Vincent MacDonald Portfolio

Vincent’s Expeditions

Stage 6 - Thesis Design Project Vincent MacDonald 140044274

ABSTRACT This thesis has been about seeking a more ethical and ecological subjectivity in myself, acknowledging my presence in the world, and disrupting my orthodox methods of practicing architecture.

I situate the project on Nelson Street, Newcastle upon Tyne – the site of a nineteenth century radical lecture hall. I aim to uncover the hidden: that in myself and that which is hidden in our urban environments.

For this, I have created a self-reflective method that encourages more thoughtful and ecological action. This has developed through ethnographic and performative means, explored through film, creative writing, and drawings.

My ambition is to be more thoughtful about the street, assessing its ecological interconnectedness. Taking inspiration from Tim Morton’s definition of Praxis: “action that is thoughtful and thought that is active”.1 This enhanced awareness will derive from the historical significance of the site and nonhuman objects that exist there now.

Still from ‘Vincent’s Expeditions to Sites of Radicalism’.

1

Morton, 2012. p.9.

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CONTENTS Abstract Presentation Slides Introduction & Methodology A Walk Through Nelson Street CAST I EXPLORING THE CITY II STREET DRAWING / PERFORMANCE AND ETHNOGRAPHY III NONHUMAN INVESTIGATIONS IV PERFORMATIVE NARRATIVES V A CHANGING REPRESENTATIONAL SUBJECTIVITY VI CONCLUSION Bibliography Methodological Appendix

2 5 13

20 23 35 48 57 77 86 89 90

Links to films produced throughout the year:

Primary Film:

A Walk Through Nelson Street : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSe47CrjOc 8:35s

Notes: - Please click on blue hyperlinks to see the films, hosted on YouTube.

- The different voices in this thesis are represented in primarily three different styles: Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

1. The voice of me writing this thesis

2. A Walk Through Nelson Street - Script and other dialogue

3. Research creative writing and scripts

Research Films:

Robinson’s Island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbzKXnu6Q7M 11:25s Still from ‘Voices of Nelson Street’.

Vincent’s Expeditions to Sites of Radicalism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1zyHbaT62g 3:26s Voices of Nelson Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEU3bA5S0xQ 5:30s

Still from ‘Robinson’s Island’.

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PRESENTATION SLIDES

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Vincent’s Expeditions Stage 6 - Thesis Design Project Vincent MacDonald - 140044274 Presentation Slides

‘Sandstone’ - A drawing about stone situated on the Lecture Hall facade on Nelson Street.

Illustrating my dialogical and more ecological thinking.

Iterative methodology concept diagram

My self-reflective method encourages more thoughtful and ecological action. Informed by a close examination of the Nelson Street site.

Narrative and film development methodology diagram

The method has developed through a narrative driven mode of practice. A series of films have primarily led this process.

The aim is to disrupt my existing orthodox architectural practices.

A WALK THROUGH NELSON STREET [An architectural performance piece explored through creative writing, film, and drawing. Set on Nelson Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.]

Link to film : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSe47CrjOc 8:35s

‘Mould’ - A close investigation of a patch of mould. Illustrating an enhanced awareness of the interconnectedness of the street, and the nonhuman objects that exist there now.

INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY

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INTRODUCTION

The recent surge of interest in politics by architects is driven by discontent with the contemporary role of architecture in society, by a desire to take part in the shaping of society, by positing to architecture a demand to do more than merely fulfil its given tasks.2

This is the Anthropocene; we are living through extreme times.

Radical subjective and societal change is needed in the face of the climate and ecological crisis. It is no wonder that architects are turning to political action as a method for change. The Architect’s Climate Action Network, ACAN, are specifically calling for “cultural transformation”,3 and a “complete remodelling of our professional culture”.4 I have not been political enough in my past work, and this needs to change. Tim Morton in The Ecological Thought writes how “reframing our world, our problems, and ourselves is part of the ecological project. This is what praxis means - action that is thoughtful and thought that is active”5. I recognise that I need to do more than what is expected of me, in an attempt to bring about change but it is also important that I recognise my own agency and position myself in my work. 6 I hope that by restructuring my practice to account for my agency, that this more ethical praxis will arise.

In this project, I ask how I can seek a more ethical and ecological subjectivity in myself, whilst acknowledging my presence in the world, and disrupting my orthodox methods of representation. For this, I have developed a self-reflective method of practice that encourages more thoughtful and ecological action.

This thesis focuses on a site of historic radicalism in Newcastle: The Nelson Street Lecture Hall, and its surrounding urban environment.

The ambition was that by placing my focus to radical events of the past, that this would motivate something in my own practice. By conducting ongoing observation and site analysis I have gained a

2 Kaminer, 2017. p.11.

3 ACAN, 2021.

4 ACAN, 2021.

5 Morton, 2012. p.9.

6 The need for questioning personal privilege has been further illustrated by the work of Black Females in Architecture and the Newcastle Students’ Union Decolonising NCL events. I also reference Kalwant Bhopal’s book White Privilege which was useful in framing this. Although, the thesis does not examine my privilege specifically, I have ambitions to investigate further.

detailed understanding of the interconnected and changing nature of the street. Specifically, the relationship between human, nonhuman, and architect. I have become more aware of the site, through actively thinking about it. This is deeply political too. I agree with Tahl Kaminer in The Efficacy of Architecture who defines ‘politics’ as “the area in which power is organised and contested in modern society”.7 By being more ecologically engaged with our current contexts, I am subverting the perception of power as it exists in them now.

I aim to represent this changing subjectivity through a range of media that disrupt my pre-existing architectural status. These are ‘orthodox’ positions such as comfort in visiting sites, ignoring the banal, and orthographic representation.8 Within the introspective method I have created, as I outline in my methodology, I repeatedly turn to ethnography and performance as ways of subverting these positions. Alongside this, experimentation into photography, film making, and creative writing develop with my drawn representations.

This is a continuous process, where conversations between my inner subjectivity and the architectural representation engage in dialogue with each other. They work together, explore ideas, and make each other more defined.

7 Kaminer, 2017. p.11.

8 The etymology for both Orthodox and Orthographic comes from the Greek Orthos meaning “straight, true, correct, regular”.

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METHODOLOGY See Methodological Appendix for further information (p.90-99)

The introspective method, that I have created as part of this thesis, is one that is focused on altering my practice from orthodox modes to one that is more ecologically focused. Primarily I have been conducting site analysis based on Nelson Street throughout this project, occupying the street, and recording my emotive entanglement with it. This has developed into a dialogue with the street directly and I have recorded many conversations with it. The theatre of the street is important to represent, and specifically how I can put myself as an architect into it. The process for doing this though has developed across the year engaging with film making, creative writing, and drawing. This can be broken down into its major themes: In demonstrating the interconnectedness and complexity of our world I have frequently visited a site of historic radicalism in Newcastle to gain a deep understanding of the interconnections that exist there. I have taken inspiration from Patrick Keiller’s film Robinson in Ruins,9 where the title character looks for the complexities that exist in the world through banal sites. This allows me to examine how the architect has a role to play in the theatre of the street, being aware of it, and thoughtful in their praxis.

9

Robinson in Ruins, 2010.

Iterative methodology concept diagram

Methods of research

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I have frequently used ethnographic and performative practice methods to inform how the architect can recognise their own agency.

Ethnography can be described as “a mode of participant-observation, where the ethnographer recognises and accounts for their own presence”.10 The performative mode of practice is one that acts out dialogues and narratives either in front of others or to myself. These aspects allow the architect to have conversations with those that occupy the street more directly. These conversations with the street give different perspectives which allow me to have more openness and comfortableness in visiting. In dialogue with the human and nonhuman occupants of the street I recognise how I have the agency to give a voice to those that would not otherwise have one.

This has parallels with architectural creative writing, specifically that of Jane Rendell, who writes that criticism itself “has a spatial potential… in acknowledging the specific and situated position of the critic”.11 The method relies on critical creative writing to reposition myself to a more caring position as I engage in both doubt and selfdoubt throughout the project.12 For example, in the dangers posed by the Anthropocene, thinking from an anthropocentric point of view is problematic because this reduces the voice of the nonhuman. I reference objected orientated ontology, a metaphysical mode of thought that sees an equality between all humans and nonhumans. I use this to construct written narratives of the street that place me, as an architectural practitioner, in conversation with it, and its inhabitants.

Narrative and film development methodology diagram

10 Lucas, 2020. p.12.

11 Rendell, 2010. p.4.

12 Doubt – “a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction”. Self-Doubt – “lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities”. Both of these work together towards personal growth and confidence in conviction.

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Through the method I recognise that my agency can give the ecology of the site a narrative. This can provide a means to support ecological thinking within the narratives. By achieving this more ecological positioning we can learn from the past, and how that influences the future. These narratives that are created are representative of the theatre of the street. Specifically, regarding relational dialogues and using conversations as a means of developing thinking.

This project also demonstrates a changed subjectivity through drawn representation. My orthographic modes of drawing have been subverted and used to disrupt themselves as I expand the idea of the dialogue to the drawn mode of practice. I refer to Bauhaus artists as a way of linking ‘symbolic expression’ and ecological thought together within my drawings. The dialogues between myself, and the street, continue into the drawings themselves.

In the next section I discuss how these themes come together in the film A Walk Through Nelson Street.

Subverting my orthodox architectural practices

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MANIFESTATION

The project manifests itself as a performative piece of creative writing and filmmaking: A Walk Through Nelson Street, set alongside a development of hand-drawn architectural representations. The performance is a dialogue between myself and Joseph Cowen – a 19th Century MP and radical who spoke at the Nelson Street Lecture hall, the site of radicalism. Cowen acts as my inner questioning throughout the project. The character allows me to converse more directly with the street and its inhabitants. This allows for exploration of theoretical standpoints, my changing perception of the street, and my vision for a future of architectural practice.

It is through Joseph Cowen that I can manifest my subconscious through a written guise. Cowen proved a useful focus for dialogical writing, acting as a historical focus that my investigations can be mapped onto, but also acting as my internal questioning that repeatedly appears in my work.

The thesis document that follows is a catalogued representation of the developing method of practice. It expands the film into its component parts, illustrating each scene alongside relevant theory, process work, and distortions. It is intended to be a read like a series of overlaid conversations: between me, the street, and the drawings.

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

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A WALK THROUGH NELSON STREET [An architectural performance piece explored through creative writing, film, and drawing. Set on Nelson Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.]

A Walk Through Nelson Street : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSe47CrjOc 8:35s

NOTE: All text in blue is scripted material for A Walk Through Nelson Street.

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CAST :

Joseph Cowen (JC) A.K.A ‘THE BLAYDON BRICK’ Nineteenth Century radical politician from Tyneside. A prominent speaker at the Nelson Street Lecture Hall.

Asks the questions which make VM doubt the project. Intertwined with his historical recollections.

Fig. 01 - Joseph Cowen

Vincent MacDonald (VM) Architecture student, quite naive. Seeking a changed subjectivity from his expeditions to the Nelson Street.

Reacts to the historical and social contexts.

Periodically remembers the assortment of street items and information from the past year. Is descriptive and self-reflective of the drawings themselves, leads the viewers through them.

(Left) Still from ‘Vincent’s Expedition to Sites of Radicalism’.

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Joseph Cowen (jr.) was one of the most important radical figures of 19th Century Tyneside. He was born in Blaydon into a wealthy industrialist family, and later became a newspaper owner in Newcastle alongside his rich political career. He served as an MP for Newcastle upon Tyne for 12 years between 1874 and 1886.

