SHIFT between the macro and micro the individual and collective the natural and artificial the public and domestic work and leisure the humorous and serious the visual and written the subjective and objective one does not exist without the other SHIFT offers sixteen articles that explore the themes of work, climate and technology whilst demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between all. SHIFT does not rely on strategies of differentiation, but rather focuses on the grey, the inaudible and the narrative.
SHIFT In collaboration with: Amber Cheng Ari Tampubolon Brooke Barker Jack Murray Jack Stiling Isobel Moy Sam Torre
EDITORIAL There is a silver bomber jacket hung in my closet, a gift from my ex - boyfriend. I wore it the day after I first spent the night at his place. After we broke up, I made plans to throw the jacket out as a symbol of moving on. However, I kept it. If you had asked me why back then, I would probably have changed the topic. As I’m writing this now, I’ve realised that I kept it as a memento, not to reminisce, but as a reminder of how much I have changed. I never wear the bomber jacket, but sometimes I catch a glimpse of it when I open my closet, and it makes me think about how much I have grown since then.
That bomber jacket is a materialistic reminder for myself to celebrate change, even if it might not be the most pleasant memories.
SHIFT is soft, silky, gentle.
SHIFT is rapid, powerful, undeniable.
The Anthropocene is an epoch that accelerates the speed of change. Current Generations are born into a time that fetishizes the instant. Work, climate and technology work symbiotically to generate a complex web of ever-changing events that affects us from a personal scale to a collective scale. However, in order for us to embrace the new and foreign, we need to be grounded, attached, and able to reference the familiar.
Familiarity and the new are not separate entities that sit opposite from one another. The “ new” shifts from the past, to be adapted and
metamorphosised to the concept of “new”. We are sitting in a prolonged timeline of research and experimentation to resolve the issue of human existence, and our relationship with the existing. From industrial evolution in the 16th century to our current decade of digital zeitgeist, the epoch is merely all iterations of change.
Many claim to only be focused on the result, but in a way there will never be an end or the result on the development of change. We are always in the process of shifting, never able to escape until we cease to exist.
The publication curates 16 articles that investigate the relationship between the familiar and the unfamiliar. It is less interested in the outcome of these intertwined connections but rather, SHIFT focuses on the grey, the inaudible and the narrative.
The articles curate a sequential experience of the publication from an individual perspective towards the collective point of view. As the scale of the articles slowly enlarge, they start to negotiate different discussions under different circumstances and typologies. “The Theatrics of WFH” opens the publication by engaging with the domestic environment that all of us are forced to reconsider whilst “Showroom” investigates the shift within an office scenario. To conclude the publication, “Climate and Stuff” illustrates the complex understanding between climate, digitality and speed at a global scale. The transition from the domestic to the public unrolls layers of understanding through the discussion of technology, work and climate.
SHIFT is here, to stay.
S TRIC HEA
T THE 8 ...P
FH OF W
HOME
10
IS... ...P
E, HOUS ...P12 KING 2019 BREA FTH FI THE ...P22 L WA L
, DR , N I R GR NDE E G CE & .P24 RA CH .. TE
EV ER
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32
34
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POINT CLOUD OFFICE ...P42 BALENCIAGA FW 2020 REVIEW ...P38
AP D M P64 L R ... WO
DEATH, TIME & TECHNOLOGY ...P44
SHOWROOM ...P48
EX
M DA A M 66 ...P
NG PE RKI WO NST TY I AGA 6 ...P5
CLIMATE AND STUFF... P76
THE THEATRICS OF WFH AMBER CHENG & YUCHEN GAO 8
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Home is an entity both personal and shared Home is where I’m most vulnerable Home is dog greetings at the door Home is a congregation of memories Home is familiar Home is where I dream Home is the people I hold dearest Home is where I reflect Home is my springboard Home is where I experienced my first steps and first falls Home is where I gather strength Home is picking strawberries with grandma and grandad Home is painting Home is my chosen community Home is my comfort zone Home is my childhood Home is a feeling of the sameness in soul Home is in those who care selflessly Home is where family gathers Home is filled with love Home is him Home is in those who guide me Home is building mazes and towers out of video cases Home is my location of reference 10
Home is where I dance and sing most freely Home is when Dad plays Kylie Minogue Home is habitual Home is imperfect Home is symbiotic Home is a constant Home is my centre of the world Home is what sparks nostalgia Home is where I feel most special Home is where I let tears fall Home is an extension of myself Home is introspective Home is safe Home is timeless Home isn't taught Home is ancestral Home is forgiving Home is important Home is inspiring Home is the everyday Home is multifaceted Home is universal Home is felt Home is a wonderful place to be.
HOME IS... BY SAM TORRE 11
HOU S SAM E, 2019 TORR E 1
2
hat xhibition t e n a s a w 019) d between n HOME (2 u o r g l a a mutu ted by the a it provided il c fa , s and eative ted by art a diverse cr r u C ’. red e s e ‘hou ject explo o r p e h t idea of th , ts the re studen vestigate in o t t architectu u p in s f creative use and it o h a f o a range o s t p ical conce metaphor ts. inhabitan do ubi Dinar R y b d e t a r een ct was cu s always b a h n io The proje t a r o lf. Collabo ractices s p r u o and myse f o es tre of both of creativ p u o r g at the cen a r ssmates togethe t la h c g u ld o o r d b n we ily a f both fam o d e il p m co
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spanning ten years in age. 3 Joseph Fonti (artist) , Lou Verga (w riter), Tori Dinardo (inte rior design s tudent) and W Dundon (mu ill sician). Each was allocate a room of the d house as a p rompt for their work. R eflecting on th eir personal experience a nd imaginatio n, physical and epheme ral ideas were explored in response to their place in the home. W asked those e involved and viewers alike to reposition the expectati on that objec define a spac ts e, and instea d consider h memories, s ow tories and sh ared experie are in fact wh nce at shape a h ome.
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ies sted a ser o p I k e e f Last w stagram o In n o s e g ised of ima his compr T . t c je o r stly this p h were mo ic h w s ion. o t of pho n occupat a m u h y n a vacant of ntradicted o c t c a is h In a way, t e project. h t f o n io t a the found he demning t n o c t o n as a I am tography o h p f o n and actio mentation u c o d r fo tool it plays in le o r y r a s of a the neces e delivery h t g in t a communic ider audience. aw project to
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Howe ve can n r, a photog ev ra exper er compar ph e ie book nce. Simila with or rl never a film revi y, a e b w viewin e equal to t can h g e and fo that item y act of ourse rming lf a opinio n. Per n independ h e the ex hibitio aps if you s nt a n disag ree w you would w ith entire ly? O our propo r sa c langu age u onsider th l s e e it not repre d to descr ibe s e execu tion? nted in its
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The act of seeing, of read ing, of listening 6 - of physically embodying a space in that specific time is perhaps the purest way of understanding (or not un derstanding) a project. In a temporary on e like this, and in a world obsessed with op tics,
nt it? The e m u c o d e tes how do w ion transla t a t n e m u e. act of doc ething els m o s o t in t the projec copy, something ea een Almost lik but has b d e t is x e . that had al context it ig d s it warped in be able to r e v e n l il It w te walking la u m e ly accurate d gallery an e h t h g u o thr teractive in s it g in c experien zine (that A . s t n e k) m ele into a boo d e lv o v e r quickly s a tool fo a d e c u d was pro . navigation
7
8 It compiled the images from both of our personal film archives which had acted as the catalyst for our concept. These pages document where we grew up, those we had lived our adolescent lives beside and our homes-away-
on from Megan Patty’s words of the “book as a vessel”, our book is perhaps the only artefact left of this project. The book has no photos of the exhibition,
10
from-home. We were leaving our teen years and reflecting on what consistently grounded us throughout this time. Although the North-eastern Suburbs of Melbourne 9 and the walls we have lived between have shaped us immensely, it has been the friends and family we have shared these spaces with that defines this era. Following
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none of t he artwo rk a single image of we made and not First Sit The galle e Gallery ry conte . xt was a facilitate place to an idea, a contain tempora er for the ry. The b ook how and its p ever live hot s, text of ea os, poems and d escriptiv ch space e in the ex remains hibition as the re mn that has come an ant of a project d gone. 11
12 For architects, a large portion of time is spent documenting a project. Crucial in communicating an idea to a client, builder or local council. It is a process - conventional and essential. But is the photograph the only way to document a project after its completion? After the tape is pulled off? Is it the most effective? What if we consider post-documentation as a method for communicating a temporary project?
