Introduction | Theory
| Report | Conclusion | Appendix
| Bibliography
WALK. | Changing the Perception of Public Space
MA Project | MA Typo/Graphic Studies | LCP | London
Constantin Demner | 2004
INTRODUCTION_
The Ashanti medicine men strive to know every plant, animal, and
insect in their forests by name and to understand the spiritual properties
of each. They are able to "read" their forests as a complex
and ever-unfolding document. However the modern city dweller tends to
follow his predetermined paths, travelling through the urban space without
ever stopping to question and understand the history and meaning engrained
into the habitat to which he belongs. The following quote by Alan Moore
describes the beauty and importance of local knowledge.
"I think that all too often, in the 21st Century,
and throughout the 20th Century, we tend to spend our everyday existence
walking along streets or driving along streets that we have no real understanding
of, even if we see them everyday, and they just become fairly meaningless
and bleak blocks of concrete, whereas, if you happen to know that such-and-such
a poet was incarcerated inside an asylum upon this street or that such-and-such
a murder happened here or that such-and-such a fabulous, legendary queen
is buried in this vicinity: all of these little stories, it makes the
places that we live much richer if we have a knowledge of these things.
All of a sudden, you're not walking down mundane, dull, everyday streets
anymore, you're walking down fabulous avenues full of wonderful ideas
and incredible stories." [1]
Having worked in the advertising industry for several years and thus aware
of the restrictions that apply when working for clients, I chose to attend
an MA course in Graphic Design so as to dedicate time to the study and
experimentation of the medium in the absence of limitations. The step
out of the monotonous office-environment seemed to be essential. Inspired
by movements in the urban space, such as skateboarding, long walks through
familiar and new terrains, observing the immense amounts of personal expression
in public space, the 19th century flaneur and the Situationist practice
of the Dérive [2]. I planned to create a project, which encourages
the urban dweller to appreciate his surroundings.
Building upon my previous work set in urban environments and a strong
interest in public space the following project translates urban observations
into an accessible communication that is placed back into the same space
the observations were originally made. Having never been significantly
inspired by the traditional sense of site seeing, I became motivated to
communicate site-specific information in a more poetical and accessible
manner, leaving the viewer enough space for personal interpretation. This
approach aims to challenge the conventional dry information found in most
guides or inscriptions.
I decided to place a narrative in the street; a narrative that could be
read by a series of interconnected frames, placed in public space. These
frames should work as an addition to the space itself - the creation of
a structure that would allow the urban traveller to read a story set in
his immediate surroundings without the need for any preparations such
as carrying a guidebook or following a tour guide.
The following text is divided into two main chapters. The first aims to
outline issues surrounding the urban environment, public space and site-specific
information; it forms the theoretical foundation on which the practical
aspect is based. The second chapter documents the process undergone through-out
the duration of my practical work.
_______________________________________________________________
THE THEORY_
Urbanism and cities_
The word Urbanism describes the proportion of the total population concentrated
in urban settlements in relation to the population living in rural environments.
In 1900 only one country in the world – Great Britain – could
be described as predominantly urbanized; today roughly 50% of the worlds
population live in cities. The ancient Greeks [3] hypothesised that in
order to maintain stability a city's population should not surpass 50,000.
Nonetheless, in the year 2000, 19 cities worldwide topped the 10 million
mark. This extreme density of urban population involves a degree of human
contact that exceeds the observed communities of any other large animal,
suggesting the behaviour of communal insects rather than of mammals [4].
The industrialisation that occurred in recent centuries encouraged workers
to migrate to the "promising" city environment in search of
greater employment opportunities. It is commonly agreed that without this
mass movement most major cities would have shrunk due to high mortality
rates that result from increased exposure to illness, pollution and cramped
living conditions. The wealthy streets of a city are often found directly
juxtaposed with a darker area of intense labour and very poor living standards
- often squashed into narrow back streets. With the advent of city planning
the commercial street became a weapon against the slums. Some have been
known to compare the slum's sanitary conditions with the moral state of
their inhabitants: the pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted,
who contributed to the design of Central Park in New York City, believed
that the physical and mental well-being of a cities population translated
directly into its economic health.
By and large London is a nineteenth-century construction, its main legacy
an infrastructure of railways, sewers, banks, new suburbs and broad straight
streets. Yet such innovations lay side by side something more archaic:
back alleys, crooked buildings, the labyrinth of the poor. Throughout
previous centuries the history of London has been stamped by ongoing development
coming hand in hand with relocations due to the constant growth of the
city. Many areas have been gentrified, the poor relocated to suburbs.
