school's back

Tonight is the first class for Semester Two. It also marks my progress from the Graduate Certificate to the Graduate Diploma. Only a year to go until the Masters is complete.

NOT like site - Post #8, artwork for the site

Above: City of Yarra, Billboard for Art Program

I've spent quite a bit of time work shopping what kind of artwork I would place on my NOT Like site. Friends and I have discussed having a work that interacted with the motorists rather than pedestrians as that would be a better reflection of how most people encounter the site. We had trouble coming up with an idea though that wasn't too much like a billboard or could potentially cause accidents. I am aware though that the City of Yarra, where my NOT Like site, is situated already has a Billboard Public Art Program so I still think it is a viable option.

Another idea was to find a way to place earphones around the site so people could sit in the space and block out the traffic noise. We all liked this idea but realised that it would be quite logistically difficult without someone to maintain and headsets and to stop them from all getting pinched.



Yet the question still remains of what to do with the work that is already there. I think through this process I realised that my problems with the site weren't just that I found the artwork very ugly, as I had originally thought. But as I have already mentioned in previous posts having the hard noise of the traffic with hard quite aggressive sculpture did have a lot to do with it.

In the end I think I would arrange to have part of the site dedicated to something like a billboard project project, ideally one that would engage with the history of the site on some level and if nothing else I would remove the dog sculpture's teeth.

LIKE Site - Post #7, artwork for the site

Above: Speed Cheek - Oakwood Park by Clare McCracken

When thinking about what kind of artwork would fit well into my LIKE site without overwhelming the balance of its current uses the work Speed Cheek - Oakwood Park by artist Clare McCracken immediately came to mind. The work is situation in the City of Greater Dandenong and this is how it is described:

The sculptures are inspired by Jeffery Smart's surreal urban landscapes and inspired by the backdrop of the Eastlink motorway; designed for bike riders and pedestrians to measure their kilometres per hour.

Using sophisticated motorway technology Speed Cheek are two speed checking devices placed beside the shared user path that runs through the heart of Oakwood Park measuring the speeds of bike riders and pedestrians going both from east to west and west to east.

Speeds are displayed on two solar powered LCD screens which hover above the path so that park users can see the pace at which they are moving. The sculptures will provide a free interactive experience for local and visiting schools, recreational groups, cyclists and residents.

Although I am against merely replicating artworks from place to another I think something that came from a similar consideration of the uses of the site and working to develop a work that interacts with them would be ideal.

Sound and Theory - Listening to the sites

"Now I will do nothing but listen...

I hear all the sounds running together, combined,

fused or following,

Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds

of the day and night..."


WALT WHITMAN, Song of Myself

I decided fairly early on that for the theoretical consideration of my two sites I would build it around a consideration of Sound Theory and the idea in public art of "overlooked in public space."

Choosing this approach made a great of sense to both sites as one is completely overwhelmed by constant sounds of a particular type and the other made up of a complex layering of many different types of sounds.

In fact it is the soundscape of my NOT like site that has the most direct influence on why I don't like it.

In the book The Soundscape: the Tuning of the World by Walter Murray he identified three distinct features of the soundscape which he describes as:

Keynote: the key or tonality of a particular composition. It is the anchor of fundamental tone and although the material may modulate around it, often obscuring its importance it is in reference to this point that everything else takes on its special meaning... The keynote sounds of a given place are important because they help to outline the character of men living among them.

Signals: are foreground sounds and they are listened to consciously... Signals MUST be listened to because they constitute acoustic warning devices... Sound signals may often be organised into quite elaborate codes permitting messages of considerable complexity.

Soundmark: is derived from 'landmark' and refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded or noticed by the people in that community.

Taking all of this into consideration I spent a great deal of time listening to each of my sites every time I visited them so I could make note of their soundscapes.

NOT LIKE SITE SOUNDSCAPE

Keynote sound:
- traffic: engines of trucks, cars and motorcycles accelerating and braking through the intersection in flowing waves of traffic

Signals:
- tram bell
- car and truck horns
- traffic lights ticking “cross now” and “don’t cross’

Soundmarks:
- tram moving through the intersection
- car tires going over the tram tracks

The site is completely overwhelmed by the sound of traffic and it always took a couple of minutes for me to be able to stop hearing the site as just one big "TRAFFIC NOISE".

It also needs to be noted that I was never able to hear non-traffic noises, such as people walking past or voices even though I could see people moving through the intersection. The traffic noise is very much like a blanket that encompasses the entire space.

