WEEK 3- RODEN CRATOR, 1975 - ONGOING, ARIZONA, USA, JAMES TURRELL - DR ROSS MCCLOUD

LIGHT. SUBLIME.

The Sublime could be described as the supreme or perfect beyond contemplation or the awe inspiring. Our perception of the world is predominantly guided by light, from the perceptible to the invisible, colour to darkness, feelings both emotional and physical. It could be said that the way we see and interact with the world is guided by light. James Turrells 'Roden Crater' uses the power of light to create and ignite the sublime. Roden Crater evokes “contemplation on the nature of light and how our minds distinguish it”,  “ A place for perceptual imaginings, connecting the light of the heavens to the inner light of the human mind”.1

The Shrine of Remembrance delicately controls light in order to evoke particular appropriate feelings within people participating in the one-minute silence at 11am.  These feelings may be of honour, of warmth, of contemplation, or the sublime.

St Patricks Cathedral also uses the control of light in order to create contemplation of the sublime. In the cathedral, one has the feeling of calm, which evokes quiet contemplation of that which is bigger than themselves.

The idea presented that light may be the guide through which we can begin to understand the sublime influenced my visual response. I started first with the idea of colour being a bi-product of light, and photographed light shining though varying shaped and coloured 3d shapes. I then furthered this idea to include movement and time that is included in Roden Crater. Movement I introduced through projecting the movement of water, with the coloured shapes onto a wall with a torch, and time through a video response rather than a still. This left me with a work that attempts to evoke contemplation and feelings of sublime, through my control of light. 

1 (Mcleod, R, ‘james Turrell’ in the interior, nomad issue, vol 1, Nos. 9 and 10, spring/summer 1996-97, pp. 32-33)

WEEK 1 - THE INTERIOR IN HISTORY/THEORY - PHIP MURRAY

INTERIOR. HISTORY. CHANGE. CONTINUATION.

Phip Murrays lecture and Edward Hollis's The Secret Lives of Buildings ignite an understanding of the ephemeral nature of buildings and interiority through exploring the transitional uses of the Parthenon through history. Edward Hollis writes of buildings outliving the "purposes", "technologies" and "aesthetics" “for which they were built.”;1 suffering from "subtractions, additions, divisions, and multiplications" that soon disconnect their original from the intended function.  

This reality contrasts to the ideal of ‘The Architects Dream’; where “the real world is stranger and more dreamlike than a painted dream”1

When a building is altered there is a retelling of the buildings existence in time, “and when the changes are complete it becomes the existing building for the next retelling. In this way the life of the building is both perpetuated and transformed by the repeated act of alternation and reuse.”1

We were asked to visit the NGV at the time of the exhibition of Melbourne Now.  I was most inspired by an installation “sampling the city”; exploring the make up Melbourne’s architectural culture. Using small tiles provided, one could build individual structures, that you were encouraged to share through social media.  I liked the idea of using both collaboration and individuality  to portray  influences on the architectural makeup of Melbourne. I felt this related to Phip Murrays lecture in relation to the creation of history through the ephemeral aspects of design.   

My visual response relates to this concept. I decided to collaborate with friends to build a miniature or ‘sample’ city in a matter of hours from found materials. The individual ‘interiors’, (although not physically inhabitable) produced were unique, yet as a whole created an ephemeral city. This then becomes a microcosm of the creation and destruction of histories through architecture. The city becomes a history in itself. 

1Edward Hollis 'introduction - The Architects Dream' (pp. 1-14) and 'The Parthenon, Athens - In which a virgin is Ruined' (pp. 15-42) from The Secret Lives Of Buildings: From the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories (Portobello Books: 2009). 

WEEK 2 - AN INTER-STORY; DR SUZIE ATTIWIL

INTERIOR. HISTORY. INTERIORITY. SPACE AND TIME. 

An inter-story is ‘a tactic to bring interior and history together…to foster experimentation’ on what makes an interior space.1 The practice of interiorization tells an inter-story with connections to history, which ignites ones imagination.