ers and detailed nd re e se to on m m It is co ople can occupy a drawings of how pe se t happens if we utili ha w e, ac sp ed os prop at menting a place th cu do in e qu ni ch te this ual ming a kind of man co be ts is ex er ng no lo ive used? An alternat as w e ac sp e th w of ho entation but utilising m cu do l na tio en nv to co . tation as a medium en m cu do l na tio en conv d role of the review an e th nd te ex is th ld Cou Or and development? ch ar se re g in go on fuel on ate attempt to hold er sp de a y pl m si is is th d to move on from ol ty ili ab in an , st pa e to th 13 work?
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You submerge yourself. Your body’s dirt turns the water as grey as the walls. As your head slips under the water and your eyelids shut, you remember. You remember bringing your ghost white hands to bear on it. Wrapping your fingers around the glass, soft edges, the seductive glare off its curves. Stroke your thumb on it.Down the street above you a heaviness with a bin bag blackness inside, you recognise its presence. Its cyborg edges clicking on the pavement. And then, before the key hits the lock, your hands all thumbs and with a click. The door falls away to black. The edges sharpen to nothingness. Knife edge beckoning, all geometries, no form. Turning to the street, windows fall away into the black, streetlights start emitting. Waves of garbled neo-babylonian jargon. The edges of the street a slipway to infinity. As the world around you distorts and shifts, the one certainty is the heaviness above, its rain-cloud curve and wires like a naturalists laboratory caress you. Holding you back from the threatening-to-fall of it all. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re inside your house anymore – you already are, and were, and won’t be. The world is an endless matrix of could’ve-beens and never-was’s, all looked over with a machinic glare.
Neo-Babylon arrives from the future without a sound, louder than bells. Flicking an augmented switch to turn off one set of lights and turn on another. A different light that blows open the home. Blows open the self. Leaves us all floating like rain held in stasis.
BREAKING THE FIFTH WALL JACK MURRAY 22
Walking home from the shops feels different now. The air is static and you don’t pass anyone. The lights are dimmer, you can’t hear the same background white noise as before. You feel the rain before you’re allowed to see it, and the icicle pin-pricks on your skin don’t bother you so much anymore. The haze on the glass is vaporized instantly as you walk forward. The coat is starting to stick to your skin now as you smell the first drops of second-hand water, dripped through the blackness.They smell like petrol and compressed air.
23
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG 24
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
ARI TAMPUBOLON I caught up with my friend Ari last week who is a fellow Asian queer man. We love discussing either the most heated intellectual or dumbest topics. Below is a series of conversations that encapsulate a friendship that is bonded over a common hatred towards feral digital behaviours, sleeping with the same men and ugly clothes. WHAT IS GRINDR?
SURE, BUT WHAT IS ACTUALLY GRINDR?
“Since launching in 2009, Grindr has grown into “Grindr is a social platform dedicated for the largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, mostly queer men to engage in sexual activities. and queer people. We have millions of daily users Whilst some use it for other reasons, the app is who use our location-based technology in almost designed for straight forward interactions that every country in every corner of the planet. Today, revolve around sex. Its main page allows one to Grindr proudly represents a modern LGBTQ life- see everyone that’s within a certain distance, style that’s expanding into new platforms. From user are able to message whomever whether the social issues to original content, we’re continuing recipient wants it or not.” to blaze innovative paths with a meaningful impact
- Written by Yuchen Gao,
for our community. At Grindr, we’ve created a safe
a less ostentatious description
space where you can discover, navigate, and get zero feet away from the queer world around you.” -Written by Grindr
THROUGHOUT THIS INTERVIEW ARI AND I WILL DISSECT; BEHAVIORS THAT SURROUND DIGITAL LANGUAGE, INTERACTIONS WITH QUEER ASIAN MEN AND PATTERNS OF FETISHIZATION. HOPING TO SHINE SOME LIGHTS INTO TOPICS SUCH AS GENDER, RACE, DIGITALITY AND ITS SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING. Yuchen Gao is a current RMIT masters student of architecture. Their designs emphasize on the significance of pluralism through investigation between architecture, interior design, fashion and arts. Yuchen is the recipient of the bachelor Award for Design Excellence from RMIT (2019), whilst they have collaborated on projects with Leanne Zilka which was exhibited at Tallin Biennale. They were also shortlisted for the Victorian Good Design award with their architecture project “Madame X”.
Ari Tampubolon is an emerging conceptual artist, writer, performer, and designer based in Melbourne. His practice is grounded in interdisciplinary research spanning across sociology and art history/ curatorship, with a primary focus on destabilising Eurocentric hierarchies that dominate the arts industry. He is also giving a RMIT lecture in the series Writing and Concepts this March.
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG
*AT receives a Grindr notification and reads,
time to filter or think about their positions in
both AT and YG gasp*
terms of online moral and ethics.
AT:
YG: It makes people think that everything
Someone has just messaged me the
following, “you look like you are good at sex.”
and everyone has a price. I have encountered
YG: Jesus.
many times where a total stranger offered me a
AT:
I don’t know how to respond to this.
certain amount of money in exchange for sexual
YG:
This is a good opportunity to transition
interaction. Have you ever experienced that as
into what we want to discuss today. How do
well?
people generally approach a conversation with
AT:
us, Asian queer men on gay social medias such
sex work, i find particularly in Australia people
as Grindr? From my own experience and under-
are quite disrespectful in terms of how they
standing there has been a reoccurring scenario
approach the situation online. There was one
of how Asian queer men have been treated on
instance after I told them the price, he thought
these platforms. I think what we’ve just experi-
it was too expensive. He just said, “that is very
Yes for sure and I’ve had a history of
enced moments ago was an accurate example of expensive – you’re Asian.” how people have engaged with us. AT:
It could very much be described that your
values are marked by your sexuality.
I WAS CONFUSED BETWEEN THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE EXPENSIVENESS AND MY RACE.