I chose the tram moving through the site and the cars moving over the tracks as the Soundmark as trams are a particular aspect of urban life in Melbourne that you don't usually have intersected with such high levels of constant, moving traffic.

LIKE SITE SOUNDSCAPE

Keynote Sounds:
- leaves rustling in the trees
- water lapping against the banks of the river
- hum of traffic on the freeway in the distance

Signals:
- dog barking
- bikes’ bells and tires moving onto the gravel
- train whistle from Richmond Station
- snatches of conversation as people walk past
- trucks and traffic accelerating up the freeway ramp
- motor boats revving their engines

Soundmark:
- bell bird calling from the Botanical Gardens
- rowers’ calling out instructions to each other
- crunch of joggers’ feet on the gravel as they run the ‘Tan’

What makes the Morell Bridge soundscape so interesting is the layers of sound that are a mix of both natural and man-made noises.

What I also found really interesting when I compared the notes I took on the soundscapes for each site was how each was such a extreme opposition to the other in the concept of an audio horizon.

The NOT Like site is a demonstration of how the audio horizon has shortened in that the sound of the traffic, though it does in some ways indicate that there is a hill that needs to be accelerated up, does not allow for any other horizon indicating noises beyond that of the immediate area.

In absolute contrast the LIKE site has a long horizon where you can actually hear the distances between various elements that create the soundscape noises. You can hear the leaves in the trees above you, yet also the train whistle in the distance. You have an awareness of the uses around you and they someone create balance. My favourite contrasting noises were the high pitched bell bird from the Botanical Gardens, following by the deep roar of the truck engines in the distance.

NOT like site - Post #7, uses

One of the reasons I dislike this site so much is because I feel like I am constantly being made aware of how it doesn't function the way it is designed to. There are benches in numerous places on the site that do their best to make it look inviting (the angry looking sculptures aside) yet I have only seen one person ever actually sitting in the site. It is dis-used and neglected and ignored despite being at the top of one of Melbourne's busiest weekend shopping strips.

I don't like this site because it doesn't engage with its environment, the community of even with the purpose it has attempted to have embedded in it.

Like Site - Post #6, uses

Rowing under the Bridge


People in the area around the bridge, viewed from the entrance to the Botanical Gardens.


Walking dogs on the bridge


Cyclist on their way to work crossing the bridge.

One of the reasons I like my "Like" site is due to the amount and variation of activities that happen on, under and all around the bridge at all times of day.

These activities, which are mainly leisure-related, include cycling, rowing, jogging and strolling and dog walking.

As I have already mentioned in another post the Morell Bridge is one of the busiest paths for cyclists traveling to and from work in the city.

Although there is a freeway within earshot and eyesight of the site it doesn't seem to impact greatly on the general serenity of the area.

NOT like site - Post #6, artwork on the site

I haven't written much about the existing artworks on my "Not Like" site partly because I have had quite a bit of difficulty sourcing information, as there is no reference to the site or the works in any of the City of Yarra's public art documentation on their website. It is worth noting that their excellent documentation of other public art works in the City of Yarra collection.

I know they were created between 1993 to 1995 and are by more than one artist, though there is only a signage for two of them on the site.


This work is titled "Mother and Daughter" and was created by Mary Perrott Stimson between 1993-1994. There isn't a great deal of information available about the artist but the work is accompanied by a quotation that is inlaid on a bronze plate next to the work.

"Mother and Daughter walk proudly through history from the caves of ancient Africa, across continents, oceans and deserts - into Richmond."

The quote does provide some form of site specificity but I am completely baffled as to what it actually means or what significance it could have. I was thinking that perhaps it was a reference to indigenous history but that doesn't really sit properly on a number of levels.


This steel work is titled Opus 15 by artist Adrian Mauriks, who also has a number of other public art commissions in Melbourne. The work is 120 x 120 cm and was commissioned in 1995. The work is situation in the wall that used to be part of the tram house I mentioned in a previous post on the history of the site.

The works has some similar elements - cloven foot, the enclosed lotus shape, the wings and bird shape, "Buddha eye"- to those that appear in another work by the artist called Opus 10 created in 1994 for Commonwealth Bank for the World Trade Centre, George St, Sydney, NSW.

These elements the artist has discussed as being inspired by mythological inventions and the power these images have. His explanation of them includes "...you put all this together and you have what? Impossible to say, but it does give you access to a being process that is akin to an elevated state of consciousness where nothing is any longer, specific, but all is general, connected and inter twined, to everything else. It simply becomes a matter of being and occupying your own centre."