He was part of a wide selection of political movements ranging from persuading the general populous to take up action on voting rights, to insurrectionist international plots.

A renowned orator, he was a known ‘friend of the people’ and was incredibly popular with miners and factory workers on Tyneside; and radical and revolutionary contacts abroad. His opposition to Gladstone and his Liberal policy meant that Tyneside radicalism retained its traditional roots.

He was a founder of the Northern Reform league in the lead up to the Second Reform Act 1868 and was involved in the spread of the Co-operative movement in the North East. He was infamous for his outspoken radicalism – especially his uncompromising defense of Irish nationalism and Home Rule.

He regularly spoke at the Nelson Street Lecture Room, know to be ‘the traditional stamping ground of Tyneside Radicalism’.*

(Above Left) Fig. 02 - Joseph Cowen (Middle) Timeline between Cowen and Vincent (Left) Vincent on site

* Paragraph informed by Allen, 2007 and Todd, 1991

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I walked the city.

Guerilla architecture sketch

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I

exploring the city.

[Long shot walking down Nelson Street]

JC –

More political? Than what?

VM – Warm beanie on, long coat, mask to hide behind. On my first visit, the betting shops had been abandoned and a lone couple sat in a doorway having their lunch. The only shop still open was the bubble tea store on the corner, solely for takeaway. I checked around me as I pulled my phone out. I was there photographing the Georgian facades, trying to find a hint of history. I recalled a line from Patrick Keiller’s Robinson in Ruins: “he surveyed the centre of the island on which he was shipwrecked. The location… of a great malady, that I shall dispel in the manner of Turner, by making picturesque views, on journeys to sites of scientific and historic interest”.13

VM – Than before I started this project. Like I read the news, and vote. But that’s about it. I’m not sure where to start, I know it’s vague. I have a strong “desire to take part in the shaping of society”14 and do more than what’s expected of me. I hoped that by visiting sites of historic radicalism I could begin that process. It’s how I met you.

Some scraps of paper blew down the street.

VM – I said I would. We parted ways.

JC – We had our fair share of problems. The Chartist demands still hadn’t been met, there was rising nationalism across Europe, the issue of workers’ rights was especially present here on Tyneside. You should come back here again.

I tucked my phone back in my pocket, checking again to see if anyone had noticed. I had a vague notion that me being here would inspire my political motivations. The radicals of the past came here, maybe it would be the same for me. This had been the site of a lecture hall, where many meetings took place, it was demolished in 1964.

I shuffled up the street a bit, didn’t want to seem like I was loitering.

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’ - Site of the Nelson Street Lecture Hall

I was about to head home when I happened upon Joseph Cowen sat on the bench outside. He nodded towards me, I welcomed his company. I told him of my desire to be more political. He had a slightly confused look on his face.

13

Robinson in Ruins, 2010.

14

Kaminer, 2017. p.11.

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Exploring It was one of many sites I had visited

Mapping sites of radicalism in Newcastle city centre

Radical Tyneside

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From a nearby car park, he surveyed the centre of the island on which he was shipwrecked. The location, he wrote, of a great malady, that I shall dispel in the manner of Turner, by making picturesque views, on journeys to sites of scientific and historic interest.15 The 2010 work Robinson in Ruins16 by Patrick Keiller documents a series of filmed ‘landscapes’ which comment on global themes of capitalism, militarism and societal change. It is presented to us that Robinson is never seen, but it is remarked upon by the narrator that he collected the footage and notes. In the film, the title character is found to be exploring “sites of scientific and historic interest”.17 The film’s narrative style seeks to use these sites to open up the interconnected web of events and objects, exploring local and global level inquiries. These sites are made to look everyday through lengthy shots (sometimes excruciating, but always fascinating).

There is an architectural interest with sites which on the surface seem banal but, after examining deeper, can form a web of events throughout history.18 They can form dramatic representations of the present. These are the nodes where Tim Morton’s “mesh”19 of interconnectedness between ‘all things’ can be experienced. It is with this lens that I explored Newcastle city centre, walking around the city as it exists now, uncovering hidden information about its past, and finding the political within , and that within myself.

Fig. 03 - Still from Patrick Keiller’s ‘Robinson in Ruins’.

15 Robinson in Ruins, 2010.

16 Robinson in Ruins, 2010.

17 Robinson in Ruins, 2010.

18 This idea of the banal as stems from the French “banel meaning communal, and from ban, meaning decree, legal control, or payment for the use of a communal space” (Singley, 2019. p.64). Paulette Singley illustrates the architectural components of this, since: “while banal means commonplace, as in ordinary, a common place or a public commons held in reserve for shared uses such as baking bread and washing clothes expands this definition into the realm of architecture” (Singley, 2019. p.65).

19 Morton, 2012. p.15.

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13th November 1846

2nd October 1906

19th May 1851

31st October 1851

In October, Elihu Burritt had penned a letter to a friend stating his desire to visit Newcastle, because he had “some measures of importance to lay before the friends of peace and antislavery” in Tyneside. He was in England to set up the British branches of the League of Universal Brotherhood, an international peace organisation which had, as its aim the cessation and abolition of all forms of warfare. He spoke at the Music Hall on Nelson Street in front of what local newspaper the Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury described as “a very numerous audience, the room being crowded in every part.”

The atrocities in the Congo Free State – the private kingdom ruled by the Belgian monarch Leopold II – gave rise to an international humanitarian campaign, with Britain as a particular hub of activism. The Congo Reform Association established a presence in several British cities and a large-scale event took place at the Newcastle YMCA, resulting in the formation of the association’s Northumberland and North Durham branch.

Concerned at government efforts to deny a group of Polish-Hungarian refugees their right to asylum, activists across the north of England – including Joseph Cowen in a prominent role – organised committees to prevent their forced departure, and to find them work in the industrial cities of the North. The regugees were the last vestiges of the Polish Legion, an army of volunteers who had fought against the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires in defence of the Hungarian revolution of 1848. Little is known about the subsequent fates of most of the Polish-Hungarian refugees.

As the local press noted, the event was a ‘crowded and enthusiastic meeting’ in which speakers celebrated Kossuth’s liberation. One speaker went so far as to praise the Ottoman Sultan as ‘one of the noblest monarchs that ever sat on a European throne’ because he had released the Hungarian politician rather than bowing to Austrian pressure. Joseph Cowen - a notable radical himself in Newcastle and who also spoke at the meeting - referred “at considerable length, and with his usual ability, to the heroic struggle for independence in Hungary” and Kossuth’s role in that.

Visiting of sites of radicalism in Newcastle and exploring their history

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GSEducationalVersion

Compositional elements

01

02

03

04

A

B

C

D

E

Layered Textures

Photograph of a site of radicalism: ‘Establishment of the Congo Reform Association’, and deconstructed collage adjacent

I focused on a drain cover, I thought it would be inspirational.

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Storyboard for: Vincent and the Expedition to Boots

Vincent and The Expedition to Boots standing at theatedge standing the edge

Writing Style:

check once check once

[removed] personal / objective description of physical / mental observations

frame carefully frame carefully

rule thirds, ruleof of thirds, boundaries, boundaries, grunge textures grunge textures

walkacross across walk check twice check twice

a fragment history a fragment of of history reads: reads :

‘Movement for Congo Reform’

phoneout out phone camera already on camera already on

‘Movement for Congo Reform’

least movement possible make make least movement possible

passers passers by by avoid eyeeye contact avoid contact again checkcheck again and and

alright, alright,

Self-reflective commentary on a visit to a site of radicalism to photograph a drainpipe.

check threethree times times check

RUSH AWAY

RUSH AWAY RUSH AWAY

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I had been visiting multiple sites in Newcastle before settling on the primary site of investigation: a nineteenth century lecture hall on Nelson Street. These visits were informed by the Radical Tyneside20 resources which proved useful thanks to their maps of historic radicalism in Newcastle and also provide further sources for information on each event from the past. Radical Tyneside cites multiple historic figures that came and spoke such as: Tyneside MP Joseph Cowen, peace activist Elihu Burritt, and republican George Odger.21 Radical Tyneside put best how “Tyneside’s rich and diverse radical history is only fitfully commemorated in the urban fabric of Newcastle and Gateshead”.22 This is especially true for Nelson Street where only a couple of plaques link back to the site’s heritage.

The Georgian facades have been retained yet the original buildings themselves were demolished to make way for the Eldon Square shopping centre.

Photograph of Cordwainers Hall, Nelson Street.

20 Radical Tyneside, 2015. The resource was primarily compiled together by the Histories of Activism Research Group, Northumbria University, and the North East Labour History Society.

21 Radical Tyneside, 2015.

22 Radical Tyneside, 2015.

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When conducting further research, it was the radical MP Joseph Cowen, and his friend, the Hungarian nationalist Lajos Kossuth, who I was drawn to. This was primarily due to the plaque located on the street which mentions Kossuth, and how Cowen is linked up with both him, Garibaldi, and the lecture hall.23 The intention was that by directly engaging with the activists of the past, I could engage a political motivation within myself at these sites. This aim has since developed into one of further introspection as I converse with the street and its history, finding the value in what is visibly hidden. This engagement with history eventually develops into Cowen being a way of mapping my own questioning of the project into a direct conversation with the history of the street. Throughout this thesis document, and in the presentation film: A Walk Through Nelson Street, I use Cowen as a character built from my inner doubts.

Cowen’s historical ‘memories’ are created from extensive bibliographic research.24 Although the lecture hall site on Nelson Street has a rich historical past, the current state of the street is banal and tending towards dereliction. The multiple lockdowns over the past year emphasised my experience of this. The street’s bars and betting shops closed down.

Waste overflowing from bins was commonplace, with litter strewn across the street. It was this experience that I have consistently shown in my films throughout the year.

Vincent and Cowen engaging in debate on site

23 The full text of the plaque reads: To commemorate visits to this city and to a book shop in this house by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1854, Louis Kossuth in 1856, W. Lloyd Garrison in 1876.

24 Both Allen, 2007. and Todd, 1991. were especially useful, their biographies shining a light on this almost forgotten part of Tyneside history. Further information was gleaned from newspaper clippings, street plaques and online research.

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The position of the architect within this would be to see if they could be the medium linking the past and the present together. I do this through the performative method developed later in the project.25 However, I can be viewed as an outsider working like this, observing from afar. Local photographer Damien Wootten addresses some of these topics in his series The Radical Road: Looking Backwards and Forwards.26 He photographed a series of streets in the North East which had been named after prominent radical activists and thinkers.

His photographs attempt to remove the “sense of an individual ‘auteur’ [in] creating these images as pieces of art”.27 My initial representations with the street dealt with this dichotomy. I created a series of drawings where I deconstructed the photographs in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding. For me, this was a typical method of examining a site, like my photographing of them mentioned above. Yet, the drawings that I create are fragmented, formalist and lacking in any experiential or historical depth and critique. I knew I needed to have an alternative mode of practicing to bring out the changed subjectivity I aimed for. This directly led to me researching into modes of practice that place myself within them.

These were ethnographic and performative styles.

25 This balance between architect and the urban environment has a parallel in architecture as a “pressure cooker” (Kaminer, 2017. p.153) for radical change. Kaminer examines this “environmental trigger” (Kaminer, 2017. p.155) in the work of architect Bernard Tschumi and philosopher Henri Lefebvre.

