Design and Communication Task 6: LINE - Connectivity/Biography

Connecting tasks 1-5: exploring how a simple concept can be developed into a more complex design.

CONCEPT: A THAMES LIGHTER - considering:

a) Horizontal & Vertical elements in the site
b) Kinetics
c) Experiences surveyed in task 5

I wanted to explore the idea of reflective thoughts (used for my Haiku) and how the space might influence and change the mood of its visitors.

My installation is a rectangular structure, placed across the pond in Twinkle Park where users could evaluate the external factors such as the landscape (the site), the elements (the weather), people (the company) or self (if alone).

Visitors would access a mood app to plot how they were feeling at the start of their experience, and this would influence the height of the mood "balloons" and their colour - visible through the glass ceiling of the structure. The app might also provide them with weather statistics, from air quality to wind direction - or connect them with other linked installations in the area. As a good mental health barometer, those in trouble would be able to connect to a trusted member of their support team for assistance.

Taking into account both the external factors (landscape, weather and people) users could see whether their mood could be "moved on" from how they feel at the start of the experience - to another mood (hopefully improved) on exit.

The installation would be open 24/7 with lighting to provide an atmospheric experience at night time.

Influences for this project started with the exploration of the Galileo Thermometer where the density of a liquid changes in proportion to its temperature.

The symbol I chose for the site was an exploration of how emotions are represented through punctuation (the emoticon) and how different styles have been developed for the different cultures. Shown here clockwise from top left are: indifference, happy, angry and crying.

Welcome to Greenwich: the tourist reality map

What does it mean to be local? Have you just arrived or did your parents live here? How many people do you know in this area?

These questions and many more can be answered by the signs and sights that are all around us. We first experience a site like a tourist; looking out for the spectacular views; speculating on the monthly rent of a penthouse riverside apartment or looking for the best pubs for the “right” vibe.

But what of the people who live here, work here, study here?

Making sense of a new area lead me to use colour for the base map to denote the density of housing; yellow for flats, orange for housing, blue for industrial/commercial spaces and green for spaces which provided patches for nature to colonise.

Looking out for the unusual, the unexpected and observing people coping with the everyday environment gave me insights as to what worked for people - and what didn’t, and why it didn’t. Using transparent layers meant that I could see whether certain “hot spots” contributed to the same feelings.

So getting to know an area well - this survey, means getting under the skin of a place - it’s the opposite of a tourist map where you only highlight the positives. These parts don’t need changing - but the forgotten, marginalised corners need a second chance.

Evaporation

The mind emptying

Into the dry pond basin

Thunder underground

I wanted to link the mind emptying to Dumbledore dropping his thoughts into the pensieve, where he could store them for the future. Likewise, the mysterious disappearance of the water - perhaps has not gone underground, but has evaporated - like thought bubbles.

Time and Rhythm

Brainstorming concepts: distance, time, space and memory

Line Colour - Task 4: Haiku on "Distance"

Concept: Distance

The mind emptying

Into the dry pond basin

Thunder underground

I've chosen an emotional separation of thoughts from the sounds of rush hour on this corner of Borthwick Street, where the cobbled stones create an earthly rumbling. It also reminded me of how the plants in the dry pond have continued to grow despite the loss of water - the seasonal progress of root growth underground - natural forces dominating like thunder.

LINE - colour layering: Task 4, Borthwick Street

For this layering I chose clear acetate, and used a combination of permanent Sharpies, Wytebord Markers, Stabilo OHPen permanent markers and Pilot markers for Projector. The orangy-yellows of the autumn leaves were hard to replicate as this is not a standard marker colour. However I found a Uni Posca branded orange felt tip which did the job well - albeit with a heightened florescence.

There are 4 layers. A layer in black, a layer with blues/greys, a layer with light and dark greens and finally the orange/red layer. The final layer is really the strongest and records "accent" colours. It helps to blend these by placing them as the back layer when scanning.

It was also hard to work with a limited range of greys - particularly with a grey sky that didn't give as much definition to the white building as in previous sunny visits. The foreground details were also hard to achieve with the large tipped pens, but this detail is significant to the foreground and would have given the image greater character.

