Zwischenraum

zwischenraum - interspace / interstice / interstitial

(http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-englisch/Zwischenraum.html)

Interstitial / Interstice

Interstitial Spaces

what is it about?
- give form to the in-between layer
- study the relationship between the inside and the outside
- the layer that manages the relationship
- stretch it? stress it? break it? re-form it?

why?
- expose the hidden layer and its attributes in-order to generate new reactions and aspects about the space

how?
understand transition or interstitial spaces on the basis of
- features/nature (state, porosity, fluidity, malleability, adhesivity, adaptability, texture, critical mass, density, strength, elasticity, capability to produce light/sound/energy)
- charteristic in/ reactions to living/non-living scenarios
- use / need and how they are utilised by the sandwiching membranes

zwischenraum - interspace / interstice / interstitial
(http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-englisch/Zwischenraum.html)

veils..

- wave pattern of attraction / visual excitement
- network of strokes - resembling thoughts / reactions
- the network binds the veil / mask with the object behind
- colour coding based on the visual aspects of colour

Questions:

1. study the binding network?
2. study the concealed element/space?

- a veil also takes a ripple form
- ripples can also cause some sort of flux or the binding energy causes flux

Flux - surface bombardment rate

- Forces binding the veil to the surface/object bombards the object
- surface / object deformation??

To do:
- surface bombardment depiction??

Big question:
- where is this leading to?

Another point:

- does the network of energy maps create another mesh/veil in the in-between space?
- does the space be considered as a twilight zone? Neither here nor there? A creation of a new object which is in between visible and concealed?

- energy bombardment creating a chaotic mess in the space between the veil and the concealed object/surface
- formulate a language for the chaos???

drux flux

a film by Theodore Ushev
flux - surface bombardment rate

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin

Play of light and stroke

An analysis of the George Melly painting led to the images below.

A careful look at the use of strokes and colour.

 

The language of strokes and colours

An attempt at the similar play of strokes on a street

colour has certain psychological effects on the human mind. Various colours create or stimulate a certain sense or activity in oneself.
Can this play of colour or strokes or combination of both be used to manipulate the mind?
Does this play of colours and strokes have enough strength on its own to stimulate the mind of an observer?
The third question would be, will this be a long lasting effect, or short termed?

Some of the screens which can be later used as a material or can become part of the streetscape.

--
The outcome: The play of colour and strokes does have an effect, but it is not a long lasting one. Maybe the effects of the strokes and colours can be used to demonstrate pictorally a relations between two objects.

george...

 

As I walked throught the national gallery, it was this image that grabbed my attention. It is a painting of the jazz musician George Melly, by Maggi Hambling. What attracted me most about this is the technique and the dynamic nature of the image.

Links:

http://www.maggihambling.com/Works/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ss&firstRun=true&sText=george+melly&LinkID=mp06066&rNo=3&role=sit

masks

In african art and folklore - masks are used as a sensory means of broadcasting secrecy. An oxymoron.
The idea of broadcasting 'secrecy'.

The visible parts of a mask viz., the artworks, form etc. transmit knowledge through secrecy. These have the power to stimulate, arrest and even move the observer much before he tries to identify to enter the world withing the masks. Masks capture the perceived reality, and at the same time give form to the unobserved reality, the transcendental world.

Masks can be like a catalyst that fired the emotions of the observer. It can create an impression of a performance. One should be tempted to decipher and decode what lies underneath the visible.

Juxtaposition of sound and image

Sound and image... in motion..
the sounds behind soho
sound of buses hidden by buildings..
conversations unheard on the streets...

observations...-soho

Construction workers
Pigeons on pavement
Couple looking for vintage magazines (I later realized they were walking in the opposite direction)
Main with suitcase
Old man walking towards queens theatre
Sounds of metal cutting (I named the recording at drilling)
Yoshino is open so early
Samurai sushi + bento open
Avenue Q – lady smoking in front of the closed entrance doors
Sound of vehicular traffic
Apollo theatre doors / shaded passage – ideal spot for smoke / sandwich break
Territorial behavior
Lady in RED walked up and down Rupert street and vanished into winnet street
Cars parked
Man walking through – in no hurry
Shops seems closed from Rupert street end
Video library open
White horse pub – open
Bocca di lupo – coffee shop visible only if u walk through archer street
Archer street studios – ground floor has a hair salon – a very old man, very meticulously cutting a person’s hair – a tanning salon (receptionist looking bored in life) – and the third partition is the entrance to the upper floors
Studio’s existence is doubtful, as there are two ‘to-let’ signs
Apparently, area is subject to increased police activity tackling drugs and prostitution!!!!! How ironic???
Other streets look like there’s more probability of the above said activities
be@1 bar + windmill international + the lyric – two bars sandwiched in between a gentleman’s club
Street light maintenance
People walking towards Shaftesbury and towards Brewer Street – nobody is in a hurry – Monday morning blues??
Stage door open
Awfully quiet
The lyric bringing in plants from the outside
Freebird burrito shop set up.. 5quid for a burrito!!!
Prowler – visitors more during the day
2 indians looking around sex shops
Less crowded times
People walking leisurely
Two guys in suits looking around for strip clubs trying to be inconspicuous but unsuccessful I guess
View of ‘mamma mia’ from the end of Rupert
Food joints attracting crowd as lunch time approaches
Outside snog – corner with bollards – man taking smoke break from shopping / walk
Market – flowers
Fruits
Vegetables
Colourful bags + leather
Shops behind hidden by the mid street stalls
Leather + junk accessory shop
Everybody facing the wider sidewalk – retro shops – vinyl shop – hair salon
All coexist
I’m making people around me curious – they probably think I’m either a cop or a nosy journalist or nosy activist
Most likely, a suicide bomber – from the looks of the corner sex toy shop
People using walkers court as a link passage
2 people discussing the ongoing construction and their opinion on what is happening

Pitch No. 1229
Pitch No. 1228

Dirt is black in London – why?
Why not brown? Red? Green?

