Progress on the installation project in the architecture building

Trying to make a little sense of the mess going on in my head:

I have began the project by visiting Fallowfields Station and observing that although the Greenbelt is bordering the train station there, it is hidden from view and ignored. That kinda pissed me off and I was depressed for around two days.

I decided I’d like to bring some of that lost nature back into the suburban environment, but do it in a way that is practical and does not conflict with the people living nearby. I noticed there is no connection between the bus station and the train and decided I’d like to build some sort of a covered walkway, at least as an innitial idea for something people can actually use. With this physical connection between stations, I wanted to create another connection, a sensory one, between the suburbs and the Greenbelt.

So the installation in the architecture building, which I treat as a conceptual investigation for what I will do at the bus station, should achieve the following goals:

1) be a physical connection between two spaces that are close to each other and also a sensory connection between two distinct areas that are farther away from each other – since at the fields at Fallowfields cannot even be seen from the bus stop and barely noticable from the road going to the train station because of all the parking lots, so the sensory connection connects a space in the architecture building with a space that cannot even be seen from the architecture building.

2)  incorporate the inhabitants of the site in the design process since I believe that a structure should be made to the liking of the people using it, no matter how much I don’t agree with them.

Up until yesterday, I was investigating a construction site adjacent to the architecture building. Since I now realized that the space I’d like to connect to shouldn’t be visible from the architecture building, I moved farther away to parking lot 7 on campus.

It was there that I finally got my aha moment, when I saw these guys

I should have slapped myself in the head. The reason why I was so frustrated with my project was because up till the moment I saw these geese, it bored the hell out of me. But these birds, and the sounds they make (recorded), and the sounds they make when they fly away because I scared them, and the feathers they leave all over the place, and also other biological substance, now that’s something I can work with.

So I need a physical connection inside the building. That’s easy, can be the bridge connecting architecture and meckanzie but that’s taken by Bill. Can be the elevator but that’s a little small. I think a corner staircase will be most suitable, since people have to move through it and I can use that to make a more dynamic experience.

Now to the harder part – making a sensory connection with the field behind lot 7. Well, with my previous thought process I have been thinking of creating sounds and touches that will make that connection. I cannot think of a way to immitate the sounds geese make so I think I’m simply going to play a recording of it (in a decent volume, I don’t want it to be disturbing). I do believe I will be able to immitate the sound of flapping wings – I’m thinking of pieces of paper or card in a long corrogated tube. I’d like to connect that device to the doors in the stairway so when people open them they will hear that sound. I’m also thinking of putting pieces of paper on the floors and steps since that will make sounds similar to those made when one steps on grass or leaves. It will also feel softer to step on.

At this point I don’t think I’d like to use any images. I realize that for this installation I should concentrate on the conceptual and not the literal. In other words, for this installation, people do not need to understand what they are listening to or why – the experience in itself is the goal of the project. When I get to the second part, at Fallowfields, I can make it more literal.

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