Wall of Light

It's difficult to visualise through this very flat "render" of St. Bride's interior, but those magnificent holes in the wall are light funnels. When there's roof on the building, and the model is lit in Maya, I'm hoping for some interesting effects on the interior.

My main module this semester is aptly named Advanced Production, so I'm taking the opportunity to prioritise getting the SketchUp model of St. Bride's finished and in to Maya. From there I can begin projection tests as early as March (provided there are only a few more headaches with modelling the building).

Modelling is a tedious yet enjoyable process, and one I associate with the core of my practice. It provides an exciting opportunity to "sculpt" in 3D, as, in stark contrast to my previous work, St. Bride's is a lot more ornamental and unique in it's design features. Individual artefacts such as the overhang above the alter give the building its brutish character and strong geometric forms - an important factor in modernism.

The process I follow in creating the model can almost be described as neurotic, with an extreme attention to detail. For example (shown below), the "wall of light" was modelled using the original flat plans, then translated to the main model using a scale ratio calculated from measuring the dimensions on the original. Not everything can be mathematically measured, scaled and placed however, which is where a little artistic licence comes in. This building is not the St. Bride's which currently stands in East Kilbride. It is an ideological interpretation from both the architects original plans, drawings, models and an artists obsession with post-war modernism in Scotland. I'm creating a building that will never exist in the physical, much like the modernist movement looked to a future that would never exist in the physical.

St. Bride's Modernist Dilema

The jury is still out on this buildings contribution to the ideologies of modernism, but I'm considering moving the conversation towards one between the Catholic Church and its new found style. There's a lovely connection between the imposing nature of the structure and the worship of God which takes within its walls. The juxtaposition between form following function and form actually enhancing function gives the building a greater relevance within the narratives of modernism.

The Social Logic of Space

I'm making progress with my work on placement. Once again I've attempted to understand space syntax through reading Bill Hillier's and Julienne Hanson's, The Social Logic of Space. I'm barely making it through the introduction, but as previously mentioned, my intention is not to become a knowledge on space syntax, but simply the underlying themes and questions space syntax attempts to answer. At the risk of mis-representing, I think it's best to wrap up with a little text analysis:-

"... it is so difficult to talk about buildings in terms of what they are socially, that it is eventually easier to talk about appearances and styles and to try to manufacture a socially relevant discourse out of these surface properties."
(Hillier, B. and Hanson, J., 1984)

It is so difficult to talk about modernism socially beyond its ideologies. The movement attempted to place the social relevance of a space at the forefront, but yet in many respects, this appears to have failed. This is why I want to understand modernist spaces on a much more social level, and where I think space syntax, and my placement with SerenA will allow this to develop.

Placement Day 1: Understanding syntax

On Thursday (10/02/10) I began my head first dive into my placement at the VRC, and to help collate my research I'm going to start updating my blog with a summary each week of all the exciting things I've discovered while on placement.

Space Syntax

I tried to ease myself in to the world of Space Syntax, with the paper: The City as One Thing by Bill Hillier and Laura Vaughan. I'm understanding some of the basics, like, as the paper more eloquently puts it: "Space syntax began from the observation that space is the common ground of the physical and social cities." Things took a downward turn when the paper began discussing formula in relation to axial space. My A in Higher Mathematics could not even save me, so I've had to re-evaluate my use of space syntax in understanding the social architecture of the DCA.

I'm an artist, which may sound like an academic copout, but my work intends to explore space syntax visually. Of course, I need data sets to inform my practice, and intend to develop my own hybrid data collection methodology, which is tailored to my limited understanding of space syntax.

Visualising the Social Architecture of the DCA

I intend to begin, with the VRC, and attempt to 'map' the social interactions of this space which will hopefully provide a template methodology that can be rolled out to the DCA as a whole. So how am I going to start? Well, with the basics. I want to capture peoples movements through the space, and map this movement onto a plan of the building. Then I need to capture places where people interact. More on this when I figure out how I'm going to do this, on Thursday.

I'm also going to try and get in contact with the architect, Richard Murphy, who designed the DCA, as "social" was definitely at the heart of his design.

The Dreaded New Years Blog Entry

So, I've put off long enough, it's time for my gargantuan post-Christmas Break/ New Year blog update. As you would imagine, a lot has happened in the (almost) month I've been back at university. I have been working, just not blogging, and as a result getting into a self-destructive cycle of daily accumulating more blog-worthy information but still putting off actually blogging it. The ironic thing is, I do find blogging useful, as it charts my thought process during Masters, but like that coffee (or tea in my case) you were meant to have with that old friend, you can so easily put it off - "I know we were supposed to meet up but...": "I have a hand-in due"; "I've got to go to the moon"; etc. There's no excuse, so here we are, updating my blog, which is a step towards actually meeting up for that cup of tea.

Ok, so now we're back on track, I will try and give as brief a possible overview I've undertaken since the last post, and where my practice is going.

St. Bride's and Magnificent Modernism

The modelling of St. Bride's coming along nicely, albeit slower than I would like. I'm spending time trying to capture the sculptural details which were (in my opinion) of critical importance to Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's visual language they developed for what I like to call The New Catholic Church. I'm moving towards projection tests of the model by the end of the month, which give me a feel for how I want to take the concept of Virtual Modernism forward. The delay has primarily been caused by a new focus of work I intend to undertake this semester, in short, the understanding of the modern social interactions present day users have with modernist structures.

Space Syntax

One thing my previous work lacked, was the social impact of modernist buildings on those who used them (who I will rather cleverly refer to as "users"). This was in part due to my regard of the social issues surrounding modernism giving birth to the stigmatism that often surrounds the movement, but it also was not knowing how to address the sticky goo that is human interaction with space. Space syntax may provide the answer to my woes. Understanding how a space is currently used, will allow me to compare and contrast the architects vision against the reality. Obviously the modernist utopia did not come to fruition, but there are still tangible ideas within modernist spaces that are often overlooked when the movement is shrugged off as a "failure".

I'm still in my very early days of research into space syntax, but I have been afforded the opportunity of a placement on the SerenA Project, based in the VRC, at Dundee Contemporary Arts. In effect I intend to use the DCA as test-bed for the theories of space syntax, and attempt to visual the outcomes in a conceptual manner. Like with St. Bride's, I intend to create a work that enters into a conversation with the viewer. In the case of the DCA, the viewer of any outcome may also be the user of the space, and as such the connection between the work and viewer becomes more profound.

Space syntax is a very well research area, and I'm not attempting to bring new theory, but instead, at the very least, enhance the visualisation possibilities of current space syntax visualisation. I would like to marry the ideas formulated from my concept of Virtual Modernism, and perhaps use more immersive installation based work to present space syntax data.

I'm equally fortunate (through involvement with SerenA) to have the opportunity to interact with Space Group, University College London (a leading voice in space syntax theory), who will no doubt will have a profound impact on my own artistic practice.

Now, I'm back on the blogging band wagon I intend more frequent updates with a greater focus on specifics. Right now, this is a general overview of where I am, and where I am going. No doubt over the coming weeks I will back-reference anything I've missed, and expand on anything I've not made clear.