Jade Pillay
Acerca de
01 Cinematic Site-Device
My initial response to the brief was that it is quite challenging and broad. The introduction gave us a look into how we can interpret the brief in our own way that does not necessarily have to incorporate cinema.
I do not necessarily have an interest in any kind of film media, although, I am fond of photography. Photography has been one of my favourite hobbies/passion of mine since I was quite young, this led me to do my minor in photography as well. It would be interesting to find out how I could incorporate photography into this brief.
Research
The Auckland/Tāmaki area was first populated by Māori around a thousand years ago. The area where the central city was, was settled and occupied by Ngati Whatua from the mid-seventeenth century, then in 1840, 3000 acres of land adjoining the Waitematā Harbour were gifted to Governor Hobson on behalf of the crown by Ngati Whatua leader Te Kawau.
Places live in memory and revive in the moving image. It is perhaps because, as the filmmaker Raúl Ruiz puts it, “Cinema is a mechanical mirror that has a memory”; or, better yet, because it is in this mirror-screen that the architecture of memory lives.
Bruno, Giuliana, and Anthony Vidler. Public Intimacy: Architecture and the Visual Arts, MIT Press, 2007.
There was unique language in Bruno's text that sometimes it was a bit challenging for me to wrap my head around. But, this part of the text stuck out to me the most. She mentions the relation between memory and film, memory has its own form of sequencing compared to a film. We often have different rooms/archives in our brain where we store different pieces of memory but we are not sure how they fit together linearly. It's more like fragments of memories and we don't necessarily know where it fits on our timeline compared to a movie.
It would be interesting to have a way of showing linear/following a journey within the space and connecting the fragment pieces together.
My friends and I went to Fort Lane on a Thursday night and it was quiet with not many people on the road so it was perfect to take some photos. I focused mainly on the red light and the shadows that can only be seen during the night. The red colour is more prominent and bold during the night, almost as if it's making the night come alive.
Coincidentally, over the weekend, I went to a Food Truck collective at the Te Atatū Peninsula Community Centre and Library and saw these cool big light tubes that light up as you touch them. It was an interactive piece of art that kids and even adults enjoyed using (1st video). Unfortunately, I do not know who created them or what purpose the artist created them for.
On my way back to the city, I saw that there were lights being projected onto the Auckland Town Hall (2nd video). After a quick Google search, I think the light projection is the Whetu Marama. A multi-dimensional light and art projection of the past, present and future dedicated to the memory and legacy of Peter and Josephine Gossage marking the beginning of Matariki.
The last video is New Market Train Station building that I came across one night. Opus Architecture electrical engineer Simon Fong set to work illuminating the striking three-story lantern box that now marks the station's entrance, and the wall of the staff room accommodation pod inside the station. To achieve the vibrant multi-coloured look for the lantern box and to accentuate the unique map graphic on the wall of the accommodation pod, Fong and his team turned to LED lighting solutions from Color Kinetics.
Coming across these light installations, it would be interesting to explore the use of creative illumination in my project and use light as a way to perceive things around the space and what can be created.
The way I'm perceiving the brief at the moment is that the cinematic space is a space where there would be a lot of movement and creating the idea of continuity of a journey throughout the space. Using light art will create movement and display itself in different forms.
I know I want to create a project that involves residential or commercial interior design space. So after visiting Imperial Lane's second level, I was content to see that it is a promising place to do so. I found the exposed beams, the glass tunnel that allows light into the space and the tall ceilings in Everybody's, cool elements added to the space.
Ideas for the space:
- A space for artists/artists to live in, what for? not sure yet
- a shared space?
- commercial/hospitality - small hotel? Airbnb? restaurant? retail store? library? cafe? showroom? all the above combined??
