2008
John Gifford (2007) Perth and Kinross :the buildings of Scotland. London. Yale University Press
Jonathan Hill, Actions of Architecture : Architects and creative users, London: Routledge, 2003.
Leslie’s Perth Directory 1887. Bridgend, Craigie, Chererrybank, and scone and the Rural Distrcts in the vicinity of Perth. D Leslie. John Street, 1887.
Lewis Mumford: Art and Technics London : Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1952.
Meller, Helen Elizabeth. Patrick Geddes : Social Evolutionist and City Planner. London, New York Taylor & Francis Routledge, 1993.
Bibliography
115 116
Nathen Coley. There will be no miracles here. Edinburgh : The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2004.
Paddy Kitchen, An introduction to the ideas and life of Patrick Geddes, A most unsettling person, [London, Victor Gollancz LTD] 1975.
Patrick Geddes, Cities in Evolution: new and revised edition London: William & Norgate, 1949.
Per Olaf Fjeld. Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts. Monacelli Press. 2009.
Peter Blundell-Jones, Doina Petrescu and Jeremy Till. Architecture and Participation, Spon, London. 2004.
Philip Ursprung, Herzog & De Meuron : Natural History. Canadian Centre for Architecture. Lars Muller Publishers, 2002
Philip Ursprung, Caruso St. John :Almost Everything. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona, 2009
Robin Clark. Automatic Cities, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego 2009.
Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara. Curating Architecture and the City London: Routledge, 2009.
Stefan Buzas, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Berlin : Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1994.
Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project. First Harvard University Press paperback edition. 2002
Journals
arq . vol 14 . no2 . 2010 | Kali Tzortzi | The art museum as a city or a machine for showing art? p129
arq . vol 13 . no 2. 2009 | Meike Schalk & Apolonija Sustersic | Taking care of public space p141
arq . vol 13 . no 2. 2009 | Dougal Sheridan | ‘Building Initiative’ in Belfast p151
arq . vol 12 . no 3/4 . 2008 | Iain Borden | The value of arts and humanities research to life in the UK p216
Art and Architecture Journal: 68/69 - AUTUMN 2009| When The Walls Start To Speak |
E-flux journal #21. December 2010. Martha Rosler Culture Class: Art, Creativity,Urbanism.
Thomas F. McDonough. Situationist Space. Source: October, Vol. 67, (Winter, 1994), Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778967
Websites
Channel 4 Big Art Project:http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/bigart
Civic Architects Ltd:www.civic.org.uk
EUROPEAN KUNSTHALLE:http://www.eukunsthalle.com/
INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR GROWTH :http://www.brucemaudesign.com/112942/
Perth City Council:http://www.pkc.gov.uk/Planning+and+the+environment/
Studio International [Arthur Watson: poetic conceptualist] :http://www.studio-international.co.uk
The Cartographers Dilema:http://cartographersdilemma.com/