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UNDER ‘ B O R D E R’ LAND and the ‘appropriation’ of such land

Academic Por tfolio Semester 2

Mark Laverty Belfast Excavations 140216273 Semester 2 Portfolio // 1

Contents 2019/20

04 - ARB Criteria 06 - Critical Introduction

Und e r borde r l and

08 - Prelude 10 - Troubled Terrain 12 - Body Locations 14 - Condensing the Border 16 - Translated Score 17 - Thesis Statement 18 - Death of an Author 20 - Timeline of Tattoos 22 - Appropriating the Landscape 24 - Shadow of the Object 26 - Chapter 1 - Lynskey in the Underborderlands 42 - Chapter 2 - McVeigh in the Underborderlands 68 - Chapter 3 - Evans in the Underborderlands 72 - Chapter 4 - Nairac in the Underborderlands 116 - Critical Reflection 118 - Bibliography 119 - Impact of external actions in semester 120 - Appendix

2 // Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 3

Contains Images/ Text from Semester 1 Submission

Entire page from semester 1 submission

ARB Criteria Each chapter within this portfolio has been referenced the relevant ARB criteria. This has allowed me to gain an understanding of the knowledge and skills expected from the ARB allowed me to track which criteria I have met, and those which I need to focus upon next semester.

GC1 Ability to create architectural designs that satisfy both aesthetic and technical requirements.

1. Prepare and present building design projects of diverse scale, complexity, and type in a variety of contexts, using a range of media, and in response to a brief; 2. Understand the constructional and structural systems, the environmental strategies and the regulatory requirements that apply to the design and construction of a comprehensive design project; 3. Develop a conceptual and critical approach to architectural design that integrates and satisfies the aesthetic aspects of a building and the technical requirements of its construction and the needs of the user.

GC2 Adequate knowledge of the histories and theories of architecture and the related arts, technologies and human sciences.

1. The cultural, social and intellectual histories, theories and technologies that influence the design of buildings; 2. The influence of history and theory on the spatial, social, and technological aspects of architecture; 3. The application of appropriate theoretical concepts to studio design projects, demonstrating a reflective and critical approach.

GC3 Knowledge of the fine arts as an influence on the quality of architectural design.

1. How the theories, practices and technologies of the arts influence architectural design; 2. The creative application of the fine arts and their relevance and impact on architecture; 3. The creative application of such work to studio design projects, interms of their conceptualisation and representation.

GC4 Adequate knowledge of urban design, planning and the skills involved in the planning process.

1. Theories of urban design and the planning of communities; 2. The influence of the design and development of cities, past and present on the contemporary built environment; 3. Current planning policy and development control legislation, including social, environmental and economic aspects, and the relevance of these to design development.

4 // Underborderland

GC5 Understanding of the relationship between people and buildings, and between buildings and their environment, and the need to relate buildings and the spaces between them to human needs and scale.

1. The needs and aspirations of building users; 2. The impact of buildings on the environment, and the precepts of sustainable design; 3. The way in which buildings fit in to their local context.

GC6 Understanding of the profession of architecture and the role of the architect in society, in particular in preparing briefs that take account of social factors.

1. The nature of professionalism and the duties and responsibilities of architects to clients, building users, constructors, co-professionals and the wider society 2. The role of the architect within the design team and construction industry, recognising the importance of current methods and trends in the construction of the built environment; 3. The potential impact of building projects on existing and proposed communities.

GC7 Understanding of the methods of investigation and preparation of the brief for a design project.

1. The need to critically review precedents relevant to the function, organisation and technological strategy of design proposals; 2. The need to appraise and prepare building briefs of diverse scales and types, to define client and user requirements and their appropriateness to site and context; 3. The contributions of architects and co-professionals to the formulation of the brief, and the methods of investigation used in its preparation.

GC8 Understanding of the structural design, constructional and engineering problems associated with building design.

1. The investigation, critical appraisal and selection of alternative structural, constructional and material systems relevant to architectural design; 2. Strategies for building construction, and ability to integrate knowledge of structural principles and construction techniques; 3. The physical properties and characteristics of building materials, components and systems, and the environmental impact of specification choices.

GC9 Adequate knowledge of physical problems and technologies and the function of buildings so as to provide them with internal conditions of comfort and protection against the climate.

1. Principles associated with designing optimum visual, thermal and acoustic environments; 2. Systems for environmental comfort realised within relevant precepts of sustainable design; 3. Strategies for building services, and ability to integrate these in a design project.

GC10 The necessary design skills to meet building users’ requirements within the constraints imposed by cost factors and building regulations.

1. Critically examine the financial factors implied in varying building types, constructional systems, and specification choices, and the impact of these on architectural design; 2. Understand the cost control mechanisms which operate during the development of a project; 3. Prepare designs that will meet building users’ requirements and comply with UK legislation, appropriate performance standards and health and safety requirements.

GC11 Adequate knowledge of the industries, organisations, regulations and procedures involved in translating design concepts into buildings and integrating plans into overall planning.

1. The fundamental legal, professional and statutory responsibilities of the architect, and the organisations, regulations and procedures involved in the negotiation and approval of architectural designs, including land law, development control, building regulations and health and safety legislation; 2. The professional inter-relationships of individuals and organisations involved in procuring and delivering architectural projects, and how these are defined through contractual and organisational structures; 3. The basic management theories and business principles related to running both an architect’s practice and architectural projects, recognising current and emerging trends in the construction industry.

Semester 1 Work Pages highlighted with the symbols below state which pages/images have been submitted beforehand as part of the Semester 1’s portfolio submission, further individual references to text/imagery from sememster one may be referenced throughout the portfolio: Contains Images/Text from Semester 1 Submission Entire page from Semester 1 Submission

Semester 2 Portfolio // 5

Fragments of text feature in Semester 1 Submission

I Some day I will go to Aarhus To see his peat-brown head, The mild pods of his eye-lids, His pointed skin cap.

In the flat country near by Where they dug him out, His last gruel of winter seeds Caked in his stomach, Naked except for The cap, noose and girdle, I will stand a long time.

Bridegroom to the goddess,

Critical Introduction

She tightened her torc on him And opened her fen, Those dark juices working Him to a saint’s kept body,

The extract opposite speaks of the Tollund Man; a man found in, May 1950. At first the body was treated as a recent murder, however on further inspection it was found that the body was nearly 2500 years old, miraculously preserved within a peat bog and stumbled upon some 2500 years later. This Seamus Heaney poem compares the sacrificial death of the Tollund man to that of those who died in the sectarian violence of the Troubles.

Trove of the turfcutters’ Honeycombed workings.

Now his stained face Reposes at Aarhus.

Another similar case was that of the Cashel Man, he pre-dates even the Tollund man, with his body thought to have been preserved from 4000 years ago. Cashel bog is bogland found in County Laois, Ireland.

II The Theory I could risk blasphemy, Consecrate the cauldron bog Our holy ground and pray Him to make germinate The scattered, ambushed Flesh of labourers, Stockinged corpses Laid out in the farmyards, Tell-tale skin and teeth Flecking the sleepers Of four young brothers, trailed For miles along the lines.

III Something of his sad freedom As he rode the tumbril Should come to me, driving, Saying the names Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard,

The uncovering of these bodies coincides with a significant point in human history, we are/have been/have already entered a new epoch within the vast timeline of the earth, the Anthropocene. It seems no coincidence that the uncovering of these bodies and the subsequent highlighting of the earth’s capacity for holding onto memory and time should happen when on the brink of such collapse.

