structures (in progress)

Greenwich Park

We all felt that our project so far had become a little bit dry and restricted to computers and studio work, and so we took ourselves to Greenwich park for a day of living within the borders we'd set ourselves. This helped us to understand what we were trying to achieve, and hopefully communicated the more tangible aspects of our concept to others. 

Pictograms

A series of pictograms representing the 10 points of our manifesto, taking the first letter of each point in our typeface, and using it visually, to represent the point. This is a simplified, reduced way of depicting complex points that could prove useful in relaying information to a wide range of people with maybe different dialects or even languages. 

visuals

trying to adapt visuals to a rigid concept of numbers and structure, cells came to mind.

Typeface

We have created a typeface using just 10 different shapes. By reflecting and rotating these shapes we created the letterforms of the alphabet.

Here is a Pangram sentence with each letter of the aphabet being used:

Manifesto

After researching Numerology and the association between words and numbers we compiled a 10 point manifesto to be applied to the country. This is a method of bringing structure to the country similar to the diagrams designed by Maslow and Steward.

1. Individual

2. Balance

3. Communication

4. Habitat

5. Motion

6. Synthesis

7. Wisdom

8. Preservation

9. Ethics

10. Rebirth

The list can be rearranged by priority as the country moves and adapts forming new coordinates.

nikki graziano

an interesting blog entry about Nikki Graziano here.

applying mathematical formulas to nature can tie in with our ideas of creating a numerical system.

Numerology

So this is how our ideas have progressed so far at the start of this week. We were interested in the concept of a border as an individual, abstract concept, something that really is only a symbol on a piece of paper, that means something to the person reading it. Our thought processes therefore turned to the idea of nomadic living, but a pre-determined nomadic existence, where each subsequent move would shape the borders of the country. Numbers, much like borders and boundaries are also symbols that when written, really relate to an idea, or amount, and so research began into the idea of numerology (above are some rough notes and sketches), where each number means something symbolically, from 1 to 10. We then translated these entries from 1 to 10 randomly into sets of co-ordinates that, when placed on a 10 x 10 grid, shape the border of the country automatically. By moving clockwise from each point to the next to form the next border, the path of travel and the physical shape of the country are removed from any sense of editorial or aesthetic choice, a form of code, a formula for living, an idea that has followed through for most of this project. Our next line of investigation will determine exactly what each number from 1 to 10 will symbolically mean and represent (to form a manifesto), and also develop a set method of randomly generating co-ordinates, in order to take any aspect of choice out of the user's hands. 

Migration and Borders

Migration routes and patterns display an uncontained approach to borders and therefore contribute to the concept of an 'ever changing' country mentioned in a previous post.

This diagram displays migration routes of wildebeest in Tanzania. The movement and view of borders as obsolete is interesting. Whilst the herd still retains a shape it is constantly varying in space and density.

I Think, Therefore I Am

All the talk of doubt in space (Perec), and ideas of simple phrases or statements that could be interpreted in either way, seemed reminiscent of Descartes' approach to philosophy. Descartes' sceptical approach to doubting every statement until it can be proved true, works in a similar way to how Perec suggests we define space around us, and further still, the borders of countries. Further still, Descartes' theory of fallacy suggests that any statement is both true and false at the same time, the most obvious example being, 'this statement is false'. This idea of doubt and paradox could be interesting when considering the writing of rules or statements about our country, and could be a useful way of dealing with ideas of changing borders or individual interpretation.   

Lawrence Weiner

 Lawrence Weiner has been a prominent conceptual artist since the 1960s, when his book 'Statements', a collection of texts describing artworks and ideas, was first published. In terms of thinking about space as 'doubt' or a country as indefinable, existing only to the individual, Weiner's work seems particularly relevant. 

 All of Weiner's work is based upon, and intrinsically connected to a self-imposed manifesto that states: 

1. The Artist may construct the piece

2. The piece may be fabricated

3. The piece need not be built

 To state that the idea or concept of a piece of work is as important, or more important than the piece itself, was revolutionary and has helped to reshape how art is thought about and taught.

 In terms of the project, then: 

We were thinking about how formulas and structured diagrams can help to structure a way of working that will create coherent responses, and maybe this could be achieved through a written manifesto or set of rules. Furthermore, Weiner's basic approach to art links with Perec's writing about borders: just because the piece doesn't exist physically, this does not make the idea any less valid. Similarly, just because a country's borders are not physically set in stone, this does not make it any less of a country. 

