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Reflective Report
When approaching an urban atmosphere it can be very daunting to be introduced into such a large space. The limitless urban size becomes almost hostile as you enter into the environment. Even after a period of time, the urban space can still be such a large and inflatable area that is unconquerable to such small things such as us, the people who habit the space. The Metropolitan conditions do not allow us to fit into it, although we may seem like we somehow live and become a part in the area, we merely just leave a presence. However, by making the urban space more hospitable by allowing multiple people to leave a larger footprint in the environment, we can begin to slowly make the urban into a home.
We can begin to share the space and instead of a singular entity in a large area, by sharing the space we habit it allows us to convert the daunting place into a more homely space. By sharing an area of the urban context through social, communal and personal interactions it can bring about the homely feelings and start to associate them with the cold and bleakness of the urban atmosphere. Introducing and using spaces that may bring about more people together it encourages people to come together which in turn produces social interactions. These social interactions leave a larger presence in the space as more and more people gather. For instance, there are businesses which promote such social and communal interactions within a space, such as the Crave Cafe in Morningside, Auckland. One of the founders, Nigel, mentions that you need to live in a better neighbourhood to change the neighbourhood to be better (Nigel, personal communication, March 17, 2017). Meaning a space needs to become occupied in order to allow it to become a better space.
In my personal efforts to bring about communal and social interactions to occur in the urban environment, I looked at some of the more simpler ideas to bring this type of sudden change. Firstly, by taking the Spatial Design Studio as space which could be improved, the idea of introducing a communal workspace was introduced. Having a singular desk where there would be a set of tools and items such as spare materials and cutting mats, it brought about the idea of allowing the studio to become a more sociable place. By placing a communal workstation, it produces more chances of social interactions, therefore causing the space to become more hospitable. By allowing people to use the communal workstation I wanted to create a friendlier and more active zone where there was more interaction than the current level of communication. In the end, this was never tested or made due to several reasons such as the studio space did not accompany enough foot traffic to allow the workstation to be fully utilised or the studio was too full to allow something the size of a workstation table to be installed and used accordingly. If it had been installed I would have liked to see a level of interaction that we tried to achieve in the Spatialists Group in room WW306 where it became a social room where all year levels came together and worked or relaxed.
After planning the initial idea of the communal workspace, other ideas of sharing came up with the sole idea of the workspace becoming more and more unrealistic and unusable. Because it was becoming more and colder through the week, the idea of a cold care package came up. Having a small table with care packages allowing people to survive through the harsh cold days. The original idea was to include tissue packs, gloves and heat packs to a small clear plastic bag, allowing people to grab them on the go. However, this does not promote any level of social interaction as it becomes a more remote influence rather than a hands-on influence. So the overall idea changed from the care package to a table where people could have the option to stay and warm up before leaving. This level of interaction allows a social interaction to occur as it promotes communication between the people using the care packages. After finalising the idea, a small table was constructed to fit the care packages onto. The care packages, however, were simplified due to the cost of each care package becoming too high. Instead of heat packs and tissue packs, only gloves were used as the care package and a box of tissues set up along with the gloves. Through initial setup, within the first ten minutes, people came along and used the gloves that were provided, however, they did not sit down next to the bench to relax and warm up. After the initial setup, I had left and hovered around the table for approximately twenty minutes and allowing the table to operate remotely. After leaving it for another approximate forty minutes, I had come back and a total of 4 gloves were taken and no one had used the tissues provided. This table was set up on the small traffic island on Symonds Street at around six in the afternoon when it had gotten its coldest through the day. Due to the timing, the data may have been greatly influenced as six in the afternoon is the prime time where people are on their way home, allowing a quick level of interaction and not the slow level of interaction which I had hoped for. If I had set it up another time and area, the results may have reflected my hypothesis.
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Site Deconstruction #3
The post-industrialism scenario is the era in which we live in. Post-industrialism can be seen as a transition of goods based civilisation to a service based civilisation. The transition to goods to service creates issues as the production of certain goods are no longer required and are ceased. This creates spaces of unused industrial districts and areas where the goods used to be and are being distributed. The creation of derelict spaces reflects on the post-industrialisation image that is associated with an abandoned factories and shops. Empty streets, shops and large manufacturing buildings all in one setting.
In a city, empty spaces are widely seen as the norm. Why is this? Have we, as a population accepted this derelict space as our own or have we learned to ignore it? Space seems to be the one word in our vocabulary that seems to be so broad in meaning, granted it has a simple definition - "A Continuous area or expanse which is free, available, or unoccupied" (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d). But the word space means much more than that to some of us, it can describe the limitless possibilities that surround us, in the space that inhibits us. It can also mean the vast infiniteness of the world and the universe. There are many positive ways we can view the word space, however, we can also view it negatively. All the unused and derelict locations that are taking up spaces that could be used for other, more meaningful purposes.