EXISTING IN THESE SPACES I FEEL FORCED TO EITHER BE EXTREMELY DOCILE OR HYPERSEXUAL.
AT:
YG:
YG:
I agree. We are living in a society where
It seemed like he was implying that I
shouldn’t be pricing myself so high because I am Asian. I can’t believe his undertone suggests
we have a dependent relationship with digital
that cheapness equals our Asian heritage.
transaction which has made us habitual to
That’s disgusting. How do you usually present
immediate satisfaction whether through a
yourself on queer social medias such as
financial or a sexualised point of view.
Grindr?
AT:
AT:
It enables people to say what’s on their
I present myself on Grindr as someone
mind without any sort of filter because they
that has some intellectual capabilities to say the
crave that instant response. They don’t have
least.
25
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG 26
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
ARI TAMPUBOLON “WE DO HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS PARTICULAR
SOCIAL
PLATFORM
IS
MOSTLY
DESIGNED FOR SEX, BUT I WOULD PREFER SOME SORT OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ME AS A HUMAN BEING WITH FEELINGS, RATHER THAN A PHYSICAL THING THAT YOU ‘USE’.” *AT proceeds to show his profile to YG*
particularly sexual in comparison to a lot other
YG: I’m quite interested in these traits that
profiles that say.. oh I’m into this and that.
you can include as a part of your profile. Height,
YG:
weight, ethnicity, HIV status, last time you got
Straight to the point about your agenda and
tested and whether if you would like to receive
reasons you’re here.
NSFW pictures. You can pretty much make the
AT:
decisions on if you want to include them in your
like the cowboy emoji, it alludes to the fact that
profile or not.
I might actually have a little more personality
AT:
For ethnicity I’ve always put mixed.
instead just a two-dimensional profile looking for
YG:
I’ve always put Asian actually.
sex.
AT:
I do think Asian is the correct category to
YG: For me when I look at a profile like this
put myself in. However, I feel like these semantic
I would say that this is a profile with an oppor-
terms are limiting Asia as an entire continent. It
tunity to have a conversation.
is rather difficult to categorise such a diverse
AT:
Very much so, an opportunity.
group of people to describe them all with one
AT:
You have your Instagram attached to your
thing. So I put mixed since I am mixed Indo-
Grindr profile? Interesting!
nesian and Chinese.
YG: Yes.
AT:
AT:
I’ve also included in my bio “no pictures
no chat”. There is something in my profile that is
there.
Or when people simply say “looking”.
Even the little things that I have included
I almost don’t want my Instagram out
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG
AT:
I don’t like my Instagram out there purely
viewed you has really changed how I use Grindr.
because I am not an influencer for the record.
AT:
It is very dedicated for me and my career. A lot
YG:
of my art projects are on there and I don’t think
EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO ON THAT APP HAS SOME SORT OF CONSEQUENCES, AN UNWANTED TRANSPARENCY. YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE.
I want someone on Grindr to go through such a personal part of me. When people are on Grindr they are obviously either looking for some sort of sexual relation and I don’t want my art and my work to be associated or to be viewed in those scenarios. I find that weird. YG: I never thought about it in that way actually. AT:
That’s why I don’t have my Instagram
linked to Tinder either. I don’t want to give the others so much information to begin with. YG: I’ve always looked at Tinder as a business opportunity in a way because I never know what people are looking for. Setting my expectations up assist me in navigating those digital spaces. AT:
Yeah and Grindr could never be a
business opportunity though. YG: I mean you could but it will be very strange and difficult trying to establish that. Feels like you’re going against the current. AT:
I feel too vulnerable on it to do that.
Especially with these new functions such as who viewed you, taps etc. YG:
Oh yeah being able to see who has
AT:
It’s getting a lot.
It feels like an amplified version of being
in a club. YG:
Yes, very much so.
AT:
The behaviours are very similar in many
ways. YG:
What are some common things that
people say to you on Grindr? AT:
Just usually hey or looking. I have never
had an interesting conversation on there, apart from friends or people that I already know in real life. The conversations are always self-orientated. YG:
The questions people ask like “how are
you?” or “What’s up?” are never being asked expecting an authentic answer. People use them as gesture of politeness, AT:
It is just a two-dimensional platform
that offers an opportunity to converse with two dimensional profiles.
ARI TAMPUBOLON WITH YUCHEN GAO 27
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG 28
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
ARI TAMPUBOLON
BUT IN FACT THEY ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT OR DON’T WANT OUT OF THIS NEWLY CREATED DIGITAL RELATIONSHIP. YG:
My concern is that because of how
the app is set up, the profile is mostly physical appearance orientated, people are able to say a lot of things that they know won’t have any consequences. The action doesn’t influence them beyond the app. If anything goes wrong you can just delete and forget. People take advantage of this sort of system to say things without thinking about their moral position, hence the racist comments that we often receive. AT:
I find that Australians usually are quite
nonconfrontational in real life. Whether they just don’t like confrontation or scared of it I’m not sure. However, with digital opportunities like this people are able to make comments that they usually would never be able to make in real life. If you go on Facebook and look at some of the comments made under news channels, it is filled with disgusting things. YG: Facebook doesn’t even really capture some of the worst moments. I think people on
Facebook are tend to reserve at least some opinions because their entire life is exposed through their posts and photos, whereas Grindr has more of a two-dimensional profile system. There’s only a couple of descriptive opportunities. The information in the profile is so limited that people are able to say whatever they desire
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG
because if shit hits the fan, they can just erase
We talk about Grindr being problematic except
and delete and not suffer any physical conse-
that the app isn’t problematic at all. It is merely
quences.
a manifestation of the issues that we’re dealing
AT:
It is all about physical attributes.
with.
YG:
It is like we are building an avatar version
YG:
Through exploring behaviours on Grindr,
of ourselves that look like us. But if you want
we’re naive to think that discrimination has been
to actually compare our digital self versus our
resolved. It just changed its form.
authentic self, I think the separation and differ-
AT:
It has never left.
ences are quite distinct.
YG:
Especially the Corona virus situations
AT:
has really brought up some of the previously
There is no association with reality,
people have the audacity to make comments and hidden issues to the surface. Issues that I almost remarks toward others.
forgot about that I thought I might not experience
WE ARE NOT DESIGNED TO SYMPATHISE WITH DIGITAL RELATIONSHIPS.
anymore.
YG:
AT:
Prior to the virus outbreak, there was at
least a sort of politeness in terms of diversity
Do you think Grindr is helping to push the and facing differences. There has even been
queer community to accept each other or doing
talks about Asian countries being socially
the opposite?
advanced in terms of technology and social
AT:
understandings. Then the outbreak happened
It’s doing neither. I don’t think the app
itself actually have any position within the queer
and the world just turned against everything they
community. I wouldn’t say that it is pushing
mentioned before. It makes me question that did
forward or back because it is not doing anything
we get anywhere at all? Was it just hidden?
at all. It is simply a reflection of what the queer
YG: Exactly.
community is at this moment.
AT:
YG:
surround ourselves with people that love us
It offers an insight of one of the ways that
We live in such a bubble where we
our community operates.
and respect us. It is so easy for us to forget
AT:
that there are people out there that are hateful.
A glimpse of queer interaction today.