Regardless of benefits that can arise from neighborhood renovations, such
action can bring negative consequences to specific social circles, as
touched upon in Ruth Classe's following definition of gentrification.
"One by one, many of the working-class quarters
of London have been invaded by the middle-classes - upper and lower. Shabby,
modest mews and cottages - two rooms up and two down - have been taken
over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive
residences.... Once this process of gentrification starts in a district
it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers
are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed."
Such a scenario was documented in 1850 by Thomas Beames expressing anger
towards the fact that the only people to benefit form gentrification are
the middle and upper classes [5].
"The council considers that a main cause of
this evil is what are falsely called the improvements which have recently
taken place in this part in the formation of New Oxford Street. The exported
inhabitants cannot, of course, derive any advantage from new erections,
and are forced to search out the yet remaining hovels situated in the
East."
Even now, groups of subdominant classes are relocated outside ever
moving city boarders through various stages of gentrification motivated
by economical interest. The effect of such relocations can be efficiently
examined by analyzing the banlieues in France. These are "ghetto-style"
dwellings generally inhabited by first and second-generation immigrants,
located in suburban areas of major cities such as Paris or Marseille.
The crime rates in these areas are high – living standards alarmingly
low. In such cases the problems have not been solved, they have just been
pushed out of sight.
Public Space_
The central theme running throughout my major project is public space6.
Definitions as to what consists of public space vary immensely. Steven
Carr et al provide a satisfying and comprehensive definition of pure public
space as:
"... responsive, democratic and meaningful
places that protect the rights of user groups. They are accessible to
all groups and provide for freedom of action but also for temporary claim
and ownership. A public space can be a place to act more freely... Ultimately,
public space can be changed by public action, because it is owned by all...
In public space, people can learn to live together." [7]
Accordingly, public space is the stage in which public life is acted out.
It includes roads, pavements, parks and squares. However, throughout the
history of any city, public space has not been equally welcoming to all
members of the public. The movement from public space welcoming large
sections of society (upon certain disciplinary conditions) towards a public
space that excludes "subordinate" people outright and more strictly
disciplines even the dominant classes, occurs more than ever. Could it
be feared that the democracy of public space is endangered? Economical
powers regard the individual using public space as the consumer. Advertisements,
aimed at catching the attention of the consumer, smother the public domain
in the urban environment. Corporate institutions transform private space
into that of "public" space. Examples are the numerous shopping
malls and plazas arising all over the world. One unconsciously enters
these private properties assuming them to be public, yet at the same time
agrees to regulations and restrictions on behaviour imposed by the owner:
benches are designed in such ways that lying on them is either impossible
or uncomfortable, hydrants are configured with spikes to prohibit sitting
on them, handrails are equipped with bumps to make them impossible to
be used by skateboarders. It seems that urban space has been designed
to manoeuvre us from one sale to the next. Often such malls or constructed
"public" spaces copy the characteristics of other well-established
public areas. They are ambitious simulations that are trying to capture
and compress the character of places that have evolved over time. What
is missing is the authenticity of the place, described by Walter Benjamin
as "the aura of the place" [8]. These simulated places are built
over a very short time and are planned around immediate financial gains.
Nothing is left to chance; every aspect is detailed and controlled. Their
characteristics are therefore safe, predictable and sterile. The most
serious result of privatizing the public realm is the elimination of potential
forums for protest and revolution. The more isolated the public becomes
- and the less information the public has access to - the easier it is
to control and manipulate. Richard Sennett goes even a step further, believing
that "... in extricating the city from its
pre-planned control, the public will become more in control of themselves
and more aware of each other. That is the promise, and the justification,
of disorder." [9]
The Image of the City_ (WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE
TO KEVIN LYNCH)
"Looking at cities can give a special
pleasure, however commonplace the sight may be. Like a piece of architecture,
the city is a construction in space, but one of a vast scale, a thing
perceived only in the course of long spans of time. ... At every instant,
there is more than eyes can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting
or a view waiting to be explored. ... Every citizen has had long associations
with some parts of his city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings."