26 Wooten, 2018.

27 Wooten, 2018. p.113.

Deconstructed collages for sites of radicalism

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people removed : People removed ‘architectural’ objects of interest Reduced to a pureply aesthetic exercise. Doors, only windows etc. only tools to suggest scale.

I am able to select and discard parts Form based objects depending of the original photograph on my taste Able to select and discard parts of the original photos depending on my taste

plan planBasic for context To give some notion of context

Other materials selected for the Textured drawing so as topallette produce a more developed composition Other items selected for the drawing so as to produce a more developed composition

Comments on deconstructed collage drawing GSEducationalVersion

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Nelson Street Mapping

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Site history:

Mapping the Past cont.

Symbolic investigation of historic radicalism at the Nelson Street Lecture Room

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II

street drawing.

[Cut to montage of drawings on street] VM – When we returned, I had exhibited a series of my maps around the street. We walked around exploring each of them.

VM - Of course. I acknowledged those that had to occupy the street out of necessity: the rough sleepers, the buskers. I know I can choose to come and go as I wish. I hope that through the development of a self-reflective mode of practice I can consider the street and its inhabitants more holistically.

[Map 01 – Site Drawing Sketches: in situ and closeups (for all map shots)] VM - The first one was a mess of lines and collaging. I told him that I had sat on the street as I made it. I was uncomfortable there, so my drawings were hurried.

JC – Why were you uncomfortable?

VM – It seemed like a strange thing to do, I guess it was strange for everyone else too.

JC - You need to locate yourself within the street more. I once walked at the head of a labour procession through Newcastle in 1873.

I heard vehement calls for my hanging from shopkeepers. After that, Engels hoped that I would lead a new proletarian party.

VM – I’m not standing at the side of the street looking sheepish anymore. I’ve been to visit many times since we last spoke. Not being deterred by others has meant I’ve found more of the hidden value in the street.

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

JC – What were you drawing here?

VM – I was illustrating everyone who passed by, where they came from, what I overheard, what I imagined they would do next. It helped me recognise my presence on the street more.

JC – You agree that is a privileged position to have?

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Ethnography as both a method and a conceptual lens plays a crucial role in the process and transmission of creative practice, by challenging a tradition of mono-directional meaning-making through collaborative and creative work for social change.28 Throughout this process I have been borrowing skills from ethnography as a means for situating myself with Nelson Street as part of the study. This allows me to account for my own presence more and observe what my agency is in impacting the theatre of the street. For this I use my existing architectural skills of observation so I can become more of an ecologically orientated thinker.

This ethnographic thinking has come through in the narratives I have been writing. In Vincent’s Expeditions to Sites of Radicalism (following pages) I was uncomfortable with being so observed in my practice.

This is something we never do in architecture school. The narrative written was reflecting on the abnormality of feeling uncomfortable, but also doubting whether I was right to feel discomfort. I was able to take myself out of that situation at any time. This is something that a lot of those who experience the street cannot do. I am recalling those that have a presence on the street by need: the homeless, buskers, street traders. The dialogical narrative allowed for reflection on my experience of what happens on the street.

Still from ‘Vincent’s Expedition to Sites of Radicalism’.

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Hjorth et al, 2020. p.1.

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The on-site drawings produced were hand drawn sketches of the stories of the people moving past. I overheard talking, or was asked questions, and these were also written into the pieces. It was intended that some clues about the histories of the site would be included too, with cut-outs from newspaper articles, and parts of the photographs that I had previously taken. The drawings themselves can be described as my ‘ethnographic field notes’.29 The method of ethnography detailed here has a performative component too. This is something that I have looked to continue throughout the project because of the temporal relationship between the past and present that I have been exploring. The link is clear: “performance is always about time, about revisiting the past, and about imagining desired futures”.30 Unfortunately, due to lockdowns leading to a need to be metres away from people and not being able to visit the site in the same capacity, specific on-site performance was limited.

What Follows is A Partial Record of

Vincent’s Expedition to Sites of Radicalism

29 I conducted further research into this with Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Emerson et al, 2011).

30 Hjorth et al, 2020. p.136.

Still from ‘Vincent’s Expedition to Sites of Radicalism’. Dec. 2020.

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Camera 01

Vincent’s Expeditions to Sites of Radicalism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1zyHbaT62g 3:26s

Camera 02

She asked me what I was doing I initially replied that I was drawing, the answer received a slightly raised eyebrow I quickly followed up with a relatively incoherent stream of disconnected thoughts and themes

Two characters introduced - female character based on my partner who filmed me on the day. Asks questions of my work.

Although I did mention that I was intending to visit several sites

1. started with: [removed] personal / objective description of physical / mental observations

She offered to film me as I conducted my research

2. detailed with a contextual (but fictional) narrative. Reinstated the personal.

I took her up on the offer

Camera 03

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Camera 04

She asked me about why this place in particular I explained that I had happened upon a series of drawings which were somewhat inspired by events of radical and

Acknowledgment of the quotidian nature of the as it exists now

historical interest This first one documented a lecture hall which was situated within the old Nelson Street Music Hall

Difficulties of working with a historical site.

Yet, following the construction of the large shopping centre behind, now only the façade remained

Camera 05

In its place, a high-end cocktail bar The maker of the drawing I found seemed to instead focus on the assortment of street items that existed there

Separated myself from the other pieces of work I have conducted.

now I said how I thought I would situate myself amongst them and that I wished to recreate the experience

Camera 06

Sketch of Vincent on site

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Camera 07

I decided to change my position to the other side of the street, to see what differences might emerge Camera 08

I would also be sat facing the site of the music hall straight on

Few interactions with the public occurred.

This was one of them.

An old man asked how I was doing I faked a look of enjoyment Maybe I should have taken up skateboarding instead.

Viewed passing by on the street.

Camera 09

Sketch of drawing on Nelson Street

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VINCENT’S EXPEDITION TO SITES OF RADICALISM APPENDIX : FIG. 01 - FIELD NOTES FACING GRAINGER MARKET

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VINCENT’S EXPEDITION TO SITES OF RADICALISM APPENDIX : FIG. 02 - FIELD NOTES FACING THE ALCHEMIST (SITE OF LECTURE HALL)

42

Th at se ag ull ju st sw oo p

Characters of Nelson Street ne ar m yh ea d

Com out e on la bac d k. H , get t wo urr y up w bags ill yo . Card u. B b lack oard u in th nder y at o ne, our arm that one . The b in th ins a re ere.

D a oree po n lte us rg ed eis t t. o w Th or ou k h gh er t i e. tw S as ays he it’s rd h au au gh nte te d. r.

It’ She sb w ein as g t ta ur pp ne ed d int on o the of fic sh es ou no lde w. r b y

ed

He said how he was pleased to see before him the same honest faces who assembled here five months ago for the cause of Hungary and the liberation of Kossuth. Cheers and applause followed any mention of Kossuth’s name.

43

On my return to my flat, I reconstructed my experience of the site when I was drawing

Field note development at home

44

Later in the year...

Guerilla Architecture Vol.1

Pinning up drawings on site

45

The pinning up of several drawings from across the year around the site for A Walk Through Nelson Street was a call back to this more physical mode of performance. I hoped to engage with people on the site and discuss the work I had conducted. Most people reacted with a glance when walking past, some offered a brief discussion with regards to the aesthetic qualities of the drawings. One noticed the similarities between one drawing and the existing buildings, another couple filmed me through a window. There was a sense of curiosity even in these times where close contact is a real concern.

One conversation was with an elderly lady who used to work at a café next door to the Nelson Street lecture hall. She informed me that the site was haunted, and she was disappointed that the café would not be reopening since it was to be turned into offices. It was the drawings themselves, and my presence there, that was creating a dialogue.

The presenting of the physical work makes real these dialogues, and further conversation has emerged as people have taken part and reacted to the performance.

Vincent caught on Nelson Street pinning up drawings

46

The narratives I have written throughout the project themselves are intended to be performative too. Rather than engaging in written prose, I am continually aiming to write multiple character dialogues and conversations. This is a way of accounting for my presence as architect, writer, and street occupier.

In Creative Practice Ethnographies there is a compelling argument for performative creative practice: Immersive, encounter-based performance has flourished as audiences seek the participatory thrill of active agency in creative and immersive spectatorship. Participatory and micro-performance can be seen as a return to or prioritization of the individual-within-the-social, a push-back against neoliberal alienation, and the commodification of creative practice 31 This is especially relevant for my architectural practice as I seek to acknowledge the agency of my work. As I state in A Walk Through Nelson Street ‘I hope that through the development of a self-reflective mode of practice I can consider the street and its inhabitants more holistically’.

Performing ‘Nelson Street Narratives’ at home

31

Hjorth et al, 2020. p.137.

47

III

nonhuman investigations.

[Map 02 – drawing scenes construction 01]

a country than a war for liberty’.33 What would you define your practice as?

VM - The next drawing was complicated, strewn with a multitude of signs and symbols. Cowen talked about where his motivation came from.

VM – One that is attentive, and values the ecologies around me.

JC – Any campaign should recognise the actual circumstances faced by those outside, rather than imposing values forged in the more placid British environments. For me, it was a principle of respect, empathy even, for experiences and opinions of those who lent us assistance. Are you being more empathetic?

VM – I’ve been illustrating my emotional entanglement with the street. As Tim Morton writes: reframing our world, our problems, and ourselves is part of the ecological project.

“This is what praxis means - action that is thoughtful and thought that is active.”32 JC – You’re hoping that by conducting continuous research on this street that a greater sense of place will arise?

VM – Yes, a more ecologically orientated mode of practice, and a better understanding of my relationship with the street.

[Map 03 – drawing scenes construction 02] VM – I paced back and forth in front of this one. I asked Cowen about his work.

JC – It felt quite broad. We were part of the Chartist and republican movements. Some even called it ultra-radicalism. My support was absolute of course. As I said in my welcoming speech for my good friend Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian nationalist: ‘worse things may befall

32

Morton, 2012. p.9.

JC – It is about seeing from other perspectives too? Or just mine?

VM – Not just you, I’ve also begun to ask the nonhuman on this street. Ian Bogost writes of an Object Orientated Ontology which puts things at the center of being. “We humans are elements, but not the sole elements, of philosophical interest.”34 That which is hidden and ignored. I’ve had conversations with a bin.

[Map 04 – drawing for recorded conversation] VM – We moved onto the next map. I stared more. I thought of the bin again, when I first encountered it I paid little attention, drew only a small square in the corner. For a time I thought that someone was trapped in it, or that’s how I wrote it.

JC – What about your new perspective on it then?

VM – This street, is one big system and anything on here, or from here, that happened here, can assist me in recognising my agency for changing that system. Like Tim Morton’s ‘Mesh’ “the interconnectedness of all living and non-living things”.35

Stills from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

33 34 35

Allen, 2007. p.41.

Bogost, 2012. p.6.

Morton, 2012. p.28.

48

These times called the Anthropocene are times of multispecies, including human, urgency: of great mass death and extinction; of onrushing disasters, whose unpredictable specificities are foolishly taken as unknowability itself; of refusing to know and to cultivate the capacity of response-ability; of refusing to be present in and to onrushing catastrophe in time; of unprecedented looking away.36 Ethnographic practices also highlight my inherently anthropocentric architectural practice. The example of my street drawing session is an example of this, the learnt behaviour was to draw the people passing by. This is problematic for the ecological thinker who would need to value humans and nonhumans holistically.37 In these times, as an architectural practitioner, I need to be using my agency to explore the other. I would be questioning what it is, where it came from, and what came we learn from it through conversations.

