PROJECT 2.2 FINAL FILM

This is the final film that I presented at the Christmas Crit, 14th December 2011.

GOOGLER AND WALKER: INTERACTION WITH THE PANOPTICON ON-SITE

These following sheets show how the walker and googler experience the  Panopticon on-site.  The idea is that Panopticon surrounding the RBS building, acts as a control room and library where it translates information from the banks into information that we can understand and read.  This information is accessible by both the googler and walker and they are able to interact with the building in different ways.

These last three images, play with the idea that as the googler and walker become one, not only are they able to access the information but they are also able to interact with and physically change the building.

PANOPTICON ON-SITE

I was initially struggling to move forward in the project so I decided to place the Panopticon on-site, with the RBS building taking the place of the watchman's tower.

I then began to deconstruct the Panopticon on-site as it began to react to it's surroundings, such as roads, pathways and existing buildings.

SCENE 1

For the first scene I wanted to use the Panopticon in order to introduce the project and the idea of the imbalance of power and its reversal.  The following sheet shows the movement of the camera in red, although I want to rework this slightly in order to make the intentions clearer.

SITE

I decided to choose the RBS building as a starting point in terms of the site and have once again looked at the building in terms of the googler and the walker.

THE FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

The project is now looking at the idea that the power within the panopticon has been reversed.  Therefore, instead of the one watchman being able to observe all of the inmates in the surrounding cells, these inmates are now able to watch the person in the tower, and so the many can now observe the few.  This has then been applied to the city, where the banks become the few being observed and the whole of society becomes the watchman.

When looking at the existing architecture of the banks, it is evident to see that it promotes a sense of transparency although the majority of the time, we cannot see into the structures.  It is a 'fake transparency'.

ISOLATION

In a society where we have become the panopticon, where we are recording our every interaction, all trust has been lost. People no longer feel that their secrets will be kept, that their stories will stay sacred and that their lives will stay their own. Combined with technology that reduces human interaction through every day tasks, physical and eye contact become an invasion of privacy, people have become faceless shapes and the built environment has become an empty outline. We have become isolated.

I AM NOT A NUMBER...

PROJECT 2.2 FIRST DRAFT

THE PANOPITCON

Playing with the idea of surveillance, one of the references that I was given was Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.  A concept where the warden in the tower can look into the surrounding cells without being seen, creating an unknown for the inmate on whether they are being watched or not.

WALKER AND GOOGLER ROUTES

I decided to analyse the site through the walker and the googler, taking into consideration the areas that the googler cannot see.

The Googler

The Walker

SITE AND SURROUNDING AREA

The following sheets analyse the area of surrounding the Spitalfields and Banglatown area, through a number of photographs.  The third image analyses the wider area in terms of the intensity in the number of cctv cameras in the area.  As you progress east across the area, the number of cameras decrease, along with the standard of living. 

GOOGLE MAPS LIVE 2020???

Taking into account the development of surveillance in the city by 2020, Google Maps is now a program that is able to run a live-feed.  This allows the Googler to view the area within 'real-time'. Although they are still being presented with a digital image and digital mapping of the area, they are now seeing what happens in that space at the exact time it occurs, which essentially includes the vector of time.  Will the boundaries of digital and 'real' mapping of our cities always be so blurred? Will there be any point in the future where there is a direct and obvious moment when the digital becomes the real or the real becomes the digital?

SPITALFIELDS 2020

The collage below is beginning to show the technology that will be used in the city of London. This varies from the use of unmanned aerial vehicles capturing live footage, cameras situated at eye-level height in order for easier face recognition and also chips and ID tags for every individual.  With the advancements of technology, the city is essentially becoming a 'Big Brother' society where every movement and moment of your day is traced, captured and recorded.

TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE

I decided to create a time-line looking at the development of surveillance, the internet and also Google Maps as I believe that as they continue to develop they will have an unbelievably strong impact on the way in which we view and interact with the city, more so than today.