[10]
In his book "The Image of the City" written in the late 1950s,
Kevin Lynch describes and analyses the images of cities as readable symbols
that can be put into coherent patterns, allowing the citizen to understand
and navigate in his surroundings. Lynch categorizes these patterns as
follows:
___Paths
The most important pattern is that of paths, channels along which the
urban traveler moves such as streets, pavements, railroads or highways.
For many people paths are the predominant pattern in their image of a
city as they lead them from one place to another. Paths in London could
be a certain bus route. Personally the route of the 168 bus is particularly
memorable as it was the path I followed from home to University in my
first year living in London.
___Edges
Edges are the linear elements not considered as paths. Lying between paths
as walls, shores, rivers or railroad cuts, they can be seen as barriers
or linear breaks in continuity. Edges are lateral references rather than
coordinate axes. These elements are important for many people, particularly
in the role of holding together generalized areas. One of London's most
prominent edges (though some may view it as a path!) is the River Thames,
functioning as a visual boarder of South London.
___Districts
Districts are larger sections of the city with a common identifiable
character. An explorer may enter a district and distinguish it from its
inside as well as from its outside. London's districts speak for themselves
– Brixton, Soho, Camden Town, South Kensington – all carry
their very own association.
___Nodes
Nodes break the flow of transportation such as a crossing of paths
or even an enclosed square. They are strategic spots in a city into which
an observer can enter.
___Landmarks
As with nodes, landmarks are a of point reference, except in this
case the observer cannot enter; they are solely external. Some landmarks
can be seen from the distance (such as the Gherkin or Centerpoint in London),
some are entirely local such as monuments, shop-signs, trees, or any other
form of urban detail, and seem to be increasingly relied upon as a journey
becomes more and more familiar. Interestingly, monuments generally function
as spatial orientation points, rather than conveying the message of its
original purpose.
In theory, a perfectly legible city would be one whose pathways, edges,
districts and landmarks are easily identifiable and can be logically grouped
into an over-all pattern. Lynch also stresses that:
"Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its
surroundings, the sequence of events building up to it, the memory of
past experiences. ... The image of a city is never stable, it always changes."
[11] The elements described by Lynch never exist in isolation, they stand
in relation to each other usually overlapping and piercing each other.
He sees people as moving elements and judges them as important as the
stationary physical parts of a city.
"We are not simply observers of this spectacle,
but are ourselves a part of it, on the stage with the other participants.
Most often, our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial,
fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation,
and the image is the composite of them all." [12]
Kevin Lynch has provided city planners and architects with an analysis
of the readability of cities which still today, more than 40 years after
its first publication, serves as the elementary textbook in this field.
Walking / Psychogeography /Dérive_
Possibly one of the most intriguing and characteristic figures
of European urban modernity is the observing city flaneur: Walter Benjamin,
Georg Simmel, Siegfried Kracauer and Charles Dickens, to name but a few,
were individuals well known for their obsession in taking walks through
their city environments. In contrast to the tourist, who also establishes
his presence in city spaces, most often sightseeing as
"a form of a ritual, ... stemming from a collective sense that certain
sights must be seen" [13] , the flaneur seeks out neither
predetermined sights nor professional guidance, but instead goes after
the immediate process of seeing itself. Susan Sontag makes a clear distinction
between the flaneur and the regular tourist:
"The flaneur is not attracted to the city's
official realities but to its dark seamy corners, its neglected populations."
[14]
In the 1960s The Situationist International, a group of avant-garde artists
and intellectuals influenced by Dada and Surrealism, tried to turn their
work dealing with the representation of everyday life of citizens into
revolutionary action, opposing the rise of capitalism and modernist movements
in architecture. Believing in the individual rather than the masses, the
Situationists opposed Le Corbusiers visions of rational architecture,
calling for the infilling of urban space, not its opening up. The production
of excess space was seen to encourage the capitalist circulation of things,
which then trapped the inhabitants within it. [15] The Situationist's
applied methodologies included the Dérive and Psychogeography.
The latter is an inexact science dealing with the personal observation
of spaces, and the former an urban stroll influenced by the 19th century
flaneur and the surrealist stroll. The Dérive was used as the central
form of observing the city, the gathered information was then translated
into non-conventional reports and maps.
Rules for a Dérive
1. One or more persons may dérive
2. The most fruitful numerical arrangement consists of several groups
of two or three people.
3. It is preferable for the composition of these groups to change from
one dérive to another.