Therefore, I must take my architectural skills further. Ian Bogost, building on the work of Tim Morton, writes of an Object Orientated Ontology, OOO, in Alien Phenomenolog y.38 “OOO puts things at the [centre] of being. We humans are elements, but not the sole elements, of philosophical interest.”39 This is useful for us as architects who primarily deal with nonhuman objects: clay bricks, tracing paper, charred timber. In the past it might have been argued that these were for human use. Rendell states how that for architecture “owing to its role as a social art, and emphasised by the functionalist discourse of modernism, use has long been established as the dominant form of engagement with a building.”40 My work has since looked to examine my agency, in relation to and with these nonhuman objects on the street, that would perhaps have been overlooked otherwise.

36 37 38 39 40

Haraway, 2016. p.35.

Tim Morton goes into detail on this: (Morton, 2012 p.75-76).

Bogost, 2012.

Bogost, 2012. p.6.

Rendell, 2012. p.3.

Nelson Street interconnectedness diagram

49

An Etymological Study

Nelson Street Words and Things In Words and Things (this and following pages), I began to discuss objects on the street in detail for what they are. Here, I explored Rendell’s relationships in a pastiche of her Welsh Dresser41 writings where I described the etymological, observational, and theoretical positions of different street objects. These ranged from a street sweeper to a patch of mould on the wall.

Thinking using Object Orientated Ontology “shows how much rather than how little exists simultaneously, suspended in the dense meanwhile of being.”42 This provides a key contrast with ethnography which can be interrogated, since ethnography has a “focus on the aspects of life that are quotidian, that we take for granted, the supposedly banal details of life where some of its most important aspects are revealed”.43 For Bogost, “instead of worshiping simplicity, OOO embraces messiness.”44 The links between the two disciplines are clear, but for myself seeking a changed subjectivity, it is necessary to search for the messiness and banality on the street. Allowing objects to have their own agency regardless of what their purpose is.

The multitude of bins, mould growth on a wall, the sandstone bricks, pieces of litter, have all become important characters in telling the story of the street.

Street

Object under examination A road in a city, town, or village, typically comparatively wide (as opposed to a lane, alley, etc.), and usually running between two lines of houses or other buildings; such a road along with the pavements and buildings on either side.

With prefixed word, forming the proper name of a street.

A town or village. (1325) The inhabitants of a particular street; the people in a street collectively; (hence, more generally) the whole neighbourhood, everybody. Now usually as the whole street. (1387) The street as the locale of prostitution. (1750) The streets regarded as the realm of ordinary people, and especially as the source of popular political support for a cause or party. (1931) A passage between continuous lines of persons or things. (1384) A style focusing on tricks performed on flat pavement and obstacles commonly found in an urban environment, such as kerbs, rails, and stairs. (1993) Characteristic of or in tune with the urban subculture of the streets. (1977)

Hat on, long coat, mask to hide behind. Chair under left arm, boards under right, pens stuffed in pockets. I’ll be setting up over there, between the second and third windows.

Here I stand on the other side of the street waiting for the right moment. Deep breath, walk across, fold out chair, board on lap, pen out, uncap… “what are you doing?” Her voice came from my right. I replied that I was drawing. The answer received a slightly raised eyebrow. I quickly followed up with a relatively incoherent stream of disconnected thoughts. She said I looked like I needed a hand. I asked if she could film. Try keep it straight on, press that button to start. She said ok.

In relation to site drawing and visiting a place in particular. Perhaps a better way of approaching these sites is in terms of the banal as stemming from the French “banel, meaning communal, and from ban, meaning decree, legal control, or payment for the use of a communal space”. Paulette Singley illustrates the architectural components of this, since “while banal means commonplace, as in ordinary, a common place or a public commons held in reserve for shared uses such as baking bread and washing clothes expands this definition into the realm of architecture.”

41 42 43 44

Rendell, 2010. p.121.

Bogost, 2012. p.59.

Lucas, 2020. p.55.

Bogost, 2012. p.59.

Etymological exploration

Narrative connections

Further / theoretical context

50

Mould A fungus, one that produces the abundant visible mycelium or spore mass of which such a growth consists. (1400) Earth, loose, broken, or friable earth. Surface soil.

Rotting earth considered as the material of the human body.

The result of moulding; an imparted form. (1225) To produce or create (a material object) in a particular form, from, in, or out of a certain material, on or upon a certain pattern; to model, cast, or sculpt.

I went back to the site to look closer. Over in a corner I see scuff marks and green growth. The mould growing up the sides of the walls is noticeable on both sides of the street. The street cleaning machine whirrs by, but the brushes are focused only on the road tiles and asphalt. I crouch down.

24/48 hours to germinate, 3-12 days to colonise, 18-21 days to become visible. Bricks are left. Rotting. Imparted form.

Sketch section through wall

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Drip

Scuff To let (a liquid) fall in drops (1000) The act or fact of dripping or falling in drops. (1675) The continuous slow introduction of fluid into the body (1933) A projecting ‘member’ of a cornice A receptacle for waste or overflow, as in refrigerators (1880)

Why this place in particular? She asked. I explained that I had happened upon a series of drawings which were somewhat inspired by events of radical and historical interest.

The first one mentioned a building which was situated just behind me. It was demolished in 1964. The maker of the drawing I found seemed to instead focus on the assortment of street items that existed there now. I said how I thought I would situate myself and draw what was passing by. I turn around and I see the drips from some paint job below a window ledge.

Level stone paving slabs. Single block course. Painted timber window cill and frame projects outwards. Wet paint allowed to congregate and respond to gravity before drying.

Sweeper A mark made by scraping or rubbing. (1954) To become marked, worn, or damaged by rubbing or scraping. (1930)

Can’t budge an inch in here. The chairman stands to a loud applause. He said how he was pleased to see before him the same honest faces who assembled here five months ago for the cause of Hungary and the liberation of Kossuth. Cheers and applause followed any mention of Kossuth’s name. I received a letter from him this morning writing of his successful arrival in England and his speech to the crowds that gathered to greet him. He who not only possessed the wisdom of the statesman in the cabinet, but the intrepidity of the soldier in the field. He is a good friend of mine. The chair welcomes all that have gathered now Kossuth has arrived in England. More cheers. And continues: “The last occasion of our meeting in this room, was for the purpose of affording assistance to the refugees. It is now my painful duty to state that the fund raised had proved sadly insufficient, and that at the present time the committee, who have made great exertions, are out of pocket.” A collection was to be made at the close of the meeting Physical marks bear little resemblance to those marks left by events of the past. Over 150 years ago this site was a place for radical thought. The street is the only accessible place now.

One who or that which sweeps (1530)

Most times I have visited the site there has been a machine cleaning the street. A box on wheels, leaving its distinctive wet wheel tracks behind it in two weaving lines. It sucks up the detritus that is left – someone’s, some things. It and the bins across the street share much in common: waste disposal? Maybe moving. Ease of access, ease of escape. The sweeper is on its set mission, operated this way and that. I stand to let it pass, the driver waves at me to say it’s okay. So my spot does not get cleaned then. Dust and debris must have accumulated somehow, the wind, the footsteps, the cars. Pressing it into corners, gaps in the pavement, crevasses.

[Found online] “The Dulevo 850 suction road sweeper combines excellent sweeping capabilities with reduced size and manoeuvrability. It is designed for easy unloading into bins or compactors, thus reducing working times and improving city cleanliness. The Dulevo 850 complies with all legislative gaseous and sound emission requirements. The extremely silent engine and special sweeping system minimise environmental impact and render sound emissions practically imperceptible”.

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In Voices of Nelson Street (p.67-75) I developed this further but I came across a problem in personifying nonhuman objects (for example the bin or the sandstone). Due to their inherent nature as nonhuman, I was projecting myself onto them when writing. Reflecting on this I noted that “one can never entirely escape the recession into one’s own centrism”.45 This is something that I reconcile in the film A Walk Through Nelson Street within my dialogue with Cowen.: I thought of the bin again, when I first encountered it I paid little attention, drew only a small square in the corner. For a time I thought that someone was trapped in it, or that’s how I wrote it.

Glass A substance, in its ordinary forms transparent, lustrous, hard, and brittle, produced by fusing sand with soda or potash (or both), usually with the addition of one or more other ingredients.

The substance considered as made into articles of use or ornament (1625) A glass vessel or receptacle. Also, the contents of the vessel. (1225) A sandglass for the measurement of time. (1518) Applied to water as a mirror. (1606)

It was recorded that speakers were invited to talk at the Nelson Street Music Hall. I assume within. I look up to an unlit sign for a bar. I can’t go in, so I look up the website on my phone. I am greeted with how: “the bartenders create every cocktail with an obsessive eye for detail, orchestrated to add a devilish dash of theatre. Watch the molecular magic unfold before your very eyes”. [The Alchemist Bar, online] It’s been closed for 5 months now. Reflecting through its windows is a ‘to let’ sign from the street behind me.

REDACTED

I had written that my previous narratives sounded like I was a person inside the bin, rather than a personified object.

By engaging in a dialogue with myself, I can theorise on the metaphysical nature of being for these nonhuman objects, but still within the parameters of my own thinking. The mode of thinking from other objects’ perspectives translated into the drawings that I have been developing across the year too. As I go onto to discuss later, I have been engaging with ‘symbolic expression’ as a way of illustrating my emotive entanglement with the street objects.

Exploded drawing of a betting store window (to let)

45

Bogost, 2012. p.80.

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RECOVERED TRANSCRIPT I’m unsure to be honest, I was hoping that by learning more about these sites of historic radicalism something would be affected in me, in the present

Commentary, connective, first person perspective, opinions, two people

We had returned to the street to discuss it in more detail Only relics of the lecture hall remain. Lecture hall, music hall, I don’t even know!

I’m looking through the glass windows of the bar again.

Looking for Kossuth?

More ‘To Let’ signs reflected back at me.

Also among the materials were drawings that seemed to illustrate a fragmented vision of Nelson Street.

Site analysis, sun paths, sound recordings.

Physical marks bear little resemblance to those marks left by events of the past.

These ideas of perspective can be expanded further into the explorations of the narrative in my architectural practice. Jane Rendell in Site-Writing discusses the role of the critic in detail as a constructor of architectural space: Places loaded with cultural and historical significance, as well as those considered archetypal, suggest specific psychic forms and so prompt particular narrative arrangements. Literature frequently uses architecture metaphorically, but writing is also a place in its own right. Texts are spatial constructions in which writers interact with those they write of and those they write to.46

Over 150 years ago this site was a place for radical thought.

The street is the only accessible place now.

Those were some funky smells coming from the puddles.

The bin juices leaking out. Gross.

The same light you see within others is shining within you Green algae growing up the walls.

Ever since the clean air act a greenish tinge is starting to appear on the walls at Grainger Market.

The historical significance of the site is clear, but this can be positioned alongside my explorations of nonhuman banality on the site. Giving agency back to the objects on the street and providing a fairer representation of the street as it exists.

A lecture hall, or a music hall, or even a cinema?

Anyway, it was demolished in 1964 to make way for the construction of the large shopping centre behind.

Only the façade now remains.

You can see the backs of stores through the windows.

Like the back of a film set.

Smells like horses, horse boxes.

Close photography and inspection

They’ve taken the ladder from outside the barbers shop Cordwainers Hall Windy

46

Rendell, 2012. p.207.

