PROCESS
At the start of my exploration, I was inspired by the process of gleaning portrayed in Agnès Varda’s, ‘The Gleaners and I’ (2000). Varda examines the various contexts in which people are motivated to glean. Gleaning is depicted as the act of collecting that which has been forgotten, discarded or left behind, yet still holds the potential to be utilised by those who glean (ibid.).
I was interested in gleaning as a method to investigate and subsequently communicate the qualities of my chosen site. I chose the space on Caledonian Road between Bus stop A and R. I was immediately drawn to banal objects and traces of mundane human action in the space.
Though I couldn’t physically remove some of these traces from the space, I used different methods to obtain or glean them. I photographed the texture, imagery, signs and language that were found on the surfaces of the space. I created 3D replications of objects and detritus left behind on the street that were composited and stitched together from multiple images. I also extracted actual printed ephemera, which I later utilised as material to print on and give form to my findings. These methods of gleaning from the space highlight the features of permanence and impermanence of that which exists and is left behind in our urban environments.
Focussing on collecting objects and elements that occupy my chosen space forced me to examine the ordinary and unintentional ways in which we access, behave, communicate and relate to our public spaces.
FORM
Whether it involved photographing traces of human action or collecting printed ephemera; my investigation seemed to flatten my chosen physical space since it was captured on or took the form of pages – on print and screen. Johanna Drucker suggests that our methods of sense-making, both digital and analog, have long been influenced by the ‘conceptual capacities’ of printed form (2014, p. 180). I was interested in exploring the potentials and limitations of print and its ability to translate my interpretations of a physical site.
My investigation developed through a ‘graphic interpretation’ of the space using both analog and digital methods to deconstruct and rearrange the visual and textual qualities collected from the space (ibid., p. 181). I scanned, isolated, manipulated, distorted and re-printed photographs from the site to create repetitive patterns juxtaposed with textual narratives constructed from my subjective interpretations of the space. Alongside this, my investigation included pages that mapped and contextualised found objects, images and text found in the space. The printed form also allowed me to experiment with the tactile qualities of paper stock (including printing on material gleaned from the space), size, textures, opacities, layering of pages and ink to help mirror the complex textural qualities observed in Caledonian Road.
Developing a subjective visual reading and translation of the investigated space involved extensive editing and abstraction. The ambiguity of what eventually made it onto the page reflects the limitations of translating the exhaustive and complex qualities of a space into printed form.
REFERENCES
Drucker, J. (2014) ‘Designing Graphic Interpretation’ in Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 180-192
The Gleaners and I (2000) Directed by Agnès Varda. [Film]. Paris. Ciné Tamaris.
