4 Annotations : Assessment
Week 1
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Draft: Annotation 1- How to Encounter a Puddle, Anny Li
I began to create a draft of this weeks reading fro my annotation and created further notes, so I could understand the work, and apply it to my spatial design process.
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Week 2
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Draft: Annotation 2- Support Structures, Condorelli Celine
I began to create a draft of this weeks reading fro my annotation and created further notes, so I could understand the work, and apply it to my spatial design process.
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Week 3
I really enjoyed going this walk, it was different what we usually do class. I loved that artworks that we explored throughout the walk, and found that I engaged and understood the meanings a purpose of these works, better that expected.
Week 4
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Self Chosen: Annotation 3- Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing (youtube video) , Francis Alys.
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Week 5
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Self Chosen: Annotation 4- On how to grow an idea, Jenny Odell
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Week 6
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Final Annotation Formative:
Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
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Week 10
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As part of my development of figuring out who I am as designer, and in relation to my intervention for my Fabrications colour project. In my intervention I am producing a installation, and as a designer I like to explore spaces that investigate the relationship between the occupants and the space. So I looked at some installation works to help my further process.
For the development of my final Abstract and Contextual Practice Essay I began to develop and confirm my ideas, concepts and thoughts, of what I want to explore in my essay, in relation to my design practice. From the texts of all my readings throughout the year that relate to the ideas and concepts that I want to discuss in my essay in relation I selected a couple. From the tutorials I chose to discuss “Politics of Installation” by Boris Groys. From my own exploration I chose to discuss the readings “Lines of Enquiry” by Ro Spankie, “The Waiting Room” by Susan Hedges, and the films “Paradox of Praxis 1” by Francis Alys, “Deep See Blue Surrounding You” by Laure Prouvost, and the artwork installtion “In Real Life” by Olafur Eliasson
This is my exploration of ideas of what I want to discuss and explore in my abstract, in relation to me as a designer and who I want to be.
Before writing my abstract and essay, I did some brainstorming and planning of my ideas in relation of what type of designer I am and I want to be, and in relation to my intervention.
This is my essay plan/layout of what I am covering in my essay.
Abstract Draft
What is the relationship between the inhabitant and the designed space, and how does this effect the experience through a interactive and collaborative motion?
My intervention enclosed by the St James Theatre explores the relationship between the inhabitants and the designed space between Queen Street and Lorne Street through a collaborative installation. The design of the installation is for the inhabitants to interact and collaborate with the space through motion and movement, to question their identity in relation to the surrounding space and people.
The installation design is submerged with colour and light, through geometric structures crawling along the walling and ceiling, reflecting light and patterning around the space. With the main idea exploring the relationship between the occupants and the space, the steel material of the structure and the shadowing the occupants disbursing the patterning, the space becomes a mirror of identity. Allowing the interactive space to be a gateway of fonding self-identity, in relation to the space and surround guests; the viewers will not only connect to the space but will become apart of through their reflections. Creating an unforgettable experience.
Through my process and investigation texts that have helped inform my design practice are “Lines of Enquiry” by Ro Spankie, “The Waiting Room” by Susan Hedged,“Politics of Installation” by Boris Groys, and artworks “Paradox of Praxis” by Francis Alys, “Deep See Blue” by Laure, and “In Real Life” by Olafur Eliasson. These works have helped my investigation and exploration of a designing and creating an intervention that explores the relationship between the occupant and the space through a collaborative motion, to create a connectional experience.
Essay Draft
We live in a world where everything we perceive and visualise is based on emotions and memories from pre-existing experiences. This process has become such a significant factor in design practises, with how art will be distinguished and interacted. As a designer, I’m fascinated by the divergent ways of how people’s thoughts and sentiments effect their relationship between spaces. My intervention into the St James Theatre space will investigate this notion through an interactive collaboration walkway connecting Queen St to Lorne St; this space allows the inhabitants to become apart of the work, collaborating through their presence and movement of the space. While investigating this notion of the relationship between space and occupants I’ve begun to wonder how this relates to myself as a designer; I am in the second year of my degree and still figuring out who I am and what processes and techniques I will strengthen throughout my practice and further career. Right now, I am beginning to understand and acknowledge my style and what is significant to me, and how I will depict these concepts through my further practice. I want to be a qualified designer that expresses the importance of a relationship between the inhabitants and the space to create an experiential connection, what is critical to engage this interaction between the inhabitants and the designed space? How do the individuals own experiences and emotions alter the relationship? What qualities of design create this meaningful experience? How does the motion of collaboration between the space and inhabitant create a connectional experience or raising questions about their own identities and relationships to others and life?
Everyone that will interact and come into contact with my space will have different backgrounds in life, so their experience and perception of my work will vary with each. Depending on their pre-existing experiences will influence whether the inhabitants will engage. So I began to wonder how do people of different backgrounds and experiences connect and interact within the same space? And why do they each have their own reaction? In Ro Spankie “Lines of Enquiry”, the main discussion that is depicted is in connection to Freud’s layout of his spaces, which describes the placement of everything in the environment, and how the patients or individuals would react or relate to the space. Her ideas explain the idea of the layout of the interior connecting with people, through the furniture layout in the interior environment, to trigger their personal experiences and memories. “It is not simply a physical space, it is also a memory, a method, and a metaphor” (2), portraying how the room’s layout manipulates the mind to speak without hesitation creating a safe and peaceful experience—explaining how the interior connects with the mind instead, instead of a building itself, further creating a connectional experience. This is a similar idea in Susan Hedges “The Waiting Room” which addresses the concept of different reactions between spaces, with evoking emotions from past experiences. She details her ideas through the notion of a waiting room, where the environment creates a feeling, which will become subconsciously present to similar spaces. “The waiting drawing is represented as a paneled interior of recurrence, an experience of time, and a prediction of time on itself(1)”. Portraying how the occupants react to the waiting room in a similar manner to waiting at a train stop, or a hospital waiting room, because the notion of boredom will take over, resulting in similar action subconsciously—detailing how your psyche tells you how to interact and behave in reaction to related surrounding spaces. As a designer that is trying to discover my path and personality, I ultimately find myself relating with both Spankie and Hegdes’s opinions, with basing my work and consciously thinking about the concept of how peoples experience will trigger them to react within the space. I conclusively want to produce work and space that people will not only be able to consciously connect with but to relate and remember through their experiences.
