BDES1028 Intensive Studio

PORTFOLIO alta ling

1

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT In general, just as the preset categories suggested, the pre-readings can be reduced to two topics that are organically relevant: exhibition and public spaces. In my opinion, the main feature that brings them together is the notion of space, which I believe is the principal and primitive contradiction of museum curatorial strategy and public space planning, it is also the ultimate theme that need to be explored in both two topics.

In the Museum and the New Media, the author explained that the introduction of the new media in museum is to replace the conventional experience of space, and subsequently encourage the interaction between viewers and arts. It inspired me to rethink the role that the space would play in every exhibition, and how the viewers’ response would vary according to it. I’ve been to the NIRIN (22nd Biennale of Sydney) and was shocked by the visual impact conveyed via new media. the Bow Echo is an artwork with a 300 degree all-around LED screen that displays four boys blowing whistles as air siren. The screen set up a semi-closed area so that the visitors can experience the dilemma and marginalization with those Afghanistan children. Giant screen along with dark exhi-

2

-bition hall and loud background sound express the stress and unsettlement to an extreme, it’s without doubt a successful use of space.

Another good example in NIRIN is about the second topic: the redefinition of public space. No Friend but the Mountains 2012-20 is a large-scale installation artwork located in the prison heritage at Cockatoo Island. Thousands of spliced jute sacks fell along the wall from the rooftop, forcibly occupying the space. This artwork indicated exactly what it was installed, the former shipyard and penal colony architecture. It reproduced the histories of labour and incarceration that lay dormant on Cockatoo Island. The artwork represent the environmen, and the environment interpret the context itself, these two factors combined to become a complex of the history, the value of complex had already exceeded the value of either individual, in another word, they redefined each other. I think this is also the significance of exhibition in a site: there have to be some kind of high cohesion throughout them.

3

PREPARATION Further Reading After finishing the pre-readings, I’ve also done some further reading about the topic. There were two topics that I focused on, which are the humanized scales and public activities.

Cities For People by Jan Gehl along with his other theories about scale has inspired me a lot. Jan Gehl mentioned in his books that buildings and facilities that are of a friendly and humanized scale should be suitable for public activities such as walking, sitting or chatting. City could become a stage for certain activities, and construction that is too huge discourages that. Those instructive and interesting theories had further impressed me in the Death and Life of American Cities. A curious case in parks located at Philadelphia guided me to think more about public gathering. Jane Jacobs mentioned in the book that the success of Rittenhouse house is because of the diversity of residents around it. The park is usually visited by different types of people every day; hence, a large range of different activities happen subsequently, and that’s how the park is fully utilised and brought to life. The negative example is the Washington Square, which is completely occupied by vagrants and

4

potential criminals. That is because the Washington Square is surrounded by official buildings and is visited by office workers only in commuting time, there aren’t any public activities that lasts throughout the day. This reminded me that a good way to activate public spaces is to first artificially generate a public activity and thus more activities will be driven by this. Influenced by these theories, in the very early stage of my design, I intended to use installations to raise public awareness of scale and thus bring people to reflect on it. But later turned out that it was not a good idea to activate public activities, as there weren’t much things to draw people’s attention. But using one public activities to create a series of ones seems a good idea.

This map shows my case study in the Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. I tried to label out different venues and facilities around the square and it turned out that the diversity is huge, and I can imagine how they drive people to visit park cousciously or uncousciously at different times of a day.

5

Site Touring & Notes In order to better understand my sites and decide on which I want to place my design, I went to campus several times to familiarize myself with the existing facilities and constructions and looking for potential deficiency and improvements.

S c re e n s h o t o f S y d n e y U n i S e l f G u i d e d T o u r , h t t p s ://w w w .s y d n e y .e d u .a u /d a m /c o r p o r a t e /d o c u m e n t s /a b o u t -u s /c o m m u n it y -a n d -v is it o r s /s e lfg u id e d t o u r.p d f

6

There were three buildings that left me a deep impression.

The Underground Level of Carslaw Building has a very interesting structure: it’s an atrium that allows sunlight to shine in and light up the dismal basement level, it’s kind of like a hole for breathing; and that’s why I would clarify it has an open-air space. What’s more curious is that there are three palm trees that grow through this vertically extended space, further highlight the sense of depth and emphasize the atrium structure.

7

The Quadrangle is without doubt my favourite. It was a Gothic Revival construction made of sandstone and is also one of the oldest buildings in campus. The historic atmosphere it brings to this modern campus is very valuable and refreshing.

The front lawn of the New Law Building is a very successful public area as it provides comfortable places for people to rest and enjoy sunlight, and the number of people visiting it is also considerable. Further more, the modernist look of New Law Building is a good tourist spot itself.