 Once we have a clearer idea of how we want our country to behave, it might be interesting to play with the idea of a manifesto that could be flexible and vague, seemingly rigid, yet with room for interpretation, much like the work see in 'formulas for now', or even the borders of space that Perec describes.  

ames room

species of spaces and other pieces

Georges Perec´s 1974 novel “species of spaces and other pieces” explores the spaces in which we inhabit, initially referring to the page of the book and then proceeding from space to space: the bed, bedroom, the apartment, and so forth, and thus bringing up the idea of "the country". Perec examines the idea of space; as stated in the forward “The subject of this book is not the void exactly, but rather what there is round about or inside it. To start with, then, there isn’t very much: nothingness, the impalpable, the virtually immaterial; extension, the external, what is external to us, what we move about in the midst of, our ambient milieu, the space around us.” Perec illustrates the mundane aspects of these spaces, which in turn presents unexpected sides of these typical spacial concepts. Perec mentions the idea of "imaginary limits" when it comes to boundaries between countries, and the amount of variations that consist within bordering countries, for example, signs, shape of houses, shape of fields, etc, but also the basis by which we measure space: meridian line, equator, sea level. In addition, the value that space has, and the amount of fighting that has resulted over even the smallest of areas. Perec mentions that space is vulnerable, fragile, it wears with time, but he also mentions “space as doubt”, that we are the creators of our own interpretation of a variety of spaces, but that space is defined as space because we define it, we indicate its existence.

With Perec in mind, the idea that space exists as a concept in our minds, can mean that space potentially exists differently from one person to the other; that a country can be uniquely defined as not a fixed entity but rather ever changing.

FORMULAS FOR NOW

The Steward Band and Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs are examples of theological diagrams that can be applied to society. This can display a more elementary view on how a civilisation can function as a whole.

The idea of having a structure or set of rules for living is a good place to start narrowing down our research and developing a direction to be more specific.

Otl Aicher and Reduction

 Otl Aicher's Isny Project seemed an appropriate point of reference at this stage, as we have been discussing ideas of reduction and simplicity for some time now. As the pictures indicate, Aicher took thousands of photographs of the town of Isny in Germany, to create a visual language of black and white pictograms for the tourist office to use. The sheer exactitude and simplicity of the results are a clear solution to the depth and complexity of everyday views, and combine to create a coherent and consistent method by which every aspect of the town, from recreation to industry, can be portrayed. 

 Ideas of simplicity and minimalism were important to us as we began to consider the language of signs and symbols in perhaps representing a much more complex idea or concept. 

Signage and Semiotics

 Some of our earliest thoughts surrounding the ideas of a country or society were founded in the language of signage and semiotics. The visual simplicity and, conversely, confusion arising from the examples above seem an apt example of how signs can over-simplify and often confuse instead. We felt that when talking about signage, that often it can be overly-prescriptive, and began to wonder what a society would be like if it was either told everything, all the time, through signs, or left to interpret situations and objects on its own terms? 

 

Elephant & Castle 2: Shopping Centre

Some images from the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, adjacent to the Heygate Estate. Originally intended as the centre of the surrounding community, the Centre now has the same sense of emptiness and loneliness as an airport. Similarly, the focus was on composition and pattern, there was a great sense of aesthetics in the most unlikely places. 

Elephant & Castle

 Our first point of research was the Heygate Estate (now closed) in Elephant & Castle. Originally intended as a modernist exercise in utopian forward-thinking, the largest estate in Europe is perhaps one of the most poignant reminders of how spectacularly the European 60's and 70's take on modernism failed, becoming a centre of deprivation and crime. 

 However, whilst it is easy for us to criticise such places with the benefit of hindsight, it was hard not to feel a sense of awe for what the original plans wanted to achieve, and it was with this in mind that we planned a purely objective photographic exploration of the area.

This resulted in a focus on the compositional elements of the estate, every view presented a different, mixed, sense of perspective and scale, and a study of the colours and materials that have been left there. The fact that much of the aesthetics that remain are purely functional (grills over staircases, grey paint blocking doorways) actually seemed to add to the austere beauty of the remaining buildings. 

 Our thinking behind using the Heygate Estate as a starting point for visual research was simply to see how past solutions to group living had been planned, and to gain a visual knowledge of the ways in which people were intended to live. 

  

Brief

Invent a new country.

Considering :

*The identity of this country.

*How the land has evolved.

*Adaptation to environment.

*Social/Political structures.

*Culture

*Faith

*Utopia