ARI TAMPUBOLON WITH YUCHEN GAO 29
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG 30
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
ARI TAMPUBOLON I know I for a while stopped thinking about my
other Asian friends have attempted to not be like
race or being Asian until the Corona Virus has
other Asian people. Caroline wrote a research
really brought it the forefront.
paper about how Asian femmes reject their own
YG:
representations online.
CORONA VIRUS HAS BECOME A TRIGGER TO XENOPHOBIA.
They found that a lot of representations of Asian
I remember before I got here I needed to sneeze and I had to hold it in just to avoid any unwanted reactions. AT:
I’m terrified to sneeze in public right now.
AT:
I’ve seen Grindr profiles of Asian men
that has “I don’t have corona virus” written. I know they intended it in a humorous tone. YG:
But there are still truths to it even if they
establish it in a humorous tone.
THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE TO EXPLAIN OR PROVE THEMSELVES IS ALREADY AN EXAMPLE OF THE INEQUALITY THAT HAPPENS IN DIGITAL SPACES. AT:
It hurts to see that they are forced to
appease the social hierarchy. I think we are all aware of it but it is so difficult to reject it. I find myself in that position all the time trying to prove myself to be different. I know that a lot of my
women are contingent on being very sexually liberated or “alternative” in order to distinguish
GRINDR GENDER RACE TECHNOLOG
queer Asian man because that is the only thing we have legitimate precedent. AT:
That guy that was physically assaulted
in London because he was Asian is no different to a white man on Grindr fetishizing a particular race. It still operates under the same root. YG:
It might be different scale but you can’t
themselves as locals to be accepted.
deny that they have the same agenda of objecti-
YG: Yeah.
fication.
AT:
AT:
AND THESE AESTHETIC CODES THAT THEY PRESENT ARE VERY MUCH DEDICATED TO EUROPEAN TRENDS IN BEAUTY, FASHION AND INSTAGRAM EVEN. YG:
when we started to talk about Grindr it
was an easy way to start the discussion because we understand it through a personal level. But it is such the tip of an iceberg of a larger issue, this is a small glance at the situation that we’re in
It is only through how it is manifested.
You can’t allow a degree of acceptance towards behaviours like this. YG:
MAKING EXCUSES HAS BEEN SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO STOP DOING BUT SOMETIMES ITS SO DIFFICULT TO STAND MY GROUND WHEN IT’S JUST EASIER TO IGNORE THE ISSUE. BUT EASY ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT.
the process of unpacking. AT:
What happens on Grindr is not an
isolated instance. These sorts of thing occur in so many shapes and forms regardless of where or when, they are all under the same umbrella. YG:
we touch on the experience of being a
ARI TAMPUBOLON WITH YUCHEN GAO 31
Is this a hotel? Am I asleep? I like this more than I remember enjoying staying at hotels. I can see my breath. Can bears undo zips? I am in Memu, Taiki, Hokkaido. It is -8 degrees celcius, 10pm. I am taking part in an overnight rereading of the characteristics of place. I can feel my heart slowing, however that usually happens as I fall asleep.. unless I already am asleep. Am I cold? I should be able to answer that- no, I dont think I am.. cold that is.. This great expanse, the sharp stillness. The frozen stars. the dry leaves. My senses are ever so slightly impaired. But whiskey can do that. It doesnt usually pace my dexterity in this manner though.. ok, maybe I am cold.
Is this the massive outside? It felt massive today. It felt scary today.. how would I survive the evening? Maybe I would stay awake all night? Or maybe I should try to sleep as long as possible.. like a bear.. bears hibernate, dont they? Bears.. is ‘shoo’ the same in every language?
EVERYTHINGNESS. AN EVENING UNDER MEMU SKY JACK STIRLING 32
Am I alone, with the frosted grass and icy paddock fence? I certainly don’t feel alone. I dont need to collect wood to make a fire, to eat a fish that I did not catch. I do not need to snare a rabbit, to skin to sew some moccasins, to walk the fields collecting wood.. for the fire that I do not need to make.
The w o pit w od was p rec as prec predug. T hopped.. augh t t/dra he fish ha he fire matt gnet d bee res n prero s had be ted. The foam en pr lled o es ut aw My b aiting sed, cut oots an have my h orizo d been n prec Com obble tality. e to t d.. hink up to of it, me.. the o my even ne th been one task in . . a of jap to fal g that is ided l by th an e slo asleep, h done ese whis as win key..T fo he jo g effects exac r me. Or b has m tly wh b at my aybe I m isund een job w ersto as. I rou od se ho weve with r at the morn energy o around 1 :3 f a ch ing ild on 0am move , I am ve ry aw Chri ment s are t acro arm here tmas ss th outsi is e fie de o it defi nitely f the slee ld.I have lef p feels a -8 degr like im ing bag, a t my ee ic nd n in t now. y fiel d at 1 he middle ow :30a m.. a of lone The s ou put m nds have y fi c Thing nger exa hanged. I ca ct s quiet have bec ly on wha nt o er. Th t. ere a me loude light r.. or re h ho Brea rse, are th oof steps thing ,l ere d . eers ike a here ? Now it is r un jump ing. I ning.. or m ts ore li amb ke.. ient h not a gall o u p.. th m, a crun ere is con chi an a sym ng leaf, a sisntent rustl crac phon e, a king y. Som twig. ehow There is It is an or a orch ches estra n entire s tra. ym in the vast expa midd phonic ns le ever ythin e of nothi of a field. gnes ngne A s. ss.. b u t of Dayl ight.
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Since before Metropolis (film 1927), architects have been designing and speculating visions for the future. We endeavour to see what is coming, before it happens; partly for our own interest but also in the hope that the world will listen. The architect is trained to ask: what if? As architects, we have always imagined apocalyptic visions of digital dystopia or utopia. We look at society’s current infatuation with and dependence on technology and pursue an advanced or exaggerated reality for humanity – both good and bad in their outcomes. Architects have the tools to illustrate and commu-nicate to others what the future could be like, and those tools have changed over time. Drawing has always been an effective tool for communicating and visualising, but advancement in computers and digital software have given way to 3D rendering, animation software and virtual/augmented reality to make these visions even more tangible. The crazy thing is – that right now, some of those digital dystopias are coming to life. With the rapid outbreak of COVID-19, a virulent, fast-moving and invisible disease, daily life has been drastically altered for powerful populations and cities around the world. With the collective aim of ‘flattening the curve’ in the fight against this pandemic, London, New York, Melbourne and other vibrant economies around the world have become eerily quiet due to the enforcement of strict isolation rules, business closures and the new term: “social distancing”. Leaders around the world have described the pandemic as ‘unprecedented” and ‘unforeseen’ however this was not the case for everyone. In the midst of the deadly Ebola outbreak in 2015, Bill Gates sent a message to the general public in a TED Talk stating that ‘today the greatest risk of global catastrophe is not terrorism or war, but more likely to be a highly infectious virus that could kill over 10 million people in the next few decades. We’re not ready for an epidemic’. Humans are good at dealing with the problems at hand because once the problem has arrived, we can understand what band-aids need to be applied in order to accomplish short- or long-term solutions. However, if the problem is not tangible, or is not an immediate threat, we might wait to solve the problem in the future – sometimes when it is already too late. So, in a world that was not ready for an epidemic, let alone a pandemic, we have had to take draconian measures in order to preserve human lives. We have gone contactless! Our contactless community has become more literally contactless than ever before. Before COVID-19, contactless technol-ogies had reconfigured our relationship with both space and time by erasing interpersonal small-talk from our daily vocabulary and destroying social convention. People can now shop, talk, order and bank online at any time of the day, through the auto-mation and streamlining of mundane activities that once provoked interaction with strangers. Interper-sonal transactions have been reduced to a ‘tap’.
