Land Grab

I'm half way through Writing Urban Space, a Zero Books publication edited by Liam Murray Bell & Gavin Goodwin, which, as the cover-all tagline states is an exploration of "the relationship between imaginative writing and the built environment". It's a compilation of short, digestible chunks of essay texts, that meanders gently through the subject matter, until I got to Can Writing Shape Place? by Sarah Butler, writer and director of UrbanWords - a consultancy setup "to explore how writing and writers might intersect with the process of regeneration". Oh dear.

Whilst Butler tries to allay my fears around the use of terms like consultancy and regeneration, I'm not convinced. It all feels like a physical and metaphysical "land grab". The property developer/ council/ regeneration agents has the monopoly on the physical land and it's planned architectural development with artists/ writers subcontracted (through a consultancy agency) to lay claim to the more ephemeral spaces that occupy the soon-to-be-developed site. In the case of this short essay, Butler's projects are "participatory, community-based projects, which look to explore, unpick and articulate communities' relationships to their environment." Oh my.

I'm perhaps coming down too hard on this idea of a consultancy/ agent working with communities to help articulate their sense of a place/ space through writing or any other creative forms, as this is something artists are often parachuted in to do. However, it is the motivations of those retaining the consultancy's services that I question and their ability to "harvest" the creative outputs of a community for their own gains. The allusion of "control" extended to those within a community in such a situation, again, unsettles me greatly - "We're knocking down your town centre, but as you've indicated you'd "have a café with huge sofas and bottomless coffee pots..." therefore we'll lease the new prefab to Starbucks". Butler certainly wants to challenge the artists being "'used' as a tool"in these circumstances but the examples given in this very short text completely undermines the conclusion that the artists' role is anymore than that of 'tool' (both as instrument and person).

Despite appearances to the contrary this entry is not a 'cheap shot', as Butler's essay has raised a lot of interesting considerations when dealing with place/ space. Specifically around the term 'ownership' (and similar terms like authorship, control, etc.) and the simultaneously empowering and powerless act of reigning over conceptual place. Perhaps we can define these places/ spaces as 'property', aligning the terminology more closely with terms used in Andrea Phillip's essay Art and Housing: The Private Connection (in ArtSocial Housing-Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice, 2012). This allows us to draw out the sense of ownership or implied ownership aspired to by unsuspecting Community D who sees Artist C descend on them with creative writing groups, drawing sessions and all other manner of conceptually camouflaged psychoanalysis employed as a control and feedback mechanism for Consultancy B under the employ/ instruction of Property Developer A - I imply a linear hierarchy starting at A moving through to D in order to highlight possible power structures inherent in such relationships.

My thoughts have dried up, so until I've mulled over it a little more I'll end this post here.

The Dreaded New Years Blog Entry

So, I've put off long enough, it's time for my gargantuan post-Christmas Break/ New Year blog update. As you would imagine, a lot has happened in the (almost) month I've been back at university. I have been working, just not blogging, and as a result getting into a self-destructive cycle of daily accumulating more blog-worthy information but still putting off actually blogging it. The ironic thing is, I do find blogging useful, as it charts my thought process during Masters, but like that coffee (or tea in my case) you were meant to have with that old friend, you can so easily put it off - "I know we were supposed to meet up but...": "I have a hand-in due"; "I've got to go to the moon"; etc. There's no excuse, so here we are, updating my blog, which is a step towards actually meeting up for that cup of tea.

Ok, so now we're back on track, I will try and give as brief a possible overview I've undertaken since the last post, and where my practice is going.

St. Bride's and Magnificent Modernism

The modelling of St. Bride's coming along nicely, albeit slower than I would like. I'm spending time trying to capture the sculptural details which were (in my opinion) of critical importance to Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's visual language they developed for what I like to call The New Catholic Church. I'm moving towards projection tests of the model by the end of the month, which give me a feel for how I want to take the concept of Virtual Modernism forward. The delay has primarily been caused by a new focus of work I intend to undertake this semester, in short, the understanding of the modern social interactions present day users have with modernist structures.