8

Precedent Designs Before my final design, there were two abandoned ideas that I thought to be too inconsiderate, but these two precedent designs did contribute to better my final design, so they are included in this portfolio to give a complete picture of my design process.

The first idea is about using mirror and its reflection to create a visual illusion, and thus become an exhibition that display mirrored images or interaction between mirroring and real view. I planned three installations that would spread across the campus to make up this exhibition.

D is t r ib u t io n o f In s t a lla t io n s

9

No.1 Past and Present I planned to place a mirror between Fisher Library and Quadrangle to make the image of Library shows within the Quadrangle (the Quadrangle as the background), and thus express the theme of a combination of past and present, and to achieve the visual experience of architectures of different time being disassemble and reassemble.

No.2 Finity and Infinity This should be a very simple and cliché installation. I planned to use two mirrors that face each other to create an infinite tunnel by using the infinite reflection. This was aimed to give visitors a new spatial experience. It would be placed at the Graffiti Tunnel as I think that is a very lively and mysterious area and is suitable for a paradox like this.

10

No.3 Large and Small In this installation I intended to use a convex mirror to present a shrunk image of New Law Building right beside the original entity, as I think the building is way too large for a humanized scale. I wanted to give visitors a new perspective that how different scales can give a different feelings, and make people to reflect on that when passing by the mirror.

T h e c o n c e x m ir ro r re fl e c t a s h r u n k im a g e o f t h e b u ild in g o n t h e b a c k ro u n d t o p re s e n t a c a m p a r is o n o f s c a le s .

11

The second idea is about the distance between people caused by the pandemic. A maze-like installation will be set on the front lawn of New Law Building. There will be a series of stomach-level boards that blocks eyesight of people that are sitting down, and also act as partition walls. They forcefully separate people and remind them of this invisible distance between them.

T h e s it e o f In s t a lla t io n

12

This will be a temporary structure set at the square near Law Building, it’s aimed at activating public activities by imagining and displaying a picture that is most unwanted. It’s anti-mainstream and anti-social, it deviates from what this public space is aimed for and even exaggerates the result, which would make the exhibition more distinct and clearly explain the theme. It will invite and encourage visitors to step into this structure and experience in person that how unfavourable it could be if public interactive activities and close encounter are discarded, and subsequently effectively arouses people’s long-forgotten desire to interact with each other.

S t o m a c h -le v e l B o a rd s t o b lo c k e y e s ig h t

13

D is t a n c e is a r t ifi c ia lly c re a t e d a n d e m p h s iz e d

h t t p s ://w w w .r y u jin a k a m u r a .c o m /

The inspiration comes from the Beam designed by Ryuji Nakamura. In this installation, he used panels that were parallel to the height of the human eye to alter the original space and demonstrate the extreme design of dichotomizing the space.

These two designs had been abandoned later because they are not suitable for public activation. The first one is not about activating public spaces, all it does is displaying. The second one was in fact contrary to the public idea: it emphasized distances, which is exactly what we are undergoing right now. Both of these two installations didn’t provide any solution to bring people closer together. And that’s what I’m going to focus on in my next and also final design.

14

Design Development Design Statement In this project, three different sites are chosen in campus, which are the Quadrangle, the underground level of Carslaw Building and the New Law Building, as stages of three plays. The plays are set in 1860s, 1960s and 2060s, corresponding to three sites built in different times.

These three open-air plays will act as anchors to connect people and chronos, inspiring them to reflect on the history of the sites. The event will also provide a casual and lively atmosphere and good chance for people to gather and socialize.

The stage design of this exhibition embodies the concept of “door” as an entry to a virtual world, a wonderland. The design intends to express the style of building surrounded to symbolize the imprint of the time in each play, and also highlight the architecture languages adapted in these three sites.

This open-air exhibition is more about a real-time experience and face-to-face interchanging. It doesn’t exhibit items, it exhibits a dynamic narrative, a play. More than just a show, the exhibition is also expected to display the sites/buildings in the form of stage or scene, giving audiences a new perspective to understand the sites that they are already familiar with.

15

Concept 1 Street Performance Unlike musicals or dramas in theatre, street performance is usually friendly and welcoming, in which actors simply crop up and start a show, whilst audiences are free to come or go. This casual style will encourage passers-by to stop by and give a glance, which should be an ideal start of a public interaction. Street performance is a featured form of Pop art that encourage real time interaction between audiences and performer.

There was a very interesting news that inspired me of this idea. A power cut in New York City led to cast in Broadway performing thier plays on streets to passers-by, I think this is a very innovative way to redefine formality and informality of art performance, and remind people that art performance can also have functions of promoting public activities and bringing people together. Is not about experiences of individuals, but a community.

S c re e n s h o t fro m W a s h in g t o n P o s t , T h e lig h t s w e n t o u t o n B r o a d w a y .