4. Drop your usual motives for movement and action, relations, work and
leisure activities.
5. The average duration of a dérive is a day, considered as the
time between two periods of sleep.
6. The times of beginning and ending have no necessary relation to the
solar day.
7. The last hours of the night are generally unsuitable for dérives.
8. A dérive seldom occurs in its pure form.
9. The spatial field of the dérive may be precisely delimited or
vague.
10. The spatial field depends first of all on the point of departure.
11. The maximum area of this spatial field does not extend beyond the
entirety of a large city and its suburbs.
12. The minimum area can be limited to a small self-contained ambiance
(the extreme case being the static-dérive of an entire day within
the Saint-Lazare train station).
Extrapolated from Debord, Guy; Theory of
the Dérive. 1958
Site Specific Art_
"As a practice and methodology, site-specificity
operates with an understanding of the rational complex of subject and
object, as bound to the specifics of place, whether physical or informational.
It unravels and sets into relief the greater contextual situation, whether
political, social, or material. Historically, site-specificity, as a model
of critical practice, functioned in some sense as "oppositional"
or disruptive: it sought to antagonize the institutional space and to
interrogate the museum; it formulated models for the reworking of land...
spilling, rebuilding, wrapping, and defacing; it strove toward a temporal
shift in active participation of audiences as a challenge to the static
art object." [16]
Site-specific art is an artist's intervention in a defined place, in which
the central aspect is the successful integration of the artists work into
the environment it is placed. Such environments can greatly vary; indeed
it can even be argued that the anonymous characteristics of a sterile
white room - found in galleries and museums around the world - form a
specific space (or non-space), which can be directly addressed by the
artist. Nonetheless, in keeping with my predominant theme of 'public space'
I will highlight site-specific art placed into the realm of the public.
Interestingly, it often appears to act as a complex cipher, unravelling
the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of
late capitalism. The Guggenheim collection describes public art as "being
meant to become part of its locale, and to restructure the viewer's conceptual
and perceptual experience of that locale through the artist's intervention".
To gain a deeper understanding into this form of expression this paper
has chosen to explore the work of three influential practitioners. By
literally cutting open vacant and often-dismissed buildings, Gordon Matta
Clark's deconstructions of architecture are a concrete gesture against
many aspects of the social conditions of our society. Matta Clark aims
to open a state of enclosure, which he feels has been preconditioned not
only by physical necessity but perhaps more so by industries labelling
suburban and urban shoeboxes as a context for ensuring a passive, isolated
consumer. Matta Clark does not distinguish between the incarceration of
the poor and the subtle self-containerization of the dominant classes.
He questions the concept of privacy, private property and isolation. Matta
Clark refers to the reaction of an old woman passing by one of his performative
interventions: "Oh I see the purpose of that
hole – it is an experiment in bringing light and air into spaces
that never had enough of either."
The defacement of existing structures is an effective way of allowing
an audience to scrutinise what was originally there. Never accepting any
grants and governmental money, Christo and Jeanne Claude use large amounts
of fabric and string to cover existing buildings or monuments. Through
the painstakingly planned act of clothing architecture such as the Reichstag
in Berlin (1995) [17] or monuments such as the statue of Leonardo da Vinci'
in Milans Piazza Scala (1970), the two artists address the meaning and
form of the ever-present surrounding architecture and foster debate. Such
interventions are usually subject to a range of beliefs. In Bonn, on the
25th February 1994, at a plenary session, presided by Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth,
the German Bundestag (parliament) debated for 70 minutes and voted on
whether the covering of the Reichstag should be allowed to proceed. The
result of the roll call vote was: 292 in favour, 223 against and 9 abstentions.
When it comes to expression in public space the act of walking is often
used as a central theme or methodology to generate content. Strongly inspired
by the chaotic, sensuous and brutal streets of New Mexico, Alys uses the
basic human activity of walking to produce works that are remarkably diverse,
equally emphasizing the performance and its documentation. Alys ties a
thread of his jumper to an object in public space and walks until the
whole jumper is destroyed, leaving a web illustrating his chosen path
behind. Francis Alys has incorporated this simple yet effective way of
observing ones environment into most of his artworks: "...I
spend a lot of time walking around the city... The initial concept for
a project often emerges during a walk. As an artist, my position is akin
to that of a passer-by constantly trying to situate myself in a moving
environment. My work is a succession of notes and guides. The invention
of a language goes together with the invention of a city. Each of my interventions
is another fragment of the story that I am inventing, of the city that
I am mapping."
