TMOR

Things are drawing to a close, and in a period of rapid change in my work, I have neglected my blog. The Master's Show is two weeks out, and I'm almost complete one work, The New RC Pavilion, and contemplating the fate of what I've come to refer to as the "3D work". Instead of a blow by blow account of what I have been up to, I'll try and inject the thought processes as they've developed with the work.

The New RC Pavilion

The centrepiece and the physical manifestation of my Masters work, which I frame under the dramatic title of The Monument of Ruin, or TMOR (due to my enjoyment of industrial sounding abbreviations).

From the early stages of my Masters I identified that the work with St. Bride's, went beyond the digital, and a 3D model (projected or otherwise). The modelling afforded me, similar to undergraduate, an intimate understanding of the structure, but the "mythology" surrounding Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, had to be articulated in a physical object. The notion of a "pavilion", a Modernist Soap Box from which to deal with issues of the context, and ironies of the Movement as it is perceived today. Miles Glendining in his book, Architecture's Evil Empire - the triumph and tragedy of global modernism, succinctly gives reason for the prominence of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's work in an age of what he refers to as "New Modernism":-

In places that were short of 'heroic' old modern egos, reputations could be posthumously manufactured. In Scotland, for example, where the 1950s and '60s had been dominated by the worth establishment of Sir Basil Spence and Sir Robert Matthew, New Modernist propagandists in the 1990s and 2000s constructed a myth of heroic genius around a local firm of postwar church designers, Gillespie, Kidd & Coia...

My opinion of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia has come full circle, initially displaying frustration towards the lack of dogma behind their work, then accepting it as part of the visual vocabulary of the Modern Movement, and again, feeling a slight aversion towards what I refer to as The Mac (Mackintosh School of Architecture) triumphalist touting of the firm. These are honest words from someone who has based his Masters on the firm, but I've now come to a point where I accept the "myth" of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia as part of their present day cultural value. Although no doubt Miles would disagree, there is a romance behind places like St. Peter's Seminary, and artists are drawn towards these visual queues that are, sometimes, loaded with fictitious ideologies.

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, for me, represent a "high-art Modernism" as their brutish and striking buildings are endowed with histories that go to the core of our relationship with the Modern Movement. Similar to Sir Basil Spence's Queen Elizabeth Square, a poster boy for the Modernist high-rise in Scotland, with its demolition in 1993, it became a monument to this shift in opinion towards anti-Modernist rhetoric. So one could argue, that St. Peter's, like Queen Elizabeth Square, has become, as Miles suggests (with regards to GK&C's churches), a poster boy for a romanticised "Heroic Modernism" in Scotland.

The NVA are essentially attempting to re-asscribe cultural value to St. Peter's, and this notion, along with other dichotomous narratives which play out in GK&C's practice, are given centre stage on The New RC Pavilion.

I think I'm going to stop for the moment, as I've chewed through some momentous thought. I'll attempt to update later this week, going into a little more detail about plans for the Masters Show.

A Crisis of Faith

Perhaps not as melodramatic as it sounds, but my work is aggressively asserting itself as something I did not envisage when I began the Masters.

Let me explain, when I last updated my train of thought was coherently converging on ideas of the Modern Object as Monument - without purpose, an icon, a contradiction. These ideas manifested themselves in a "pavilion" like overhang, which free floats in space. The design was extracted from the altar overhang in St. Bride's, and the intention was/ perhaps still is to projection map the 3D model on to the physical model - using, for example, simulated light via the projection in an attempt to "make good" the poor quality of light in the real church.

So, I dutifully began discussing and measuring possible spaces, along with building a physical model to test out projection mapping. One of the possible spaces is shown below, called the IED Crit Space, it's a self contained room which would allow me to create the atmosphere, and ambience of St. Bride's, drawing all attention to my centrepiece altar/ pavilion overhang.

I've been drawn to this overhang form since I first visited the building back in October last year. It commands a presence over the space, and, without all the opulence and grandeur of a typical Catholic Church, defines itself as a new form of ornament. These details, are in my opinion, Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's real triumph. Of course there is the bombast of the overall structure, but the sculptural use of brick and concrete quite literally redefines the dialogues and narratives which normally take place in a church.

