RESUSCITATE Abandoned Spaces Come to Live Dimana Sofianska Btk – Hochschule für gestaltung Berlin, Germany Dimana.sofianska@
Dulce Villegas Btk – Hochschule für gestaltung Berlin, Germany d.mar.vn21@gmail.com
Tara Salibi Btk – Hochschule für gestaltung Berlin, Germany salibi.tara@gmail.com
Paste the appropriate copyright/license statement here. ACM now supports three different publication options: • ACM copyright: ACM holds the copyright on the work. This is the historical approach. • License: The author(s) retain copyright, but ACM receives an exclusive publication license. • Open Access: The author(s) wish to pay for the work to be open access. The additional fee must be paid to ACM. This text field is large enough to hold the appropriate release statement assuming it is single-spaced in Verdana 7 point font. Please do not change the size of this text box. Each submission will be assigned a unique DOI string to be included here.
Abstract By combining architecture and digital arts we wanted to create an installation, that allows the user to not only metaphorically translate the experience of being into an abandoned space, but also shows the potential of those places. The outcome of the installation leaves the viewer with a personal interpretation of the possibilities of what these spaces can become. Shining a physical light on the model to trigger the installation represents discovering these spaces with a changing point of view.
Author Keywords Authors’ choice; of terms; separated; by semicolons; include commas, within terms only; required.
ACM Classification Keywords H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous; See http://acm.org/about/class/1998 for the full list of ACM classifiers. This section is required.
Introduction Resuscitate, “revive (someone) from unconsciousness or apparent death; make active or vigorous again.’’(Oxford, 2017) Relating this concept to urban space we were interested in what makes a space alive or dead. Coming from an architectural background, an important factor of a functional space is human interaction, “When people are involved in decisions they feel confident and secure. A community that gives people confidence and security is a powerful community. That is the challenge that community architecture is engaged to meet - building powerful communities that can handle change and adapt to it”. (SCARMAN, House of Lords, Community architecture) So the lack of human life within a space represents the lack of life of the space itself. Our passion for this idea brought to our attention abandoned spaces and their high abundance in Berlin where we currently reside. In many European cities, and especially in Berlin, abandoned spaces are a point of attraction to locals as well as tourists because of their peculiar charm and the story they tell through their history.These types of spaces seem to be impactful for Berliners which is visible through the existence of for example a website called www.abandonedberlin. com which gives insights about interesting abandoned places in Berlin and encourages people to explore them. The website offers as some historical information about these places and why they could appeal to some people. Also the website provides for each space information such as how to get inside an abandoned space, when to go, a difficulty rating of getting inside, who and what to bring with you, as well as the dangers that your visit may pose.
From our personal point of view, however, this was a completely new perspective on the matter. We come from 3 different countries on different continents, growing up in different cultures and backgrounds; Bulgaria, Mexico, and Lebanon. Our idea of abandoned spaces was not positive. In Bulgaria, abandoned spaces are rather scary and gloomy, and people avoid them. They are in no way attractive to anyone. These spaces are not considered as opportunities, they are just left behind. Mexico City, being one of the largest cities in the world, and in constant expansion, abandoned spaces represent opportunities for new constructions and businesses instead of contributing a public space to the city. In Lebanon, especially the capital Beirut, abandoned spaces are always untouched and never approached unless they are bought and privatized. One example is the abandoned train station which was bought and turned into a nightclub called Train Station in Mar Mikhael area, yet other abandoned spaces remain a symbol of destruction and traces of the war. This difference in views spiked our curiosity to understand and experience the other point of view regarding abandoned spaces.
Our Experience The first step through our discovery was finding a space to visit. After some research we chose our next destination from the previously mentioned website www. abandonedberlin.com. We tried to be cautious about our choice, in terms of accessibility and safety. This is due to the fact that we have never been in such a space and we didn’t know what to expect. The first location we visited was VEB Berliner Metallhßtten und Halbzeugwerke, an old industrial company dealing with metal products. We were forbidden from entering and were kicked out by workers on site. The second place we reached was Blub, an abandoned former waterpark which was burned to the ground in 2016. The park was fenced but we managed to get in since it was unsupervised. We may have been trespassing but it seemed like no one cared if we were. The first few steps we took in the space were filled with fear and anxiety. As we tiptoed through the broken structures and burned remains, we were startled by
the ambient sounds and echoes yet continued to further explore this jungle of waste and street art. The more time passed by, the more we grew comfortable with the space. We forgot about the waste for a brief moment and were fascinated by the freedom the space exudes. We were captivated by the new structure the space took after all it has been through, and we were drawn to the sounds surrounding us while walking through it. After going through this experience, our perspectives shifted from feeling scared and insecure to becoming overwhelmed with what this space has to offer. This also changed our overall view regarding abandoned spaces and we understood the cultural gap that separated our perception from the one in Berlin. But at the end of the day if you look at things objectively, the space was still an abandoned space with a lot of waste, dangerous to its visitors and the environment, covered with colorful drawings. That made us wonder, what the future holds for this space.