Francis Alys's work has been of important influence in the development
of this project. As described in chapter 2 of this paper I chose to reference
Alys work "Leaking" by using the same way of marking a certain
path in public space by walking with a dripping paint bucket, leaving
a line of paint behind.
Spatially annotated information_
It can be said that spatially annotated information augments space.
Such spatial annotations have been applied since the invention of the
written word: inscriptions, plaques, street- and shop signs are used the
communicate site specific information to the visitor. Anyways the evolution
of digital media has profoundly inspired various experimentations into
the augmentation of space, proposing exciting new applications. Wireless
devices allow the urban traveler to locate himself in his surroundings
and to download site-specific information from an arbitrary source. While
the use for receiving information in such ways seems to be obvious when
it comes to locating oneself in an unknown territory and receiving local
information such as the location of the nearest gas station or pharmacy,
the possibilities of spatially bound information are immense. The entire
history of a site could be broadcasted by a wireless sender – attached
to the actual physical space of the site – allowing the traveler
to gain access to this information with an appropriate device. It also
has to be said that the attachment of digital personal content to physical
objects is possible: sitting in a café with a laptop or a PDA one
could access a virtual stick-e note that someone left there earlier and
easily reply to it. Spatially annotated projects do not necessarily have
to rely on complicated devices, but can also make use of every-day technology
such as mobile phones.
The YellowArrow
project is simple and effective: "Place this
yellow sticker on any public spot and upload site-specific information
via your mobile phone onto a server. When one perceives one of those stickers
on one of his walks, he just has to send a text message to the number
shown on the sticker and receives the previously uploaded information...".
This project allows the annotation of a limited amount of information
to any physical object, which can then be shared with the public.
Related to this concept, again using lo-fi technology, is the the TalkingStreet
project, a mobile phone walk initiated in New York claims that: "Visitors
to New York City's Lower East Side can experience this new medium at any
time, free of charge, by calling a 1-800 number. The Lower East Side:
Birthplace of Dreams, our first walk narrated by Jerry Stiller, takes
visitors back to the early 1900s, when a massive wave of Jewish immigration
from Eastern Europe made this neighbourhood the most crowded square mile
on earth. As the tour reveals, in coping with the hardships of this slum,
the residents came up with innovations that transformed America. The walk
immerses visitors in a world of tenements and sweatshops, radicals and
capitalists, artists and gangsters."
Even though the above mentioned projects do not require very complicated
tasks, the traveler needs to fulfill certain requirements – he not
only needs to carry the required technical equipment but also needs to
reach a certain level of understanding, which limits the perception of
such location based information. Inspired by the many possibilities of
tying information to specific spaces through digital technology, I chose
to rely on the easy accessible form of analogue media, allowing me to
minimize the restrictions caused by prerequisite devices.
The aim of my project is to create a certain structure placed in public
space which allows the urban traveler to read a narrative in his immediate
surroundings, independent of any required supporting medium (mobile phone,
guidebook, tour guide, etc.).
_______________________________________________________________
THE REPORT_
Walks_
I chose to participate in a variety of organised city walks, realising
that it would be beneficial to experience and understand conventional
possibilities of attaching narratives to urban surroundings. The most
inspiring walk was the "Blood
and Tears Walk: London's Horrible Past", mainly because the tour
guide, Declan McHugh, a qualified researcher and former professional actor,
made a remarkable performance linking the environment and the participants
to each other in a theatrical way, enabling them to see the site's history
from a heightened perspective. Instead of reading about the history of
a place in a book, the information was attached to the space it belonged
to - the site itself.
Brainstorm_
Interestingly, this project's end product is close to my original
proposal. Nevertheless, I went through several stages of re-evaluating
and re-structuring of my ideas. My sketchbook was constantly in use while
I drew up mind maps and sketched out each idea. It forms an important
part of my project development.
The Area_
___A) Choosing
The transformation from theory to practice was difficult. However,
I needed to decide on a specific location to concentrate on and this choice
could only be made once I had interacted with the outside environment.