The land, as well as humanities capacity to hold onto turbulent past is something I focus on specifically within the realm, the projects intrinsic ambition reflects on the lost lives of these 3 people, who may not have been key figures within the Troubles, but whose stories have left a permanent shadow on the socio-political landscape of Northern Ireland and Irish culture.

Within Robert MacFarlanes’ seminal book ‘Underland’[1], of which this portfolio’s title leans upon, he states that we are reshaping time now at a rate never seen before. With the uprooting of these bodies, in addition to many other abnormal events that have occurred within this epoch; evidence points at us as geological agents, with our scaring of the earth ‘revealing millions of years in hours and minutes’.[2]

The final architecture output, in the form of these vessels and relative ‘hearts’, does not seek to provide an answer to the Troubles, or any subsequently related matter, but situates itself as an allegorical formulation of the lands capacity to retain memory, a resurfacing of it.

This condensing of time and the subsequent unravelling that has followed, is something that I have explored conceptually throughout the year, culminating in the formulation of a mythopoetic realm, sandwiched between Northern Ireland and Ireland, where time reveals itself at insensible frequencies.

The Disappeared of which I have been referring to, are the 16 bodies of abducted persons, still unfound, that have been at the forefront of an investigation ranging on 40 years.[4]

Within the realm, giant machines scour the lands, most are dormant, however 3 still remain perpetually searching to find those that are Disappeared.

Watching the pointing hands Of country people, Not knowing their tongue.

Out here in Jutland In the old man-killing parishes I will feel lost, Unhappy and at home.

The Myth The last three of these vessels are Nairac, Lynskey and McVeigh.

Through excavating, distilling and uncovering the Underborderlands, the machines search for the remaining 3 bodies of the Disappeared[3], whilst simultaneously propagating a particular aspect of the memories of Colomba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey and Robert Nairac.

This occurs through 3 unique programmatic elements that inhabit the heart of the machines.

The Disappeared

Of these 16, a significant proportion have been/rumoured to be/have been located around the vicinity of the border.

The Underborderlands relation to these bodies remains ambiguous, in fact most of the Underborderlands context is shaped by vast horizons and unfathomable cartographies. Yet the search for these bodies within this vast landscape goes on, the machines a small price to pay in the recovering of memory.

In all its ambiguity, the Underborderlands scars tell the tale of the humanities desperation for closure.

The following pages begin with a prelude before the tales of the remaining Disappeared reveal themselves, however this introduction is heavily condensed from Semester 1’s portfolio.

The Tollund Man - Seamus Heaney

6 // Underborderland

[1] - MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON. [2] - MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON. [3] - BBC News. (2015). Who were the Disappeared?. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uknorthern-ireland-10814888 [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

[4] - Murray, D. (1999). BBC News | From Our Own Correspondent | ‘Disappeared’ return to haunt Ireland’s conscience. [online] News. bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/ from_our_own_correspondent/362314.stm [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

- GC1 - GC2 - GC3 - GC4 - GC5 - GC6 - GC7 - GC8 - GC9 - GC10 - GC11 -

Semester 2 Portfolio // 7

Prelude before the Under’border’lands

8 // Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 9

Troubled Terrain

T

Body Location

hroughout the entirety of the Irish Isles, and sometimes even further afield, there has been 13 recovered cases of the Disappeared.

The adjacent images reflect the locale for each of the recovered bodies within the search to date. (On 2 occasions a pair of bodies were recovered from the same location).

The investigation process for each case varies, the impact and scale of excavation are unique to every dig.

10// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 11

The 16 Disappeared

Body Locations

Route of abduction to body locations

B

uilding upon the initial experiential events portrayed within the collages preceding, a cartographical analysis located the bodies from the last known abduction locations to their final resting spots. Rumoured locations of the 3 undiscovered bodies are also mapped.

Based on the Sutton List of Body locations[5} linear linework on the image opposite track where the body’s where initially abducted and subsequently uncovered. This map reveals that 12 of the 16 cases crossed the borders.

The difficulty in finding the remaining 3 bodies is that memory of the locations fade over time, or even if remembered correctly, nature changes over time; previously untouched forest gain inhabitation; where a rock used to lie, it may no longer. With passing time comes imprecision.

With 3 of these bodies still undiscovered, they remain a blot on the landscape, constituting to a borderland in contention...

Body locations connected via linework to initial abduction locations

12// Underborderland

[5] Cain.ulster.ac.uk. (2019). CAIN: Issues: Violence - Details of ‘the Disappeared’. [online] Available at: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/ issues/violence/disappeared.htm [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].

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Semester 2 Portfolio // 13

First fold - Condensing map into linear border

Condensing of the Border and later re-extention

W

ith the 3 remaining bodies potentially still obscured in the depths of the border, a site for analysis needed to be more precisely defined.

A speculative compressing of the border allowed myself to interrogate its relationship to the Disappeared.

The image below shows the preliminary digital fabrication of folds to the border’s geometry.

Perhaps reminiscent of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Airocean map, the agency behind the demarcation of territory that had divided Ireland and NI has been presented equally. The border is abstracted from its socio-political context.

T

he image above is a testing of manipulating the border. Through the analogue folding process: the reconnecting of the new vernacular borderlands is evidenced. However, the implementation of digital folding (below image) allowed more precise manipulation and extrapolation within the next phase of the study.

Meanwhile, these folds have been traced digitally as a record of process.

14// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 15

Intrigue

Sadness

0

1

4 4

Hope 2

4 4

Chaos

3

4 4

4 4

4 4

Hope

Reflection

4

Chaos

Apprehension

5

4 4 4 4

Dispair

6

4 4

4 4

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Confusion 8

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Terror 9

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Translated Score

F

Translated Score

Hope

urther investigations into the Troubles came through the lens of an archive recording different artistic reflections on the Troubles.

This excavation into the Archive drew my attention to a piece of atonal music called Requiem for the Disappeared composed by performance artist Conor Mitchell, a personal response to the stories of the Disappeared.

The orchestral ensemble immediately caught my attention with its discomforting rhythm, eerie atmosphere and melancholy nature. These attributes can be pinpointed back to the atonality of the piece, the lack of a key, something which I will explore further within my work.

The positioning of Mitchell’s piece within the context of the Troubles resonated with myself. He describes his composition as a ‘musical reflection on the issue of the right to burial. It doesn’t answer any questions, but it does ask some.’[6]

Subsequently, my emotions evoked from initially listening to the piece provided a way of translating the music to myself. Signifier words mapped against the scores time signature, allowed me to create a new timeline for the piece, one based on emotions rather hours and minutes.

A red line runs through the entire piece, relating to my spatial interpretation of the music notes. This stem provided a framework from which an entirely new spatial score could be formed. The embodiment of the intangible, unfathomable.

Chaos

3 4 4

4 4

Hope

4

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Reflection

L

Chaos

5

4

4 unconscious, its absence The Piano is the scores speaks of a sense of something missing that cannot be spoken about. By revealing this and interrogating it, we are directly4 interrogating the repressed 4 psychological associations with the Disappeared.

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4 4

4 4 This prelude is a dichotomy of my emotional response

to the Requiem, superimposed into the disappeared element of the piece (the Piano), simulating an 4 unfathomable imprecision.