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Plans? A lecture and a music hall, which one?

Are they the same thing

Visit to the city conversation:

They’ve painted these! They’re green now.

https://soundcloud.com/vinnem/chat-on-nelson-street

Favourite machine is back

13:33s

Why did they come to this place specifically?

Is it the site when I can only sit on the street and I cant access the building.

The space inside doesn’t exist anymore. Easiest to access.

Queuing outside for an actual event, radical events Maybe they didn’t wear coats either Crowded, packed in Lots of support for these speakers, only form of entertainment Cigarette smoke blowing down the street Grainger market side more public space, more scuffing than the music hall side Name tagging – Aaron, Rosie heart Ritchie Sweeper That seagull just swooped near my head Bits of paper floating down the street.

Facing inwards hoarding, windows not used for views anymore, bit like a film set Field notes you collect, written notes at home The relationship between the bin juice and the existing buildings Theres always going to be a link back to humanity Algae, people haven’t touched it and let it grow Things would get blown onto the site Speckled with greggs wrappers, plastic spoons, old masks, chewing gum We walk up and down the street discussing all the strange things that we see Discussing what we are experiencing and what that might mean But does this have the links between them What are the links between

Drawing whilst listening to the recorded conversation

Again, I returned to my flat to draw.

There seemed to be something missing.

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[Cut to empty space] VM – This one was being stolen.

HEY! [Camera starts to pan until VM out of shot] COME BACK HERE! [Camera continues to pan, runner seen taking off with the drawing. VM runs into frame and past the runner] VM – That drawing was too small to see anyway.

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IV

performative narratives.

[Map 05 – Sandstone Drawing] VM – We moved along. I wanted to speak to Cowen about the performative narratives I had written about and for the street, and how it differed from my usual practice. In a quotation from a paper I had found: “performance is always about time, about revisiting the past, and about imagining desired futures”.47 We traced over the map, each line corresponding to an object or event that I had encountered.

VM – For me, it seemed unnatural at first, but the writing is a way of recognising the street’s performative aspects and uncovering the hidden objects. The bins, mould growth on the wall, the sandstone bricks, pieces of litter, have all become important characters in the telling the story of the street – these are what my drawings focus on. I’m acknowledging the agency of those elements. This narrative explores that more ecological way of thinking.

JC – What would you normally do?

VM – These aren’t techniques that I have previously explored, or even allowed myself to question. Usually we focus on objective site analysis: sun paths, the frequency of people, plans, sections. But that ignores personal agency. That’s why my process is ethnographic, I’m accounting for the observer. I agree with Jane Rendell who writes that criticism itself has a “spatial potential… in acknowledging the specific and situated position of the critic”.48 I moved out of the way of a street sweeper.

I asked Cowen about his writing.

JC – I had deliberately destroyed most of the material which referred to the clandestine republican activities. Particularly those papers which related to the involvement in the Orsini bomb plot to assassinate Napoleon III. A lot has been published though, I contributed mostly to the Northern Tribune and Newcastle Chronicle.

You’ve been writing too, why did you write this script?

Stills from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

47 48

Hjorth et al, 2020. p.136.

Rendell, 2010. p.4.

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That the critic, in occupying the positions of both analyst and analysand, combines associative and attentive modes of writing, including forms of interpretation which construct, conject and invent. 49

Cinematic space is deeply architectural, and Keiller aptly writes that “in films, one can explore the spaces of the past, in order to better anticipate the spaces of the future”.50 Within architecture specifically, the “cinematic reconstruction of everyday space might suggest the possibility of its social and political reconstruction”.51 This thesis has incorporated film making and narrative writing as an alternative to traditional modes of practice, one which encourages layering of an ecologically alternative way of thinking.

For our initial group project: Robinson’s Island (following pages), it was through the lens of Keiller’s ‘Robinson’ that we approached our first site: the Metrocentre in Gateshead. Metrocentre is a huge shopping centre on the outskirts of Gateshead, for a time the largest in Europe. Although recently it has been put under great financial and operational strain leading to a noticeable decline.52 We visited the site with motives completely different to those who were there normally.

Shoppers, workers and us, the architecture students, whose aim was to ‘experience the effects’ rather than to partake.

Still from ‘Robinson’s Island’.

49 Analysand: ‘a person who is undergoing psychoanalysis’. Rendell, 2010. p.13 50 Keiller, 2013. p.145.

51 Keiller, 2013. p.143. However, Keiller also argues how the link between cinematic space and architectural space has previously produced shortcomings. He puts the ball in the architects’ court discussing issues with the “materiality of architectural space” (Keiller, 2013. p.143), or how space actually is put together.

52 Scott, 2020. The Northern Echo web article: Intu Metrocentre Could Be Forced To Shut If Owner Goes Into Administration.

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Flashback to

Robinson’s Island Experiencer - First person experience in Metrocentre

Our film, Robinson’s Island, combined multiple threads of interest into an investigation into the powers and authority surrounding the sites specifically on themes of land ownership, advertisement strategies and surveillance. We proposed two characters for our film. Firstly, ‘the experiencer’ a representation of our initial thoughts and feelings whilst on the site. Secondly, ‘the narrator’, an almost omnipotent antagonist to the experiencer, a voice that was intended to give meaning to what was being experienced, but in fact drew up more questions. This produced a general feeling of melancholy which was most notable in the ‘village’ section of the piece, a part of the shopping centre which is meant to reconstruct a town high street. A place which has satirically also fallen into decline, with many empty lots. At the end of the film, we contrasted the Metrocentre with a derelict brewery site adjacent, to allow for further discussion between the ‘spaceship’ like placement of the centre and the now empty sites that surround it.

Narrator - Descriptive and historical/social context to what the experiencer is discussing

Script Notes: For a filmed piece based on the forensic style of Robinson in Ruins/Plastic Bag. Hand-held camera like in the Dead Mall series. With clips from the metrocentre in lockdown. No people in any footage.

Voice over about a protagonist’s story exploring the metrocentre and its surroundings, the ‘island’, during (a?/when?) lockdown. New objects keep appear, but the same sites exist. Perhaps searching for something?

Film is a reflection of the mappings. Continue the island theme throughout.

Cast: Narrator Protagonist Introduction – Long Distance Shots Narrator: She was shipwrecked on an island which was the site of a great affliction. A haven of juxtaposed vernaculars and forgotten industry, pressured by a web of interconnected powers. She walked around, experiencing this strange world and avoiding the watchful eye of those that would seek to place her under scrutiny.

On her journey she would find a series of places that she captured and recorded, becoming the focus of her studies. These places apparently outside the realms of the inter-connected powers in which she experienced.

As she moved, the world around her was drawn further under the spell of these forces, acting from the shadows against those that inhabited it.

Entrance to the Island Protagonist: These glass doors separate me from the calm of the island and the hum from within.

The canopy above dragged me into the complicated maze of consumerism, watching the hustle of people flow through the doors. I keep my head low as they walk past and I hope to be just be a blurry figure in their day, playing no part in what’s before me.

Narrator: The original entrance to the red mall opened 28th April, 1986, this was then demolished with the former ASDA store in 2002. Debenhams Department Store and the new Public Transport Interchange launched with the development of new red mall. 2004 saw the re-opening of Metrocentre and following the new Red Mall, the Metrocentre once again became one of the largest shopping and leisure centres in Europe.

Queues

Robinson’s Island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbzKXnu6Q7M 11min 25sec

Protagonist: I ventured deeper, following arrows that pointed in every direction, all leading to the same inevitable end. The consumer giants viciously towered over me, looking down on their next victim. Each battling to gain my attention.

Narrator: Large department stores anchor the shopping centre: Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Debenhams, and TK Maxx take each corner. In September 2010, the region’s second Apple Store was opened. It was shortly followed by, the first TK Maxx Homesense store later that Autumn - which opened on the site of the old Odeon cinema in the Blue Mall, adding to the growing list of major flagship destination stores. In March 2018, a 78,000 square foot Next store opened, taking the place of twelve shops on the upper floor, and the former BHS unit on the lower level, creating one of the largest Next stores in the country. Smaller market stalls occupy the neighbouring walkways.

Protagonist: The largest of the stores hosted queues that snaked deep into the flow of crowds moving

59

by. I watched as they waited, retained by barriers.

Beat.

2 metres apart.

Towards the Centre Protagonist: As I am drawn closer to the pit, lights flashed brighter, more violently; sounds grew louder as the voices from the tv screens echoed even more intensely. I am immersed in a wave of a rushing hypnotised crowd. I follow disillusioned.

Beat.

Those behind follow me too.

Narrator: The 2 million square foot mall plays hosts to 42 electronic advertisement boards. INTU markets the screens as a form of technology that “no longer has to be just a one-dimensional platform for delivery” but “an integral part of the complete brand experience, where movement, audio and incredible content combine to create meaningful interactions that ultimately drive engagement, interaction and sales.”

Developed by LED specialists ADI, the ‘Epoch’ screens are intended to “replicate the mobile experience”. Drew Burrow, Business Development Manager at ADI commented, “Epochs provide a high-impact platform for brands looking to advertise at INTU centres, while also delivering greater flexibility over programming with the ability to showcase INTU’s range of social, interactive and editorial-led content.” INTU’s schedule for advertisement screens was developed with the intension to “drive peoples’ desire to visit the centre and keep coming back.”

Cameras/Blind Spots Protagonist: You don’t always notice them, but they’re there Beat.

They notice you. There they are again.

Don’t react, the Thought Police will notice.

The endless monotony of camera scopes is too much to bare. I must seek refuge and find somewhere free from the prying eyes to document this. There are rumours of blind spots in a ‘Village’ on this island. (getting more and more frantic) This place is like a labyrinth, where must I go? Where am I? What turn do I take? Am I lost? I dread to think of how many caught my glance.

Narrator: There are many cameras across the two floors of the shopping centre. Many more regularly appear on its exterior. Security guards have regular patterns as well.

Narrator: It seems that there are several areas that are lacking in any visual presence of security and recording equipment. ‘The Village’ is one such place. Urban high streets continue to decline across the country with “high street retail employment” falling “in more than three-quarters of local authorities between 2015 and 2018”. The shopping centre seems to try and counter act this by building its own ‘high-street’ with ‘The Village’ area. There are many closed shops in this district, with the least amount of surveillance in the whole centre.

Protagonist: I arrive and am invited to ‘come on in’.

Is this my solace?

I must search for a blind spot, I am itching to document my findings

Still from ‘Robinson’s Island’.

Will this suffice?

Perhaps under here? There is no surveillance to be seen above I’ve uncovered an abundance of empty lots free from the watching eye If only I knew how to get into them without being seen It seems of no use; I think I must leave this place Still they watch on every corner (slightly frantic, emphasising the ‘me’) Was that a message for me? Are they on to me? Are they looking for me? [black screen break between clips]

60

I’m weary eyed now and all too aware that any sound I make above that of a very low whisper is picked up, every movement I make is observed. I have to act – do act, from habit that becomes instinct – in the assumption that even the slightest murmur is overheard and except in darkness, every stride scrutinised.

I cannot stay here.

Outside/Car Park/Billboard Protagonist: I try to leave, people surround me everywhere, the last-minute Christmas rush before the island is locked down. The shoppers are controlled by the dominance of the hierarchy, impulsively playing their part on this little island. I feel like I can hide in plain sight, but I can still feel the watching from above. Every corner and every turn.

