Noticed

After discovering a demolition site near to where I live and being inspired by it, I've decided to change the course of my FMP. The previous title was 'Exploration of Movement' and it was based on the idea of movement through space, I'm now working with the title of 'Noticed'. To do with engaging with my environment and it's also symbolic of the absence, or apparent absence of space, time, behaviour, needs and things because people forget, disregard or just don't notice them. Because of this, I will have to re-organise my timetable to work too.

How the dramatic change of course happened... I decided to walk a slightly different way back and very near to my home, I came across a tiny residential square with a small green bit in the middle. I walked around it and peeked inside peoples windows and I got a real sense of activity and lives being lived in a particular place, at particular point in time. In an odd way, it almost felt like I could see time plodding on and I was slightly removed from it.

Walking on a bit further, I came across the demolition site that was the inspiration for the project.  It was like a square of buildings had been lifted away in one move. The impact of suddenly there being nothing, when there was clearly something before it, was immense. It was something about the immediacy and the scale of the absent square that I liked. Walking around the site, I started to notice that people had left things behind– there was a typewriter, clothes, cassette tapes and it made me think about who and what was there before the buildings were removed. Before, it was just an empty hole, now I had been given clues about the people who lived there and I began to think about the concept of time and the extended field. I could see what was here before and I could think about what might be here in the future. That vs. the incredible sense of nothing right now …I was standing in the bit of time between before and after – like time had been paused in front of me.

 

I began to think that in order to create the impact/feeling that I wanted, I needed to remove or obscure rather then add or create something from scratch. This is when I began to look at artists like Rachel Whiteread who didn’t mould the stairs, but the space around them. Uta Barth and the way she focuses on the space that sits around, hinting at the existence of people or things close by, but wanting you to notice the space around. 

Basically, I'd like to show people what's already there and what I think is worth taking notice of. And also, just show people that it's worth taking time to notice.