Translated back onto the 4 new border condition, the unexpected results shall be the defining schema for a cartographic representation of eventual Underborderlands.

4 4

Appreh

The intangible aspect of memory and experience in relation to the locating the bodies of the disappeared cannot be quantified by myself

ooking back to the Requiem for the Disappeared and Mitchells ambitions for the piece, ‘It doesn’t 4 answer any questions, but it does ask some.’[7] The4question I now asked myself was what made this piece resonate theoretically. Musical theory suggests the Atonality creates a jarring, melancholy atmosphere, 4 and this is magnified by 4 instrument within a standard the removal of a key orchestral score, a Piano. With its truancy, the piano acts as a vessel representing the Disappeared.

4 4

4 4

Thesis Statement

These results could be anything, however the revelation of them will definitively be dynamic through design.

Not just the Disappeared are lost within the landscape, hundreds of years of deep time lie within the Underborderland. With the excavation of the Disappeared, this deep time is revealed, placing ourselves within the sequence of earth’s history.

This formulation envisages linework of excavation through the landscape, the imprint of which highlights the search for the Disappeared, simultaneously revealing the unconsciousness Underborderland.

MacFarlane describes unburials as ‘disruptions to the simple notions of Earth history as orderly in sequence, with the deepest down being the furthest back.’[8] Whilst unearthing the landscape, deep time is the catalysing context with which we question our ‘are we being good ancestors?’[9] Deep time is thought of as a radical perspective within the scheme, provoking action not apathy.

Within the next few pages, the realisation of a schema, I speak loosely about tattooing and inking landscapes in relation to the process of unearthing.

This ambiguity is a purposeful gesture, the land is being uncovered in the search for the Disappeared, leaving ambiguous imprints of these investigations behind.

6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

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Link: Requiem for the Disappeared - The Troubles Archive

Detail of Translated Score 16// Underborderland

[6] Mitchell, C. (2012). Requiem for the disappeared agnus dei | Troubles Archive. [online] Troublesarchive.com. Available at: http:// www.troublesarchive.com/artforms/contemporary-music/piece/ requiem-for-the-disappeared-agnus-dei [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

[7] MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON. [8] MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON. [9] MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON.

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Semester 2 Portfolio // 17

Unfathomable residue stretched over Cartographic Boundary

Death of an Author

A

s my researched suggested, within the undergoing of excavation for the Disappeared, there is always an aspect of inprecision, trial and error, due to the vastness of the locality they could potentially be situated in.

Removing my agency at the point of defining a site embraces the notion that the architecture formulation going forward should not be restricted just to rumoured locations of the three remaining bodies. Instead, typifying the allegorical nature Troubles; the resonance of the Disappeared spans a much larger sociogeographical territory.

The complexity of finding the bodies and imprecision of the excavation process are represented as pipettes, attached via string to the piano strings, extensions of the Pianos internal mechanisms.

Framing the study:

The role of my ego is replaced with that of an abstracted bystander. They have been briefed that they will be interpreting an abstracted score, however they do not know anymore.

Senses focused on the task at hand, the purely instinctive input into the piano is mapped via pipettes vibrating from the translation, discharging residue on the vernacular borderlands.

Requiem for the Disappeared plays as they approach the piano. The piano acts as an extension of the arm. Input into the device activates pipettes that splash the map.

Influenced by Rebecca Horn’s Pencil Mask and Finger Gloves[10] the viewer is invited to treat the artwork more like music.

The extension generates imprecision that reveals moments of unexpected importance.

This interrogation relayed onto the new border condition seeks to reveal more than the 3 remaining Disappeared.

Building upon the work of Roland Barthes’ Death of an Author[11] and Duchamps schema[12], the reader is the only person that creates the cultural dialogue between the project and the outcome. By abstaining my own authorial influence, something unexpected, uncontrollable, unfathomable can be obtained.

The piano acts as a memory vessel, although these memories have clouded and are atonal...

18// Underborderland

By stande rs Inte r pretation of the S core

[10] Horn, R., Zweite, A. and Holzwarth, H. (2006). Rebecca Horn - drawings, sculptures, installations, films 1964-2006. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz.

[11] Barthes, R. and Heath, S. (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill and Wang.

[12] Chard, N. and Kulper, P. (2014). Fathoming the unfathomable. Princeton Architectural Press.

Simulating the Unfathomable

Semester 2 Portfolio // 19

Timeline of Tattoos Frequencies of Uncovering

Holocene 1 year = 1 year

Existing Tattoos 20,000 years = 5 days

Tattoo 1 18 years = 1 playthrough of the Requiem

Tattoo 2 44 years = 74 repeats of machinic drone sound

Tattoo 3 8 years = 60 ticks of the Metronome

Anthropocene 20,000 years = 5 days

T

he results of the unpredictable piano study are mapped onto the condensed border condition. Mutilated with aspects of my original interpretation of the score, a final cartography depicting Tattoos on the Borderland is derived. I call these tattoo’s, physical embodiments of memory existing within the cartography, however as with all tattoo’s these are open to personal interpretation.

The above timeline situates the cartography within the context of the Holocene and Anthropocene. Time within the Anthropocene is collapsing upon itself; 20,000-year-old remains can be uncovered in 5 days.

These geometries are imprinted into the land, however what derives them must look back to they’re original purpose, to find the remaining 3 Disappeared...

20// Underborderland

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Semester 2 Portfolio // 21

Appropriating the Borderlandscape

Heideg gar descr ibes all technological endeavours r e l a t i n g t o t h e d o m i n a t i o n o f n a t u r e . [13]

I

n order to create these tattoos on the landscape, a study into what was already creating the anthropogenic scars existing within the borderlands is needed.

The border is vastly dominated by farmed land, and on closer inspection of the cartographical representation of the musical score on the landscape, imprints by these machines and the programmed arrangement of field yields and boundaries already cite man’s appropriation.

In keeping with this order already established, the architecture that will create the tattoos by excavating the Underborderlands must relate to man’s existing appropriation, demystifying the existing shadows of appropriation casted upon the land.

Existing Tattoos

22// Underborderland

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[13] McCarter, R. and Denari, N., 1997. Building Machines. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, p.14.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 23

Shadow of the Object

Peat Extraction

C

ontextualising the devices of appropriation started with the rawest of objects already augmenting the landscape: the tooling of agriculture.

Agricultural machines are scaled up to conceptualise great mechanical masses excavating and manipulating the landscape.

The blurring of scale abstracts the devices formality within the existing landscape. When existing within the cartography, the devices scale is hard to perceive, however the uncanny nature of the agricultural machines silhouette is blurred with the object.

Its

24// Underborderland

shadow

becomes the subject investigation.

of

formal

T

he form above depicts the silhouette and emanating shadow of a digger.

A widely used agricultural machine, it’s distinctive form is largely influenced by the armature from which it’s function necessitates.

Furthermore, the digger is the primary tooling currently in work searching for the likes of Nairac, McVeigh and Lynskey; it forms the dominant silhouette of the first vessel occupying the Underborderlands...