Space Syntax

One thing my previous work lacked, was the social impact of modernist buildings on those who used them (who I will rather cleverly refer to as "users"). This was in part due to my regard of the social issues surrounding modernism giving birth to the stigmatism that often surrounds the movement, but it also was not knowing how to address the sticky goo that is human interaction with space. Space syntax may provide the answer to my woes. Understanding how a space is currently used, will allow me to compare and contrast the architects vision against the reality. Obviously the modernist utopia did not come to fruition, but there are still tangible ideas within modernist spaces that are often overlooked when the movement is shrugged off as a "failure".

I'm still in my very early days of research into space syntax, but I have been afforded the opportunity of a placement on the SerenA Project, based in the VRC, at Dundee Contemporary Arts. In effect I intend to use the DCA as test-bed for the theories of space syntax, and attempt to visual the outcomes in a conceptual manner. Like with St. Bride's, I intend to create a work that enters into a conversation with the viewer. In the case of the DCA, the viewer of any outcome may also be the user of the space, and as such the connection between the work and viewer becomes more profound.

Space syntax is a very well research area, and I'm not attempting to bring new theory, but instead, at the very least, enhance the visualisation possibilities of current space syntax visualisation. I would like to marry the ideas formulated from my concept of Virtual Modernism, and perhaps use more immersive installation based work to present space syntax data.

I'm equally fortunate (through involvement with SerenA) to have the opportunity to interact with Space Group, University College London (a leading voice in space syntax theory), who will no doubt will have a profound impact on my own artistic practice.

Now, I'm back on the blogging band wagon I intend more frequent updates with a greater focus on specifics. Right now, this is a general overview of where I am, and where I am going. No doubt over the coming weeks I will back-reference anything I've missed, and expand on anything I've not made clear.

Paisley: Scotland's Architecturally Infertile Town

Whilst in Dundee and galavanting around Scotland viewing modernist marvels, I've become a little out of sync with the architectural happenings in my home town of Paisley. In a previous post I discussed the concrete monster that is the Renfewshire Council Headquarters. It turns out the North Building has subsequently been demolished, and it's replacement, named The Cloisters (a sympathetic slap in the face to the 12th Century Paisley Abbey that sits adjacent), is a housing development, taking architecture to new extremes of banality.

At least the North Building meant something within the context of post-war modernist architecture. This uninspiring lump simply follows a tick-box exercise in building yuppie kennels. It is almost forgivable with some of the out-of-town-beside-a-shopping-centre developments such as Ferry Village, but this is in the heart of Paisley. For those not in the know, Paisley is a large settlement (think 5th largest in Scotland) seven miles from Glasgow (which it borders to the east), that has suffered the torments of the gravitational effects of Glasgow's economy and out-of-town developments. The town centre is desolate, and all in all, Paisley doesn't have much going for it. Developments like the above further undermine the chance of Paisley being anything more than a burgh of Glasgow. Renfrewshire Council appear to have a short-sighted approach to town planning that sees anyone willing to build anything awarded the contract. I'm not suggesting the North Building should have been kept, I'm simply suggesting the Council need to develop a little vision in building a New Paisley.

Dundee gets the V&A, Paisley gets a 2nd rate housing development and a new Tesco. Fail.

The New Catholic Church

I'm making way with my Google SketchUp model of St Brides, East Kilbride. Right now I'm still on the simple stuff - tracing around the plans of the model and matching them to the floor plan (my main point of reference).

When I start modelling like this, it reminds me of why I enjoyed my work last year so much. You get to know a building intimately when working from plan, and constructing it into a 3D model. My toolkit (SketchUp) and process may be rudimentary but it accomplishes everything I want - a basic exploration of form. There's something almost sculptural about modelling in 3D, as one requires a little artistic licence in translating form.