Related Works
Figure 1: Installation in Ecuador called “The Wave” created by Sitio Eriazo & Scarcity and creative studio.
Figure 2: Art work created by George Rousse.
Figure 3: Intervention by Sofia Maldonado in abandoned spaces.
Our experience, in addition to our recent involvement in the art world triggered our search for abandoned spaces that have been taken up by artists and designers and how they were brought to life. These projects show the impact of art and design in the revival of such spaces. The first example we stumbled upon was in Ecuador called The Wave. It is a project by Sitio Eriazo and Scarcity and Creative Studio.(Figure 1) They took to their advantage the abandoned remains of a building and turned them into an outdoor amphitheater for musical performances. They constructed out of wood, a simple seating arrangement and made benches that looked like a wave. What interested us was the minimal intervention they managed to give the space a new definition and purpose. Another artist, George Rousse, had another take on the matter.(Figure 2) He tried to show the potential of abandoned spaces without any physical intervention whatsoever. He took pictures of the spaces and overlaid them with color using digital tools to portray the contrast between the actual and potential state of the space. That pointed out to us what something as basic as a touch of color can do to one’s view. On a similar note, Sofia Maldonado, went as well in this direction, by physically introducing color to an abandoned space by painting it with vibrant colors to hide its flaws. (Figure 3) This also explains how simple gestures can affect the visitor’s experience. Similar to the effect make-up on a person’s face, color gives the space a new look and feel. We learned that these projects shed the light on the fact that structural intervention is not the only solution to bringing a space to life i.e. tearing it down. A simple thing such as cleaning a space up or giving it a
new paint job may be enough to keep its charm with a small makeover. Our aim is not to replicate what these artists have done, but to explain the impact of minimal intervention in the development of these spaces without interfering with the existing structure.
Concept The concept of the project is to bring awareness to abandoned spaces, and bring to the foreground the subject of reviving them. As the architect Santiago Calatrava said: “You see, the first goal in this place was to deliver something beautiful where such an ugliness was there before, to deliver something optimistic looking to the future where so much sadness and depression was there. ” (Santiago Calatrava, WTC Hub) Our goal is to create an interactive installation that raises the question of what abandoned spaces are, and what they could be. The installation engages the audience in a narrative that takes them through an abstract journey of the life cycle of an abandoned space, as it resurrects from the ruins to function at its best, and then goes back to its actual state. Within the storyboard of the visuals, we want to keep the potential of this abandoned space open to the audience’s personal interpretation. It could become anything as long as it’s serving a purpose. For example, since those places are not being used by their proprietors, and no function is allocated to them, why not make them accessible for public use? The owners can always regain control of their land once they decide what to do with it. A case of an abandoned structure made accessible to the public is the former NSA spy tower in Teufelsberg, they reunited street artists and made it a space interesting to the public inside and outside the city and give it a complete different vocation even though the structure is the same.
https://vimeo.com/202803986
The story we want to tell is inspired directly from the space we visited. We felt strongly about translating this experience to our audience giving them a feeling of telepresence. Another factor of motivation for us is our curiosity to discover the place more, and the change of our own perspective after our excursion. To better immerse the audience in the telepresence effect and convey our message, we went in the direction of a multisensory experience. The effect of telepresence is very important in our project in order to bring awareness to the people that would never visit such spaces.