The following stories retell significant moments/ memories or underlying narratives that have unearthed themselves to me whilst researching Nairac, McVeigh and Lynskey. However, they’re ambiguity in relation to the architecture forms developed distinctly positions the reader within my own perspective; that of an outsider looking in.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 25

Chapter 1

Lynskey in the Under’border’lands

26// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 27

1:500 Site Plan

Embodying Memory Fading into the distance

T

he first to disappear and subsequently the longest ‘disappeared’. A former monk and founder member of the Provisional IRA, Joseph Lynskey is said to have been a personal friend of Gerry Adams, killed in June 1972 after he offended against both IRA rules and Catholic morality.[14]

Harvesting the Landscape 28// Underborderland

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[14] Cobain, I. (2014). Disappeared but not forgotten: the grim secrets the IRA could not bury. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/ may/10/disappeared-ira-troubles-northern-ireland [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

Uncovering Memory Semester 2 Portfolio // 29

Initial Propagations

Entering the Cracked Cup Official Club

T

he incident in question, it is rumoured Lynskey had ordered another IRA man to kill a third member of the organisation, after having an affair with the intended victim’s wife.

His rumoured location was in the Official IRA Club, the Cracked Cup.

Domesticated Facade Private Entry 30// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 31

Shrouded Insides

T

Unclear

he shooting was botched and, amid the mayhem of west Belfast at that time, it reignited the violent on-off feud between the Provisional and Official wings of the IRA. The feud claimed the life of an innocent man, Desmond Mackin.

32// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 33

Embedded

Heart of the Machine

34// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 35

Frequency of Firing Joe Lynskey (58-75) Died aged 40

Propagating Lynskeys Infraction

Timeline of Machines Frequencies of Uncovering

Obscure Operation

Barley Planting Holocene

Growth

1 year = 1 year

Barley Wheat

Climate Change Existing Tattoos

Peat

Agricultural Propagation

20,000 years = 5 days

Harvesting

Growth

3 Days

Peat

Water

1 playthrough of the Requiem

28 years = 1 playthrough of the Requiem

Steeping 2 Days

Unearthing the Anthroposcene Tattoo 1

60-70 Days

Drying

Pressurised Liquid Energy

Barley Growth

8 Hours

Extraction Fracking

Harvesting Peat

Whiskey

Germinating

Extraction

Growth

4 Days

Kilning

Malting

28 Years Vintage

Yeast

Wheat

1 Hour

Ploughing Land

17 years = 60 ticks of the Metronome

17 Years

Timeline of Vessel Lynskey Frequencies of Constructing

Tattoo 3

40 years = 74 repeats of machinic drone sound

Washback

3 Days

Youth Woodworking Workshop

Teaching

Triple Distillation

Distill

12 Hours

4 Hours

Maturation

Distill

27 Years, 279 Days, 11 Hours

4 Hours

Trickle into glass

4 Hours

Distill

16 Years, 324 Days 2 Minutes

20,000 years = 5 days

7 Days

Digging Land

T

The above timeline frames the Underborderlands; subsequently framing the machines within the context of the Holocene and Anthropocene. Time within the Anthropocene is collapsing upon itself; 20,000-year-old remains can be uncovered in 5 days.

The machines perpetually excavating the Underborderland reveal Disappeared and Anthropogenic remains alike, at rhythms disassociated to the epochs.

2 Hours

Mould 2 Minutes

Kiln 3 Days

Build Wall 39 Years, 362 Days, 58 Minutes 36// Underborderland

Re-sawing Chippings

20 Days

20 Minutes

Felling

Various Hard/Softwoods in Border Regions

Growth

2 Hours

(Bog-wood (oak), Spruce, Fir... etc)

40-150 Years

Extraction 2 Hours

Key Ingredients Raw Materials

Seasoning

Re-sawing

Bricks

0.5 Seconds

2 Hours

4 Days

1 Hour

Product Poked

2000 Years

Extraction

Wood Starch Glue

Milling

12 Weeks

Growth

4 Hours

2 Minutes

Shelf Life

Peat

Veneer Layup and Gluing

Breaking Down

3 Weeks

Kiln Dry 10 Minutes

10 Minutes

Crafting

2 Days

3 Days

Conversion

8 Hours

8 Hours

Veneer Drying

8 Hours

Refinement

Harvesting

10 Minutes

Clay Extraction

15 Hours

Semi-milled

Veneer Cutting

85 Days, 8 Hours, 0.5 Seconds

Mixer

Growth

Yeast Starter

Pottery

40 Years

2 Hours

Storage/Soaking

74 repeats of machinic drone sound

his series of cartographies map the traces of the machines on the borderlands. Etched into the landscape, the cartography becomes Tattoos on the Borderland.

Extraction

2000 Years

7 Days

34 Days

Timber Members

Water

Plywood Pressing

Plywood Anthropocene

Growth

3 Days

Fermentation

60 ticks of the Metronome

Peat

6 Hours

82 Days

Mashing Tattoo 2

he machines programming is detailed within the schematic adjacent. Over the duration of its search, the processes stated relating to its imprint on the land are perpetually repeated.

Barley Harvesting

Harvesting

Growth

T

Barley

3 Days

3 Days

Clay Powder Water

Secondary Processing 10 Minutes

Bog-wood Oak Cask 2 Weeks (Approx)

5 Minutes

T

he vessel Lynskey yields from the landscape. A reduction of the harvested material to power and formulate production of the machine amasses to 3 main ingredients: Clay Water Peat

All naturally in abundance within the borderlands, through the excavation and search for the disappeared, the lands potential is utilised in propagating an aspect of memory significant to each victim.

Lynskey was murdered as part of a feud between PIRA and ‘Official’ IRA members, his inclusion involvement comes back to a significant altercation at the ‘Cracked Cup Club’, Leeson Street, Belfast.

A bystander was shot 7 times by machine gun.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 37

Cracked Cups (and other pots) The Misfiring Machine

Constructing from Fragments After the Event

L

ynskey was murdered after being summoned to a meeting outside Belfast.

Republicans say he was buried in an attempt to conceal evidence of his conduct, as well as his death, and his name was omitted from the list of the disappeared that the IRA issued in 1999.[15]

38// Underborderland

[15] Cobain, I. (2014). Disappeared but not forgotten: the grim secrets the IRA could not bury. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/ may/10/disappeared-ira-troubles-northern-ireland [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 39

Interferring in Affairs Mechanical Imposition

Costly Interference

40// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 41

Chapter 2

McVeigh

in the Under’border’lands

42// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 43

McVeighs Backdrop

A

Watching On

ged 17, McVeigh vanished in November 1975. Columba was the third of four children born to Paddy and Vera McVeigh.

He grew up in the rural setting of Castlecaulfield in Co Tyrone, less than 10 miles away from the Northern Irish/Irish border.[16]

Ghostly Machine Sustained Excavation

44// Underborderland

[16] Thedisappearedni.co.uk. 2017. Still Missing. [online] Available at: <https:// thedisappearedni.co.uk/index.php/missing> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

- GC1 - GC2 - GC3 - GC4 - GC5 - GC6 - GC7 - GC8 - GC9 - GC10 - GC11 -

Semester 2 Portfolio // 45

Shadow of the Plough Resurfacing un-conscious

H

e enjoyed being outdoors, riding his bike, playing football, often returning home covered in muck from head to toe. He had a great sense of humour and enjoyed playing a trick on family and friends.[17]

Early Exploration - The up-scaled plough patrols the Bogland

46// Underborderland

[17] Thedisappearedni.co.uk. 2017. Still Missing. [online] Available at: <https:// thedisappearedni.co.uk/index.php/missing> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 47

48// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 49

Augmented Horizons in the Under’border’lands

Excavating? Tattooing? Propagating?

