Jeremy Booth | workbook | Provocative Architecture
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, authorative positions. I'm particularly interested in ideas of interactivity and mobility.
... elaboration as keyword/terms
- intangible / tangible
- material / immaterial
- public space
- 'domains'
- culture / history / heritage
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.
walking tour, Weimar
walking tour, Dresden
Revised statement 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 and initiatives.
Sketch for a Fauvist Retreat
Thinking about the art historical context of some of the woodland and lake areas outside of Dresden. These areas were of course used by the Fauvists (and others associated with Expressionism) as a place where they could enjoy nature and the company of others while also creating, and furthering the ideas behind their art. 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 the embracement of primitivism as a kind of architecture.
Sketch for a Fauvist Retreat 1: site, persons
Sketch for a fauvist Retreat 2: site, persons
Sketch for Morning Chorus
Interested in the intangable 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 1: site, persons, remote digital sound landscape
Sketch for a Morning Chorus 2: site, persons, remote digital sound landscape