I can not find a reference to the title of this work or the artist that created it anywhere. On the base of the boat the "dog with the teeth" sits in is inscribed the words "Yarra" and "Acheron" which are both rivers. What they have to do with this particular work or site I can not determine. I know that a number of people, myself included, find the huge bared metal teeth of the dog quite disturbing and ominous.

Part of the reason I dislike this site so much is because the three works situated on it seem so completely detached not only from the physical location they are placed in but also from each other. They are all made of metal but don't have a cohesiveness they seem at odds with the environment they have been placed in. I have tried to rationalise with myself that they all perhaps explore some kind of mythology that I am unaware of but again it seems incredibly odd and "plonked" to do that on this particular site.

From a personal aesthetic take I find them all incredibly hard and unattractive so that they make an already unappealing site even harsher and less inviting without engaging with it at all.

LIKE Site - Post #5, Lights at Night

Last night I also visited my "Like" site to document the lighting, ambiance and usage at night.

The site is lit from above by the six lamps that make up part of the bridge. From below on the south-eastern side the bridge is flood lit by a large single flood lamp. There is also illumination from the reflection of the lights in the water of the river and surrounding street lights, including from construction sites and cars and trucks on the nearby freeway.

Despite having more varied sources of lighting the site itself is not as illuminated as my not like site because it is more open.

What surprised me most was the level of usage of the bridge at 9pm on a Monday night. I encountered numerous joggers, cyclists and walkers while we were there.

I also spent quite a bit of time listening to the site to compare it to the sounds I had documented during the day. The sounds were quite different and not as varied as during the day but also amplified in a different way.

Despite the high levels of mixed usage on the bridge and surrounding area is always surprises me how peaceful the site seems.

NOT like site - Post #5 Lights at Night

Last night I visited and documented the lighting and atmosphere at my "Not Like" site.

The site itself is lit with down lighting on the brick wall that frames the site. I also noticed that although ground lights are in the ground surrounding the dog sculpture, I have never seen them turned on.

The most predominant source of lighting though is the street lights and the headlights of the cars passing through the intersection.

I also paid particular attention to the sounds of the site while I was there so I can compare them to the sounds I have recorded hearing at other times of the day.

I am also aware that I haven't particularly said why I don't like this site yet. That is because I wanted to go through the entire documentation process and then frame my dislike around a theoretical analysis. This will come later.

Public Art and the CIA = site specific secret squirrel excellence

Kryptos is a public artwork by artist James Sanborn situated on the grounds of America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.

The artwork cost $250,000 and was dedicated on 3rd November, 1990. It is positioned between two buildings and is made of red and green slate, white quartz, petrified wood, lodestone and copper. The most dominant feature of the work is the S-shaped copper screen, that resembles a vertical scroll, with characters punched out of the copper. The characters apparently make up a four-part message, each apparently in code encrypted by a different cipher.

Apparently CIA and other code crackers have only been able to solve three of the four messages and one part remains unbroken code. There is even an on-line group, Kryptos Group, dedicated to cracking the code of the artwork.

The title of the work "Kryptos", which means hidden in Greek, and the work is described as a "a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth".

The CIA's purpose is well known as being to collect information and keep secrets, as so many Hollywood movies and crime novels portray for us constantly. So in a strange inversion the CIA maintains a constant public awareness of its secrecy through external perceptions and portrayals.

I think the very public exploration of the artwork to "crack" the code of its embedded secret message is particularly apt and successful as a site specific work located in the CIA's grounds. The work takes site specificity to another level where it not only reflects its surrounding environment's purpose but engages with popular perceptions and engagements with that purpose. The work is located on an area that is perceived as secret and yet is well known. The work is well known but its message secret. Both the CIA and the work have captured the public's imagination regarding concepts of secrecy and learning the truth.

In many ways I hope the final part of the code isn't ever cracked so that the work maintains its fascination and continues to reflect the surroundning areas' purpose and public/secret perception so perfectly.







Reference: Levy, S. (May 2009). Mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack, Wired Magazine 17.05

LIKE site - Post #4, history of the site

The Morell Bridge has a very well documented history and is actually quite significant.

The bridge was named after Sir Stephen Morell in 1936 in recognition of his contribution to Melbourne. Morell was a prominent Victorian businessman and Lord Mayor between 1926 and 1928 and a rowing enthusiast.


Prior to 1936 it was known as the Anderson Street Bridge and was constructed in 1899.