B

Embodying Memory

y all accounts, he was a sociable and influential young member of the villages community. However, with this influence came pressure. Oliver McVeigh, Colomba’s brother cites, ‘He was very happy go lucky. Typical teenager I suppose. Back then, 17-year-olds got up to stupid things . . . they were kind of innocent.’[18]

50// Underborderland

[18] - Duggan, K., 2018. Columba Mcveigh: A Lost Life Brought Into Sharper Focus. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/ sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/columba-mcveigh-a-lost-life-brought-intosharper-focus-1.3500207> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 51

Hovering In Tension

52// Underborderland

Uncovering Ploughing On

Semester 2 Portfolio // 53

Unfathomable Hint of a Pathway

54// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 55

Path through the Complexity McVeighâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Journey

A

56// Underborderland

ged 17, McVeigh vanished in November 1975. His complication within the complexity of the times had caught up to him and sadly taken his life.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 57

Frequency of Uncovering Colomba McVeigh (58-75) Died aged 17 Timeline of Machines

An Ulterior Path

Frequencies of Uncovering

Obscure Operation

Barley Planting Holocene

Growth

1 year = 1 year

Barley Wheat

Climate Change Existing Tattoos

Peat

Agricultural Propagation

20,000 years = 5 days

Harvesting

Growth

3 Days

Peat

Water

1 playthrough of the Requiem

28 years = 1 playthrough of the Requiem

Harvesting Peat

Whiskey

Kilning Yeast

17 Years

Tattoo 3

40 years = 74 repeats of machinic drone sound

Washback

3 Days

Youth Woodworking Workshop

Teaching

Triple Distillation

Distill

12 Hours

4 Hours

Maturation

Distill

27 Years, 279 Days, 11 Hours

4 Hours

Trickle into glass

4 Hours

Distill

16 Years, 324 Days 2 Minutes

7 Days

Digging Land

The above timeline frames the Underborderlands; subsequently framing the machines within the context of the Holocene and Anthropocene. Time within the Anthropocene is collapsing upon itself; 20,000-year-old remains can be uncovered in 5 days.

The machines perpetually excavating the Underborderland reveal Disappeared and Anthropogenic remains alike, at rhythms disassociated to the epochs.

2 Hours

Mould 2 Minutes

Kiln 3 Days

Build Wall 39 Years, 362 Days, 58 Minutes 58// Underborderland

Re-sawing Chippings

20 Days

20 Minutes

Felling

Various Hard/Softwoods in Border Regions

Growth

2 Hours

(Bog-wood (oak), Spruce, Fir... etc)

40-150 Years

2 Hours

Extraction 2 Hours

Key Ingredients

4 Days

Raw Materials

Seasoning

Re-sawing

Bricks

1 Hour

Product Poked

2000 Years

Extraction

Wood Starch Glue

2 Minutes

12 Weeks

Growth

4 Hours

Milling

Shelf Life

Peat

Veneer Layup and Gluing

Breaking Down

3 Weeks

Kiln Dry 10 Minutes

10 Minutes

Crafting

2 Days

3 Days

Conversion

8 Hours

8 Hours

Veneer Drying

8 Hours

Refinement

Harvesting

10 Minutes

Clay Extraction

15 Hours

Semi-milled

Veneer Cutting

85 Days, 8 Hours, 0.5 Seconds

Mixer

Growth

Yeast Starter

Pottery

40 Years

2 Hours

Storage/Soaking

74 repeats of machinic drone sound

T

Extraction

2000 Years

7 Days

34 Days

Timber Members

Water

Plywood Pressing

Plywood Anthropocene

Growth

3 Days

Fermentation

60 ticks of the Metronome

his series of cartographies map the traces of the machines on the borderlands. Etched into the landscape, the cartography becomes Tattoos on the Borderland.

Wheat

1 Hour

Ploughing Land

Peat

6 Hours

Mashing

Frequencies of Uncovering

20,000 years = 5 days

4 Days

82 Days

Timeline of Vessel McVeigh

17 years = 60 ticks of the Metronome

Germinating

Extraction

Growth

Malting

28 Years Vintage

Tattoo 2

Steeping 2 Days

Unearthing the Anthropocene Tattoo 1

60-70 Days

Drying

Pressurised Liquid Energy

Barley Growth

8 Hours

Extraction Fracking

he machines programming is detailed within the schematic adjacent. Over the duration of its search, the processes stated relating to its imprint on the land are perpetually repeated.

Barley Harvesting

Harvesting

Growth

T

Barley

3 Days

3 Days

Clay Powder Water

Secondary Processing 10 Minutes

Bog-wood Oak Cask 2 Weeks (Approx)

5 Minutes

T

he vessel McVeigh harvests the landscape. A reduction of the harvested material to power and formulate production of the machine amasses to 3 main ingredients: Wood (of various types) Water Peat

All naturally in abundance within the borderlands, through the excavation and search for the disappeared, the lands potential is utilised in propagating an aspect of memory significant to each victim.

McVeigh got entangled within the complexity of the Troubles at an early age, he moved once to Belfast within his early teens, but he could not escaped trouble from there on.

0.5 Seconds Semester 2 Portfolio // 59

Aeolian Harp - Douglas Hollis

T

Precedent

he last memory of McVeigh from an outsiderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective, portrays him as a member of a cabaret team. A photo synonymous with his life, the first one I personally saw, captures his final performance ringing eternally.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A tethered machine, wailing under stress, producing an eerie orchestral chord that floats throughout the under border landscape.

The tethers of the workshop vibrate in the wind, the open expanse providing no barrier between wind and architecture.

A loud, but soft, wail emanates from the vessel.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

60// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 61

Tethered

Heart of the Machine

62// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 63

1:500 Site Plan

Wood Workshop An alternative ending

A

s with many teens within this time, it seemed as if there was only one path set out before them.

64// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 65

66// Underborderland

McVeighâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lily

Behind the Bars

Crude Pottery

Clamp Detail

Semester 2 Portfolio // 67

Chapter 3

Evans in the Underâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;borderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;lands

68// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 69

Stasis

E

Sinking into bogland

vans, 24, an unemployed man from Crossmaglen in South Armagh, was last seen alive in March 1979, while hitchhiking home from a dance.[19]

Evans was alleged to have been a police informer.

His body was found in Co Louth, October 2010.

The machine now lies static.

70// Underborderland

[19] Cobain, I. (2014). Disappeared but not forgotten: the grim secrets the IRA could not bury. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/ may/10/disappeared-ira-troubles-northern-ireland [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

- GC1 - GC2 - GC3 - GC4 - GC5 - GC6 - GC7 - GC8 - GC9 - GC10 - GC11 -

Semester 2 Portfolio // 71

Chapter 4

NAIRAC

in the Under’border’lands

72// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 73

Vessel Nairac

O

Watching On

ne of the most publicised cases of the Disappeared. By the early hours of Sunday, 15th May, 1977, Officer Robert Nairac was dead. The undercover soldier had left Bessbrook Army Barracks in plain clothes the previous night at 9.30pm, heading for The Three Steps Inn in Drumintee.[20]

Nairac on the Move Clouded in Mystery 74// Underborderland

[20] Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/eile/2018/0411/953732what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 9 June 2020].