Narrator: Marks and Spencer’s, the flagship store for the Green mall, opened on 14 October 1986 and was the first out of town branch of Marks & Spencer’s.

Narrator: The metro centre features 10,000 ‘free’ car parking spaces originating from 1987 with the construction of the blue multi story carpark. There has been continuous development of multi-storey car parks being added from 2000 with the Secretary of State Granted consent. Attracting 20 million shoppers per year, it was ‘essential’ to add to the transport infrastructure. The A1 Western Bypass opened in 1990 to provide extra lanes meaning that shoppers will not have to queue for long during busy shopping times. This development has continued throughout the metro centres lifetime with the Western Bypass 3rd lane opened in 1991 and the North perimeter link to A1 North & West in 1992 Protagonist: A moat filled with vehicles surrounded the island. Each halted in front of an empty billboard. Its power was lost, voice muted… but the cars still looked towards it for affirmation. Like Medusa, it once lured stray sailors into the jaws of the mall. But now, its power had worn away, and a paper skeleton was all that remained.

Narrator: It had once hosted advertisements for large retail giants, Now TV being the most recent.

However, as the roads grew quiet during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, its power weakened, and, like many other surrounding billboards, advertisements were removed, never to be replaced. It has been recorded that over 71 percent of consumers look often at the messages on roadside billboards, making it one of the most profitable pieces of advertisement. The average cost per billboard in the UK is between 200 and 500 pounds for two weeks.

Protagonist: The rows and rows of cars crammed onto the tarmac, I struggled to see a path to the safety of the outskirts of the island. The island was constructed on the foundation of motorways and roads making the centre impermeable to any pedestrians like myself. I am forced out by these expanding networks where we lie in the shadows, I stumble toward the edge where the tunnel connects to the unobserved.

Tunnel Protagonist: Graffiti sprawled the walls, I felt the emotions of people protesting for their freedom, the citizens who did not want to be a part of the system anymore. Scrawling their search for liberty on the walls beneath my hand. The echo reminiscent of the voices who had stood before me. The darkness of the tunnel closing in as I wander through.

Brewery Site Protagonist: On the coasts of the island was a forest path. I walk along it for a while and come across a large concrete expanse. It seems peaceful here.

Still from ‘Robinson’s Island’.

Narrator: Although the brewery had been dismantled years ago, some outlines still remained.

Brewing first started in 1921 in Newcastle, and in the 1980s it moved from its Hanover Square site to the custom-built site in Dunston. In 2005, it became the new home of Newcastle Brown Ale, when producers Scottish and Newcastle took over the Fed, purchasing the plant for £7.2m and merging the staff. The purchase and consolidation at Dunston created the new brewing company, Newcastle Federation Breweries. The Federation Brewery finally produced its last bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale in 2010.

The old brewery site was taken over by a shopping centre giant in a £3m deal in September 2012.

But it then lay empty for years. The owners of the shopping centre were quoted as saying there were “significant opportunities” for the site, including the potential for homes to be built there. It is no 2020, and no homes have been built.

Protagonist: I see a pram with no seat. Weeds growing through the cracks in the ground. I think about the journey I have been on and how this place seems so separate from the powers but so connected still.

Beat.

I think I will wait here a while.

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In Vincent’s Expeditions to Sites of Historic Radicalism (p.37-40), I asked a friend to film me whilst on site, and this produced a much better representation of my experiences on site. I also wrote a short piece to be narrated over the top, which again added to the story of the piece.

The piece asks the question of who is watching who since the narrator was, in effect, playing a character of myself.

Further cinematic narrative development has been explored in a script for Nelson Street Narratives (following pages) and the filmed version of Voices of Nelson Street (p.67-75). Both of these trialled the use of my creative writing as a way of personifying the nonhuman elements on the street. However, as illustrated above, there are problems when trying to be the ‘thing’. As Bogost writes “physical reductionism can never explain the experience of a being”.53 This led to the need to find a different way of representing both the internal conversations and research/methodology that I was conducting, and conversations between myself and the street.

53

Bogost, 2012. p.62.

62

Draft for

Nelson Street Narratives All from the personal perspective of the street: - historical events - current site exploration events - potentials for future events

Setting:

December 2020, Street Drawing

Present Narrator: Hat on, long coat, mask to hide behind. Chair under left arm, boards under right, pens stuffed in pockets. I’ll be setting up over there, between the second and third windows. Here I stand on the other side of the street waiting for the right moment.

[Pause] Deep breath, walk across, fold out chair, board on lap, pen out, uncap…

“What are you doing?”

Her voice came from my right.

I replied that I was drawing. The answer received a slightly raised eyebrow. I quickly followed up with a relatively incoherent stream of disconnected thoughts.

[Pause] She said I looked like I needed a hand I asked if she could film. “Try keep it straight on, press that button to start” She said ok.

OFF SCREEN: Come on lad, get two bags. Cardboard under your arm. The bins are out back. Hurry up will you. Black in that one, that one in there.

Present Narrator: Why this place in particular? She asked.

I explained that I had happened upon a series of drawings which were somewhat inspired by events of radical and historical interest. The first one mentioned a building which was situated just behind me. It was demolished in 1964.

[STREET EXHALES] The maker of the drawing I found seemed to instead focus on the assortment of street items that existed there now. I said how I thought I would situate myself and draw what was passing by.

OFF SCREEN: Over to Tesco next, run out of lee and perrins. Got mince and onions at home. These potatoes will do nicely.

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Present Narrator: It was recorded that speakers were invited to talk at the Nelson Street Music Hall. I assume within. I look up to an unlit sign for a bar. The tagline: “The bartenders create every cocktail with an obsessive eye for detail, orchestrated to add a devilish dash of theatre. Watch the molecular magic unfold before your very eyes.” It’s been closed for 5 months now. Reflecting through its windows is a ‘to let’ sign from the street behind me.

And five months previously.

Setting: 19 May 1851, Arrival of the Polish Refugees Joseph Cowen: Kossuth had assisted in the transport of the Polish and Hungarian Legion to Liverpool. Out of the 260 refugees that arrived, I was to introduce 12 to our Tyneside audience. I arranged for the meeting at the Hall. The usual place for such matters.

Refugees have a right to asylum here, but the government are trying to deny them their rights and ship them off to America. Me and other activists across the North will find them work so that they can stay. No forced departure.

Of course they were all industrious and sober men, those at the Temperance would insist on such so as to lend their assistance.

Now Kossuth had come to England himself.

Setting: February 2021, Visiting Again Present Narrator: Also among the materials were two drawings that seemed to illustrate a fragmented vision of Nelson Street We decided to return and record our conversations on the site Green algae growing up the walls. Ever since the clean air act a greenish tinge is starting to appear on the walls at Grainer Market.

To commemorate visits to this city and to a book shop in this house by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1854, Louis Kossuth in 1856, W. Lloyd Garrison in 1876

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It was a Lecture Hall.

Setting: October 1851, Speakers at the Lecture Hall Joseph Cowen: Can’t budge an inch in here. The chairman stands to a loud applause.

He said how he was pleased to see before him the same honest faces who assembled here five months ago for the cause of Hungary and the liberation of Kossuth. Cheers and applause followed any mention of Kossuth’s name. I received a letter from him this morning writing of his successful arrival in England and his speech to the crowds that gathered to greet him. He who not only possessed the wisdom of the statesman in the cabinet, but the intrepidity of the soldier in the field. He is a good friend of mine.

The chair welcomes all that have gathered now Kossuth has arrived in England. More cheers.

And continues: “The last occasion of our meeting in this room, was for the purpose of affording assistance to the refugees. It is now my painful duty to state that the fund raised had proved sadly insufficient, and that at the present time the committee, who have made great exertions, are out of pocket.”

A collection was to be made at the close of the meeting

Setting: February 2021 – Visiting Again Present Narrator: A lecture hall, or a music hall, or even a cinema? Anyway, it was demolished in 1964 to make way for the construction of the large shopping centre behind.

Only the façade now remains. You can see the backs of stores through the windows. Like the back of a film set.

Setting: October 1851, Speakers at the Lecture Hall Joseph Cowen:

The chair invites me up to the stage.

Friends, this meeting offers its hearty thanks to the English government for its exertions to procure the liberation of Kossuth and his fellow refugees, and to the American government for not only having co-operated towards this good end, but also for having conspicuously manifested its respect and consideration for them and their cause, by sending the steam frigate Mississippi to receive them on board at Constantinople.

I accept that many of us had serious grounds of complaint against both the American and English governments, but I am willing to give them credit when they deserve it, and they did deserve it for the part they had acted in this manner. I only received some applause.

For the last five months there had been in Newcastle several of Kossuth’s companions, - they were Poles who had fought in the Hungarian war. Although they have been uprooted from their homeland, whilst truth remains, I do not despair. I am confident that all those thrones whose foundations were laid in blood, will be smashed to atoms, and shivered to splinters some day or other.

Loud applause of course In addition to his former donation, Mr Crawshay, had subscribed £5 to the refugee fund, Mr Blackett, of Wylam, £5, and Father Gavazzi £3 I motion for a vote of thanks to be passed to the chairman, and to Kossuth Three cheers were given, and the meeting separated.

65

PARTIAL MEMORY Doreen used to work here.

Says it’s haunted.

She was tapped on the shoulder by a poltergeist.

Thought it was her daughter.

It’s being turned into offices now.

Haunting of Nelson Street Sketch

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Over the Following Pages: A Screenplay for...

VOICES OF NELSON STREET

Voices of Nelson Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEU3bA5S0xQ 5:30s Etymological Emotive nonhuman interpretation Instructive construction Site analytical notation

Camera 01

SCENE ONE

Start. After 20 metres turn right. Walk 119 paces. At the end, turn left.

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Camera 02

Stand at the edge. Check once. They rush past. Walk across. Check twice.

They rush past. Phone out. Camera already on. Make least movement possible. Alright, check three times. Rushing past. Frame quickly: rule of thirds, boundaries, grunge textures. A fragment of history: Lajos Kossuth visited here. Avoid passers-by. Tap phone a couple of times. Check again, Camera 03

and rush away.

SCENE TWO

I visited the site as an architecture student

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Camera 04

SCENE THREE

I explored this street as an ethnographer

Hat on, long coat, mask to hide behind. Chair under left arm, boards under right, pens stuffed in pockets. I’m setting up over there, between the second and third windows. Here I stand on the other side of the street, waiting for the right moment. [Pause] Deep breath, Camera 05

walk across, fold out chair, board on lap, pen out, uncap. [Draw] Look at the passers-by. Try not to make eye contact. Nod to the street sweeper. Collage pre-prepared material. I change position to other side of the street to face the site straight on. Look for emerging differences.

Fake a look of enjoyment.

Camera 06

“What are you doing?”

Her voice came from my right. I replied that I was drawing. The answer received a slightly raised eyebrow. I quickly followed up with a relatively incoherent stream of disconnected thoughts.

[Pause] She said I looked like I needed a hand. I asked if she could film. “Try keep it straight on, press that button to start.” She said ok.

“Why this place in particular?”

I explained that I had happened upon a series of drawings which were somewhat inspired by events of radical and historical interest.

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Camera 07

It was recorded that speakers were invited to talk at the Nelson Street Music Hall. Look up to an unlit sign for a bar. It’s been closed for 5 months now. Reflecting through its windows is a ‘to let’ sign from the street behind me.

Camera 08

Level stone paving slabs. Single block course. Painted timber window cill and frame projects outwards. Wet paint allowed to congregate and respond to gravity before drying.