SPITALFIELDS MARKET TIMELINE

Here is the second time-line, illustrating the key points associated with the history Spitalfields Market.

Image Credits (Left to Right)
http://photos.casebook.org/displayimage.php?album=20&pos=6
http://photos.casebook.org/displayimage.php?album=20&pos=7
http://123bethnalgreenroad.blogspot.com/
http://brianhuman.co.uk/wp/2011/01/spitalfields-revisited/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bettsy1970/287195876/in/photostream
http://www.fotolibra.com
http://lycos.londontown.com
http://www.jesticowhiles.com/news-info.php?n=120
http://www.e-luminate.co.uk/case-studies/

BRICK LANE TIMELINE

As part of my development and site analysis for both my project and dissertation, I have created a number of time-lines as a way of analysing the history of the area. The first time-line I've created is of Brick Lane.

Image Credits (Left to right)

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

http://www.tabletmag.com/page/21/?cat=13
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
http://anglo-swiss.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html
http://www.esplen.com/andrea/portfolio/dsa/history.htm
Synagogue photo: Rachel Lichtenstein
Jewish  © The Jewish Museum, London
http://www.san-miguel-de-salinas.com/uk/mickey.asp
Family Image http://www.swadhinata.org.uk
399px-A_different_world
http://www.fdin.org.uk

PROJECT 2.1

Here's the second attempt at the project 2.1 where we had to outline our dissertation and project topic.  I want to focus on the idea of a digital city and the real city where De Certeau's 'walker' exists.

AFTER EFFECTS TEST - SPITALFIELDS MARKET

Here I've attempted to take the collage that I created for the 'walker' in Spitalfields Market and to transform it into a film using After Effects.

SPITALFIELDS MARKET AS SEEN BY THE 'WALKER'

This next collage is trying to represent how the 'walker' experiences Spitalfields Market. 

Image Credits

Georgia Tsoulou                                                                                           http://www.lucas-smith.co.uk/photos/spitalfieldsmarket/

Gwynne Jones  http://www.mondoarc.com/projects/retail/228781/old_spitalfields_market_london_england.html

http://www.infobritain.co.uk/street_markets.htm

http://www.london-insider.co.uk/2010/01/spitalfields-market-a-winter-wonderland/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/2876578644/                                         http://www.eatingbritain.com/old-spitalfields-market-a-taste-of-the-eastof-london/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/4365434797/in/photostream

GOOGLE MAPS FILM

The film below explores how the viewer perceives Spitalfields Market through Google Maps and how the market may exist within the program. It aims to emphasise the restrictions of Google Maps as the inside area of the market is not visible.

PROJECT 2.1 TEST FILM

Here's the first attempt at the film for Project 2.1.

NEXT IDEAS AND STEPS...

Google Maps presents us with a predetermined view of the city.  Whilst I wish to show this in a film I also also want to look at the view of the 'walker'.  


The 'walker' stems from Michel du Certeau's 'Spatial Stories' (found in the book "The Practice of Everyday Life") where "...the street geometrically defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers".  


The 'walker' and the 'viewer' are both mapping Spitalfields Market through different means and the results of this can be very interesting.  The 'viewer' can only observe what the camera of Google Maps can see, which is fixed in position and time, whilst the 'walker' can experience what is hidden from the 'viewer'.


A 'walker' is free to walk and to look at what they wish, and according to du Certeau, because of the vectors which include time and direction, the 'walker' is changing their environment, something that the 'viewer' through Google Maps is unable to see and experience.  Whilst they are viewing a static and fixed architecture, and are unable to see into Spitalfields Market, in real time, the space might now be an aquarium, a football stadium or it may even cease to exist due to the 'stories' that all of the individual 'walkers' have placed upon the area. 


Another aspect that I was interested in was the loss of identity Google maps represents.  Whilst the 'walker' can see and interact with the built environment around them and also with the people, Google Map blurs out any people that are seen in the image and also many signs. Any thing that has a specific identity is simply blurred, emphasising a disconnection between the 'viewer' and the city.  Also, as the images of Google Maps do not represent real-time, it can be used as propaganda in a time when the area has declined.