- GC1 - GC2 - GC3 - GC4 - GC5 - GC6 - GC7 - GC8 - GC9 - GC10 - GC11 -

Semester 2 Portfolio // 75

76// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 77

Fracturing the Landscape Unclear Intentions

D

ressed in jeans and donkey jacket and with his hair long and unkempt as was the style, Robert Nairac was calling himself â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Danny McErleanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from west Belfast.

He was armed with his Browning 9mm tucked inside his shoulder holster, hidden beneath his jacket.[21]

Nairac on the Move 78// Underborderland

[21] - Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/ eile/2018/0411/953732-what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Clouded in Mystery Semester 2 Portfolio // 79

The Armature

Leaving an Imprint on the Borderlands

80// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 81

Semi-permanent Tattoo Agriculturing

A

lthough in real life he had a distinct English accent, the 28-year-old could do a very good west Belfast accent. He had been coached by a Belfast man who had taught a number of undercover British soldiers how to blend in. So that night â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Dannyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from Belfast mingled with people.[22]

82// Underborderland

[22] Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/eile/2018/0411/953732what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 9 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 83

A passage onto the machine Along the Armature

H

e got up on stage and sang an IRA song, but the locals were suspicious. Later, a scuffle broke out in the nearby parking lot and he was abducted, sparking one of the largest searches of The Troubles.[23]

84// Underborderland

[23] - Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/ eile/2018/0411/953732-what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 85

Heart of the Machine

86// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 87

Frequency of Distillation Joe Lynskey (58-75) Died aged 40 Timeline of Machines Frequencies of Uncovering

Terminal Moment

Barley Planting Holocene

Barley Wheat

Climate Change Existing Tattoos

Peat

Agricultural Propagation

20,000 years = 5 days

Harvesting

Growth

Drying

Pressurised Liquid

Frequencies of Distilling

Energy

Fracking

3 Days

Peat

Water

1 playthrough of the Requiem

28 years = 1 playthrough of the Requiem

Steeping 2 Days

Unearthing the Anthropocene Tattoo 1

60-70 Days

8 Hours

Extraction

Timeline of Vessel Nairac

Barley Growth Barley Harvesting

Harvesting

Growth

Harvesting Peat

Whiskey

Germinating

Extraction

Growth

4 Days

Kilning

Malting

28 Years Vintage

Yeast

Ploughing Land

Fermentation

60 ticks of the Metronome

17 Years

Tattoo 3

40 years = 74 repeats of machinic drone sound

Washback

3 Days

Youth Woodworking Workshop

Teaching

Triple Distillation

Distill

12 Hours

4 Hours

Maturation

Distill

27 Years, 279 Days, 11 Hours

4 Hours

Trickle into glass

4 Hours

Distill

16 Years, 324 Days 2 Minutes

Water

Harvesting

20,000 years = 5 days

7 Days

Digging Land

T

The above timeline frames the Underborderlands; subsequently framing the machines within the context of the Holocene and Anthropocene. Time within the Anthropocene is collapsing upon itself; 20,000-year-old remains can be uncovered in 5 days.

The machines perpetually excavating the Underborderland reveal Disappeared and Anthropogenic remains alike, at rhythms disassociated to the epochs.

2 Hours

Build Wall 88// Underborderland

20 Days

Felling

Various Hard/Softwoods in Border Regions

Growth

2 Hours

(Bog-wood (oak), Spruce, Fir... etc)

40-150 Years

Extraction 2 Hours

Re-sawing Chippings 20 Minutes

Extraction 2 Hours Raw Materials

Bricks

1 Hour

Re-sawing

12 Weeks

2000 Years

Key Ingredients

Seasoning

Shelf Life

Growth

4 Days

Milling

3 Weeks

39 Years, 362 Days, 58 Minutes

Wood Starch Glue

4 Hours

2 Minutes

2 Minutes

Kiln

Veneer Layup and Gluing

10 Minutes

Crafting

Peat

3 Days

8 Hours

8 Hours

Kiln Dry 10 Minutes

85 Days, 8 Hours, 0.5 Seconds

Mould

3 Days

Veneer Drying

Breaking Down

Refinement

2 Days

10 Minutes

Conversion

15 Hours

Semi-milled

Veneer Cutting

Clay Extraction

Mixer

8 Hours

Yeast Starter

Pottery

40 Years

3 Days

Storage/Soaking

74 repeats of machinic drone sound

his series of cartographies map the traces of the machines on the borderlands. Etched into the landscape, the cartography becomes Tattoos on the Borderland.

2 Hours

7 Days

34 Days

Timber Members

Extraction

2000 Years

Growth

Plywood Pressing

Plywood Anthropocene

Growth

Wheat

1 Hour

17 years = 60 ticks of the Metronome

Peat

6 Hours

82 Days

Mashing Tattoo 2

T

he machines programming is detailed within the schematic adjacent. Over the duration of it’s search, the processes stated relating to its imprint on the land are perpetually repeated.

3 Days

Growth

1 year = 1 year

Obscure Operation

Barley

3 Days

Clay Powder Water

Secondary Processing 10 Minutes

Bog-wood Oak Cask 2 Weeks (Approx)

5 Minutes

T

he vessel Nairac distills the landscape. A reduction of all harvested material to power and formulate production of the machine boils down to 4 key ingredients: Peat Water Barley Wheat

All naturally in abundance within the borderlands, through the excavation and search for the disappeared, the lands potential is utilised in propagating an aspect of memory significant to each victim.

Nairac’s last known location before abduction was in ‘The Three Steps Inn’, Dromintree.

Product Poked 0.5 Seconds Semester 2 Portfolio // 89

Embedded in the Vessel Organs of the Machine

1:500 Site Plan

90// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 91

Charred Entrance Along the Armature

R

umours of Nairacs dark past within the service have since revealed itself with the passing of the years.

92// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 93

1:500 Site Plan

Glimpse of the Heart Sunken into the Machine

94// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 95

Nestled Within Sunken into the Machine

96// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 97

Cloaked

Heart of the Machine

98// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 99

1:10 Entrance Detail

Primary Structural Steels

Secondary Structural Steels Tensile String Hydraulic Armature

Timber Profile Whiskey Pipework

Original Three Steps Inn

Charred Timber Profiles

Drumintree

Matt Steel Door Closer

Single Leaf Charred Timber Door

Armature Axonometric

Shady Entry Even Shadier Bouncer

C

onflicting information regarding the extents of Nairac’s secretive past has been connected to his name ever since 1999 when the IRA released information on the Disappeared.

It is unsure which rumours are true or false, what is sure to Geoff Knupfer however is that ‘due to this alleged reputation we just don’t get any support from people who are probably in a position to help.’[24]

Flush Threshold

Re-enforced Concrete with Pottery aggregate (5%) Supporting Steel Fixed Back to Primary Structure (Matt Black Finish) Tensile String Datum at Vessels’ Surface 100// Underborderland

[24] - Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/ eile/2018/0411/953732-what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Translated Facade Study Vessel Nairac

Semester 2 Portfolio // 101

Internal Punctures Precise Incisions

F

ormer SAS Warrant Officer Ken Connor, who was involved in the creation of 14 Int, wrote of him in his book, Ghost Force, p.