The fact that I had only been living in London for 6 months with very
basic knowledge of the various areas that make up this massive city didn't
make such a decision any easier. Potential areas I approached included
Soho, Covent Garden, Kentish Town, Brixton, Elephant and Castle, the Southbank,
Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and last but not least Spittalfields. My decision
was made by judging each area from an emotional perspective, critically
examining how they made me feel. Eventually, I decided to concentrate
on the area around Spittalfields – specifically the corner of Commercial
Street and Fashion Street. I didn't know anything about the history of
this area before choosing it, but I was attracted to the old architecture
with a sense of ingrained history, the high street-activity, the interesting
mixture of communities and classes and also because I could feel something
special, something poetic, a sort of honesty and "realness"
about the place.
I bought a pedometer (small device counting the steps and ina certain
time), knowing that I would need to do a lot of walking in creating the
practical part of my project. On average I walked 10,000 steps a day (about
6 km), with the high-score reaching 38.256 steps (about 30km). See
appemdix for examples
___B) Capturing
I wanted to discover emotions that particular details observed
within my chosen area might stimulate. Consequently, I photographically
documented everything that came to my attention - either because it was
unusual, or because it made me think. Often I found that by noticing the
smallest details I began to ask larger questions as to the area's history
in trying to understand how things became the way they are observed today.
The photos were compiled into a little book which forms the first practical
part of my major project.
___C) Researching
It didn't take long to discover that my chosen area was one of the most
vital and historically fascinating neighbourhoods in London. The East
End has always been known as a poor part of London, associated with industrial
and manual labour and very low living conditions. For many centuries the
principle profession executed in the East End, especially around Commercial
Street and Commercial Road, has been linked to textile manufacturing and
fashion. The nearby docks (the original harbour of London) was not only
an important destination for worldwide trading, but has also attracted
immigrants from all over the world. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries French settlers, known as Huguenottes, arrived; introducing
the silk weaving craft and a particular architectural style (still noticeable
in the area of Princelet Street) to the East End. In the nineteenth century
Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe flocked to the East End and finally
in the twentieth century the Bengali community settled.
I was increasingly attracted to the area's impressive street activity
and market culture. Petticoat Lane market, Spittalfields market, Bricklane
market, Columbia Road flower market to name but a few. Such continuous
human interaction within the public space was encouraging that the chosen
area had the potential to support a site-specific intervention. Secondary
Research consisted of visits to the Local History Library of East London,
digging through old newspaper clippings and old photographs in order to
gain a deeper rooted understanding of local issues, fears and rumours.
Charles Dickens, Jack London, Peter Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair, William Fishman
are among those who dedicated larges amounts of their lives writing about
the poor East End. Rachel Lichtenstein, a young Jewish artist who lived
in East London, researched the life of an intriguing Jewish man who for
many years was the caretaker of the synagogue in Princelet Street. In
1969 he left his small East London room and never came back, leaving all
his belongings behind in such a mysterious way that Lichtenstein was compelled
to find out more about him and together with Iain Sinclair wrote "Rodinsky's
Room". The fact that Rodinsky was an avid psychogeographer, leaving
documentations of his walks in his area in his deserted room fascinated
me and gave me the courage to keep on searching.
I soon discovered Janet Cardiff's audio tour. Cardiff is an artist interacting
with the streets of my chosen area in her work. Her tour can be done by
collecting a Discman from Whitechapel Library which guides the listener
through the narrow streets from the library to Liverpool Street Station
mixing fiction with reality. Another form of site-specific communication
in this area are the many organised city walks. Most of them deal with
the Jack the Ripper murders, sadly often badly researched and badly performed.
___d) Mapping
I found an aerial photograph in poster format and stuck post-it
notes containing site-specific information onto the relevant streets.
This "mind map" is the first part of my final hand-in. Feeling
confident in my background historical research, it was now time to experiment
with successful ways of attaching the content to the area.
The Form_
___Frames & Line
I started to conduct visual experiments to determine the most successful
face of the walk. Realising that work placed in public space was subject
to either demolition or decay I distanced myself from my original idea
of using posters to communicate the content of the walk. The lifetime
of a poster would be much shorter than other more permanent techniques
of application. Another concern was that posters may become hidden amongst
the vast quantity of posters and billboards fly posted on the streets.
I was conscious that in order for my information to be noticed, it should
be placed on an uncluttered surface, without surrounding information competing
for attention. Therefore, an effective place for the attachment of the
frames seemed to be the pavement, maybe one of the only surfaces untouched
by advertising and signage. At the same time the application of the frames
would be easier and less dangerous concerning illegality.