Where space is being used, whether it is being reused or newly constructed, the use of space becomes important. For instance, the old motorway off-ramp leading to Newton-street in Auckland city was converted to a bike lane. However, the bike lane is not just a normal bike path, it is being laid with pink stripes and neon lights. Turning junk space into a place that is going to be used by many bike commuters in the Auckland City centre. By using pink, they create a need for space, using bright colours to gather the attention of the population, therefore, "laying down the pink surface that will make it so distinctive" (Greater Auckland, 2015). Although this space is primarily built to cater for the bicycle community, due to its colours and lights at night, over time it has become a place where the general populous comes to experience a newly built space. Converting a derelict junk space into an area where both the catered users and non-catered users can both enjoy a space.
Oxford Dictionary. (n.d). Definition of Space in English. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/space
Greater Auckland. (2015). Laying Down the Pink. Retrieved from https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2015/11/24/laying-down-the-pink/
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Site Deconstruction #2
Sharing goods; what does that mean or entitle? In a sense, goods are items people can use for the exchange or the purchase of other goods.
When there was no such concept as currency or money, items had monetary values in which were used to exchange or barter for other goods of the similar monetary value. In simpler terms, it was allowing the exchange of items through a simple method and without the use of other various ways. However, the introduction of simple currency de-monetised the value of many items and in a way, further simplified the action of exchanging goods. This de-monetisation of goods allowed for more people to have access to an improved range of goods, allowing for a development of the living conditions to increase for the better. Expanded public access to higher level of goods mean higher demand for said goods; an increased demand means increased production and a higher level of goods in service means lower value. Overall this creates the 'Supply vs. Demand' scenario. The supply versus demand chain creates a need for a consumerist type of populous as it only ever flourishes in such type of environment.
In such a consumerist environment, how does the 'sharing of goods' idea become a reality? In a way, we can view the world in two simple economical way, 1. For-Profit 2. Non-Profit. Through this understanding, it becomes simpler to break down the idea of sharing goods and explain how it can come from and idea to become a successful reality. Sharing goods can be achieved from the standpoint of the non-profitable side of this economic circle. However, we must also view it from the side of the consumerists, for-profits marginal view at the non-profitable activities.
By allowing, "P2P exchanges through technology" (Matofska, 2016, para 2). We allow for the access of assets to be readily and widely available for free. However, this is a series of start-ups and this reality is in its very beginnings, thus the amount of information and technology that is shared is also very limited. Although sharing becomes limited within a larger area, in a smaller space, this level of exchange allows communities to come together to allow a sharing of goods. For example, this was seen in The Crave Cafe in Morningside, a community driven business's that allows for people in the area to, "live in a better neighbourhood to change the neighbourhood to be better" (Nigel, personal communication, March 17, 2017). Allowing people in the neighbourhood to come together as a single entity allows for the actions of sharing goods and ideas to become much easier and accessible. However, as a business, the aspect of profit drives most businesses, Crave, although at the beginning was a business that started up with a couple of people with an idea to connect people, The Crave has turned into a social enterprise; a business that repays its profits within the community.
Other forms of Goods sharing comes in the forms of a space where not just the idea of sharing goods exist, but an actual form of sharing space is contextualised. Tangleball Space is a form of such action of sharing space. It avoids the consumerist and hierarchical systems of the norm to allow the space to be essentially limitless which allows, sharing activities to fall into four categories: recirculation of goods, increased utilisation of assets, exchange of services, and sharing of productive goods (Schor, 2014, para 9). The important categories in this situation being the exchange of services and the sharing of productive goods.
Benita Matofska. (2016). What is the Sharing Economy?. Retrieved from http://www.thepeoplewhoshare.com/blog/what-is-the-sharing-economy/
Juliet Schor. (2014). Debating the Sharing Economy. Retrieved from http://www.greattransition.org/publication/debating-the-sharing-economy/
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Site Deconstruction #1 -Introduction to Urban Ecologies
‘Terrain Vague’ is a term used to proposition an urban analysis that is different to the ideals of the structuralist and instead tends to focus on the absence of space in the contemporary metropolis.
In ‘Terrain Vague’, published by Spanish Architect Ignasi de Sola-Morales, he introduces the idea of viewing a large space such as the metropolis through photography. The idea of experiencing the urban metropolis through photography using landscape, aerial photos of buildings and people, suggests that we become more aware. Such a large space is incomprehensible to most people, but by grasping the reality of the built and human nature of the modern metropolis, photography allows us to visualise such concepts.
The developing technology of photography has increased exponentially along with the exponential increase in our way of building cities in terms of size and structure. However, photography has been our “primordial for our visual experience of the city” (Sola-Morales, 1995, p. 119). Photography not only tells the story but also affects the experiences that pass from the physical to the psychic of the viewer. By allowing photographs to alter our sense of an environment we can essentially destroy and create new atmospheres and settings. Such can be used for areas called Brownfield Sites, areas where the land was previously derelict but cannot become gentrified due to its potential presence of hazards such as substances, pollutants, and contaminants (Brownfield Action, n.d). By allowing sites such as the Brownfield sites to exist we ignore the question of sustainability. Even if we engage the idea of sustainability to Brownfield sites, what are we able to sustain and are we sustaining? (Hayes, 2013, para 1).