View along Borthwick Street

LINE - colour layering: Task 4, Dreadnoughts Walk

I revisited two sites from my horizontal/vertical landscape drawings from the previous weeks and took a photograph of the horizons. For example 1, I overlayed 3 layers of tracing paper and used a combination of coloured markers and pencil to pick our the main colour highlights. I had to limit the number of tracing papers to 3 because a 4th sheet was too obscure.

Horizon 1: View towards Canary Wharf from Dreadnoughts Walk

Blues

Red, orange and green

Greys (markers and pencil)

All 3 layers scanned together.

Man murders son with scaffolding pole

Man murders adopted Son with scaffolding pole [abridged text from The Daily Telegraph 1 June 2015]

Retired firefighter Colin McSweeney murders his son in row over custody of his granddaughter.

A man killed his adopted son by hitting him over the head with a scaffolding pole before making a bungled attempt to dispose of his body in the River Thames, a court heard.

Retired firefighter Colin McSweeny is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering son Shaun at the family home in Thornton Heath, south London, on November, 20 2014.

McSweeny, 59, was caught by police after he was allegedly spotted in the early hours trying to drop the body into the Thames while the "tide was against him".

He allegedly killed Shaun because he was preparing to move out with his girlfriend - and to take his five-year-old daughter with him - setting the family on a "terrible collision course" over the child.

A search of the area uncovered blood traces on the wall, a piece of tarpaulin, one of Shaun's shoes and a trail of coins and buttons along the route his body had been dragged.

“getting rid of the body turned out to be rather more difficult than he had imagined and the plan quickly unravelled."

Discover more of Greenwich

Discover more of Greenwich, host to an innovate Sunday food market where international tourists and organic-loving locals join for a hip south-east London foodie scene. Traditional food chains are in abundance but you’ll also find many quaint old tea rooms and ye olde English pubs, nestling alongside a new Sunday pop-up offerering a true reflection of world food. It might really shake up your traditional Sunday lunch. Try the Pimp my Ramen or a Brazilian Feijoada, hot flavours of the Carribean or a Thai curry.

Sited on the redeveloped Greenwich Pier Gardens the area boasts emblems of British colonial dominance but which have been softened by a new planting scheme by the Royal Greenwich Parks Department. Warm autumn reds nestle alongside golden autumn grasses. Transport links have much improved including a direct DLR link from Bank Underground, a Thames cycle path and both tourist and commuter river bus services.

Landscape Architects: inspiration

Greenwich Foot Tunnel - looking south to Greenwich and Deptford bankside

The Greenwich southbank panorama

The tunnel at dusk. Great 1-point perspective.

Heavy metal plating on the stairs

A hundred years of footsteps; wear and tear on stone.

Tiny stalactites formed by water salts.

The nuts and bolts of engineering.

Horizontal Line Drawings: maps on location

Horizontal Line Drawings

Tate Gallery visit: Agnes Martin 1912-2004

Project One: Background, Task 2 Photograph 5 details

Stones of Time: the old, the new, history stacked together, being trodden on by an ever changing community.

Wood with lichen: wood for ships, trees witnessing generations of history. Fresh air - at sea and at home.

Mooring rope: a mossy green has grown through decades of tides, but the rope remains intact.

A Link in the Chain: exploring how everything is connected. The history of Greenwich bankside has been preserved although ship building and wharfs are no longer in use as originally intended. This massive anchor roots us all in history.

Nelson's Iron Braiding: something so delicate cast in a impermeable material. Linking a great man of Greenwich with the material's industrial future that Nelson would not have anticipated.

Project One: Background. Record 5 Horizons from Greenwich Bankside

Horizon from Greenwich Pier to the East. Interestingly shaped flats on the north bank of the river contrast with the industrial south bank with a horizon of cranes and gas container. The river seems particularly wide at this angle.

Horizon towards Canary Wharf across Convoys Wharf site. Looking at the contrast of the derelict building site against the backdrop of the shiny, new buildings of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. I used different shaped marks to give shade to the near trees, the pile of rubble and plant material in the foreground.

Horizon of Dutch gable houses along Borthwick Street. These white fronted houses of Payne's Wharf had a deep blue sky behind, making the gable frontages stand out as a stunning silhouette.

Horizon towards the Cutty Sark. This became a multi-layered horizon of history. Industrial buildings of the 1900s, the early 1700 Royal Naval College, the 1902Greenwich foot tunnel dome and the renovated Cutty Sark opened in 2012.

Serpentine Pavilion 2015: A Review