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297 mm
ISOBEL MOY
*LAY 5 PAGES OF SHIFT VERTICALLY EQUALS TO THE CORRECT LENGTH OF SOCIAL DISTANCING*
297 mm
DISTANCING
SOCIAL DISTANCE = 3 3/4 B100 GLASS CIRCLES
1500 mm
SOCIAL DISTANCE = 13.5 MEDIUM SIZE KEEP CUPS
1500 mm
297 mm
SOCIAL DISTANCE = 5 SHIFT PUBLICATIONS
1: 10 @ A4
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SOCIAL DISTANCE = 6.5 MAISON MARGIELA TABI BOOTS SOCIAL DISTANCE = 5 13 INCH MACBOOKS
1500 mm
1500 mm
SOCIAL DISTANCE = 5.5 MEDICAL STANDARD FACEMASKS
1: 10 @ A4
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Battling COVID-19, “contactless” has taken on a more extreme meaning. Most people now resenting the term, rather than seeing it as a positive step towards further technological advancement. Contactless means: isolation, no social interaction, no unnecessary travel, no gatherings of more than 10 people and has led to the closure of businesses, workplaces, universities and schools. But the show must go on – so everything has moved online. What does this new hyper-digital world look like? How big is it? We are building a digital space into the abyss and constructing a redefined community within it. Shifting everyday life completely into the digital realm. While cities have become ghost towns, a parallel online world continues to grow and exist unseen, behind closed doors. It is being filled with the day’s mundane activities and prac-tical work; business meetings, university tutorials, religious ceremonies and after-work drinks. Society continues to function, just sans physical interaction with another human, from the confines of your own home. For centuries architects and urban designers have shaped cities using human interaction as a tool for design. Historical communities (without mobile phones) focused on architecture that could bring people together to stimulate conversation and trade. As s a result there were often three major functions considered in the design for a city: a marketplace, a meeting place and connection space. Today, cities and buildings themselves are still designed with these principles in mind. Buildings are societal struc-tures designed to bring groups of people together (meeting place), the rooms within those buildings are designed for specific programs (marketplace), and circulation spaces are used to connect programs and users together (connection space). With our reliance on technology even more important during COVID-19, we are changing our society to be completely online with the hope that we can return to normal. Most fundamental city activities are the same as before, but in the form of Facebook, Zoom and Google. Even simple human actions of walking, talking and showing, have shifted, to scrolling, chatting and sharing. It’s the same thing, right? Just digital. Living in isolation means that the boundaries of public and private have been blurred more than ever. We are living at home, working from home, socialising from home and sleeping at home. Every household with a computer now has an un-planned, un-built new window, straight into their most secluded spaces. We have invited in colleges, clients, strangers and friends – without considering the damaging effect that this may have on work like balance in the future. In isolation, our computer is the only “contact” we have with other “people”. It is what we look out of to see the world, and we have everything going on in the world blaring straight back at us. ‘Public and private have been inverted.’ Our digital space is now occupying more space than our physical space ever was. What does the architect’s role become, if there is no physical space to work with? The cloud is ‘housing more overlapping social formations, turning traditional architectural space itself into a kind of displaced or vestigial technology.’ Screens have become the only way to connect the world – both a connection and disconnection device. We have become a community of contradictions –more connected than ever, yet disconnected and contactless. Isolated in the privacy of our own home, with the whole community looking in. Getting on with life without being seen or heard, in order to fight the invisible pandemic. Dystopia or Utopia? We don’t know yet. 37
BALENCIAGA FW 2020 REVIEW YUCHEN GAO
All photos taken by Alessandr Lucioni
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Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s director presented his 2020 fall/winter collection in Paris. The inspiration for the season blends Demna’s personal experience and his concern of the environmental effects by the fashion industry of today into one. The collection focuses on the direct link between the fashion industry, consumerism, and the production of masses of waste that will inevitably lead us to the end of our existence. Demna offers a peak into the post-apocalyptic world, submerging a portion of the amphitheater. The two-front rows of seating are inundated with water, forcing the audience to be immersed within Demna’s creation of the fearful and ominous. The shades of black throughout the collection both in the clothes and stage set curates a sinister tone, whilst the model glides on water under a sky of hellish fire, waves and lighting. The oversized LED screen hovers over the stadium as the water reflects and warps the visual. The audience is unabe to escape and must embrace the disastrous conditions. There is a strong silhouette and an extremely visible reference to uniforms within this collection. Demna always had a fascination with workwear, which has been translated this season through materiality, edge conditions and small motifs. The garments encapsulate the understanding of priest’s robe, nun’s habit and
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All photos taken by Alessandr Lucioni 40
football jersey, motifs that are easily recognized by the audience. The uniform references are just subtle enough to avoid the collection looking “costumey”, but instead it explores the idea of social politics and constraints within this workwear. “I had a lot of clerical wear in my research. I come from a country where the Orthodox religion has been so predominant,” he said. “I went to church to confess every Saturday. Back then, I remember looking at all these young priests and monks, wearing these long robes and thinking, ‘How beautiful.’ You see them around Europe with their beards, hair knotted back and backpacks. I don’t know, I find it quite hot—but that’s my fetish.” Parallel to the workwear, Demna’s religious motifs are extremely recognizable. Growing up in Georgia, his memories of the Orthodox church and catholic traditions shaped his design. His own fetishization of Catholicism navigates moments of religious purity, femininity and ostentatiousness. Balenciaga has also mentioned that to further their theme of environmental consciousness, they will be donating all of the chairs used in the show to children’s centre and water to the city of Paris as grey water. We will see in the near future whether they will actually deliver on the promises of sustainability. Although the collection carries a strong environmental message, one does wonder if their words are accompanied with any actions. This fashion empire, amongst many other major houses, still utilises materials and resources in ways which does not create a sustainable industry. I’m willing to remain hopeful and wait to see next season, perhaps they might address the issue of sustainability more directly. 41
THE POINT OF OFFICES ISOBEL MOY 42
OFFICE AS PROJECT MICHAEL HE Work, and the organizations that create & define it, are some of our fastest evolving social structures. They change so quickly and completely that words like ‘disruption’ are used to describe its shifts; legal agencies struggle to keep up. On the other hand, ‘workplace design’ has been remarkably slow at reflecting these societal changes. The architect’s language to describe this is similarly obsolete. Even at its most progressive it simply enables & perpetuates existing structures, without a complete understanding of the meaning of its designs. By making the Office a Project we are taking work & the workplace as a starting point to explore its expanded field of influence, from spatial privacy to care economies; from distributed digital work to white collar unions.. Our Project is not some Malthusian warning about (or celebration of) the ‘future of work,’ but is instead about understanding—in order to design for (or indeed against) this ubiquitous but under-scrutinized subject.