Its construction is significant as it was the first significant reinforced concrete bridge built using the innovative Monier construction technique in Victoria. The Monier technique was patented by Joseph Monier, a French manufacturer of garden ware, in 1867.


The bridge is often attributed (thought this is disputed) to John Monash, but was actually designed and constructed by Sydney based engineers, Carter, Gummow and Co, patentees of the Monier Construction System in Australia.


What is particularly interesting and significant is that the bridge was built on dry land and when it was completed the Yarra river was diverted to flow underneath it.


On June 7, 1998 the bridge was closed to cars as part of the CityLink project. It is currently used by cyclist and pedestrian traffic.

In 2006 the Age Newspaper reported that each weekday, VicRoads meters count about 2500 cyclists on the path at Morrell Bridge near Melbourne Park. At peak time, from 7.30am to 8.30am, about 320 cyclists ride past every hour, or one every 11 seconds.

I think it is interesting that by cosmic coincidence both my "like" and "not like" locations are sites of significant mechanical advancements for Melbourne.

NOT like site - Post #4, history of the site

Finding historical information on my "not like" site's current incarnation has proven more difficult than I would have originally thought given that public art project are usually very well documented.

I have been able to find information on prior uses of the site going back over 100 years based on information on the site provided by the local heritage council.


This information sign, part of the Richmond Heritage Walk, shows the area immediately surrounding the site in the 19th Century but not the site itself. It does however indicate that in circa 1876 the site was most likely a part of the grounds of sixteen room mansion, Yalcowinna.



Yalcowinna, was built in 1867 by business man, politician, and land speculator William Highett. The grounds of the mansion, which is now part of Epworth Hospital, comprised a four-stall stable, three looseboxes, two coachhouses, a man’s room, a hayloft and wood and coal sheds.



From a plaque I was able to learn that a building on the site had housed Melbourne's first cable tram engines had been constructed there in 1885. That the building had later been extended to house a station for the electric tramway, which replaced the pioneer cable line in 1927. The buildings were both demolished in 1991 for road intersection improvements.

With that knowledge I have been able to hunt down a photo and drawing from the Richmond Library showing the site.



The photo that has the caption 'A tramways engine for cable cars at Richmond'. The engine house for cable cars was on the corner of Bridge Rd and Hoddle Street.



From the drawing, that is presumed to be from a newspaper, I get a better idea of what the structure would have looked like and how it would have worked.


I also found another photo that shows the site in 1978 the site as the "Melbourne Forklift Company".

Contemplating the uses of the site since the 1880s to at least the late 1970s one of the common themes, which in many ways continues is the sites connection to noise and machinery. Whether it be engine houses for trams or forklifts.

I have found a couple of clues relating to how the site came to look as it currently does but I am still in the process of hunting them down.

Having found out more about the previous uses of the site I find the site itself more interesting but like the current works on the site even less because they don't in any way engage or reflect that history.

Council House Two

Council House Two (CH2) is situated on 240 Little Collins Street near the intersection of Swanston Street.

CH2 was officially opened in August 2006 as is Australia's first new 6 star greenstar rated commercial office building.

It is a 10-storey office building housing approximately 540 City of Melbourne staff, and a gross floor area of 12,536m² and cost $51.045 million to build.

The architect, Mick Pearce, gave a lecture during the intensive program. He described his architecture is greatly inspired by natural structures and bio-mimicry and light energy.

By observing structures in nature he has been able to replicate techniques that provide natural sources of heating and cooling for buildings as alternatives to high energy consumption alternatives, such as air-conditioning.


For example, located on the south façade shower towers, jokingly known as "condoms", made of five tubes of durable lightweight fabric, inside which a water shower induces air movement and cooling. The ensuing evaporative cooling process cools both air and water.




The building is actively conscious of its surrounding environments and includes other features that use the surrounding environment such as plants, wooden slats that move with the sun and so on.

The building itself and the architectural and environmental philosophy behind it are incredibly interesting but what makes it particularly relevant to an examination of public art is how the building was developed.



The building is an excellent example of using artists as part of the planning and development process for the building right from the very outset rather than using them to develop decorative elements when the building is complete.

In case of CH2 artists were included in the first brainstorming session with the architect and the engineer. The artists input was particularly valued for their ability to think outside of box creatively and beyond the "solution driven" processes of the architects and engineers.





Reference: City of Melbourne website

LIKE Site - Post #3, textures

Below are some of the textural components that make up my Like site.

The materials are way to many to mention but include both man-made such as steel, plaster, paint, concrete, iron, plastic and natural elements such as water, plant mater, ants and stone.