Alas, I'm having a crisis of faith, not in my resolve, but in the final form of what I've come to refer to as my pavilion. I made a cardboard model, less than one third the size of the planned final pavillion and it there's something dissatisfying about the form. I feel like there's "too much" mass/ form/ weight. Whilst I was building the model, I enjoyed the way the curves of the arches worked out with the main mass (see here). So this sent me on a slippery slope which has led to this crisis of faith, which does feel right, but would result in me having to let go of all, if not most of what I've done before, including using the 3D model of St. Bride's.

So from making the model, to summarise, here are some of the conclusions I've come to:

• I need height.
• I need light, be it projected or day light.

This post is a little all over the place, as I'm in the process of drafting a pro-forma for the Masters Show, and have to give an indication of what space I need. At first I needed an isolated room which would allow me to hang a heavy object from the ceiling; and was dark-ish. With thw prospect of extruding simply the curves from my overhang and hanging them, weight is reduced, and this opens the possibilities of spaces with much higher ceilings up. However these spaces carry the disadvantage of being share with the Master Show, and will most likely be day lit, so projecting may be out of the question.

The work is developing rapidly, and I intend to reign my thoughts in more frequently with a blog post.

St. Bride's SketchUp

Just a quick update with progress on my modelling of St. Bride's in 3D. It's going well, I've started to pull out some more of the sculptural elements of the brickwork. When you strip away the textures of the brick, emerges is a complex set of shapes and line. There's a indulgent austerity about the building. Gillespie, Kidd & Coia were certainly creating a new language for the church.

Once the model is complete the plan is to light it in Maya. From there I would like to video-map the lit church onto an object of similar dimensions (i.e. a box) and experiment with changing light on the 3D surface. The quality of light, as I've said previously, was a very important building concern for modernist architects - more so on the interior. Eventually, with the interior of the church constructed in 3D I can begin to explore notions of quality of light within the space, and how successful or unsuccessful Gillespie, Kidd & Coia were in accomplishing this.

I've been tied up most of the past week with my a research presentation for one of my Masters modules. I will update as soon as I figure out how to get the presentation from Keynote online.

Update: Below is a link to the presentation on iWork.com, which allows it to be viewed with the need for Keynote.

http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p130467451&d=James_Bell_-_MSc_Media_Art_-_Reasearch_Presentation_FINAL.key

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).

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)

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.

St Brides, Flickr and Blogger

St Brides - interior, originally uploaded by jamvlog.

So I've worked my way through a few of the key shots of St Brides, cleaned them up, and got them looking fairly presentable.

One thing that strikes me about St Brides is the stark contrast between The Vision and reality. It's a common theme in modernist buildings, that, although built for function, they often failed in their main purpose. I met a parishioner who had no end of stories to tell about the "failings" of the building. For example, apparently the sewage system is so poorly designed that it backs-up after heavy rain.

So this leave me in a quandary, I have to confront these issues in a manner which is still sympathetic to the ideologies of modernism. The use of 3D may provide an interesting solution. If I encapsulate St Brides in the virtual, then it becomes like a fiction, one where I can re-direct the narrative. I can use this the fiction to confront modernism with its harshest reality, that, buildings aside, its ideologies never came to fruition.

I will update as my thought process flows.

On a side note, I think I'm going to have to do something fairly drastic with my Blog. I'm caught in a never ending battle in my attempts to imbed linked images from Flickr into my posts. Also the complete lack of flexibility in altering layouts (this post has been achieved by using Flickr instead of Blogger to update) is driving me to despair. Hence "Flickr" and "Blogger" in the title.

Quality of Light II

As mentioned in my previous post, I planned a visit to the modernist marvel that is St Brides in East Kilbride. First off, and slightly off topic, this was my first experience of a New Town. East Kilbride was Scotland's first post-war New Town which adopted a very modernist approach to town planning. I came in direct conflict with this planning when trying to navigate my way to St Brides. The New Town layout (which can be seen in more extreme examples like Cumbernauld) separates (to a degree) the car from the pedestrian. A lovely idea, except when you're trying to get anywhere. The endless roundabouts circle what I can best describe as "islands" of inhabitation. Trying to infiltrate these Islands of Man can be a difficult task when using an alien mechanical moving device (i.e. my Fiat Punto). In St Brides case, I could see it for quite some time, but had trouble locating what appeared to be one access point. It's also difficult to stop, and re-evaluate your strategy when trapped between roundabouts on the dual-carriageways. An efficient endless flow of traffic which becomes difficult to navigate when you're lost. Eventually, however, I found St Brides and took sanctuary for the best part of the day before tackling EK's road labyrinth to get home.

