inspiration and words for thought

"Draw a movement, draw a line, very early on"

" 'Experimental design' attempts to grasp the various atmospheres and specific characteristics of a place. What a place narrates are the experiences that it allows. An essential element in 'place making' is the planning of temporal sequences [....] of experiences. Streets or paths are discussed in terms of their potential for allowing experiences, or as structures of time. The 'underlying structures of how the streets work, how people work with spaces' is evoked by images. "

The Jerde Partnership

E Krasny The Force is in the Mind - The Making of Architecture Birkhauser, 2008

work in progress - zooming in

"Architecture does not simply suggest movement, it frequently choreographs it, encouraging us to move in particular ways, adopting particular position, sometimes quite insistently. How clear it is with stairways.

Short step,

with no landings,

tell your body

to move straight

up, no pausing,

no turning".

Architecture Inside Out K A Franck, R B Lepori, Wiley-Academy, 2000

h. saarinen still stairs (2000)

Explorative work in progress seen and discussed today - maheen, jasvinder, chloe, noel, rinaben, sakina, mehul

task 2 introduced.

Place on a site locally on campus

How does it change the choreography/performer/spatial connectors?

draw

create

edit

narrow down time frame

focus / expand activity

spatial environment

interaction by others

Developing work.. TASK 2

Making sense

Having started experiments with body, space and performance based activities (choreographies) and connecting these elements, you will start to zoom in and refine this initial work to spatial scenarios.

Instructions

You will be given another task (2) instructing you to eliminate, add and generally make as coherent the activity as possible, at this stage.

Does my bum look big in this?

You will start to address the value of props, dress code and the surroundings. How does these influences adjust, transform or even interfere with the initial ideas of spontaneous exploration? How do you now address these peripheral, yet crucial aspects?

Action

You are to produce drawings, illustrative and live elements of this - using ink, paper, collage as well as continuing to record process and choreographies using time based media (film/audio etc.,) together with conventional spatial methods (survey, CAD etc).

Work in Progress Critique coming up - see Studynet for details of crit week.

h.saarinen 'trappan..' (2009)

Start thinking about........................

What is the activity?

Where is it taking place? When?

By whom? (include everyone, passers-by etc., if relevant)

What props/dress code/furniture/structures are present/needed?

Any constraints?

Access routes/entry/exit?

Other surrounding activity?

Please refer to Studynet for details and full brief for project and tasks - this is extracted information

Experiments - presented 15th Feb 2010

ally

Walking – experiencing space

Forwards backwards around

Slowly

With interruptions

Backwards in half circles

Sideways

To and fro

Get lost in the walking

Here there to the edges in lines / curves

Stepping high, low, heavy

Exaggerating rhythms

Come across a stillness

Listen to the rhythms, sounds momentum of the stepping

Allow patterns to develop

miranda tufnell/vanishing point

natalie

Wow - this was a truly glorious start to the project. very happy with the brave attempts, tests, trials, experiments, ad hoc thinking - and to see you all stretch the imagination so far - great.

This is what the design process (in any project, in fact) should be all about - the trial and error of process; methods and techniques that evolve from each step of discovery. It is impossible to make a good attempt at anything without trying out a range of techniques and methods - then, only then, I believe, can you start to comprehend the many options that this discovery gives. Only then, can you start to build on this, step by step, as each step given you the ideas for the next stage. The beauty is, with this project, that visually, many of you already hold important work. This is a good beginning. Let's go further, let's stay curious - and see where it takes you. Enjoy..

h

Some work seen this week >

sakina

ewa

ellie

nikita

beth

emma

bahwi

TASK 2 to follow shortly. In the meantime, you know what to do with the current work - as per presentations and feedback agreed on Thursday. Develop the work and link spatially where ever possible, although at this early stage it is still a very experimental process - body - movement - space - interaction -------

Remember you must keep a D I A R Y throughout this project. This is to include thoughts on process, how and why you do things.. later you will be able to use this as evidence to what you have learned, done, tried etc.. You will use the diary for your recording in writing and in sketch form. then, additionally, you will use the film, audio and other such equipment for time based recording (as has already started).

Use the facilities - borrow equipment - have some fun with it and get creating the choreographies...

h

CHECK TIMETABLE FOR THIS WEEK

I WILL BE WITH YOU NEXT WEEK

EMAIL IF ANY QUESTIONS or TO SHOW OR DISCUSS PROCESS

New project begins

This is the new project blog - analysing site, space and body - connections through choreography and performance..

More later...

------Present experiments (TASK 1) Monday 15th February 2010

after guest lecture at 11 by Gary Thorne, Head of Design, RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). All to attend, with lev 3 in lecture space. Very relevant for our project.. take notes, get inspired.