I attempted to paint the content of the frames by hand but concluded that
I had to use stencils instead – not only because they would look
more official but also because I could apply them more quickly than hand
lettering frame by frame on the street. The idea of using spray mount
instead of spray paint was appealing – the spray mount would attract
dirt and the frames would steadily become more visual by stepping onto
them, initially remaining secret due to the low contrast between the colours
of the spray mount and the pavement. After conducting preliminary experiments
the idea seemed to be unsuccessful as the visuals were not powerful enough.
Eventually I decided to use more visible and permanent spray paints.
In order to give the frames a unifying identity I chose to design them
as simply as possible, consisting of bold sans serif stencil type and
a solid background colour. I thought in order to obtain maximum visual
strength the colour of the type should be white on black background.
Having formatted the frames I needed to find an effective way to connect
them to one another. I dismissed the option of giving the observer written
instructions, as this would limit participation to those with access to
the instructions. Inspired by Francis Alys's work "leaking"
where the artist walked through the streets of Sao Paolo with a dripping
paint bucket leading to the gallery where the paint bucket was finally
exhibited, I decided to use a similar technique to connect the frames
together: a line created by dripping paint onto the pavement. The narrative
within the frames and the connecting line both have the ability to catch
the observer's attention. The frames are connected in a loop, resultantly
there is no beginning and no end and the observer may join or leave the
loop at any point within the narrative.
___Public Voice Boxes
I wanted the process of communication to be a two way process and thus
needed a mechanism to encourage generate active involvement from the observers
into the information system I had created. Inspired by found pictures
from the turn of the century showing public advertising boxes attached
to street corners and shop fronts I decided to transform certain areas
found in public space into public voice boxes. These areas should enable
the community and individuals participating in the walk to share their
opinion regarding either certain aspects of the walk or other local issues.
Again, I chose to design the stencils in the most effective way: white
sans serif stencil type on black background, bordering an area of white
space of the size of A3 in its middle. I chose to stick white A3 copy
paper onto the voice box, suggesting the public to do the same if there
was no empty space left. This way the public voice box could be used over
a bigger period of time. The fact that I had to spray onto private surfaces
instead of public surfaces worried me and I did not carry on with the
application of following public voice boxes. (feedback
from this intervention will be updated regularily)
"Subjects of public utility, viz.: The opening
and enlarging of communication for the general convenience of public interest."
[19]
The Content_
___Frames
The visual format of the walk was set, and due to the immense amount
of information I had gathered throughout the extensive research I still
had to decide what to finally communicate. The main touched areas where
local history, site-specific art, the image of cities, theory of public
space and the poetics of city walks. The content could vary strongly between
fiction and actual local historical information. The strong visual identity
of the "vehicle" of the communication allowed to communicate
almost anything, either a linked narrative or even random phrases, of
course depending on careful selection and some sort of continuity. Originally
I had planned to do a historical walk, but after careful consideration
I came to the point that it would be too risky to just concentrate on
facts - I would require more time for research than available.
"The sudden change of ambiance in a street
within the space of a few meters; the evident division of a city into
zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path of least resistance which
is automatically followed in aimless strolls (and which has no relation
to the physical contour of the ground); the appealing or repelling character
of certain places - all this seems to be neglected." [20]
The fact that the image of the city and of my area in particular varied
strongly between neighbouring streets and even separate sections of certain
streets led me to the decision to communicate information from more than
just one category: facts & local history, quotes and personal &
emotional connotations. Of course that would mean that the content of
the frames themselves might not link to each other but as said before
the surroundings in which I planned to place the frames didn't do so either.
Also, by choosing a vivid mixture of content I could attract a bigger
audience. After careful consideration and analysis I decided that the
semiotic reading of the connecting line served enough as a linear link
between following frames.
___Invitations
Originally I had planned to place frames inviting the urban traveller
to join the walk in the same format as all the other frames, which, after
visual tests, didn't prove to be effective – the format of the frames
was far too expressive for invitations, they seemed too obvious and took
away from the excitement of the walk. I realised that the invitations
needed to be set in a different format, the medium required some sort
of hierarchy. Taking in account that I so far had two different forms:
the line and the main frames, I decided to reduce the size of the invitations
to the smallest possible size – they still had to be easily readable
and needed to be big enough for me to easily cut the stencil. I chose
those minor frames to be roughly 7 cm in height and as long as needed,
placed along the line.
