drawing through an idea

curiosities about place. the rail line. the graffiti. the arches. the decay and the usage. where can research take a project. [also, this drawing needs to be labeled. no one knows what it means unless you tell them.]

anthropological histories, beneath the surface and above it. how does one design within that setting?

the drawing of ideas. what could be buried beneath the surface. a surface which is now being gentrified after a past of growth and industry. how would|could|should one explore it? what would those spaces be like? how would they expand through time?

contouring.

contour drawings can be fascinating as they are a way to illustrate the changing, physical world in a scientific way. this one is detailed because of its scale. this is actually covering a huge area, when you zoomed in, it wasnt as interesting. how do you develop your site with a similar level of detail?

the second drawing loses a lot of the clarity which was present in the map you found somewhere else. the precision is pretty important, especially when you are discussing the information about past|present|future rivers. is that condition of control precise or not so? consider that in your drawings.

the past|present|future of your site needs to be illustrated. change in topography. change in water level. is there a change in program and use through time as well?

the development of the site contours is actually quite interesting, especially when the two drawings are seen in the same manner and directly next to one another. you need a more exciting program to get this program off the ground. what would you like the site to be used for? really?

layers of information

in attempting to find relationships between different sets of data, the information can often become jumbled and difficult to understand. the labeling of the convoluted bits of drawing is increasingly necessary.

furthermore, how does one bring the beginnings of research into the design process, driving the assignment of space with curiosities and new discoveries?

graffiti.

interesting technique here. would be nice to be able to understand the layers of information in a more precise way. which are streets? which are canals? do the images relate to location? can this be annotated? convey the information.

why is it socially acceptable for street art to thrive in this area of the city alone? how could you investigate that architecturally? is there a relationship between shadow or points of view? major thoroughfares or lines of sight? how could you map this?

images versus maps

what are the differences between maps|drawings|images??

overlapping sets of information : places where knowledge in separate domains can be shown to overlap, leading to the possibility of intellectual travel.

points of convergence between those sets : linkages between information are identified and integrated. then the knowledge can be handled in new ways.

a map relates sets of information to one another, regardless of dealing with scale, color, time, event, experience. the colors being used amongst the decay of digbeth are interesting; however, they would become mappings if they were drawn through time. how do the light and shadows change throughout the day?

what if this image had a time lapse illustration of the movements in the shadows? maybe its only lines. maybe shade. maybe becoming color.

[un]mappable landscapes.

in a world of increasingly indistinguishable relationships between the technological and the human, mapping becomes a potential method to understand complex information. unlike the maps commonly used throughout history, the mappings of today do not merely represent the existing conditions. instead, mapping becomes a way to potentially re - describe a specific place, person, or experience with more particularity and significance. these maps attempt to recreate an experience or series of occurrences so that the observer can better understand the nature of the exploration.

installation|s and review|s.

installation|s : no matter how long you think it will take to construct a thing, it will be longer and require more particularity than you expect. it is easy to imagine the methods of construction, but without attempting such actions at full scale prior to installing, the imaginings will quite often fail.

the ideas behind this are strong. pulling the tones from inside, thinking of the window spatially instead of as just a surface. however, the actual interworkings of the materials were quite feeble. had this been properly detailed, it could have been extraordinary. the light on the line looks as raindrops do from a grey english sky.

what can you take forward from this process?

also, does anyone have decent photographs of how the line looked from outside? the elegance of the smashed window effect?

review|s : how far you guys have come from that first day wandering around the city is quite incredible. not only in your drawing skills and techniques, but more than that, in the way that you are thinking and the topics that you are considering. the comments at the reviews were constructive and encouraging. how can you take these ideas forward? light. shadow. decay. movement. color. life.

looking forward to working with you in the coming term.