Fenchurch place and Station

Site Sketches of New site @ Fenchurch Station

Quick thought/ Site change

Changing site to potentially Fenchurch station and the square to the back of it. As such I have been considering how to represent the archival stuff for the station. Perhaps in the style/look of a station ticket office or other places in stations where information is presented in a particular idiosyncratic way.

Walid Raad at the Whitechapel Art Gallery

The work of the artist Walid Raad has a curious archival quality about it. He is documenting what he finds but adding a personal take on these findings, his work mainly concerns the various wars that have taken place in Lebanon, however he also looks into a variety of traumatic human historical events. However the graphic way of presenting these findings leaves ones guessing and asking many questions. I found a series of pieces he produced particularly haunting.

These were a series of varying blue shaded canvases- no texture, just what seemed to be large blue negatives of photographs yet to be developed. These prints were discovered in the rubble after a bombing in Beirut. They were then developed to see if anything existed on them. All that were found were small black and white portraits of men and women either on their own or in groups. One small picture (A6) per canvas (A0). After researching into the people in the photographs Raad found out they were men and women who had been lost at sea during the late 70's and early 80's. 

I find it very difficult to describe how and what it is about this layering and progression of memory, loss, discovery makes me feel, but it's overwhelmingly powerful. An interesting way of representing and documenting history. Perhaps the way they are presented makes them so powerful, or maybe its just the back story which helps achieve this.

How to make an archive? Naomi V. Jelish Archive

One thing we have been asked to look at as part of the most recent brief is documenting our findings of the development of an area in the style of a biography- but as an archive? How does one do this?- had a chat with Annabel (or replacement tutor for Christian) Who showed us a series of different ways of acheiving this. As the brief says you could document it in a seris of postcard- or perhaps if I am doing a look at the train station perhaps there is a way of presenting it which make it look like they are parcels. Perhaps there is some way information is archived which relates to train stations?

Look into this.

ar·chive  (ärkv)

n.


1. A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. Often used in the plural: old land deeds in the municipal archives.
2. Computer Science
a. A long-term storage area, often on magnetic tape, for backup copies of files or for files that are no longer in active use.
b. A file containing one or more files in compressed format for more efficient storage and transfer.
3. A repository for stored memories or information: the archive of the mind.

tr.v. ar·chived, ar·chiv·ing, ar·chives
1. To place or store in an archive.
2. Computer Science To copy or compress (a file) into an archive.

Archive's we have been looking at include the Naomi Vs Jelish archive. This is such an interesting read and look at the website mainly because the back story is so intense and rich. Thus adding another layer of intrigue to the drawings. Beautiful.

In July 1991, 13-year-old Naomi V. Jelish and her family mysteriously vanished from their home in Kent, after a tragic year in which her father died after attempting to save her younger brother from drowning. Shortly after the family's disappearance, John Ivesmail, a retired science teacher at Naomi's school, unearthed a collection of the teenager's remarkable drawings.

In the years following the disappearance, John attempted to trace what had happened to the family through an investigation of Naomi's incredible artworks. John hoped to throw light on the family's bizarre vanishing by mounting an exhibition of the youngster's work.

John died in 2002 before his desire to open the exhibition could be achieved. Despite this, the show John had planned was realised in the presentation of Naomi's work at the Riflemaker Gallery in 2004, overseen by the artist Jamie Shovlin. Since their early nineties disappearance, Naomi and her family have never been heard from.

In the 10 years prior to his death, John Ivesmail sent copies of many of the documents he accumulated, in his attempt to bring Naomi's work to a larger audience, to friends and colleagues seeking advice and an assessment of his work. We are pleased to be able to display the most comprehenssive collection of this material to date.

With the assistance of Jamie Shovlin we are also able to present a number of supplementary documents and examples of Naomi's drawings allowing us to contextualise the archive and place it within the framework begun with the Riflemaker exhibition of Naomi's work and its subsequent display at the Saatchi Gallery whilst also addressing many of the questions raised through the recovery of additional works by Naomi in July 2004.

Gort Scott Talk and questions of the high street

Montages from previous site

The Roofscapes overlooking Leadenhall market- up towards the lloyds tower and beyond. A captivating street, which doesn't offer much in the way of a relationship to the highstreet, but is nonetheless, hugely interesting. Perhaps studying it could be catalyst for design ideas regarding a possible assembly space.

Spatial Biography Brief

Street Section

 

Back to the city

The images from the spaces looked at so far for the most recent brief are from my initial site studies. Brief is to find a space which you find interesting somewhere between whitechapel art gallery and gracechurch street along Fenchurch street. Once you have found an interesting space, document it through drawings etc. (the brief will be added shortly). Had a problem working out the scale of the space we were looking for. Initially started looking for small rooms within the area. Mistake- need to remember that we are looking at problems of heritage and development on an urban scale- so dont restrict myself too much by concentrating on small spaces. Besides the urban landscape becomes far more interesting when you look at larger spaces- but not too big!

The space I found was a fire escape which linked the street level to a curious series of fire escape paths running over the entire of Leadenhall market. The space also linked the high street to a series of underground areas as well. What I initially found curious was the way in which the fragile facade of the old victorian house had been left behind, whilst a 1930's mansion block with white bricks has replaced the entire rest of the building.

Mixture and contrasts of time, scale and materials caught my attention.

Interior space reeked of rank, left behind and disused space