Hospitals do not usually become brownfield sites but can harbour small areas. In the case of Auckland Hospital, some of the off-site buildings that exist behind the current site of the hospital are being re-used as an area for farming. By allowing interconnections and relationships of the organisms that live within the environment, we allow the space to become sustained, but only in an ecological framework. By allowing this derelict brownfield site to become a sustainable location, we allow the space to become a wildscape site. An urban location that is being restored to become a more sustainable location foregoes a transformation of a type of gentrification. Although the site becomes re-useable it does not become fully gentrified.
Ignasi de Sola-Morales. (1995). Terrain Vague. n.d : n.d.
Brownfield Action. (n.d.). What is "Brownfield"?. Retrieved from http://brownfieldaction.org/brownfieldaction/brownfield_basics
Kate Hayes (2013). The Urban Wild, or Along the Margins, Wildscapes, Rambunctions Gardens, Vague Terrain. Retrieved from https://awildwashington.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/the-urban-wild-or-along-the-margins-wildscapes-rambunctious-gardens-vague-terrain/
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Amelia
When thinking about how we should decide as a group to build our small cathedral we first discussed about the site on which we would do it on. This was mostly influenced by the historical richness and information about the site as well as its surroundings. The first two sites we had in mind were Victoria park and the motorway that linked from the harbour bridge into the CBD. Upon further researching both sites we decided to go along with the Victoria park site as it gave us many opportunities to work with.
The Victoria park site was our original plan but we also decided to include the Victoria market as they both shared the old coast line before the land was reclaimed for the park to be constructed in 1870s and be officially opened in 1905 (Wikipedia, 2016). The idea to include both the market and the park came from during the walk with Andrew Douglass of the old coast line. Its tall brick structure intrigued us as it stood the tallest among the plateau of Victoria park. The market was originally used as a furnace to incinerate rubbish that was collected from the CDB and later was converted to an electrical power plant, keeping its duty as a rubbish incinerator but also producing power to the city. However, after further researching about the Victoria park and market we discovered that the now peaceful recreational and sports area was once used as an open air depot for bodies that had died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Upon finding out this information we decided to switch our sole focus on building a model about the furnace aspect we decide to incorporate the information about the influenza epidemic as well. Thus, we discussed about the possibilities of creating a human model.
During the process of trying to create a model we had not decided on whether or not to include rubbish into our final. However, during one of the lectures we were introduced to the “Dada movement” and the unorthodox art which refrained from the Nazi Germany life style in which the movement founder, Schwitters had lived in. He had created a movement which would influence other orthodox artists such as Tita Salina who made artworks from rubbish such as the rubbish island she had made as well as the ball of trash that had been collected from the streets of Singapore. The involvement of trash became a solid foundation for our model “Amelia” due to the direct link to our site, it gave it a more in depth meaning as it reflected upon our own modern lifestyle as trash surrounds and creates our environment.
After finalising our ideas and deciding on a human figure for a model we decided to give our model a name. By giving it a name we personified the experience and the environment in which the people who were affected by the influenza epidemic have gone through. The forced relocation of their housing to the dead bodies that filled Victoria park. A name never seems to stand out among the hundreds that are listed within a book lost somewhere in a library of thousands of books. Naming it “Amelia” came to be as it allowed for the viewers to personally connect in a way that would not have been achieved if we had not named it. Giving it a sense of existence allowed us to further imply the morbid sense that came along with our final exhibition.
At the beginning of our construction we applied our collected rubbish onto a human-like structure using adhesives that allowed us to efficiently apply our materials onto the figure.We had decided to use a candle light to further provoke the sense of loss and deprivation of the people during the epidemic. Although a candle light in the darkness provokes a sense of hope, we had put a candle in to achieve the opposite, by allowing the candle to highlight the worst of the morbidity. By highlighting the hand prints along the walls as well as allowing the viewer to see only the specific areas of “Amelia” at different angles we allowed the full experience of someone who was lost to come through our exhibition
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Collector and the artist
The collection will survive its present owner or will it perish after the owner should gone and the collection wouldn't exist without the collector. The experience of collecting. -an existential activity (ambiguity and reality) Kurt Schwitters -'dada' anti war anti establishment and anti art during WW1 -in French dada means hobbyhorse and was chosen for its childish Ness and naivety -Merz project. Building something new out of broken pieces -Hanover Merzbau. A multilayered design of experience Collage as autonomous -Dada negativism- positive restructuring -Resistant to aesthetic-public display "Human trash always excretes culture" Collection of beginnings -a miniature of the real as fragments that speak as absent wholes Collage as a personal expression as it is a phenomelogical embodiment of expressive
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Urban #2
Richard Wentworth: making do and getting by. The art of portraying the daily life of objects and things . Beth Arnold: discarded objects. Reusing the photos sent in by people of their discarded objects and allowing the participation of other people other than the artist. Scene of crime: photographic archives of LAPD. Erik morese An invention for photography. A need regulate and control the population by tracking and photographing the people. James donald, DETECTIVES: The detective is a creature of the city. More than that, it is the detective who makes the modern city think able. The invisibility of the detective within the city environment. From the idle looking of the tourist to the purposeful looking of the detective Psycho geography. Exploring the space not through the planned ways of the street but challenging the authority of the mapping of the city.
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