I'm still at the early stages of the model, but hope to have the exterior completed by the end of this week. The interior is going to be more challenging, as the detailing is what gives St Bride's it's sculptural narrative. There's an ironic indulgence in the use of brick to create such opulent form.

I owe Gillespie Kidd & Coia and St Bride's a (partial) apology. As I previously indicated I found it difficult to swallow the concept of modernism applied with such a lack of socialist vision. However when we put St Bride's in the context of its period and location, I begin to understand GK&C's rationale in creating such a brute. First off, St Bride's was in East Kilbride, Scotland's first new town which was in many respects the archetype of new town planning in Scotland. Enter modernism. With a focus on community, open space, the separation of man from machine (the car), modern affordable (especially important to a local authority) building techniques made modernism fit well with the model of the new town. A new church for a new town therefore had to integrate well with what I would describe as The Modernist Vision (generalised, I would describe this as a view to a more socialist future). GK&C were following the lead of their contemporaries by not following the status quo in church design. Modernism did not do nostalgia, and therefore St Bride's had to be of its time.

The non-descript form, simply asserts, like many modernist buildings, "I am man made". St Bride's catered for the Catholic community, rather than the state, and as such, it transposes some concepts applied in modernist architecture (such as quality of light) to this client. At the same time, St Bride's pre-empted The Vatican II which saw mass become a much more inclusive affair, and as such the sense of community in the church was never greater. In a similar fashion in which the application of modernist architecture by the state improved peoples way of living, the application of modernist architecture, improved peoples way of worship. Exploring this notion, particularly exploiting the importance quality of light (or lack there of), allows a narrative to developed from even the buildings on the periphery of The Modernist Vision (as religion is generally a redundant concept in the socialist state).

Late Night Render

So, I'm going to keep this post brief, as I want to avoid blogging for blogging's sake. I'm currently taking part in the Video Mapping Workshop being run by Jaygo Bloom in the VRC. Basically we're exploring the visual possibilities of mapping images (static or moving) on to physical objects.

My interest comes from the idea of working within a virtual environment with architecture and juxtaposing this against the physical. There's no better an example of architectural video mapping (in an installation enviroment) than the work of Pablo Valbuena. Jaygo gave some examples of his work today, but missed out one of my favourite of his pieces (video below).

Modernism (in terms of form and structure) seems designed for the preciseness of architectural video mapping. This output also fits nicely with the concept of Virtual Modernism I discussed in my previous post. The use of 3D simulation gives modernism the clean lines, and completed fictitious utopian narrative it so desires.

Moving forward I have to consider how this technical craft can be applied to the realities of modernism (i.e. its demise). There's a fine line between nostalgia/ rhetoric (remembering modernism for what it was and could have been) and contextualising the movement in the present (without resorting to the typical MODERNSIM = FAIL conclusion). Perhaps I want to resort to nostalgia and rhetoric - a little socialist ideology is always welcome in our every expanding globalised capitalist democracy. I'm still not sure.

Anyways, I've nattered on. Once the workshop is complete I will update with some images and a more detailed account of what went on. I will also be updating about my visit to the GSA Archive where I viewed the original architectural plans for Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's St. Brides in East Kilbride.

Virtual Modernism

Perhaps modernism was never supposed to move beyond the utopia of Constant's New Babylon or even Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin. Perhaps modernism should be confined to the imagination where it cannot decay and erode over time.

It struck me when in discussion with two members of staff from the School of Architecture the great discourse between the often over-hyped ideologies of modernism and the application of these ideologies in reality. I'm currently shuffling my way through Gillespie, Kidd & Coia: Architecture 1956 - 1987 and I've got an ever increasing sinking feeling as I read on. The book opens with Nick Barley (2007), Director of The Lighthouse in Glasgow, proudly proclaiming: "This book offers a careful explanation of why MacMillan and Metzstein's - already well-loved by users and occupants - deserve much wider acclaim now."

