I would like to look at how ideas of tangible and intangible histories and cultural 'matierals' can be considered, interrogated, and reimagined, through strategies other than typical museum and/or collection-related, authoritative positions.
... elaboration as keyword/terms
- intangible / tangible
- material / immaterial
- public space
- 'domains'
- culture / history / heritage
- lateral thinking around the idea of architecture
As a starting point I've done some pencil drawings. They are based on Walking Tours of German cities, from the Lonely Planet guide book series. Below are Weimar and Dresden. The line follows the route of the Walking Tour, all other details are absent. I'm interested in the idea of directing, and being directed through space. Movement itself becoming a form of architecture.
initial workings
walking tour, Weimar; walking tour, Dresden
hand held tour Wellington Sunday Markets
During the next weeks I will undertake a number of loose experiments around the idea of 'barrier free' culture and heritage sites. Particularly interested in intangible, immaterial cultural qualities.
Sketch for an Fauvist Retreat
Thinking about the art historical context of some of the woodland and lake areas outside of Dresden. These areas were of course frequented by artists involved in German Expressionism, such as Die Bruecke and the Fauvists.
Sketch for a Fauvist Retreat 1: site, persons
Sketch for a fauvist Retreat 2: site, persons, animals
Sketch for Morning Chorus
Interested in the intangible elements of the New Zealand landscape, including Maori and Polynesian mythology and other non-material concepts (such as whakapapa and mauri) and extinct species. These elements are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, the evocation of certain extinct species, also evokes a pre-historic or pre-European history as well as the modern-day mythology that these species have come to be a part of; including the fantastic and bewildering sounds of the great Haasts Eagle.
Sketch for a Morning Chorus with Huia bird: site, persons, remote digital sound landscape
Sketch for a Morning Chorus with Haast's Eagle and Moa birds: site, persons, remote digital sound landscape
Keulemans painting of a female, a male, and an albinistic female Huia
oral history record of Huia song
Sketch for a Waitangi park extension
image copyright Matthew Oliver, 2009 (CC BY-NC-SA 2,0)
Waitangi Park is an urban renewal project in Wellington which has successfully re-introduced a wetland ecosystem. This includes the introduction of plant life and water, and the releasing of eels, fish and other living organisms to attract bird life.
Revision 2
To investigate the relationship between tangible and intangible notions of place using non-didactic spatial and time-based strategies.
Deciding to focus my interests in Weimar ... thinking about some of the town's particular dynamics.