263:

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Had he been an SAS member, he would not have been allowed to operate in the way he did. Before his death, we had been very concerned at the lack of checks on his activities. No one seemed to know who his boss was, and he appeared to have been allowed to get out of control, deciding himself what tasks he would do.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;[25]

Ghost of the Machine In the Darkness

102// Underborderland

[25] - Connor, K., 2009. Ghost Force : The Secret History of the SAS. London: Royal National Institute of Blind People, p.263.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 103

Fragile Facade Claustrophobic Environment

L

eo Green, whose brother John Francis was shot dead in Co Monagan, January 1975, believes Nairac had a role to play in his brother’s death:

‘Of the 3 or 4 names bandied about in relation to involvement in my brother’s death, the accusation is that Robert Nairac handled those agents. I think it is inconceivable that he didn’t know.’[26]

Internal Experience

External Experience

104// Underborderland

[26] - Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/ eile/2018/0411/953732-what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 105

106// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 107

Over-Fuelling the Pub Sustained by the Machine

T

he excess of production from the machine exerts itself in uncanny ways onto the pub.

Doors creak open unexpectedly when pressure from whiskey values exceed the recommended value, shutters swing open when too much water is fed through the system and a light bulb flickers when the vibrations of the machine become too much.

108// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 109

Distilled Experience Uncomfortable Space

QR Code to audible experience if unable to play audio link to the left

110// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 111

Trickle of Whiskey Smokey Notes

Shadow of the Machine

T

Materiality Detail

he final stage in a 28-year process of distilling the landscape culminates in whiskey tricking down the walls of the room, picking up the last hint of smoky notes before the glass.

112// Underborderland

Semester 2 Portfolio // 113

The 3 Vessels

F

Propagated Memory

amilies lay a black wreath with three white lilies representing those who have yet to be found on the steps of Stormant every year.

Oliver McVeigh: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We are one family, the disappeared now.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;[27]

114// Underborderland

[27] - The Irish Times. 2019. Families Of Disappeared Hold Annual Silent Walk At Stormont. [online] Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ crime-and-law/families-of-disappeared-hold-annual-silent-walk-at-stormont-1.4070827> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Semester 2 Portfolio // 115

We have no prairies To slice a big sun at evening-Everywhere the eye concedes to Encrouching horizon, Is wooed into the cyclops’ eye Of a tarn. Our unfenced country Is bog that keeps crusting Between the sights of the sun.

Critical Reflection

They’ve taken the skeleton Of the Great Irish Elk Out of the peat, set it up An astounding crate full of air.

The extract opposite speaks of the bogland, the bogland of the ‘unfenced country’.

Butter sunk under More than a hundred years Was recovered salty and white.

The ground itself is kind, black butter

The words ‘every layer they strip, seems camped on before’ speaks of the appropriation that we continue to undertake on the world, and the unearthed underland that lies below.

Melting and opening underfoot, Missing its last definition By millions of years.

They’ll never dig coal here,

The semester has been a significant one both personally and when analysing the significance of the project in terms of its role and positioning within the turbulent socio-politically charged environment we see ourselves in today.

In particular, the shadow of one person’s life being taken away from them prematurely is something that has really struck me within the last couple of weeks.

It’s been a particularly strange time from the confines of my own lockdown seeing these events unfold throughout the world; I have reflected a great deal on the price to pay for justice and closure in relation to a person’s life. The poignancy of the studios work seems to resonate beyond that of it’s original conception at times.

Although the final realisation of the project may be fanciful, the utilisation of creating this mythical realm was distinctly characteristic to the Northern Irish/Irish socio-cultural heritage. Myths and poems of the land around the border have been told for centuries, with this theoretical scheme contained to the page: it too intrinsically becomes another tale of the land, even if it’s just resides within this portfolio and my memory.

Darko Suvin’s coining of cognitive estrangement[28] is employed within the fabrication of this realm to create an uncanny disconnection to our own world by highlighting the close dualities these strange machines evoke between the Underborderland and our own reality.

Design Development

Only the waterlogged trunks Of great firs, soft as pulp.

Our pioneers keep striking Inwards and downwards,

Although many design iterations have been left unexplained, I think that the complexity of the machine and subsequent hearts that reside within have been developed to a thorough degree. In particular, the atmosphere, materiality and functionality of Vessel Nairac is one that I think works really effectively, embodying the eventual location of his abduction, as well as the paranoia of being in a situation akin to a remote bar at the time. I would have liked to explore the other 2 further but think the fragments I have revealed have left an ambiguity and resonance that I’m happy with.

Every layer they strip Seems camped on before.

The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.

The wet centre is bottomless.

Context The context of the machines and their significance and representation allude to the perspective of the troubles that I have explored through the Disappeared. Their response and imprint left on the landscape act as tattoos of memory that engrain itself into the consciousness of the Underborderlands.

Criticality The approach to designing the architectural vessels derives from the necessity to harvest and extrapolate the lands material. Although there was no ‘set’ technological approach to this, I think how the machines feedback the harvested material into their relative hearts are explored well in Vessel Nairac, however this could be expanded upon significantly within the other 2 vessels.

Representation

Another influence on the work is the role of film, as I assume for many, whilst in isolation. Films such as Cuaron’s - Children of Men, Guillermo del Toro’s - Pan’s Labyrinth and Villeneuve’s - Arrival in terms of Sci-fi has had a large influence. Their situating of the reader is particularly interesting: Cuaron’s (de)framing of context: Del Toro’s blending of fiction with poignant socio-political agenda: and Villeneuve’s ambiguity of time.

I’m happy with the representation as a whole throughout the portfolio, I think there is a wide variety and range of techniques demonstrated, with a particular focus on my material renderings powering most of the representational ambiguity.

Overall, I’m very happy with the project I’ve managed to create whilst collaborating with my tutors in isolation, it has been a challenge but at the same time the creative freedom has been liberating (even if to the projects detriment at times).

Uncanny architectural devices/mechanisms integrated within the design of the machines have been explored to a degree but think further incorporation and experimentation could have been done.

Studio Specific Criterion

I have further analysed my work against the marking criteria below: Thesis Expanding upon the Underborderlands developed within the first semester, the focus on creating vessels that look to uncover these bodies, whilst simultaneous propagating a significant aspect of the memory of the 3 remaining disappeared, has allowed me to conceive a dichotomy of functional machine and materially led ‘hearts’.

116// Underborderland

I have not achieved a grade at any point within this semester, so I cannot really judge what I could expect my grading to be.

Bogland - Seamus Heaney

I would also like to say thankyou to my tutors Matt Ozga-Lawn and James Craig; along with our tech tutor Giles Bruce for the invaluable support and guidance thoughout.

[28] - Suvin, D., 2016. Metamorphoses Of Science Fiction. Peter Lang AG.

Semester 2 Portfolio // 117

Bibliography

Impact of external actions in semester

Barthes, R. and Heath, S. (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill and Wang.

BBC News. (2015). Who were the Disappeared?. [online] Available at: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10814888 [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

Cain.ulster.ac.uk. (2019). CAIN: Issues: Violence - Details of ‘the Disappeared’. [online] Available at: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/disappeared.htm [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].

Chard, N. and Kulper, P. (2014). Fathoming the unfathomable. Princeton Architectural Press.