T h e se a c to rs m a d e su re th e sh o w w e n t o n . h ttp s ://w w w .w a s h in g to n p o s t.c o m /a r ts -e n te r ta in m e n t/2 0 1 9 /0 7 /1 4 /s h o w m u s t-g o -b ro a d w a y -a c to rs -p e r fo rm -s id e w a lk-a m id -n y c -b la c k o u t/ 16

Based on this, my structures will be a stage pavillion, or a mini openair theatre that limit an area as a stage. It won’t be too complicated, as it’s not a visualized theatre, but an abstract concept. This is inspired by rounds theatre pavillion by SPORTS.

https://www.archdaily.com/931150/rounds-theater-pavilion-sports?ad_source=search&ad_medium=search_result_all

17

Concept 2 Three Stories About Time My project is to perform a play like street performance in public, and the play should be like the novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Cloud Atlas consists of six stories, ranging from the diary of an American traveling from Sydney to San Francisco in 1840, a young composer living in Belgium in the early 1930s, a young journalist caught up in the California disaster of 1975, the underworld of today’s London memoirs, the story that happened in Korea in 1984, and concluded with an old man’s narrative of a youthful diatribe in Hawaii at the time.

These characters were somehow connected across time and space, and stories that happened also had something in common, and thus make up a complete story, just like reincarnation. What attracts me in this book is the time pattern, which is similar to the Russian condor, with nested relationships between past, present and future. Time is the main idea I want to display in this play. Though three sites, three plays are separate, the ages of three plays are also different, they are connected across time, and the bond is the sieries of stories about three characters that are subtly associated.

Last is about the name of this project: chronos door. Chronos is a primordial god in ancient Greek mythology, representing the First Cause that transcends all, and is also the personification of time.

18

Concept 3 Doors, or Gates The first two concepts are mostly about the exhibition strategy. The concept adapted in my design is the door, or the gate. I intended to use the image of door as a stylistic metaphor of an entry to the river of time, just like the wormhole.

I was inspired by a sieries of photograohy by Ricky Gui.

Ricky Gui Documents Over 600 Hidden Doors Around Singapore https://www.archdaily.com/800800/ricky-gui-documents-over-600-hidden-doors-around-singapore/58471156e58ece8cab00004d-ricky-guidocuments-over-600-hidden-doors-around-singapore-image

19

“Ricky Gui showcases a stunning series of “Hidden Doors” located behind shophouses in Singapore. Working for over a year, Gui highlighted over 600 “Hidden Doors”in his documentation. These doors are usually looked over as they hide behind shophouses and alleyways where people are unlikely to venture into.” (Natalina Lopez, Ricky Gui Documents Over 600 Hidden Doors Around Singapore, ArchDaily) It suggests that the door is a transit area leading to the unkown. It‘s a herald of a story that is about to be unfolded. When seeing these distinctive doors, people will wonder who decided to use this door for their house, what people living in this house are like, and what life they had been living. The door is like the cover of a book that displays only limited basic information and tempts reader to delve in further.

I use the image of door in my design is to convey a sign like above: here lies an acquaintance, a story, and is inviting you to explore it by yourself. Just like street performance, they are extraneous but strangely fit in, their special shapes are distinctive enough to draw people’s attention, and make them wonder.

20

Design Elements As I mentioned before, I have no intention to make my design a visualized door, so I didn’t want to use complicated structure in my design.

However, I do want to use simple structures to function as the stages of the play, hence, they should embody the historic style of the play to give audiences an implication, and strengthen the atmosphere.

The choice of sites were based on the ages of plays, so each structure should also respond to the buiding of each site.

Quadrangle

h t t p s ://w w w .in v a lu a b le .c o m /b lo g / g o t h ic -a rc h it e c t u re /

The Quadragle is of Gothic Revival Style, so I reduced the structure to only the skeleton to express this style.

21

Carslaw Building

The Carslaw Building is typical Modernist style that featured in reinforced concrete and the rough, bare sandstone walls. The atrium makes this basement area a unique open-air space within the building, which I don’t want to change so much, so I also design an atrium-like structure to double highlight it and allow light to shine in. The balcony and hallway alongside are already perfect grandstands (see pg. 6), so there’s no need for additional stands design.

The palm trees are also an interesting part of this area. I thought it would be a good idea to turn these three trees into part of my structure, so the columns are sort of standing along the tree.

22

New Law Building

h t t p ://w w w .e la n d s c r ip t .c o m /p o r t fo lio /F o u r s e a s o n s P a r k

The New Law Building structure is inspired by the Gate of Fourseasons by eLandscript. I wanted to use a sieries of neon circles to create a tunnel space, presenting a feeling of extending. It’s in fact not a “door” in conventional sense, because I want to adapt the idea of anti-tradition to set up a futuristic mood. The neon structure will be lit up at night.

That’s for my design.

23

THANK YOU.

24