Snog is always lit. that space remains constant at all times of the day

Tisbury court
Strip clubs
Live girls
Straight into old Compton street
6 pound haircut

Such bliss – SOHO in the morning

Rupert street – man collecting change from telephone booths
Painters in the corner – white overalls and red tshirt – one of them with a very serious expression. What was he thinking?
2pm – police patrol – walkers court empty for the moment – after they left – life’s back to normal there
More and more tourists taking picture below the soho revue bar
St. annes churchyard garden – perfect spot for lunch break – serene, green and right in the middle of soho
food kiosks on Rupert street vanished
Bag man still present
Crowd changing attitude and colours
More relaxed environment
More joyful….

Party on….

moving images

patrick keiller
    -London (1994)
    -Robinson in Space (1997)

Darren Aronofsky
    -π (pi) (1998)

Christopher Petit
   - Unrequited Love (2006)

books

the absence of myth
  - Georges Bataille

psychogeography
  - Merlin Coverley

Light - what it does NOT show

After some reading, the following questions arose -

Maybe what I need to explore about light is - What does it NOT show?
What is the little bit of light in the darkness concealing?
Is there anything that daylight conceals?
Does daylight hide anything from our field of vision?
What is it that we fail to notice at the Revue Bar?

Does the narrow streets have a story to tell? or do they have a story that you are not supposed to know?

the mystery behind the darkness - WHAT IS IT?

Light - forced visibility??

Once daylight vanishes, a large number of artificial lighting appears - street lights, room lights, directional signage, commercial signage, ambient lighting, focussed lighting, flood lighting etc etc.
All these forms of light in some way or the other lead you to a realm of forced visibility. During the day, when there is sunlight, you view what is vibile in your field of vision. You move around, you are free to view what your mind wants to view. Your vision is probably restricted to the extent of your ability to see.

Once night falls, darkness arises. The mysterious darkness. Light is the energy that makes all forms visible - living/non living/solid/liquid/dense gases. In the darkness, the artificial light - it restricts your visibility - more like CONTROL your visibility. You are forced to see only that reflects the light.

There is a sense of ambiguity in the darkness / semi darkness.
The acitivity patterns are around the lit portions.
Light creates stronger focus points around a region.

What you see and what you don't see.. two views of the same locale with different lighting..

an image

a bilingual pharmacy signage on Frith Street

There are no chinese settlements or shops in the vicinity. or maybe because there is a cantonese service at the church nearby.

air street + soho - a journey

Discovering Soho in pieces was quite an interesting journey. It started with the first trip to Air Street, and entered from Regent Street. The first reaction to the place - hmmm.. just another street cut in the middle by the giant REGENT street. Or is it? Just another street?

It housed the erstwhile regent palace hotel, which has seen soho change for over 9 decades.. At first the site did not instigate any thought or attract me in any way. So I headed out in a journey to find what Soho is all about. Started with the history of the place.

Started off as farm lands - a royal park - a rich neighbourhood - artists, theatre, prostitution hub - foreign nationals setting up cheap eateries (a fashionable place for intellectuals, writers and artists to meet) - sex hub - gay centre - fashionable restaurants.

Every street in Soho seems to have a specific activity attached to it. e.g. Old Compton - houses a lot of gay pubs and a theatre., Broadwick Street - location of the street pump which spread cholera killing many sohoites back in 1854, houses many of the printing houses and shops selling artists' and printing equipment and stationary, Golden Square housing many of the post production houses and related offices, Gerrard Street housing the London China Town etc.

The activities in these places also vary during the day time

What is Soho today??

A multi cultural area of central London
Home to industry, commerce and entertainment
A residential area for both the rich and the poor
Home of the main gay village
Religious and spiritual mini hub - St. Annes church on Dean Street, St. Patrick's church on Soho square, City Gates church in Greens court, Hare krishna temple off soho square, a mosque on Berwick Street.

What did i find in Soho??
A large contrast in the environment. Streets housing churches and theatre next to each other.
bookshops + sex shops (SOHO BOOKS)
church + square
church + theatre
church + greens court (sex hub)
activity centric development on streets
bright colours and vibrance in the street level. The streets being narrow, it didn't really matter much as to how the building looked or what kind of emotions it created above the field of vision.

Soho had a variety of streets - with lots of activity and buzz, some generating life only in the evening, and some so dull and dead throughout.

The colourful part of Soho

A dull or rather dead street

There was an element of surprise when you walk through the Rupert Street onto the corner of Brewer St. and Walkers Ct.

The surprise - you enter a street flooded with all the sex shops and related clubs and then you walk out into this normal neighbourhood with a Sommerfeld and residential area welcoming you at the end of it. Quite a stunner!!!

You also tend to notice the change in the outlook, the colours, the tones and the moods of the place at different times.

Do I really want to do something with Air Street? Really? or blend into Soho.. and intervene...??

appropriation... a technique..

A motel using the method of appropriation - on the Three Gorges Dam, China.

Photograph by Edward Burtynsky

My first day at the bartlett - delayed by a week -commenced with the Perry Kulper Workshop on design approaches. The various methods one can apply in the never ending process of design. A 4 day intense workshop, where we had to choose from 4 different methods and focus on that one alone strictly to arrive at the design of a Motel.