Installation Setup
Realization To construct our installation, we started by creating an abstract model of a structure that caught our atten-
tion at Blub. The structure was a rusty metal skeleton enveloped with shattered glass of many colors. We took this model and put it in a box to recreate the experience of the unknown and encourage the desire to discover. To reach the final design of the structure, we experimented with different materials and we did several trials with cardboard and colored light filters before ending up with the plexi laser cut model. The size and shape was also important for us to create the appropriate dimension of the shadow. We also decided not to build the structure exactly as is, but to make a 3D perspective of it in order to exaggerate and manipulate perception. As the user approaches the boxed structure, they see headphones and a flashlight. We want to give the audience the chance to satisfy their curiosity by using the flashlight and try to discover the structure that’s hidden in the box. The
Technical Specification idea of the flashlight was directly inspired by our use of it during our first few moments of exploring Blub. So the audience’s first few moments of discovering our installation would mimic our experience. Once the user shines the flashlight on the structure, a colorful shadow appears on the wall, which marks the start of the visual graphics. Through the headphones, the user listens to a soundtrack that includes sounds recorded directly on site complementing the visuals to give a more immersive feel of being in the space. This way we bring the space to the person through audio and video.
VVVV patch for the light trigger
The installation works by pointing a flashlight of the abstracted structure to create a shadow on the wall, then a light sensor picks up the light to trigger the video projection. The triggering effect was produced by creating a VVVV patch that tells a hidden camera to catch the light pixels from the flashlight and after five seconds start the video, to give the user the time to explore the shadow more and wonder what comes next. The audio part of the visuals is made up of the recorded audio samples and some musical sounds mixed using Adobe Premiere to have one continuous and coherent soundtrack that corresponds to our story. The video was created using Adobe After Effects and consists of original generated graphics inspired by the abstracted structure.
Discussion
Trigger
Inspiration
Resuscitate was exhibited in January 2017 at BTK Berlin. We had the chance to see how the audience reacted with the installation. We observed how people from different ages reacted to this experience, and we managed to get some feedback from some of the visitors. People were very passionate about the topic, which lead to long conversations regarding the issue we raised about abandoned spaces. Other people were intrigued by the space and were curious about actually visiting the space themselves. Many people talked about the immersive feeling they had after putting the headphones on. Even though the graphics were abstract, and we did not allocate a specific function to the space, some people were concerned that these “revived” abandoned spaces will not anymore belong to the city lie in destroying or building, but can be achieved through simple gestures such as making the space more user friendly i.e. safe, clean, accessible, and functional.We are happy that we are able to bring our idea across to the audience, and that we managed to take the users to the space just by experiencing the installation. Even though each experience is relative, and taking into consideration all the feedback we received, good and bad, we believe we achieved our goal to raise awareness about abandoned spaces.
Conclusion
Immersion
Our initial goal was to change people’s perspective about abandoned spaces as our perspective was changed. After researching this topic considering architecture, art and exploring such spaces ourselves we created an audio visual installation, which brings awareness to abandoned spaces and recreates our own experience from visiting one. We aimed to create a telepresence and bring the space to the user and tell
an imaginary story about its lifecycle. This will maybe attract the viewer to go through a similar experience themselves.
Acknowledgement We would like to thank Pr. Claudia Rohrmoser & Florian Kühnle for their help and advice for the creation of this project.
References 1. Oxford Dictionaries, Definition of Resucitate, Retrieved June 10th, 2017 from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/resuscitate 2. Nick Wates, Charles Knevitt. 2013. Community Architecture (Routledge Revivals): How People are Creating Their Own Enviroment. Retrieved July 9, 2017 from https://books.google.de/books?hl=es&lr=&id=aYi9GdlnFggC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=architecture+for+people&ots=Dp_vKLMXqQ&sig=NLCC53p4lxOPJvlGYx-zJQonRI0#v=onepage&q=architecture%20for%20 people&f=false 3. Santiago Calatrava: World trade center transit hub. Retrieved November 24th, 2016 from: http://www. archdaily.com/803242/learn-about-santiago-calatravaswtc-hub-and-more-in-this-short-documentary 4. The scarcity and creativity studio develops public event space in valparaiso, Chile Retrieved June 10th, 2017 from: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/ the-scarcity-and-creativity-studio-the-wave-events-space-valparaiso-chile-sitio-eriazo-12-29-2015/ 5. Georges Rousse, working at the intersections of painting, architecture and photography, Retrieved June 10th, 2017 from: http://www.georgesrousse.com/ 6. KALAÑA, interventions in public space, Retrieved June 10th, 2017 from: http://sofiamaldonado.com/kala%C3%B1a.html