This weeks sight visit exemplified techniques of interiorization and cemented the idea of an inter-story. Interiorization being the process of controlling space which is to "limit and restrain it" 2 The contrasting spaces of the library tell a narrative through controlling forces such as noise into silence and darkness into light in order to create different atmospheres for their specific purposes. When on the ground floor, you are oblivious to the immensity of the dome above. The reading room is completely quiet in contrast to the bustling foyer, and the use of the glass dome gives another atmosphere for the gallery space. As you travel through the building you reach different interiors inside of the whole. The books on display together tell a story of history and time, as well as being a form of inspiration for the new. A book is a good metaphor for expanding ones idea of interior. We can now see interior as something that tells a story or excites imagination. A book captures the past in a similar way an interior can; by telling a story, recording facts whilst being removed from the reality of exterior experience. A book encloses you in a new world, shelters you from reality, so is a form of an interior and is an inter-story.

The exhibitions name ‘Mirror to the world” is another way to explaining the concept of inter-story. A mirror reflects exterior and history but is only a construct. I have been inspired by these precedents to create something new.

My work ‘inside out’ contrasts exterior with interior in order to see interior in context. It seeks to exemplify a process of interiorization where ‘interior opens itself up to the outside’ and ‘exterior exerts itself into the interior like a glove’2 I liked the idea presented of an interior being anything that has been constructed in order to ideally control the exterior. The use of the mirror is a link to the interior as an ideal reflection of exterior, as well as a way of controlling the ‘force’ of light as in the globe theatre. Walter Benjamin examines the ‘window mirror’ as attempting ‘to pull exterior wholly inside itself’. In my work, the wood of the walls come from the exterior trees, the green carpet; an idealised reflection of grass, the use of light and reflection is an idealised view of exterior. The contrast of exterior with interior portrays Christine Mccarthys view of an ‘inside’ being ‘able to sustain exteriority, (towards a definition of interiority)

I feel we do this instinctively but to acknowledge this process is important in interiorization and creating inter-story. 

1 Suzie Attiwill, 'Practices of interiorization - an inter-story' in Tiiu Poldma (ed) Meanings of Design. Social, Cultural and Philosophical Essays about people, spaces and interior environment, (fairchils Books: forthecoming, 2013). 

2 Christine McCarthy, 'Towards a Definition of interiority' in 'interiorities', themes issue Space and Culture. International Journal of Social Space, Vol.8, Issue 2, May 2005, pp. 112-125.

WEEK 5 - 348 WEST 22ND ST. APT. A, NEW YORK, NY 10011 AT RODEN GALLERY, SEOUL /TOKYO OPERA CITY OF ART GALLERY/ SERPENTINE GALLERY, LONDON /BIENNALE OF SYDNEY,, SEOUL, TOKYO, LONDON SYDNEY, 2000-2001 , DO HO SUH; ROGER KEMP

MEMORY. MATERIAL. 

Do Ho Suh is a South Korean artist who explores concepts such as displacement, time, personal space and home through using material as memory, and vice versa. The sight visits to the children's bamboo garden and the ceiling of the Great Hall at NGVI, are both examples of other ways of provoking memory through the use of material.

At the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens, - Children’s Bamboo Garden, one is eased into relaxation through the control of the forest to create an interoperated shelter. In this state ones imagination can drift more easily into daydream. It being a children’s garden, I unconsciously drifted from stressed university student into a more childlike mindset.

The ceiling of the great hall at NGVI is similar in that it alters ones state of mind, and allows the imagination to relate the ceiling to memories. Personally my imagination drifted to churches, and my memories in them, as well as to warmer memories, due to the warmth of the light leaking through the glass.

My visual response for this week draws mainly from Do-Ho Suhs interests in ‘the specificity and the movability of space’ and his exploration into the ‘structure of the personal space and the possibility and impossibility of such individualised space”1 Do-Ho Suhs interest in how space can travel with a person both physically ( “clothing/ house”) and mentally (“space of memory”) as well the “boundaries between one and the other and between one and the many”.