In my studio work, I am investigating the relationship between colour and spatial practices, which I am portraying through the notion of the relationship between the occupant and the space in a collaborative motion. The inhabitants will be submerged in bright lights and reflective surfaces, making shadows and mirrors of the inhabitants. This creating an experience of identity, which triggers and reacts with the emotions and memories of self identity; making the occupants question whom they really are within the space and compared to the surrounding people.
Throughout the development of my practices and knowledge, I try to produce works that have the ability for viewers to relate or connect to the space with experience. Yet I’ve struggled to create works that everyone will be able to personally relate to, based on their own experiences, due to everyone’s different lives. Most people that observe my works visually don’t always understand the meanings and purpose of the work first hand, and usually base their opinions on the visual aspects and aesthetics. So began to explore what are the qualities of design that create and meaningful experience and allows the viewers to connect with. I found the short film “Paradox of Praxis 1”, by Francis Alys which depicts how a strong visual message and use of meaningful materiality can engage and connect with the viewers. Francis portrays himself pushing a block of ice through the streets of Mexico til the ice has melted into nothing but liquid, with the material of ice depicting the struggles of the residents of Mexico with their daily lives and success. “You do not need to witness this action in order to imagine it”, he defines that the viewers don’t need to physically live through the residents struggles to imagine their pain and hardships. This notion of having a simple yet powerful message portrayed through the materiality allows the viewers to connect with the work on a deeper level, creating a connectional experience. This idea has inspired my work by relating the all uses of materials to the idea of identity and using it as a gateway to evoke emotions.
In my intervention of bright lights and reflective surfaces, causing the inhabitants to recognise and question who they are in relation to the surrounding environment: is this whom they are, or whom they want to be. With my strong visual message of identity, the viewers will understand my idea not only metaphorically but physically, with the medium all being the message. I want the process of finding self-identity not just be internal with relating one’s self visually to the work, but physically and becoming apart of the work, to further engage and connect. Through the artist interact, we learn and can visualise the idea he is trying to portray, so I began to explore how I could create an interactive element to my work to have a meaningful connection.
I realised that for the relationship between the occupant and the space to be connected and meaningful, there would have to be a motion of interaction or collaboration. I decided that to create this bond that I would produce an installation that interacted with the inhabitants. What is an installation? Art critic Boris Groys’s essay “Politics of Installation”, defines installation as an “enclosed space that seems to be transformed into a platform for public discussion, democratic practice, communication” (3). He further describes that “it invites the visitor experience this space as the holistic, totalising space of an artwork” (4), detailing that these spaces are open to all, with the installation creating a collective experience, creating this bond between strangers and the space.
The collaborative process of installation creates a strong bond between the viewer and the space, which is present in Laure Prouvost film of her installation “Deep See Blue Surrounding You”. The installation bases itself as an octopus with its tentacles representing a different individual, touching different surfaces and life experiences, making the viewers question whom they can relate to and somewhat connect based on their experiences. This causes the audience to question their own self-identity and misunderstanding, questioning themselves further. This has inspired my practice in my intervention I want the lights from all around the room to reflect and bounce of a geometrically shaped wall, causing a reflection of patterning to be interrupted by the viewer’s shadows. Allowing the viewers to see themselves within the reflection of the geometric wall and their shadows, not knowing which one is theirs; this allows my work to not give the viewers the complete picture like in Prouvosts work, allowing the viewers to work the experience of identity out for themselves.
For this specific design intervention, I was attracted to my artist model Olafur Eliasson stunning work “In Real Life” (2019-2020), the artists captivating installations, allows you to sense, and the people surrounding you and the world beyond. Olafur’s use of reflective surfaces and brightly coloured lights results with large coloured patterning that reflects along the walls; they become disturbed with the interaction of the audience.
I am inspired by this work, and I want the inhabitants to be submerged in the colourful patterns and geometric reflective surfaces, that causes the audience to question who they are in relation to the surrounding environment: is this whom they are, or whom they want to be. I want the process of finding self-identity not just be internal with relating one’s self visually to the work, but physically and becoming apart of the work, to further engage and connect, creating a connectional experience. Altogether by condensing and exploring these new creative insights of the relationship between the occupant and the space and how to create a meaningful experience for the inhabitants, it has allowed for further understand in my spatial design practice, as well as further works within creating spaces. Depicting how the relationship between the inhabitant and space in any situation, can become meaningful to the viewer, and the process of collaboration and interacting, allows the bond to strengthen. The ideas explored in each of these texts has allowed a powerful static installation space, that triggers the public experience and questions their self-identity in relation to the surrounding world and people.
Below is my Final Assignment Submission for Spatial Theory II: Abstract and Contextual Practice Essay.