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DEATH, TIME AND TECHNOLOGY 44
DEATH, TIME AND TECHNOLOGY YUCHEN GAO The role of a cemetery is supposed to celebrate one’s life in a timeless fashion. However, walking through Melbourne general cemetery, “time” has never been more prominent. The deterioration of the tombstone and the dust gathering pavements in between makes me wonder, what is the expiry date to our faithfulness of death?
Trying to argue that a traditional cemetery is no longer a fitting typology has been traumatising. People demand a space of sentimentality of “foreverness” to celebrate their loved ones. To call it wasteful might be harsh but it’s correct. The 43 acres of land in Carlton that is solely dedicated for the dead, wouldn’t it be much more valuable if it was serving…. the living?
Section, Flagstaff Garden cemetery
Proposition by Yuchen Gao in Necropolis Now, Studio led by Amy Muir
This project, through the merging of architecture and landcape, confronts death
rather than creating
a metaphor of death. It not only creates a space for individual and collective mourning, but is also used as a social and political tool to redefine the current condition of flagstaff garden stitching the architecture, the landscape, the city and the garden, sitching all into one.
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MELBOURNE GENERAL CEMETERY
DEATH, TIME AND TECHNOLOGY 46
In today’s social and economic climate, the role of a cemetery is ever changing to fit our society’s needs. A traditional burial cemetery does not offer our community a space to connect with death but rather it becomes a capitalist competition. As our population increases we need to understand that death is a constant and forever growing but our land is limited. Dedicating a space just to serve as a burial ground becomes problematic and does not benefit our community. In times of crisis we look for answers in technology and the artificial. Denser cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo looks to VR and AR to honour the dead as a response to their limited land and financial ability. Augmented reality has been designed for families to select a place within the digital realm to “bury“ their loved ones. Without any sort of physical or financial limitations families are able to actually focus on the sentimental aspects of celebrating their loved ones. The VR cemetery offers an opportunity to commemorate the deceased without any financial or geographical pressure. However, we are a generation that still clings on the physical as a strategy of remembering. In order for a society to fully embrace the digital void, will we have to reject all physical objects of
to let go. I’m also not sure if we can suspend our disbelief of an artificial relationship of death. Recomposition was brought to the discussion in recent years as an alternative to cremation or traditional burial methods. The modular system converts the human remains into soil offering a sustainable way of de avoids polluting soil with embalming fluids like traditional burial, strengthening our relationship with nature. The actual method of recomposotion sounds like the perfect solution to resolve the environmental damages of other methods of burial. However, it still doesn’t touch on the fact that the living needs
SYDNEY ROOKWOOD CEMETERY
sentimentality? I’m not sure if we are designed
to place to remember their loved ones. How do we mourn in a place of anonymity if the deceased has been converted into soil? The demand of a tombstone in order to separate yours and others still stands, so we have circled back to the issue of space and financial pressure. We stand between the position of sentimentality and realistic aspects of death. Our existentialist selves reject the fact that death is just a normal part of our life because we are not designed to let go. This short essay might have raised more questions rather than answers, but we are able to establish that traditional cemeteries are no longer a working system to engage with death. There is only a simple question to leave behind,
WHAT IS THE SUCCESSFUL MODERN ARCHITECTURE OF DEATH?
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FOR PUBLIC SALE!
46 LITTLE LATROBE STREET
FORMERLY THE OFFICE OF EDMOND & CORRIGAN EARLIER A SALON ONCE A WAREHOUSE PREVIOUSLY AN APARTMENT RECENTLY RESTORED
A PRESENTATION AND INSTALLATION OF WORK FROM MAGGIE RMIT MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO LED DR MICHAEL SPOONER.
48 a bathhouse, and a hot pot joint.
office as a quartet, a house for a quartet, a rug warehouse, a house for a rug seller,
through a series of absurd programs. We suspended our disbelief and trusted the
As a collective of students, we investigated what the E&C office could become
Who are they and why have they left us their office, abandoned?
What is the Edmond and Corrigan Office?
SHOW ROOM SHOW ROOM
SCENE 1 THE RUIN
something else.
Edmond and Corrigan office was deteriorated by youth and the new. It became
and made assumptions of the office through fake narrative, precedents and fantasies.
a group of 20 something year old students. Like a bunch of fake historians, we guessed
by others irrelevant to us. We ripped into bite sizes pieces that was easily digested by
We first ruined it, torn the office down. It was foreign with forgotten memories cherished
SHOWROOM PRESENTS:
FIVE SCENES, OFFERING THE ENTIRETY OF MAGGIE, ENTANGLED INTO A SINGLE COLLECTION, REIMAGINED. YUCHEN GAO WITH BROOKE BARKER
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quartet, a rug warehouse, a house for a rug seller, a bathhouse, and a hot pot joint.
absurd programs. We suspended our disbelief and trusted the office as a quartet, a house for a
As a collective of students, we investigated what the E&C office could become through a series of
Who are they and why have they left us their office, abandoned?
What is the Edmond and Corrigan Office?
SHOW ROOM SHOW ROOM
SHOWROOM PRESENTS: FIVE SCENES, OFFERING THE ENTIRETY OF MAGGIE, ENTANGLED INTO A SINGLE COLLECTION,
SCENE 2 PERVERSION
REIMAGINED.
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SHOW ROOM SHOW ROOM After a while, we came to our senses. The fetishization of the office has finally sworn of and we were able to see it for what it is. A catalogue of objects that in fact held forgotten memories. Through their positions and relationships with one and other, hypothesis could be made to illustrate some of the possible narrative within the office.
FOR PUBLIC SALE! 46 LITTLE LATROBE STREET FORMERLY THE OFFICE OF EDMOND & CORRIGAN EARLIER A SALON ONCE A WAREHOUSE PREVIOUSLY AN APARTMENT RECENTLY RESTORED A PRESENTATION AND INSTALLATION OF WORK FROM MAGGIE RMIT MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO LED DR MICHAEL SPOONER. 52
SHOWROOM PRESENTS: FIVE SCENES, OFFERING THE ENTIRETY OF MAGGIE, ENTANGLED INTO A SINGLE COLLECTION,
SCENE 3 ARTEFACT
REIMAGINED.
53
SHOW ROOM SHOW ROOM FOR PUBLIC SALE! 46 LITTLE LATROBE STREET FORMERLY THE OFFICE OF EDMOND & CORRIGAN EARLIER A SALON ONCE A WAREHOUSE PREVIOUSLY AN APARTMENT RECENTLY RESTORED A PRESENTATION AND INSTALLATION OF WORK FROM MAGGIE RMIT MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO LED DR MICHAEL SPOONER. WEDNESDAY 30 AND THURSDAY 31ST OPEN FROM 11AM-5PM VIP BREAKFAST SALON WEDNESDAY 8AM-10AM 54
FIVE SCENES, OFFERING THE ENTIRETY OF MAGGIE, ENTANGLED INTO A SINGLE COLLECTION, REIMAGINED.