My work is a model of a personal space tent, or refuge. I chose to make the tent out of typical curtain material, due to its sheer nature, its obvious alternative use and the way it reminds me personally of the dappled light of both the children’s garden and the glass ceiling at NGVI.  I see the tent being used when one needs a place to escape and daydream. The tent is easily transportable and so ties into the ideas expressed in 348 WEST 22^nd ST., APT. A, NEW YORK, NY 10011..., and the works ability to be folded into a suitcase. My choice of sheer fabric, apposed to opaque, allows the tent to be a suggestion of refuge, rather than offering any real protection; Accentuating the ‘barely there’ nature of personal space and memory. The slightly laced curtain material may evoke memories of specific houses or homes.  

1(Do Ho Suh in lui, J, ‘Do-Ho Suh’ in E McDonald (ed), Biennale of Sydney,  Sydney: Biennale of Sydney, 2002, catalogue for the 13^th Biennale of Sydney: (the world may be) fantastic, pp. 209-12) 

WEEK 6 - THE LONDON UNDERGROUND - A GRAPHICAL INTERIOR; ANTHONY FRYATT

GRAPHICAL INTERIOR. DIMENSIONAL SPACE. SYSTEMS. FANTASY

A picture i snuck of my commuter buddies on my way home. 

The London underground allows for mass transportation of commuters through the city whilst simultaneously disconnecting any real sense of geographical location. The system effects how one experiences the city as a whole; skewing time and space; zooming through tubes underneath the city, popping up at random points for travellers to resume their day using preconceived perceptions of time and space. Within these systems space becomes length and time, the train lines portals.

Henry Becks mapping of the system distorts geography to explore connections, creating a graphical diagram for commuters. The traditional map has been dramatically re-figured in order to simplify the system whilst creating its own identity of design. 

'Flatland: A romance of many dimensions’ explores the possibilities of new dimensions beyond our perception. The 2d protagonist finds himself in a one-dimensional world, and finds describing the second dimension difficult. Further in, 2D meets 3D and has just as much trouble comprehending this.

In the next reading ‘Italo Calvino ‘Invisible Cities’  explores the city of Leonia through personification. where the dump becomes an invisible mechanism or backbone of the city. "The boundaries between the alien, hostile cities are infected ramparts where the detritus of both support each other, overlap, mingle"1 This creates an interesting dynamic between the interior and exterior of the city, blurring this boundary, without the dump the city couldn't function, and it is to expel of it also creates it. 

The Melbourne city loop and Campbell arcade share a similar fantastical interior, with comparable mapping systems, visualising the transit as movement across a flat plane in-between dots and lines as in Flatland. In Campbell Arcade you feel disconnected from the city; it’s grungy and fantastical, with its art exhibitions and cafes. After Fryatt's lecture I see it as a portal connecting the fantasy transit system to the real world, but being neither.

I played with the distortion of space and time in regards to mapping or diagramming. Instead of using a transport system I mapped transitory stages of my life, purely as a way of coming at the mapping process in a fresh experimental way, without as many preconceived norms of process.  The first map portrays the world of line land, and is in 2d, with lines and circles without thought for time. The second I played with the new dimension of time, shortening and lengthening the transitory stages. This map also begins to become 3d. In the third I played with distance, and the 3d. And in the 4^th I tried to play with a more realistic portrayal of the transitory periods of my life. I then reflected on which map was the most successful in producing an understandable and navigational map.

I tried immolating the graphic feeling of typical transport companies. The weird upholstery design, not seen anywhere but bus, train and tram seats. The ugly diagrams, that make me think 'who would design that?". I see now that this relates to creating a new graphical language of the underground systems.

1 Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (Vintage: New Ed edition, 1997). 

WEEK 7 - SURFACE AS SIGHT ENCOUNTER - PHOEBE WELMAN WHITMAN

SURFACE. CONDITIONS. THE TEMPORAL. OCCASION. FRAME. 

Surface is more than a 2d plane. Whitman gave examples of surface as sight encounter, a composition, or a process of bringing the unseen into observation. Surface could be a boundary or an intensity. Whitman emphasised that the division of surface divides interiority and exteriority. Her lecture introduced James Gibsons quote; “surface is where light is reflected or absorbed, not the interior of the surface, not the inner substance, not the material that constitutes surface”. Surface is created through illumination, where we cannot see light filling the air, but only as it illuminates surface. 

