Brief 2 « Learning from Thames Valley

Brief 2

PROJECT 2.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE VALLEY
Looking closely to understand the bigger picture

Badlands, 2009 by Corinne Silva

AIMS
Having begun our explorations in the TV from afar we are now going to pay our first visit. The purpose of this trip and the subsequent development is to:

• Undertake a visual survey of the key elements that constitute each productive park with the aim of developing a formal lexicon for the public realm of TV

• Test the hypothesis of our initial investigations from afar

• Gain additional information ‘on the ground’ to enable us to develop the analytical drawings of TV, in particular the significance of use

• Develop skills for exploring a site, including visual survey, wayfinding and conversation

• Continue to develop an understanding of how the study of an archetype can be used to develop a general approach.

BRIEF

I. LEARNING THE LEXICON
Every member of the studio is to take a prescribed set of photographs of their productive park, for the benefit of their own investigations and the studio. By taking the same photographs of the same elements in different Valley locations and park typologies you will be able to undertake careful comparative analysis of the TV condition. You are to take three distinct sets of photographs.

A. VALLEY TOPOGRAPHY
You are to take 16 specific photographs (listed below). The composition of each image should be landscape orientation and very flat, similar in composition to the photographic surveys of Bernd and Hilla Becher, or the work of our visiting photographers Corinne Silva and Ignacio Acosta. They should be full colour and pay special attention to capturing the space in front of the subject as well as the subject itself. A suggested composition is to have the horizon a third of the way up the image. Each image is to be printed 150mm wide by 100mm high.

Productive Park - for the park as a whole

1. Entrance

2. Connections e.g. a bus stop, taxi rank or train station

3. Pedestrian paths

4. Vehicular paths

5. Parking

6. Vegetation

7. Power – evidence of the power supply e.g. electricity substation, wind turbine, power station, manholes

8. Provisions – source of food and drink e.g. cafe, diner, Tesco metro, kebab van, sandwich delivery van

9. Assembly – the place where the park’s public assemble in the highest concentration

Productive Buildings - for a ‘typical’ building that accommodates production on your site

10. Front

11. Corner

12. Side

13. Back

14. Signage (detail)

15. Entrance (detail)

16. Interior

B. TV GUIDE
“I consider my books to be strictly visual materials. I even perceive them as bits of sculpture in a way. They were three-dimensional, they were thick.” “Many of the books are architectural in nature, like the… apartments and a few of the other books. They all possess a ground line, a landscape line that is actually horizontal, all the way through the book.”

Ed Ruscha produced a set of books of photographs in the 1960s that captured the essence of the evolving Los Angeles vernacular. His focus was on the production of the book, describing the pictures as merely the stuff to fill the books. And yet his photographs have a distinct character. They suggest a deadpan way of looking at the world that allows the observer to remain perceptive to the environment and tolerant of the everyday.

His books are part topographical record, part portrait of a city; they include Twenty Six Gasoline Stations, Some Los Angeles Apartments, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Thirty Four Parking lots, Nine Swimming Pools and Real Estate Opportunities.

You are to choose a subject matter that captures the essence of your park, choose a format for the pictures and produce a book, a sculptural object capable of being mass produced.

C. PARKLIFE
Each productive park has a distinct character that is expressed through the specific combination of the elements that make up its environment. Character can be explicitly expressed through ‘things in space’ and what they look like, but is likely also to be more ambiguous, suggestive and elusive; relying on sounds, smells and feel, as well as things you can’t quite put your finger on such as ambience, mood, narrative and a sense of time passing.

Greg Crewdson’s carefully orchestrated photographs capture the specific character of places as moments in time particularly well. They inspire the viewer to construct complete imaginary narratives – filmic, almost scratch-and-sniff – around just one image.

You are to produce a single image that captures the essence of your park. Select an appropriate format, paper and frame to exhibit the work.

II. LAND USE
Using the resources available you have been able to analysis the forms of the Valley but not its use. Through a combination of visual survey and data collection record the use of both land and buildings and to produce insightful use maps.

III. TESTING YOUR HYPOTHESIS
Your initial investigations have produced a number of hypothesis that need testing through on-site research. Before your visit, list the hypothesis that need testing and the way in which you will test them:

‘20 Questions’ that you would like to ask your park. Record the results of your investigations with text and illustrations.

QUESTIONS

1. How do the layout, form and character of your park support the notion of a democratic city? What do they enable and what do they restrict?

2. In what way is your park productive?

3. What is the character of your productive park? How is this manifested visually, and otherwise?

4. What patterns can you find and what hypotheses can you develop by studying the lexicon of your park? What do the buildings in your park have in common? How are they different?

5. Having seen the park at ground level how would you revise your astonishing plan? Is the park simply public/private, black/white, or are there shades of grey?

6. How is your park used? How are your buildings used? How might you map what goes on behind closed doors? How do you record use in order to draw conclusions at an urban scale that might be useful to you as a designer?

7. How can you make a more personal and insightful response to an environment, alongside more generic and conventional studies? How do you map something that has never been mapped? What use might this be to you as a designer?

REQUIREMENTS

1. VISUAL LEXICON

1a. 16 requested photographs printed full bleed, full colour at 150mm wide x 100 mm high

exhibited in a collected studio, wall mounted TV schedule

1b. A bound book of a set of photographs of appropriate elements from your park

1c. A framed photograph that captures the essence of your park’s character

2. USE

A3 1:2500 or similar, plans of your neighbourhood, analyzing its use (2 minimum, more preferred)

3. TESTING

3a. Verbal description of the hypothesis you tested

3B. A3 illustrated text describing your findings.

TIMETABLE

3	T 20/10	10-6.30pm Project 1 CRIT	AOC
	F 23/10	INDIVIDUAL SITE VISITS
4	T 27/10	Y3 IDA – 10am: MPL / 11.30am: Plan vs Non-planAll day: Individual tutorials – first reactions All day: create collective visual lexicon matrix, all to bring required photos	TCVL
	F 30/10	2pm – Ruscha, books, and curating visual work	GS
5	T 3/11	All day workshop: Site of production5pm – Project 3 INTRO: Meet the Valleyites	GS, VL
	F 6/11	2pm – Surveying suburbia	TC
6	T 10/11	10am-7pm Project 2 CRIT	AOC +
	F 13/11	TV Tour. Depart London 0900. Stay night in Swindon	AOC
	S 14/11	TV Tour continues. Return to London 1700	AOC