I want to develop and analyse these points further, through more images and film.  

GOOGLE MAPS REPRESENTING THE CITY

The image below is attempting to map the camera of Google Maps and how the city is perceived as a 3 dimensional entity.  When analysing how the viewer is perceiving the space and the way in which Google Maps represents it, it becomes evident that it is a build up of layers and that whilst it represents depth and form it is actually a shell, and it represents only the surface of the built environment.

MAPPING GOOGLE MAPS

The image below is mapping the use of Google Maps when using it to view Spitalfields Market.  Each position of the camera is marked out along with the area of projection showing the restrictions of Google Maps.  The white area that is visible within the market is space that cannot be seen to the user of Google Maps.  One can therefore begin to question whether the space actually exists and if it does, without being able to see the size or use, one can make their own reality.

SPITALFIELDS MARKET THROUGH GOOGLE MAPS

Not living local to the site, my main point of contact to the area, in terms of mapping and viewing the built environment is through Google Maps.  The following collage represents how Spitalfields Market is perceived through Google Maps and essentially how the viewer perceives the building through a number of images.

TIME BASED COLLAGES

After presenting both my film on Wednesday and the collages as images pinned up in the wall, it became evident that the film was far more successful in portraying the idea that the areas develop over time.  I have therefore tried to portray time in the new drawings where it is visible to see the areas grow layer by layer.

Premiere Pro Issues

I've placed the collages in a film but Premiere is still running extremely slow at the moment. I will post the film as soon as I get it up and working again.

WHERE THE STORIES COLLIDE...

I decided to create a collage where Spitalfields and Brick Lane collide.  The main difference between this next collage and the ones in the last post is that this collage had no underlying image but was made by bringing elements from each area together whilst the last collages had either Brick Lane or Spitalfields as the underlying image and elements from the other were placed on top.

STORIES

The next step was to create my own language within these collages instead of using elements of Schwitters' Merzbau.

The following collage has been created by placing elements of Brick Lane onto Spitalfields Market.  (Please refer to the last post for the original photographs)

The next collage is the opposite effect where elements from Spitalfields is placed upon Brick Lane.

MERZBAU ON-SITE

I have created two collages where elements of Schwitters' Merzbau have been placed upon Spitalfields and Brick Lane.  The two images placed at the bottom are the original photographs used whilst the two images on top show Schwitters' elements upon these photographs.

KURT SCHWITTERS' MERZBAU

I have since developed the Graffiti idea and am now playing with spatial Graffiti.  After a tutorial, Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau was given as an example of how a space can be transformed using physical objects.

(http://www.stunned.org/mz1.htm)

PROJECT 1.3

For the third part of the first project we had to create our first 2 minute film which had to be based upon the two characteristics that we had created in Project 1.2.

The video below is my first attempt at the film.  I believe that the first section works really well but once the dynamics and momentum of the film change, it does not portray the characteristics and the struggle between the two as I had hoped...

 

The next video is attempt number two.  I have kept the beginning of the film the same and have changed the rest, yet it is still not completely successful.

PROJECT 1.2

For the second project we analysed our site through two different perspectives that we had chosen.


The first perspective was the perception of graffiti as art.  


The sections below show how the artists of Brick Lane begin to view the area surrounding Spitalfields Market as a 'blank canvas'.  An opportunity for graffiti to inhabit another area of the city.

The second perspective was the perception of art as vandalism where there is a desire to 'clean up' the walls of the city.

PROJECT 1.1

For our first project we were asked to create a 'Chronogram' based upon the library sequence taken from Wim Wenders' 1987 film 'Wings of Desire'.  Within the drawing we had to map the movement of the camera in relation to the space and also the movement of the people in relation to the camera whilst also analysing the use of audio in the sequence.