Cobain, I. (2014). Disappeared but not forgotten: the grim secrets the IRA could not bury. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/ may/10/disappeared-ira-troubles-northern-ireland [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020] Connor, K., 2009. Ghost Force : The Secret History of the SAS. London: Royal National Institute of Blind People, p.263.

Cummins, B., 2018. Prime Time Rewind: What Happened To Robert Nairac?. [online] RTE.ie. Available at: <https://www.rte.ie/eile/2018/0411/953732what-happened-to-robert-nairac/> [Accessed 9 June 2020].

Duggan, K., 2018. Columba Mcveigh: A Lost Life Brought Into Sharper Focus. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: <https://www.irishtimes. com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/columba-mcveigh-a-lost-lifebrought-into-sharper-focus-1.3500207> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Horn, R., Zweite, A. and Holzwarth, H. (2006). Rebecca Horn - drawings, sculptures, installations, films 1964-2006. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz.

MacFarlane, R. (2019). UNDERLAND. 1st ed. [S.l.]: W W NORTON. McCarter, R. and Denari, N., 1997. Building Machines. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, p.14.

Mitchell, C. (2012). Requiem for the disappeared agnus dei | Troubles Archive. [online] Troublesarchive.com. Available at: http://www.troublesarchive.com/artforms/contemporarymusic/piece/requiem-for-the-disappeared-agnus-dei [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

Murray, D. (1999). BBC News | From Our Own Correspondent | ‘Disappeared’ return to haunt Ireland’s conscience. [online] News.bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/362314.stm [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].

Suvin, D., 2016. Metamorphoses Of Science Fiction. Peter Lang AG. The Irish Times. 2019. Families Of Disappeared Hold Annual Silent Walk At Stormont. [online] Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/families-ofdisappeared-hold-annual-silent-walk-at-stormont-1.4070827> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Thedisappearedni.co.uk. 2017. Still Missing. [online] Available at: <https:// thedisappearedni.co.uk/index.php/missing> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

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Strike Action

COVID-19

As recorded within the strike action impact form, our studio was hit hard by the striking actions. I fully support our tutors who did this, but I think it needs to once again be formally recorded within this document.

My personal circumstances within the COVID-19 pandemic has seen our studio switch to an online way of working.

In particular, just before the school decided to close due to the COVID outbreak, our studio was having a large proportion of tutorials cancelled due to the striking action, as well as the Stage 5 review having to be led by our stage 6 peers, unsupervised and unassisted by any members of staff. We had a brief informal discussion with our tutors about our work after the stage 6 reviews, but we had missed a whole day of reviewing through the striking action.

I’m very grateful to our tutors who continued through the Easter period out of their own time as recourse for the disruption, as well as Stage 6 peers who took time out of their review preparation in order to lead these reviews. However, I believe it should not have had to come down to relying on their generosity.

I think in general the online calls have been really productive. I feel as if I have had to take more self-led pursual of my ideas, at sometimes unguided, but this was always going to be the case when having to switch to solely online interaction with tutors.

I have been able to keep up a good amount of production whilst I have been at home working; as I usually use online representation anyway, however I have also been forced into sticking solely to digital representation as I do not have the facilities or equipment to do the final installation pieces that I intended (I have a piano from my first semester left in the studio).

This has obviously guided the architectural output as such, with the implementation to any model making or forms generated from working with the piano being taken out of my hands, however this was all speculative so I cannot say that my work was impacted by this impact to a large degree.

In general I think the studio’s ethos of curation and model making has been put on hold, and this was something I was looking forward to experimenting with this year, but with my own personal way of working I was able to accommodate to the new ways of working aptly.

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Appendix

The following pages loosely condence some of the ideas and research weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re conducted throughout the semester.

As a collective, themes and influences of which the machines grasp can be evidenced in fragments.

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Embodying the Score The first iteration of investigation focussed on reinterpreting the Requiem yet again. Through the abstracted score devised within the first semesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study, the unique forms are translated directly into plan form.

The representational technique for the device below looks to embody the original emotional response felt when listening to the original piece: Sadness and Intrigue.

Its alienation in the landscape abstracts the device from a defined scale, role and positioning in time.

Translations A process of translation from the original score to the beginnings of a rationalised plan.

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McCarter, R. and Denari, N., 1997. Building Machines. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, p.14..

The modern age opened with the intention of liberating mankind through the capacity for invention, for experimentation, for wonder; in our contemporar y age of emancipated experiences, the true modern spirit may dwell in an anachronis: the experimental machine.

Neil Denari - Building Machines - Pamphlet 12

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Micro-Scale The hammers of the piano are mutilated with elements of the interpreted score.

The micro machines scour the land inserting back potential for fungi to grow where bodies reside.

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Direct Translation from Piano A direct translation from the Piano, the melancholic motion of the hammers carving away at the landscape inscribes the tattoos upon the Underborderlandscape.

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Designing from Pollution Utilising Serresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; praxis of appropriation through pollution; this experiment looks at deriving form directly from the imprints on the landscape.

Lacking any other functional programme, the machines purely carve away land to reveal anthropogenic strata.

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Serres, M. and Feenberg-Dibon, A. (2011). Malfeasance.

Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Ghostly Cartography

Inscribing the Land

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Carving the Tattoos Armature Study

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Existing Appropriation Armature Study

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Derived from the Piano

Agricultural Precedents Repetition of existing machinic elements and concepts relating to agricultural harvest early in the project allowed ideaisation of large-scale machines that harvested and extracted material from the land whilst undergoing there search.

These initial ideas looked particularly at the concept of fracking up the Disappeared, whilst making the structure large enough to be inhabited.

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- GC1 - GC2 - GC3 - GC4 - GC5 - GC6 - GC7 - GC8 - GC9 - GC10 - GC11 -

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Melancholic Harvesting The framing of the devices depicted within this early study looked at creating ambiguity and mystery when viewing the machine.

The shadows cast by the machine are as much a part of the vessel as the mechanisms within.

They are only ever framed within extreme proximity and when augmented into the horizon.

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Alexander Graham Bellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tetrahedral Kites

Shadow Forms The Tractor and the Digger

Starting to refine some of the key concepts within the project, the figures scattered about this page are looking towards the extrapolating of forms out of the prominent shadows cast by existing agricultural devices.

Within the mega-structure derived from a digger below. The first focus of a heart residing within the machine.

Bagger 288 Excavator machine

Ominous Machine 138// Underborderland

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Facilitating the Memory of Robert Nairac Spatial Investigation

The memory of Nairac lives on through the machine.

Along with the programmatic function of locating the remaining disappeared, the memory of the 3 within the Underborderlands is supported by the machine.

This study initial thought of Nairac occupying the largescale Digger-inspired machine.

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Facilitating the Memory of Robert Nairac Spatial Investigation

Whilst developing the programmatic functioning of the plough-inspired vessel, Structural support whilst creating room for large-scale engines and kilns to dry the wood collected from the land was crucial.

In addition, developing these machines through facilitation of a functional process (such as manufacturing wood and plywood) allowed for specific qualities of machinery to dictate the design and form of the machines, making each one uniquely characterful.

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Fruitless Function The overall insignificance of the devices when framed against the backdrop of the entire Underborderlandscape rings home their fruitless task in comparison the entire socio-political backdrop they reside in.

This early concept was looking into housing the distillation process on the plough, however the energy required to transport the material horizontally as well as vertically seemed counter-productive.

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