GMU:Provokative Architektur/Jeremy Booth

Jeremy Booth | workbook

This workbook follows the development of my project for the class Provocative Architecture; WS12/13, Bauhaus University, Weimar.

The workbook is broken into 'Revisions' which detail a continually reshaping and refining of my process and interests. Within these divisions, examples of research and working documentation can be found.

initial statement 23.10.12

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

Revision 1

In some ways, architecture can be as much a barrier to culture and heritage as a supporting mechanism for it. It can restrict access to tangible objects while creating an unnecessary container for intangible ones. This is particularly the case when we need to pay entry to museums and art galleries, when their opening hours are restrictive, when they are crowded or unappealing, when they do not meet the needs of certain groups, and when collection items are not available for public viewing. As well, the need to 'build something' is sometimes not possible on sites of intrinsic cultural and historical value.

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. For these artists, it was a setting in which they could enjoy nature and the company of others while also creating, and furthering the ideas behind their art. These ideas included the embracing of Primitivism and the human form as an object of expression. I'm interested in how such areas could allow diverse histories to play out in real time and space. In this case, looking at human presence; ephemeral and emotive qualities such as idealism and primitivism; a kind of fluid catalyst that can change the way that people inhabit space.

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 the idea of a recent pre-historic past, 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. I'm interested in how to bring certain species out of the museum and back into their original forest habitat. One of the most emotive ways to do so, would be to bring their song, the sounds of the extinct birds, back into the wider forest chorus. Including the fantastic and bewildering sounds of the great Haasts Eagle flying, nesting, and hunting. This could be achieved through a kind of remote digital sound landscape, which can be tuned into by users.

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

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.

Revision 3

To bring together a collection of objects that explores notions of cultural and historical value and use.

experiments with mask-making

J. W. v Goethe statuette. Purchased from the Weimar Tourist Information, Schillerstraße. Statuette is made of plastic and is of a generic nature.

mask development

examples of some of the initial 35 masks made, also experimenting with photographing the masks

document of a freshly set mask

installation tests

test on white wall

test in an empty room

M2 building during the Adieu Marie exhibition. I used this exhibition as an opportunity to test one of the masks.

The mask was titled Goethe Life 'n' Death Mask, 2012

Installation shot of the two rooms which the work bridged

Installation shot of the masks installed in the Bauhaus University library