MAPMAPMAP

As promised, an update into my adventures in video mapping with Jaygo Bloom at the VRC. The two day workshop saw the small group of us (three in total) video map onto cardboard boxes in the Centerspace. Thoroughly enjoyable and a chance to get a hands on experience with some of the technology which makes these visual spectacles possible. There's a lot of "visual indulgence" in video mapping, as it's often employed by VJ's but when applied in an installation based environment it can heighten the visual language of the piece being shown.

First off, apologies for the poor quality video and image, I was a little ill-prepared and only captured images using my iPhone. However a fellow video mapper at the workshop brought a SLR, so I will update with links when he puts up the images. Quality of image aside, the above video demonstrates the high level of interaction between the physical space and projected environment. At this juncture in my Masters I see this as a method of contextualising modernism within the present and giving it relevance using the technologies of the "future".

My first semester has been dominated by an ever broadening attempt to "understand" modernism, but one must draw a line between looking at the Smithsons and dissecting The Communist Manifesto. Modernism commands contextualisation within socioeconomic history but yet when you look at many of Gillespie Kidd & Coia's buildings the movement is applied as a style. It seems as the movement is diluted down from Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier the utopian agenda is adapted and altered, which is why I refer to it as a "style" rather than a movement. We did have our moments of glory with developments such as Robin Hood Gardens but I feel we often misappropriate the values of modernism to a building which carries the distinct style. This is very much a thought-process in motion, and perhaps when I wake-up tomorrow and gaze upon my pictures of St Bride's I will lament on this notion.

I have digressed slightly, but my post still relates to the application of video mapping in my practice. If anything it can be used to highlight the irony and contradictions within the modernist movement, specifically Scotland's attempts triumphed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia.

For my contribution to the video mapping I created a 3D object which was lit in Maya. When mapped on to a white plinth it was gradually illuminated with a light that does not exist. The creation of a fiction within a virtual environment can serve two purposes in my work: juxtaposing reality against the forgotten fictions of modernism and the creation of a narrative which only exists within the viewer's pre-conceived notions of the history of modernism.

I'm on to something, I just don't yet know exactly what it is.

Links, links, links:-

http://www.antivj.com/ (video mapping artists extraordinaire)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamvlog/sets/72157625462044176/ (my Flickr set of the video mapping workshop)

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.