70

Cigarette smoke blowing down Camera 09

the street. The same light you see within others is shining within

Camera 14

you. They’ve taken the ladder from outside the barber’s shop.

A lecture and a music hall, which Camera 10

one? Are they the same thing?

They’ve painted these! They’re

Camera 15

green now. My favourite machine is back. Why did they come to this place specifically? Bits of paper

SCENE FOUR

floating down the street. That Camera 11

Camera 16

seagull just swooped near my head. The space inside doesn’t exist anymore. Easiest to access.

Rosie heart Ritchie. Queuing

We walked the site a while

Camera 17

outside for an actual event, radical events. Grainger market has more Camera 12

scuffing than the music hall side.

Maybe they didn’t wear coats either. Crowded, packed in. Facing

Camera 18

inwards hoarding, windows not used for views anymore, bit like a film set. The relationship between Camera 13

the bin juice and the existing

Camera 19

buildings. Algae, people haven’t touched it. Let it grow. Things would get blown onto the site.

Speckled with Greggs wrappers, plastic spoons, old masks, and chewing gum.

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Camera 20

SCENE FIVE It’s a very intense smell in here but you get used to it. Made more noticeable by the darkness. Are those footsteps coming

Camera 21

towards me? I might see the light! Come on! The lid is thrown open and I’m blinded for a second. I can see the building opposite, the sky, the people walking past me.

I returned to try and sense the nonhuman

Camera 23

Camera 22

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Camera 27

Camera 29 Camera 24

Camera 28

Camera 25

I hear an unmistakable whirring resonating across the walls. The sweeper. The light is briefly blocked out. A loud crash. What was in that? You’ve not even tied it up properly, something is leaking out! Every time I get opened up, the sweeper is there to laugh. It heads off towards some other spot to brush. The opener doesn’t even take a look at me. The lid gets slammed down. And I’m in the darkness again.

Camera 26

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Camera 30

SCENE SIX

The sweeper trundles off.

Camera 31

[Audio Recording] WHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Mapping my movement when filming ‘Voices of Nelson Street’

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We’ve been here for a long time. Us grains now form the powdery surface. Touching all kinds of strange compounds. A build-up of salt material. A build-up of soot. Water stain and run off. A green slime has been approaching us for the last sixty-five years. We’ve been hacked out, transported, and stuck together. The geology below isn’t the same either. Black dark stuff and lots of mud. We’ve lost ourselves too, in some cases, severe partial destruction of individuals.

One returned. They said how they’d been released when they got scraped off. They lay around on a strange surface for a while. Then the rain came, and they got trapped in a corner. Some of us didn’t make it, a rumble came and sucked them away. They lay there for a few years. The wind blew one back up to us.

Camera 32

SCENE SEVEN

Camera 33

Camera 34

Camera 35

Camera 36

Camera 37

A darkness then came over us one day. It was many years before we saw the sun again.

Away from the sweeper’s path:

SCENE EIGHT I continue to walk the street.

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In Katja Grillner’s PhD, she creates a narrative that exposes interaction between herself, two eighteenth century philosophers, and a narrator.54 Through the dialogue styles she is able to create stories that allow her to reach her ‘true’ conclusion. It also gives her ability to critique her own work as she is conducting it. In creating a research by design method, the architectural qualities and critical qualities are both enhanced. This is a dialogical style that I implement within A Walk Through Nelson Street.55 Joseph Cowen is used as a framing device for my development across the year. I am able to reflect on my decisions and explain how they are relevant to the situation apparent on the street. Cowen can further use his own historical narrative as support for the character. This allows for mapping across the past and present.56 The narrative is then recorded with two voices. I play myself, but a friend plays Joseph Cowen. The actor’s accent is notably similar to what Cowen’s was assumed to have sounded like and comes from the town next to Blaydon (Cowen’s home). The dialogue is played over recordings of my placing of drawings around the site and other footage I have collected over the course of the year.

Vincent and a couple walking sketch 54 Grillner, 2004. Writing and landscape - setting scenes for critical reflection 55 Grillner cites the Socratic Method as a way of leading her to construct her dialogues.

This could be read into my narratives too. I have briefly conducted research into this through Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. I note how he argues that the method is primarily a linguistic tool, rather than one to actually ‘create’ new knowledge.

56 Other references in building narratives are House of Leaves (Danielewski, 2000) and Peter Greenaway’s 1979 film A Walk Through H. Both expand the idea of the narrative into the architectural.

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V

a changing representational subjectivity.

[Map 06 – Mould Drawing] VM – We moved along to the next map as Cowen recalled creating the Hungarian Refugees Committee.

JC – These refugees were radical democrats so of course we had to assist where we could.

I had my Chartist contacts, the Italian revolutionaries helped too. We had to set it up completely, though I was acting secretary and treasurer most of the time. When we rehoused the Hungarian refugees I became good friends with many of them. Lekawski was one. I remember first meeting them inside the lecture hall here. It was partly republicanism – at the time many other countries were rising up. The refugees were merely doing for their country what Cromwell and his colleagues had done for England. We had common ground there.

subjectivity and my progressing dialogues with the ecologies I have experienced – a subversion of my previously orthodox ways of practicing.

JC – Lekawski wrote to me with invisible ink.

Perhaps you and I have similarly seditious ways of working.

VM – Well Tim Morton suggests how “our intimacy with other beings is full of ambiguity and darkness”.57 The praxis of making the drawing, leads to thoughtful action within.

We left the drawing where it was. I was reminded of a quotation from a book of short stories, by placing the drawing on the site I had “delivered it up to the inclemencies of sun and winters”.58 I expect the tattered ruins of the map to still remain.

VM – I turned to the map, using my finger to point out relevant signatures and shading. I told Cowen how I analysed the site using my existing architectural skills, this drawing started out with an orthographic representation of the mould on the bricks.

JC – But how does that change your practice?

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

VM – I’ve disrupted the drawing by layering.

This creates a dialogue within, the narratives themselves give rise to certain forms. On one layer, I use symbolic expression to relate my research to the orthographic. This is a close investigation of the inherent complexity and messiness that exists at the site. I then add my own thoughts about the changing nature of the site, its temporality, and fluidity. The different characters I have met throughout my time on the street have an opportunity to emerge too, the interconnections can be found throughout. The drawings illustrate my developed

57 58

Morton, 2012. p.100.

Borges, 1975.

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You should also allow yourself enough time to study views of the surroundings and interaction with the landscape.59 Throughout this thesis project, I have been attempting to document my research through hand drawings. It is my usual form of practice since it is something that I enjoy. However, I knew I wanted to do more and integrate it closer into the relational dialogues with the street. From the beginning of the project, although I was comfortable creating in an orthographic way, I was keen to find less orthodox modes of practice to assist disrupting my comforts. This could also be used in reflecting on my changing subjectivity. I have found this hard though since I am trying to physically represent theoretical concepts and matters of perception. The process of working has therefore contributed to the development of a personal style, one that has dialogues with itself through layered drawings and ‘symbolic expression’. This representational language has been developing significantly alongside the other work of narratives and creative practice. With each part of the method interlinked it is hard to single out what is specifically drawn. The drawing style that I have been developing is one that exists in tandem with the ongoing creative writing and site research I conducted. However, the drawn representation does relate directly to the subversion of architectural orthodoxy.

For framing these orthodox modes of practice, I have looked into the work of Bauhaus artists Oskar Schlemmer and Paul Klee.

These inspirational precedents were useful for exploring creative representational styles which are emotive and intrinsically linked to theatre and performance. Schlemmer was involved primarily in the more performative aspects of the Bauhaus, so it was especially relevant to see how he illustrated dance notation and theatrical movement into his architectural representational techniques. In Pedagogical Sketchbook, Klee provided valuable insight into the use of lines as ‘symbolic expression’ for natural events. 60 These symbols are acting as a more subjective way of representing. This engages a time-based lens, specifically with regards to movement within performance, to the drawings. For me, time is key – but it is of course relative to the object being examined.

Fig. 04 - Oskar Schlemmer ‘Diagram for Gesture Dance’ (Following Page) Orthographic of Nelson Street Facades disrupted with my movements filming ‘Voices of Nelson Street’.

59 60

Bielefeld, 2013.

Klee, 1960.

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The architectural orthodoxy is primarily time dependant too, but in the opposite way: architectural drawings, for the most part, capture a single moment in time. Tschumi understood this, stating that “there is no architecture without action, no architecture without events, no architecture without program”.61 For me as an ecological thinker, this can be translated to the street as an ever changing and interconnected system.

My drawings have developed from my ‘field notes’, my collected research and conversations throughout the year. They all use my existing architectural language - that is lines, shadows, collage – to symbolically illustrate my research on the street. My orthographic drawings started from a position of capturing a snapshot, this is subverted through the production of drawn and filmed objects.

Throughout the thesis, the drawings have developed to focus more on the temporal and changing nature of the site.

My drawings capture this changing nature through the historical research and my six months on the street. The first example was my mapping for my positions when filming Voices of Nelson Street (p.67-75).

This uses my existing architectural language to put the spotlight back onto my own practice as I am creating work that is more thoughtful about the street. It is capturing the motion of my praxis.

The Drawing Scenes (following pages) constructions directly carry on from these self-observational drawings and take the idea further.

By then using further orthodox methods such as collage, I begin to incorporate some of the agency of the nonhuman elements that I was conveying in the filmed version. The final stage is to begin to subvert this using my symbolic expressions for those objects.

Fig. 05 - Laszlo Moholy-Nagy ‘Score sketch for a mechanical eccentric’

61

Tschumi, 1994. p.121.

(p.81) Drawing Scenes Construction 1 (p.82) Drawing Scenes Construction 2

80

81

82

In my drawings on Sandstone (p.84) and Mould (p.85)I am placing this idea of time into a dialogue with myself. I include an expressive timeline into the drawing to oppose the orthographic representation of the original object. The research I have done, and written in the narratives, gives rise to certain forms with are connected through the orthographic programming of my mind. They are layers upon layers of information about the specifics of these objects. There are infinitely more lines that can be placed. They are my attempts at getting a closer investigation of the inherent complexity and messiness in the everyday objects on the street. Morton talks about “infinite dust and infinite no-dust”.62 In practice, my drawings will always be incomplete.

Jorge Luis Borges writes about this problem in In Exactitude in Science.63 A map is commissioned that is so large that it covers the landscape one to one. This is thought to be useless in the case of the society that made it.

Yet, the drawings are illustrating a dialogue: between the orthographic ways of creating architectural studies, the time-based drawings of Klee and other Bauhaus performative artists, the theatre ongoing on Nelson Street, and my position with that. As a result of the emotive and reflective method for practice I have been developing, my subjectivity has become more ecologically focused, leading to a disruption in the architectural orthodoxy that I have been taught. This praxis leads to thoughtful action within, and by making, the drawings.

Drawings placed on site sketch

62 63

Morton, 2012. p.55.

Borges, 1975.

(p.84) Sandstone (p.85) Mould For more information on reading the drawings please see ‘Methodological Appendix - Drawing Construction’ (p.93-95)

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84

85

VI

VM –I got distracted by a seagull flying overhead. Cowen got up to leave.

JC – Do you think you’ve come far since then?

VM – Yes I do. I thanked him for our debate, I hoped to see him again.

As I turned beyond my summation of the project, Cowen’s questioning still lingers.

