I thought about you

I Thought About You | Barcelona, Spain

A plaque (lower left) containing a memory that Montjuic holds (2002)

In 2002, the city of Barcelona hosted the International AIDS Conference and wanted a project that would communicate the impact of AIDS on the city in a more unusual way than the usual poster campaign, so they asked me for some ideas.

I went to Barcelona and started a media campaign that asked the city the following:

“Think of someone you know who has been lost to AIDS.”

“Think of a specific memory of that person.”

“Where did that memory take place?”

“Please share those memories with us.”

Each memory was placed on a plaque, and overnight on the eve of the conference, each plaque which described a memory of a person lost to AIDS was installed in the exact location where that memory happened. As people woke up and went about their day in Barcelona the next day, the city itself began to share the memories it stored. A bus stop where someone had their first kiss, a bench where someone first told someone they loved them…

http://scottburnham.com/projects/

momenty

http://www.momenty.com/

Memories connecting people. Interactive site which allows users to contribute to memories globally.

karch

I found this interesting project that deals with the role of architecture in the ongoing climate debate. One of the goals of these three dimensional installations is to recall memories of cultural characteristics of life and spatiality. A 3d installation allows the mapping of the experienced to be experienced. Something I'm interested in pursuing.

http://www.karch.dk/uk/Menu/About+The+School/Events/Exhibition%3a+Climate+and+Architecture

representation.collaboration

The formal direction of this mapping project has the possibility of becoming a 3 dimensional installation which has the potential to reflect the constantly shifting nature of stories, memories and events.

After a discussion with Joanna earlier today, it became obvious that we are both interested in how memories of Auckland's inhabitants are fundamental in the shaping of its place. Since the direction of our seminar are heading in the same way, we thought that it would be appropriate for us to undertake the data collection and creation of the installation together as the multiple layers of stories through time would require a high demand time and energy.

content + methodology

content

+

methodology

Content:

Auckland City's identity is defined by its physicality as well as the events experienced, memories of and stories told within it. Undeniably surrounded by water, it is marketed as the City of Sails. I am therefore fascinated by how Auckland can be mapped and diagrammed in terms of the stories and memories regarding its watery nature. The focus is not on the actual locating of bodies of water of varying types, rather, I am concerned with deciphering and expressing the ephemeral.There is a certain value associated with a memory. Identities of places are established upon collective memories and stories.

out of the 50 must dos in Auckland 31 had images of water associated with it

http://www.aucklandnz.com/index.php/content_B/?L1=63&L2=75&L3=&id=1436

Methodology

This largely depends on the types of water stories I pursue. Possibilities:

- myths and stories co-created by the colonialists and the native Maori

- memories of current inhabitants

- how Auckland is portrayed through the media via advertising, new items, marketing

- the value of water in Auckland through the real estate industry

This could involve a mixture of research through archives, questionnaires, rummaging through the media and consulting a real estate agent.

place + mapping

Place

+

Mapping

Place:

De Certeau, M. (1984) Spatial Stories. From The Practice of everyday life. Berkely: University of California Press. 115-130.

This article emphasized to me the two ways of thinking about place. They labeled one 'place' and the other 'space'. The first as a static, placement of objects in one moment in time, while the other as operational and experiential, taking into account direction and time.

This laid a foundation in my thinking of place. It is formulated through a dual process of placement (composition) as well as the ephemeral and the active which takes place within it (diagrammatic).

Calvino, Italo. (1972) Invisible Cities. Harcourt, Orlando Florida. 10-11, 88-89

A city can not be summarized solely by the buildings, the infrastructure, the fields which it is constructed from. A city more importantly encompasses the activities, relationships and memories contained within these physical shells.

My interest in place and water in Auckland shifts away from locating its physical presence and towards the experiential.

Wortham-Galvin, B.D. (2008) Mythologies of placemaking. Places: forum of design for the public realm. Vol. 20, No. 1. 32-39

The making of places exists in both the realm of the tangible, physical environment and also in the realm of the ephemeral as expressed in fiction, stories, narratives and observational. The stories told regarding a place has the power of propaganda, revealing politics of context, perpetuate traditions, instill beliefs and values and rebel against these patterns. Myths and stories about place plays the role of justifying the present and thereby contribute to social stability as well as to create collective identities and communities.