SCENE 4 DREAM
SHOWROOM PRESENTS:
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WORKING AGAINST TYP
WORKING AGAINST TYPE JACK MURRAY
Jack Murray is a current RMIT Masters student and an award nominated theatrical designer. He has worked in multiple roles for MUSC, MU Modern, Four Letter Word Theatre, Stork Theatre, and independent shows as well as for Setting Line Theatre Consulting. His work has been published multiple times in CALIPER, and has been exhibited at the 2018 Venice Biennale. He is also a two time recipient of a Masters Award for Design Excellence from RMIT (2019).
This project had several parallel aims.
(1) First was a conceptual and theory-
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based critique of procedural architecture explained through the process of developing this building. It is attempting to form some cogent mid ground between theory and practice, between wonder and stuff. (2) Second was a set of ideas about student’s agency in learning, and the ability of a big-box “type” to offer some opportunity that is unavailable anywhere else in the tertiary education sector in Melbourne. (3) Third is a kind of compositional understanding of the assemblage of the building. Where not only are the programmatic volumes, the rooms and workshops, understood as being in relationship with each other, so too are the elements, the structure and the perforation. All of them are in relationship with each other specifically because they’ve been drawn out from the site, or drawn out from the process, and the two are wound so tightly together that the initial process starts to fade into the background as more and more layers are placed on top of each other.
This essay must begin with an acknowledgement. This building and this project was uninterested in formal gymnastics, or with a rigorous parametricism of rationality.
ARCHITECTURALLY THIS PROJECT WAS INTERESTED IN THE ASSEMBLAGE OF PARTS AS A COMPOSITIONAL WHOLE, THE EXHAUSTION OF PROCESS, AND THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE SITE REMAINS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO THE ARCHITECTURE INSOFAR AS IT IS AN EXISTING SYSTEM TO RESPOND TO. This project was developed in part to answer the question - if I take the output of one elastic natural process (namely that of dune formation) to create a striated space across the site, can I draw out from that same procedural output understandings of roofscape, structure, exterior, interior, carving and courtyards. In short, can the creative process of design draw a line out from a static procedural object to create a building that meets my aesthetic, conceptual, and programmatic metrics for success.
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WORKING AGAINST TYP
At midsemester, I presented a project that used an explanatory metaphor of oil painting to describe how the elements of the project would interact. Faithful or not it provides the grounding for my approach to the studio’s brief of elastic process and elastic behaviour. My contention is that a project of layered conditions like this, of a multitude of effecting elements in a relational field rather than a holistically designed object, can be described through elasticity.
That is, each layer has a certain ability to stretch to accommodate program, form, or briefing. The elasticity of each layer, like in the layers of oil painting, should build up. Inelastic layers, such as briefing,
site conditions, and volumes should exist at the initial layer, and more elastic layers – circulation, empty space, social space – can expand, flex, and encircle the less elastic layers. Initially I spoke about image and how it might be distorted by process. This is just another way of conceptualising that link. The “image” of recognisable forms is strong, we have an ingrained understanding of how they should read, so affecting the language of that form is far more interesting in this context than effecting the form itself. Developing new forms from process seems to me to miss the opportunity inherent in the project. The sheds that are already on site are a great starting image purely because they suggest
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an organisational system already, they have a grid, a repeating “field” of form, that can then be tied into a wider system operating across the site, and by extension, the distortion of that field by processual interventions and emergent understandings and readings of the opportunities that that processual field implies.
At midsemester, several comments centred around the flaw evident in my application and decision to use a “dune system”. I acknowledge that it was and remains an open question, but I began to question why that was the case, and what value it might offer to consider my choice of that behaviour in a wider conceptual field. The experiments of Greg Lynn, and the procedural practices we have been investigating, often use animated simulation as the primary tool – looking at a ‘frozen moment’ for emergent architectural properties and ways of applying that emergence to new understandings of program. In many ways that was also the brief for the studio as a whole.
The question this raised for me was not a unique one. I had been asking myself continuously,
WHAT IS THAT MOMENT OF CESSATION. WHEN DO WE STOP, AND WHY DO WE STOP WHEN WE DO? Often it is arbitrary, you say that the simulation will run for 460 frames and then cease. The ‘object’ of that process is then questioned, and the experiment repeated. The issue I find is that the simulation and the process is necessarily one that relates to increments of time, and the ‘hunch’ often is related to a process occurring across time. 59
WORKING AGAINST TYP
For example, in my own project, my hunch with the dunes was that it would create a variable grain across a two-dimensional plane and introduce striation to what in the beginning was a featureless plane (sheds aside). It would move and disturb a volume, and out of that, some analysis of changing density across a site could be brought forward. And to a greater or lesser degree it did that, a simulated sand pile was disrupted, moved, and striated. But when I froze it and took it into rhino and began delaminating it, it lost the potency of the hunch. It lost any feeling of being particulate (what was perceived to be a value inherent in the dune application) and became overtly topographical. It lost the behavioural nature of movement (a time-based experience) and became static and stilted, and it operated in a non-fractal way, so that it became like scaling an image, not scaling a behaviour. Now I admit that part of this may be technical limitations on my own part, I’m sure many people would and have found ways to manage these processes in such a way so that it produces scalar behaviour. This suggested a possible way forward, I knew to some degree what these processes produced, I knew what I could get out of them, and I could have very feasibly spent the rest of that semester developing a series
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of procedural algorithms or manoeuvres that shuffled this building around and produced novel forms and relationships out of that process.
BUT I ALSO QUESTIONED WHAT MIGHT BE PRODUCED IF I ACCEPTED THE FROZEN MOMENT AS AN IMAGE OF A PROCESS, NOT THE PROCESS ITSELF. This was the beginning of an idea of an exhausted process, one in which every element of the object/image was drawn out and applied – any question was answered by staring back at the one image and trying to understand it in a new way. The initial process, a striation of space through dune simulation (in a very hands-off way) – acted as an autonomous gestural beginning, it provided the figural tool by which the rest of the project was designed and understood. This project was many ways is about finding ways of having agency within process, of not just falling back on form generation and instead trying to reconceptualise procedural architecture against questions I had about the project – investigating new ways of using language rather than new languages in themselves. The vision I have for new education precincts is also about student’s agency in the world.
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WORKING AGAINST TYP
For a long time and even to some extent currently, students at university are often seen as a homogeneous mass, they are described as “the student body”, and that’s rather apt. We diagnose and treat the illnesses of the whole student body, rather the recognising that each student is an individual actor with agency in the world, and agency in how they interact with the world. As a project that is ostensibly and primarily a STEM campus, the question of how science specifically rewards agency in its students is vital. Anecdotally at the very least – science tutors at master’s level, when students are doing research projects – are looking for independently driven students. Tutors in STEM fields can often see students who cannot carve out a path in excess of the research given to them by the tutor stumble and not progress to doctoral or post-doctoral positions, as they lack some independent agency or aptitude for the scientific process. Now some philosophers of science suggest that a vital aspect of science is a particular kind of creative practice, of a transfer of information from one field to another through “invention-discovery” as EdnieBrown might put it. Maxwell applying ideas from one branch of science to solve problems in another is a perfect example.