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

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Combined mapping on orthographic plan For more information on reading the drawings please see ‘Methodological Appendix - Drawing Construction’ (p.93)

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CONCLUSION To conclude, this thesis has brought about a more thoughtful and ecological subjectivity in myself. This has been through the key themes of: looking for the hidden in me and acknowledging my presence when practicing; exploring the hidden on the street in the banal and nonhuman objects; researching the history of the site and what has ceased to be physical; overcoming my discomfort when visiting the site and putting my work out for exhibition; and disrupting my existing modes of drawing with alternative representational expression informed by the six months studying the street.

I have investigated alternative ways of practicing architecture by focusing on attentive studies, creative practice through writing and performance, and subverting my existing modes of practicing. This has made me more ecologically minded, one that attempts to value places holistically, and in the context of their interconnectedness over multiple scales.

This thesis has continued the trend of a rich history of radicalism on Tyneside. I have found value in looking to the past for inspiration.

There are similarities in the struggles that the radicals of the past have tackled, and the ones that we face now. Looking to the past can assist in looking towards the future. The historical significance of the site I have visited has allowed for exploration on the need for radicalism in my current practice. This has made me more political in my modes of practice – recognising the need as an architect to have dialogues with humans and nonhumans alike.

Still from ‘A Walk Through Nelson Street’.

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Bibliography Books/Publications Allen, J., 2007. Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on Tyneside 18291900. Monmouth: The Merlin Press.

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Fig. 02 - Joseph Cowen [online image] available at: < https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cowen#/media/File:Joseph_Cowen,_ Vanity_Fair,_1878-04-27.jpg > Fig. 03 - Still from Robinson in Ruins. 2010. Directed by Keiller, P.

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Fig. 04 - Oskar Schlemmer ‘Diagram for Gesture Dance’ [online image] available at: < https://www.wikiart.org/en/oskar-schlemmer/diagramfor-gesture-dance-1926 > and in The Theatre of the Bauhaus (Gropius, 1961).

Fig. 05 - Laszlo Moholy-Nagy ‘Score sketch for a mechanical eccentric’ [Author’s Image] Available in The Theatre of the Bauhaus (Gropius, 1961).

Burrows, R. & Smith, H., 2021. Software, Sovereignty and the PostTschumi, B., 1994. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, Mass.: Neoliberal Politics of Exit. Theory, Culture & Society. 0(0), 1-24, DOI: The MIT Press.

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House.

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Gropius, W. (ed.), 1961. The Theater of the Bauhaus. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.

Haraway, D., 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Cthulucene. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Hjorth, L., Harris, A. M., Jungnickel, K., & Coombs, G., 2020.

Creative Practice Ethnographies. London: Lexington Books.

Ingold, T., 2009. The Textility of Making. Cambridge Journal of Economics 2010, 34, 91-102. DOI:10.1093/cje/bep042.

Jackson, M., 2013. Lifeworlds: Essays in Existential Anthropolog y.

Chicago: University of Aberdeen Press.

Kaminer, T., 2017. The Efficacy of Architecture: Political Contestation and Agency. Abingdon: Routledge.

Keiller, P., 2013. The View from the Train: Cities and Other Landscapes.

London: Verso.

Klee, P., 1960. Pedagogical Sketchbook. New York: Praeger.

Lucas, R., 2020. Anthropolog y for Architects: Social Relations and the Built Environment. London: Bloomsbury.

Films Architecture Foundation. 2020. [Youtube] 100 Day Studio: Black Females in Architecture - ‘Decolonising Architecture’. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHXwinkzfgc> [Accessed 6 January 2021].

HyperNormalisation. 2016. Directed by Curtis, A. United Kingdom: BBC. Robinson in Ruins. 2010. Directed by Keiller, P. United Kingdom: British Film Institute.

A Walk Through H. 1979. Directed by Greenaway, P. United Kingdom: British Film Institute.

Online Resources Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN). 2021. [website] Available at: < https://www.architectscan.org/> [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Architects’ Journal. 2016. [article] New stats show architects are mostly white, male and well-to-do. Available at: <https://www. architectsjournal.co.uk/news/new-stats-show-architects-are-mostlywhite-male-and-well-to-do> [Accessed 6 January 2021].

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METHODOLOGICAL APPENDIX

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Site Visits & Experiences 01

15.11.20 - Radical Tyneside

07.12.20 - Night Visit to Radical Sites

09.12.20 - Widening Investigations

15.12.20 - Expedition to Sites of Radicalism

17.02.21 - Closer Ethnographic Investigation

18.03.21 - Filming Investigations

24.03.21 - Specific Ethnography

28.04.21 - Pin-up / Guerrilla Architecture

05.05.21 - General Update

11.05.21 - Planning for filming

14.05.21 - Footage for A Walk Through Nelson Street

17.05.21 - Footage for A Walk Through Nelson Street

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Site Visits & Experiences 02

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Drawing Construction 01

Layer 1 - Orthographic base

Layer 2 - Historical and contemporary characters

Layer 3 - Mapping personal moments

Layer 4 - Nonhuman characters and emotive symbolic expression

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Drawing Construction 02

Expressive timeline

Multiple Layers - Orthographic, Characters, My Position, Historic, Nonhuman

Disruption - Symbolic Expression

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Drawing Construction 03

Composite sketch for ‘Mould’

Composite sketch for ‘Mould’

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Film Making

Storyboard ideas for A Walk Through Nelson Street

Ethan recording as Joseph Cowen

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On-Site Photography & Filming

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Scene Development Introduction Street: The streets regarded as the realm of ordinary people, and especially as the source of popular political support for a cause or party. (1931) Start.

After 20 metres turn right .

Walk down.

At the end, turn left.

End.

Note: When I first found the drawings they were in a pile, apparently left that way. I have been placing them on the walls and following them closely.

Scene 1 - As Architecture Student

Scene 2 - As Street User

Street: A road in a city, town, or village, typically comparatively wide (as opposed to a lane, alley, etc.), and usually running between two lines of houses or other buildings; such a road along with the pavements and buildings on either side.

Standing at the edge.

Check once.

They rush past.

Walk across.

Check twice.

They rush past.

Phone out. Camera already on. Make least movement possible.

Alright, check three times. Rushing past. Frame quickly: rule of thirds, boundaries, grunge textures. A fragment of history: Lajos Kossuth visited here. Avoid passers-by. Tap phone a couple of times.

Check again,

You should attempt to grasp the site three-dimensionally through sketches, measurements and visits, particularly if the site has a distinct topography

Street: The inhabitants of a particular street; the people in a street collectively; (hence, more generally) the whole neighbourhood, everybody. Now usually as the whole street. (1387) The next pieces illustrated rough sketches, merging historical references with a contemporary, anthropological focus on the street. I’m unsure about any distinct qualities; a poor selection of field notes.

Hat on, long coat, mask to hide behind. Chair under left arm, boards under right, pens stuffed in pockets. Set up over there, between the second and third windows. Stand on the other side of the street, and wait for the right moment. [Pause] Deep breath, walk across, fold out chair, board on lap, pen out, uncap. [Draw] Look at the passers-by. Try not to make eye contact. Nod to the street sweeper. Collage pre-prepared material. Change position to other side of the street to face site straight on. Look for emerging differences. Fake a look of enjoyment.

and rush away.

Anthropogenic factors can be analysed in a detailed study of the environment with the goal of developing possible design approaches These were the ones that I needed first. They were maps I received at an art fair about ten years ago. The drawings are fragmented and hard to decipher. Historical context seems relevant, but misaligned with any current frame of reference.

It is important to examine the site closely in order to understand the effects of certain decisions

Scene 3

Scene 4 - Bin Drip: To let (a liquid) fall in drops (1000)

“To commemorate visits to this city and to a book shop in this house by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1854, Louis Kossuth in 1856, W. Lloyd Garrison in 1876”.

Joseph Cowen spoke of Kossuth, and the rehousing of the Polish-Hungarian Refugees in the music hall over there. Well, where it used to be. “what are you doing?”

Her voice came from my right. I replied that I was drawing. The answer received a slightly raised eyebrow. I quickly followed up with a relatively incoherent stream of disconnected thoughts.

[Pause] She said I looked like I needed a hand. I asked if she could film. “try keep it straight on, press that button to start.” She said ok.

“Why this place in particular?”

I explained that I had happened upon a series of drawings which were somewhat inspired by events of radical and historical interest. The first one mentioned a building which was situated just behind me. It was demolished in 1964. I turn around and I see the drips from some paint job below a window ledge. The maker of the drawing I found seemed to instead focus on the assortment of street items that existed there now. I said how I thought I would situate myself and draw what was passing by.

Note: I don’t remember this one. What appears to be a site plan of the street is next. There seem to be some personal details jotted across it. I think they thought they could learn something about themselves, slightly naive if you ask me.

Anthropogenic factors can be analysed in a detailed study of the environment with the goal of developing possible design approaches

Scene 5 - Site Drawing

Bin: A receptacle (1570)

It’s a very intense smell in here but you get used to it. Made more noticeable by the darkness. Are those footsteps coming towards me? I might see the light! Come on! The lid is thrown open and I’m blinded for a second. I can see the building opposite, the sky, the people walking past me on the street ahead. I hear an unmistakeable whirring resonating across the walls. The sweeper, so lucky that it gets moved around, doesn’t have to deal with all the nasty bits. The light is briefly blocked out. A loud crash. What was in that? You’ve not even tied it up properly, something is leaking out! Every time I get opened up, the sweeper is there to laugh. It heads off towards some other spot to brush. The opener doesn’t even take a look at me. The lid gets slammed down.

And I’m in the darkness again.

Gloves and steel toe caps required. Rummage around for a bit. Find items of significance and interest. Lay all out on the street to observe. Wait. Listen. The sweeper rumble approaches.

Photograph as the sweeper attempts to remove. Make sure larger pieces don’t get stuck in the mechanisms. Direct the driver where possible. Leave any remaining items on the street. Walk away.

It was recorded that speakers were invited to talk at the Nelson Street Music Hall. I assume within. I look across to an unlit sign for a bar. Their online menu states how: “the bartenders create every cocktail with an obsessive eye for detail, orchestrated to add a devilish dash of theatre. Watch the molecular magic unfold before your very eyes.” It’s been closed for 5 months now.

Reflecting through its windows is a ‘to let’ sign from the street behind me. An old man asked how I was doing. Maybe I should have taken up skateboarding instead.

Hat on, long coat, mask to hide behind. Chair under left arm, boards under right, pens stuffed in pockets. Set up over there, between the second and third windows. Stand on the other side of the street, and wait for the right moment. [Pause] Deep breath, walk across, fold out chair, board on lap, pen out, uncap. [Draw] Look at the passers-by. Try not to make eye contact. Nod to the street sweeper. Collage pre-prepared material. Change position to other side of the street to face site straight on. Look for emerging differences. Fake a look of enjoyment.

Note: I see bins as something to put things I don’t want. The ones on Nelson Street come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Some on wheels, some fixed to the ground. Shiny or covered in a strange moss.

You should also allow yourself enough time to study views of the surroundings and interaction with the landscape

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Historical Research

1860s around monument

Photograph - Lecture Hall [online]

Photograph - Retained Facades on Nelson Street [online]

Archive Maps - 1860s ‘around Monument’ [online]

Newspapers - The Newcastle Guardian ‘The Liberation of Kossuth’ [online]

© Landmark Information Group Ltd and Crown copyright 2020. FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY.

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Dec 13, 2020 14:26 Vincent MacDonald University of Newcastle

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