Hmmm. Now granted, I've not visited all of GK&C's buildings and asked users and occupants: "Do you love this building?", but I have touched base with a parishioner at St Brides, East Kilbride and Everything's not Coming up Roses. As I've previously mentioned, it appears to be a common theme within modernism that things go wrong. For example, take Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, in which the the tenant, Mme Savoye had a written exchange with Le Corbusier about issues of a leaking roof (article link). Buildings have problems, and I'm not suggesting for one moment GK&C's buildings were of a poorer build quality than the status quo but they did have the weight of their modernist ideologies to carry.

When I use the terms "modernism" and "ideologies" in the context of this discussion, I do mean it in the broadest sense possible. The modernist ideologies I refer to are the socialist utopias in which “A house is a machine to live in.” (Le Corbusier, 1923).

Going forward I want to explore the notion of confining the remnants of modernism to the confines of a virtual state. Similar to my work last year working in a fictitious state can preserve those ideologies which are challenged within the context of the real world.

Renfrewshire Council HQ

I am a little out of focus. I've been looking at modernism in Scotland, however this feels too vague, and I'm going through the motions of deciding what matters to me. In such situations I tend to take a step back, and work from what I know: drawing. I enjoy the juxtaposition between some modernist buildings and the natural landscape they inhabit. A nice example can be found in my hometown of Paisley, nestled between the White Cart River and the historic Paisley Abbey, this concrete bruit pierces horizontally through the landscape.

Curiously, the Council have opted to refurbish this concrete monster in a slightly less offensive "plastic" looking cladding. Perhaps the concrete was too expensive to maintain, but this solution wants to please the harsh realities of the original structure in a much more understated way. I think it looks awful. That said, at least the building has been preserved in some form.

The above photograph was taken in 2006, and my abhorrence to this building is apparent from my comments: "Horrible grey box rising from the greenery. Quite a nice contrast. Not the most interesting subject matter, but I like the strong horizontal lines." Fascination is a concept I looked at in a short Contextual Review task for the Research Skills and Methods module, examining Toby Paterson's "fascination" with post-war modernist architecture (link). This ambiguous quote by Gartside (2003) sums the term up nicely: "fascination is a sense of being draw into something that cannot be fully explained or analysed."

So, still not fully understanding my fascination with modernism, I've been drawing, and think this building could be the subject of a painting. I will update with some scans from my sketch book later on this week.

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia

I am hoping that a blog post will help organise and focus my train of thought, as right now, I'm having a bit of an information overload. This is probably in part due to my lack of organisation of research, and in part an adjustment to the modular process flow of Masters. As an undergraduate you're a bit all over the place, some research here, some output there. At the end you reflect, collect your research, organise it and subject it to critique within the context of your final Degree Show output. At Masters level, this is not sufficient, the scope of research I have only just begun requires a much more disciplined approach, and as I ponder my way though my Personal Programme of Study (due this Friday), completing my PPS should allow me to focus. I use the word "focus" a lot, but focus is crucial, especially when you have a rather haphazard way of thinking (lots of looking, not enough note taking), which can result (as I experienced in 3rd Year) in a disillusionment with your practice.

So, let's focus, and run through what I've been looking at this week. First off, I've sectioned off the three main areas (or Aims in the PPS) which I'm going to focus on. These are: architecture, artist and medium. So for my own sanity more than anything else, I will break these down separately.

Architecture

Specifically, the post-war modernist movement in Scotland. To place this very specific movement in context you have to look at the early modernist movement in Russia, and more generally on the continent. Militant Modernism, has been a starch reminder of

my knowledge gap in this area, but has already allowed me to branch off into other areas of research/ inspiration e.g. The Lost Vanguard. I have to be careful however and reign myself in, not going too in-depth. The important thing to remember is to provide context for my research/ output, and not get lost in all things modernist.