Grosz introduced surface as sensation, sensation being the product of artistic practice – “art according to Gilles Deleuze…produces sensations, affects and intensities”1 . Grosz further elaborates with another Deleuze quote “sensations affects and intensities, while not readily identifiable, are clearly closely connected with forces, and particularly bodily forces, and their qualitative transformations”1 

Grosz explores the frame, and concludes that without frame “there can be no territory, and without territory”1 no expressive qualities. Thus explains that territory “may be understood as surface”, where “framing is the raw condition under which sensations are created…”1

We explored the Rhizome through further reading. The rhizome “implied a contact, and movement, between different milieus and registers, between areas that are usually thought of as distinct. …”the making of connections in this sense might be understood as a key modality of creativity in general.”2 This study of rhizome links to Pheobe Whitmans lecture and her emphasis on the importance of intuition, to be working with unknown result and connection to ones self. 

I spent some time under the dappled shade of a tree as encouraged. I created a map of the moving shadows across my body, focussing on the intensity of feelings on my skin. I then abstracted the map to include any intensity, be it emotional, physical, structural or abstract. This allowed me to explore aspects of interiority, where interior could be defined by these intensities. This relates to surface dividing interior with exterior and Groszs exploration of frame. 

1 Elizabeth Grosz, 'Chaos, Cosmos, Territory, Architecture' in Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze And The Framing Of The Earth (Colombia University Press: New York, 2008).

2 Simon O'Sullivan, 'Rhizomes, Machines, multiplicities and Maps: Notes Towards an Expanded Art Practice ( Beyond Representation)' in Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari; Thought beyond Representation (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2006).

WEEK 8 - PALACIO BAROLO - OLIVIA PINTOS LOPEZ

ANALOGY. ALLEGORY. TRANSMITTANCE. 

Olivia Pintos-Lopes expressed an allegory to be 'a symbolic representation of abstract ideas by characters, figures/ events' whilst analogy to be a comparison based on similarities. These were then linked to heterotopias  - 'imagined', 'perfected', 'social' utopias and transmittance. I see the lecture as a version of all of these ideas whilst trying also to explain other allegories, analogies, heterotopias through transmittance. 

The destinations expressed in the lecture create their independence through the transmittance from their historical roots.  Argentina, Buenos aires and  Palacio Barolo, can be seen as analogies for the greater understanding of a way of life or a culture.

Buenos Aires is a 'vibrant' city with strong social and historical connections to Europe. These connections are imprinted on the city, yet Buenos Aires still stands independent to it. Through Olivia Pintos Lopez's travels she now sees Argentina as a "confused" country, with equally confused residents; She sees the city as an "overblown' mash up", where time is a loose concept and psychoanalyses is common and everyday.  

In Dantes work allegory is portrayed through highly realistic characters acting as metaphors for his reality. “Dante journeys successively through each of these three kingdoms, leading us on a personal guided tour of the landscape of the medieval afterlife”1   Dantes social commentary is "a warts and all portrait of a fractious medieval community, at the centre of which is Dante himself”1.  Quoting Margaret Wertheim in The Pearly Gates of Cyperspace “The virtual worlds being constructed on computers today usually bear little or no relationship to the world of our daily experience. For most virtual reality pundits, escape from daily reality is precisely the point. Dante, however, was not trying to escape daily life; on the contrary he grounded his virtual world’ in real people, real events and real history. Rather than trying to escape reality he was obsessed with it.”1 This speaks of allegory – and now can be related to modern use of the internet and social media.

I was intrigued this week by the concepts of identity being both a reflection and a creation; thus the ideas of analogy, allegory and transmittance over time through juxtapositions of culture telling the story of a place and the portrayal of this being the allegory.  We were asked to do an internet search and map this search as we got deeper and deeper into cyberspace and visit the Eureka Skydeck. The activities gave me the idea of telling my own allegory of Melbourne, through the way it has been portrayed to me, as someone who has recently made the move.  I searched the internet to find out how others viewed Melbourne. As i got deeper into my search i found comments in chat rooms to statistical research on population and growth. 

1 Margaret Wertheim, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace - a history of space from dante to the internet (australia and New zealand: doubleday Books, 2000);pp.44-75