The path_
Originally planned to be roughly 2.8 km long, I decided to reduce the
lenght of the final path. It now takes roughly 40-50 minutes to follow
it, including a vivid mix of available ambiences in the total length of
1.8 km: the historical streets of the area around Princelet Street, the
liveliness of Bricklane, the dark back alleys of Artillery Lane, the dodgy
streets around Petticoat Lane. [View the final path
here]
_______________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION_
I walked between 200.000 and 400.000 steps (something btw. 120 and 240
km) in specific dedication to this project. One month before final hand-in
of this paper I moved to a flat overlooking big parts of the East End
located just minutes away from the area I chose to examine. The development
of this intervention has been of immense size and the cutting of the stencils
required for the creation of the frames proved to be more than painstaking.
I regret not to have found a sponsor financing the expensive laser-cutting
technique of stencil paper. Instead I will have cut out a couple of thousand
letters by the end of the practical part of this project by hand.
WALK challenged me to think of a variety of concepts regarding private
and public pownership, the consequences of personal interventions into
public space, poetics of architecture, the interaction with surrounding
people and environments, the impact of history (being a Jew myself I found
that the research of the life of the Jews in the East End made me investigate
and understand my own roots), and local knowledge (I intend to apply as
a part-time tour guide of London's East End after completion of this MA).
The development of a structure that allows the spatial placement of a
narrative demanded a considerable amount of time. Having created only
one specific narrative, I am already intrigued by the emerging possibilities
of attaching fictional narratives to real city environments. I hope that
the interaction with the proposed walk will enable at least some individuals
to benefit from the received site-specific information. Scenarios emerge
where local citizens are distracted from their daily routines to be drawn
into a re-examination of their own neighbourhood. Furthermore tourists
visiting the local attractions of Spittalfields and Brick Lane pose a
potential part of the target audience. Even participants of the many guided
walks taking place in this area could be lured into WALK.
_______________________________________________________________
APPENDIX_
Amount of steps made during the time of examining the chosen area:
17.9. Friday: 18,982
18.9. Saturday: 24,288
19.9. Sunday: 34,792
20.9. Monday: 9,133
21.9. Tuesday: 5,712
22.9. Wednesday: 4,543
23.9. Thursday: -
24.9. Friday: -
25.9. Saturday: 19,898
26.9. Sunday: 11,424
27.9. Monday: 14.959
28.9. Tuesday: -
29.9. Thurday: 33,607
30.9. Friday: 20,000
FOOTNOTES_
1. Moore, Alan; "Five Questions for Alan Moore"
2. Dérive: an aimless idle through city environments
3. Kitto, H.D.F.; The Polis, 1951, in: Richard T. LeGates, Frederic Stout
(eds.), The City Reader, p.31-36
4. Davis, Kingsley; The Urbanization of the Human Population, ibid. p.5
5. Beames, Thomas; The Rookeries of London, 1850
6. The first written use of the word public in English occurred in 1470
by Malory. In French, the word appeared in the middle of the 17th Century;
Sennett, Richard; The Fall of Public Man, p.3, 16
7. Carr, Stephen, Francis, Mark, Rivlin, Leanne, Stone, Andrew, (eds),
Public Space, p. 19-20
8. Benjamin, Walter; Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1935
9. Sennett, Richard; The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City
Life, p.198
10. Lynch, Kevin; The image of the city, p. 1-2
11. Ibid, p. 1
12. Ibid, p. 2
13. Gleber, Anke; The art of taking a walk, p. 131
14. Sontag, Susan; On Photography, p. 55
15. Sadler, Simon; The Situationist City, p. 19
16. Ehrlich, Ken, Labelle, Brandon, (eds.) Surface Tension, p. 14-15
17. After a struggle spanning from 1979-1995 the Reichstag was finally
wrapped in 1995 for a total of 14 days
18. Alys, Francis; Mexico City, 1993
19. Parliamentary Paper, "First Report on Metropolitan Improvements"
(1840)
20. Debord, Guy; Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography
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Urls_
http://www.elasticspace.com
http://www.headmap.com
http://www.datenamort.de
http://glowlab.blogs.com
http://london.metblogs.com
http://www.smartmobs.com
http://www.stimulusrespond.com
http://www.textz.com
http://www.nothingness.org
http://www.blueplaqueproject.org
http://www.yellowarrow.org
http://www.talkingstreet.com