There are therefore two ways of place making: through the architecture (physical manipulation) of a place, or through the stories told (which are more increasingly now happening through the media). " ' A sense of place' should embrace experiential and associational narratives as well as physical attributes. Place is always a remaking process, never a product."

In describing the ephemeral nature of water in Auckland, I would like to investigate the stories told. What they were historically as well as currently, how the place of Auckland, specifically water has been marketed, and also how it has been received and experienced. This making of place is dynamic, and I would like to record that in my mapping.

e.g. my first memories of place in Auckland: Albert park + Auckland Harbour 1997

Mapping:

Allen, S. (2000). Mapping the unmappable, on notation. From Practice, architecture, technique and representation. London and New York: Routledge. Pg 31- 45

As an allographic art, architectural drawings do not seek to imitate reality, yet its product is permanent (unlike other allographic art like dance and music where the product is temporary, ephemeral) "Architectural drawings are neither an end in themselves, nor are they simply transparent technical instruments.It is transitive in nature, uniquely capable of producing something new from something else." This unique method of architectural notations should factor in: anticipation + the invisible + time.

This reconfirms the direction of my possible project, mapping of the stories of water through time. Through the process of mapping (discovering patterns and themes), the future direction of water stories might be anticipated.

Questions for Corbellini, G. (2006). Diagrams, instructions for use. Lotus International (127), 88-95.

Diagrammaticians vs Compositionist - supplementary moments of the process of Design

Digrammaticians - (at the outset of design) operational, performative, virtual, process oriented, interdisciplinary, conceptual, program, ideas

Compositionist - (moment of conforming spaces) formal, representative, techtonic, object oriented, specific, tangible, paradigm, talent.

Drawings, diagrams and maps can be divided between these two focuses. It either describes the process and thinking or the physical form and tangible. It will be interesting to associate the drawings (yet to be produced) against these two values.

care

Adopt a stream:

Engaging school children with water ecologies by adopting a local stream. I have recently come across another version of this concept for corporate offices to "adopt a highway." They'd look after a section of the highway (picking up rubbish etc) and is allowed to place a bill board along that section for free.

http://www.watercare.co.nz/community/water-in-schools/adopt-a-stream/Pages/default.aspx

place.space.

De Certeau, M. (1984) Spatial Stories. From The Practice of everyday life. Berkely: University of California Press. 115-130. (Start at page 117, end at new section on page 122)

1- List the attributes on place and the attributes of space in terms of De Certeau's analysis.

It describes the relative positions of one element to another at one moment in time. Like a moment captured in a photo, 'place' is static in nature. Space on the other hand is dynamic and is activated through movement. It takes into account change through variables such as direction, velocities and time.

"space is a practiced place"

2- What do stories do in terms of places and spaces?

They transform places into spaces and vice versa. It navigates between between the descriptive 'place' and the active 'space'.

3- Summarise the difference between maps and itineraries.

Maps are more in harmony with the operation of places. It shows in an instant the locations of various items - seeing. Itineraries set out how you ought to experience, and thus more in harmony with the operations of space. One is directed through via a series of instructions - acting.

4- De Certeau identifies an important historical change in mapping practices. What is this change, why did it occur and why does De Certeau think it is important?

Medieval maps - rectilinear marking out of itineraries (pilgrimages). Its a compilation of events along a route. Then came the need to colonise space. There was a gradual erasure of itineraries and the pictorial stories that comes with it. Maps exhibit the products of knowledge from tables of legible results, it is the all powerful, all encompassing visual expression of the known.

Calvino, Italo. (1972) Invisible Cities. Harcourt, Orlando Florida. 10-11, 88-89

From the author you are reading what are the key characteristics defining "place"?

A place, the city is not the buildings, the infrastructure, the fields, rather, it is the activities that these shells support, the relationships it fosters and the memories it contains. (Here, it seems to be in contradiction the the previous reading where place is the descriptive and the visually static and spaces if the experiential.) The suggestion at the end of the reading that Esmeralda should include all routes through the city (birds, thieves, rats, smugglers etc) is in effect emphasising the importance of the itinerary.

mapping.diagrams.research

The results of a brief search for various forms of diagrams and maps from FFFFOUND!