With that in mind, I've brought the focus closer to home, looking at Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. A one-stop architectural shop for modernism in Scotland. Perhaps not on the scale or bombast as Sir Basil Spence's Queen Elizabeth Square, but certainly the bold, brutalist architecture I take great inspiration from. I enjoy looking at individual buildings, and the first to catch my eye is St. Peter's College in Cardross. There is fantastic video, Light & Space which showcases this "priest school" in all its brutalist glory - asserting itself amoungst the natural forestry of the surrounding landscape. Even more interesting is that St Peter's still stands,

derelict and in a dire state of dis-repair. Still owned by the Catholic Church, the Grade A listed

building was added in 2008 to the World Monuments Watch List of Most Endangered Sites. That hasn't saved the building, but perhaps the arts will. In 2007, NVA were provided funding to help make something of this forgotten gem. From what I've read the project is still under development, and as a result, I've made contact with NVA asking if I can become involved, or even be provided an insight into their work. Just to give a little background, NVA works on site-specific art works, often involving the public, which, if I would be able to get involved in, would provide a platform and subject matter for work in Masters.

I'm no further forward than an e-mail however, so I remain grounded in doing more general research. In all honesty, I haven't decided where my focus is going to be specifically. Dundee would be an easier option (as it's local), but there's something about Glasgow which entices me. I think this fixation with Glasgow comes from the scale in which Glasgow undertook a lot of post-war building projects. Large parts of the city were levelled and rebuilt, a very modernist ideal, so any work I do on modernism sits well within the context of Glasgow. That said, I'm not reigning myself in just yet, so I'm keeping my options open.

Artist

I'm not going to go off in too much of a tangent about this, considering my main point of reference at the minute is Toby Paterson who was the subject of my last post. Researching Paterson sends me back to the research on architecture as our tastes and influences are similar. This area is fairly light on the research front right now. I read a badly written dissertation called "Installation Art - Object to Environment" by Gerald Young, an Architecture Student (I believe) from 1995/ 96. It was a relatively interesting read, tracking the evolution of the artists interaction with the gallery space - from Marcel Duchamp to Jenny Holtzer. The main critique of the dissertation was to understand the role the gallery space plays within contemporary art. A tiny tangent, but still relevant, and gave a starting point on my broader search for artists which use architecture either to influence or form the main body of their work. I use the term "main body" because it can be argued that many artists interact with their environment, but I'm more specifically interested in architecture becoming the art. Like I've said, this is a research in progress, so my observations are a little half-baked.

Medium

It may seem a little premature to discuss medium, but I use the word in a broader sense. I'm interested in newer technologies, such as 3D modelling (used with "QEIIS"), to explore artistic outcome. In the field of architecture I want to look at the means in which buildings are documented technologically. For example, using laser mapping (which may not even be the right terminology), and then, as an artist, exploiting this technology to create an output. A much more enjoyable example of this technology in use is in Radiohead's video for "House of Cards", which was created using LIDAR.

To assist in the research of technology, I plan to work with the School of Architecture, either with a student or lecturer helping with the technical and conceptual development of my ideas.

Well, I've given an overview of what I've been up to, and, as suspected, cleaned up some of my convoluted thoughts in the process. As I've said in about three posts now, I do intend to ramp up the frequency of these posts, as right now there becoming quite long reads and I'm probably omitting the smaller things I've done on any particular day.

My next post should be around Monday or Tuesday, I'm planning on searching out the ruins of St. Peter's College this weekend, so will update with pictures.

Militant Modernism

I've begun reading. Which is a good start, but at the moment Owen Hatherley's Militant Modernism only serves in highlighting my large knowledge gap in the area of British Modernism, and other associated types of architecture. I hope in gaining even a small understanding of this vast area I can inform my practice more succinctly.

More to follow over the coming days/ weeks.

Apologies (to my ever growing fan base i.e. me) for these place-holder entries.