Thursday, August 21, 2008

sketch of concept............


The Result...

The study of the motorway light conditions, shown in these photos has become irrelevant as a topic base for a proposal for VIRACOP exhibition but it has given me a great (i hope) conceptual idea for an artifact/sculpture for the exhibition.
Parallel to this study I have long been interested in the study of complex multi-cultural cities, specifically the way different cultures inter connect and/or segregate in different geographical areas of the city. And especially the responsibility that architecture has in this area. My understanding is that architectural buildings can either enforce the inter connection of different peoples in a building that is appealing to all the different cultures, sometimes creating an undesirable mess of one global culture. Or create buildings that highlight a single culture, thus preserving it, but inevitably segregating its people from others in the city.
So I am interested in creating a map of Auckland Region that in a very honest and understandable manner shows all the different cultures in this area, but at the same time highlights their extreme segregation in diffrent regions/suburbs.
The idea is to use Perspex to create a large scale map of Auckland Region (maybe 1.5 by 2m wide) . Each regions population is determined and fake cartography map is created by elevating a number of perspex layers as if it was a contour map. The number of layers in each of these 'imagined hills' will depend on the amount of people in each area.
Then Fibre Optic strings are threaded through those mountains....the colour and amount of them dependant on the number of people of certain culture in the region.
I read a quote that said that people in a metropolis become so overwelmed with the activity, people, lights, noises etc which are constantly present in a large Megapolis, that they physically can't take it all in. Thus they become blaze to their surroundings....missing often the excitement and beauty of all this extravagance....And this is something that I would want the audience of this sculpture to become aware of....through the amount and intensity of the light that fills the sculpture, placed in a small dark hallway of Gus Fisher Gallery.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008





Continuing the research on the motorway and its light conditions...the photos above were translated to drawings and then applied onto the model of the motorway...this was done in order to get a better understanding of the site and its conditions