I digress, so on to the main event, St Brides, East Kilbride. As the title suggests, my visit was to bathe in the glory of Gillespie Kidd & Coia's architectural genius in their manipulation of the structure to produce a high quality of light. My modernist ideologies were shattered when I found such a dark expansive space (even with artificial light). The windowless indented brickwork (shown right) barely captured enough light to emit even a glow. Now to be fair to GK&C it was a very overcast day, so the exterior lighting was not ideal, but it still struck me how dim the space was (a fact, regardless of weather conditions confirmed by one parishioner).

Now my opinion of St Brides may seem of doom and gloom (no pun intended), but in actual fact I took a lot of positives from experiencing the space. For one, the poor quality of light resulted in a very sobering experience. I was left to my own devices for well over an hour, and the main hall, with it's dim artificial lighting was extremely calming (although at one point I thought I saw a ghost). The the soft warm tones of the brickwork also added to this mantra.

Perhaps my perceptions are slightly bias due to being brought up a Catholic (not currently practicing) and familiarity of churches - until my early teens attending weekly. I therefore associate a church as a place of quiet and sombre reflection - the closest comparison I can make of this feeling is being in a library. This paragraph may seem a little off topic, but ultimately feeds in to my choice of subject matter. Whether I like it or not, something in my subconscious is drawn to the church through years of conditioned worship - old habits die hard. I'm not sure to be honest, but I do know for me that churches + modernism = interesting subject matter.

I'm currently in the process of Photoshoping my way through the 160 plus images taken on my visit to St Brides. I plan on uploading the worthy to Flickr (link below), with some already up at the time of this post. More to come as I explore and develop ideas in relation to St Brides, modernism, the church, et al.

Links:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamvlog/sets/72157625224573437/ (St Brides set on my Flickr)

Quality of Light

I had an excellent tutorial with Jaygo Bloom last week, who is currently showing at the DCA - part of the Discovery Exhibition. I discussed my interest in creating work within virtual environments, with possible extension into his field of video mapping onto real objects. It was refreshing to get the perspective of a practicing artists who works successfully both commercially and in respect of his own practice. Jaygo re-affirmed the importance of the idea, and the means by which this is realised should be an afterthought (considered, of course).

That leads me to my focus for this year. "Focus", a term I'm constantly banding about almost in a state of fear that if I "loose focus" I will implode. I'm never short of ideas, just putting those ideas into practice almost seems sacrosanct, and therefore I hold off until I know my focus. That said, most of my 3rd Year in TBADF was spent pondering, so I tend to draw more and keep momentum through reading, blogging, etc. I have to strike a happy medium between research and practical work.

Last year I enjoyed working from plans of the Hutchesontown C Development, it allowed me to develop a "relationship" with a building that no longer exists. As such, I think that's a good starting point for any practical work, establishing a connection with my subject matter.

At the point in time, my focus has been drawn to the churches of Gillespie Kidd & Coia. There's an interesting juxtaposition between the employment of modernist architecture to re-invigorate the liturgy and the subsequent dissolution of the modernist movement. The socialist ideals of modernism also seem at odds with their employment in religious structures. I'm still not sure if I'm entirely comfortable with the notion of modernism and churches - in particular GK&Cs application of a "style" rather than an "ideal". I sound like a purist, and give GK&C less credit than they're a due, their application of the "style" is beautifully informed.

St. Bride's in East Kilbride has to be my favourite of GK&C churches, an ominous exterior downplays the even more striking interior. The light is channelled through the thick walls of exposed brickwork in a beautifully considered design. The consideration of light, especially when employed to draw focus to (for example) the altar in a place of worship, seems central to CK&C buildings. Modernism prioritised function over form, and as such, the consideration of lighting was a major focus.

Lighting, a crucial component of my Degree Show work, but something, surprisingly, I did not put too much weight on. As such, to truly experience how the light interacts with some existing modernist structures I'm planning a trip to East Kilbride, to visit St. Bride's. From there I can start to develop the idea beyond sketch-book drawings with photographs and video.

Links:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsalib/ (GSA's Photograph Archive on Flickr)