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THIS CREATIVITY, I WOULD ARGUE, ALSO COMES FROM AGENCY – AND THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND TEACHING OF SELF-DRIVEN, INDEPENDENT LEARNING THAT TREATS THE STUDENT AS AN AGENT AND AN ACTOR IN THEIR OWN TUTELAGE. This is supported by much of the contemporary research we’ve read, that suggests targeted and individualised learning is far more effective and useful than a standard one size fits all approach. Roland Snooks, speaking about his Major Project, said that for him it became a process of “sensing a whole within the simulation and trying to draw out surfaces faithful to that simulation” and I think there was something useful about that for my project. We spoke about process as something that develops a diagram for action, and I thought that that idea can be extended. To name drop a nineties favourite, Deleuze described the diagram as a way of describing “the distribution of the power to affect and the power to be affected”, and there is in some way a truth about this, especially for this project. If we treat the outcome of that initial process as a diagram of relationships of affective power, there is a model where the image is treated as holding emergent effect. Out of the diagram image produced by process and hunch, an emergent design order might develop through conceptualisation and application. I also want to quote a chunk out of Pia Ednie-Brown’s PhD as it provided a useful concept: “All too often, the discursive account, which is also both invented and discovered, involves pretending that what we realised at the end was what we intended all along, as if the process taught us nothing because we were, very professionally, ‘in control’ or that the process was nothing but a means to an end. Somewhere between the mystery and the pretence is the undeniable: the process of invention-discovery. We are not passive vessels for the passage of some divine creative will, nor were we entirely or autonomously in control. We participate in the world at every turn”. This process of ‘invention-discovery’ allows for reading of image and an emergent discovery of practice out of process, rather than necessarily a discussion of process as a totality of means to an end. This is a compositional understanding of behaviour and process, whereby the mode of practice is one of understanding the possibility inherent in process outcomes and acting as a creative practitioner to draw-out or indicate the whole from that inherent possibility. So in returning to what I had, the planks and compasses I threw in the water. I had to ask, was there necessarily the ability to indicate a ship from that? I think there was. 63
INFRASTRUCTURE
A MAP OF THE WORLD IN LAND MASS COLLECTIVE
“PRIMITIVE”
WISDOM
CARETAKING
SYMBIOTIC
EXPERIENCE
WORLD MAP SAM TORRE 64
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PRIVATE BENEFIT
A MAP OF THE WORLD IN WEALTH MASS INDIVIDUAL
INFORMATION
“MODERN” VESTED INTEREST
EXTRACTIVE
ARROGANCE
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THE PORTRAIT OF
YUCHEN GAO 66
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MADAME X
When we think of Melbourne CBD we would often describe it as a space where different cultures intertwine and have the freedom to celebrate their uniqueness. We pride ourselves on having a city that embraces all. However, there are some parts of the city that don’t seem to follow the same pluralist thoughts as the rest. They believe in the singular utopia and solution to all, which results in the heavy use of repetition. Artists like John Brack have captured moments of repetition and the loss of beauty in a metropolis. His painting Collins street, 5 pm explored the language of singularity that can be translated between architecture and people. Collins street has one of the most acknowledged
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HOW DO FORMAL STRATEGIES NEGOTIATES WORK AND LEISURE?
OBJECT TESTING
WHAT IS THE FORM OF PLURALISM?
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business districts, it always had a trend of exclusivity and elitism, which have resulted in the singularity of architecture, program and demographic that traverse through the street. Madame X investigates the relationship between work and leisure by dissecting the current work conditions on Collin street. As a typical CBD street that is dedicated to businesses, Collins street becomes a collection of very limited typologies of offices and open floor plans. The lack of variation within these office typologies has a direct correlation with its architectural presentations and the demographic that it attracts. Due to the singular aesthetic code of prestige that the street caters for, many newer ideas and design concepts are not able to survive the extreme density. These suffocating moments can be experienced not only through just its architectural moments but also, many people have mentioned that they feel judged or do not belonged simply because they don’t fit the business “look”. As a society that must embrace globalisation and its effects, we need to find balance between work and leisure, the new and old in order for people to feel, to breathe. My proposition aims to curate spaces that infiltrate Collins street to break down the façade of intimidation and offer programs of pleasure as a dose of excitement. 70
“AS A SOCIETY THAT MUST E TO FIND BALANCE BETWEEN PEOPLE TO FEEL, TO BREATH
EMBRACE GLOBALISATION AND ITS EFFECTS, WE NEED N WORK AND LEISURE, THE NEW AND OLD IN ORDER FOR HE.” 71
“MADAME X CHALLENGES COLLINS STREET’S TYPICAL OFFICE PROGRAMS BY OFFERING A NEW TYPOLOGY OF PLEASURE.”
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The proposed series of spaces act as an extension of an existing commercial tower located on the corner Queens and Collins. It recognises the existing structure within the tower creating new spatial conditions that challenges and manipulates the framework. The mesh drapes on the building, responding to the relationship between the old and the new. It creates a third condition that exaggerates the emerging forms and offer opportunities of opening and enclosure.
BOXING RING
and glazing as an architectural framework, then inflating
I looked into garment making and designers like Issey Miyake and Ann Demeulenmesster as precedents in parallel to my project. They understand that there needs to be a different strategy when they are treating the
they are curating elaborate forms. I want to utilise that philosophy in my project by
CREATING ARCHITECTURE THAT RESPONDS TO THE DIFFERENT EXISTING CONDITIONS BUT ALSO TO REJECT MANY SURROUNDING BUILDINGS THAT SHARES THE SAME AESTHETICS.
GATHERING SPACE
care navigating the body as the framework, even when
STRIP CLUB
waist, arms and the neck. There is a consciousness and
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“This almost phantasmagoric unreality is continued in Yuchen Gao’s award winning Portrait of Madame X. This project is an unreal colonization of that centre of capitalist realism in Melbourne, Collins St. Organic and sensual in equal measure, the smooth and striated spaces of Gao’s project burst forth from the unexceptional concrete block of the building next door.” - Jack Murray
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MADAME X challenges Collins Street’s typical office programs by offering a new typology of
The extension of desire and pleasure emerges from an existing commercial tower creates a new dialogue of voyeurism and exhibitionism between the traditional office intervention and the extension, enabling opportunities of free expression.
MADAM X DECONSTRUCTS THE COLLINS STREET BUSINESS DISTRICT TO SIGNIFY THE IMPORTANCE OF A PLURALIST CITY.
OFFICE
to experience Collins Street in a new perspective.
POOL
curiosity and attracts people across Melbourne
COLLIN STREET
pleasure. The form as a civic gesture generates
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CLIMATE AND STUFF YUCHEN GAO 76
Turtles have a longer life span with slow movements and metabolism. Instant gratification impairs both the micro and macro, the individual and the collective. Indigenous agriculture recognizes the significance of nomadic lifestyle in order to allow time for the land to revive. Lands are drained from the craving to build. Materials are depleted to create machines that promise speed of the divine? Technology is born from our need of immediate advancement. Global warming is the result of resource depravation? Quality of products are valued under “how fast, how soon and how quick”. The Anthropocene accelerates the speed of extinction. Half of us on our knees praying for an answer. The other on their knees scavenging for dirt. Patience is a declining virtue. In order for us to survive, we must retrace our steps to a time of forgotten patience. Turtles know what we don’t. They live longer because they take their time living.
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SHIFT 2020 YUCHEN GAO 80