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THESIS. ARC8060 Architectural Design Ethan John Archer

A meandering conversation in search for walls

20 21

Framing The Thesis

4 Contents

The Guides

8 The Guide Appendices

Semester 1 Appendix

176 Bibliography

213

Website references are available in bibliography All QR codes are hyperlinked to the video on YT 2

Framing The Thesis “We shape our tools, and then they shape us”

“Undoing is just as much a democratic 1 right as doing”

Contextualising this shift, Lieven De Cauter points out the work of Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage, attaining all media works as extensions of man, acting as a technological capsules of protection to the outside world2. In this, I drew parallels from the manipulative grasp of social media and how this shapes our actions and protest in the physical realm. This alluded to the idea of 'kettling', where we forms walls of people to secure ourselves at demonstrations, a reference to capsularisation. I began to think of enclosure and the potential of bringing a tangibility to the project. I took to analysing the walls that surrounded areas of the site where protests had occurred, specifically that of Old Eldon Square, to begin focusing on their physicality.

Over the course of the year as part of the Unlearning Architecture studio, I have actively looked to question my practices, both individual and architectural. I remained keen to challenge the assimilatory route I opted for in fifth year and in this, I hoped to avoid the predisposition regularly enacted by architecture students, in rushing to pre-determinedly solve an issue with an underthought built proposition. I have sought to refine my meanderings of first semester, appendixed in this document, in an effort to adhere to my aims and question what direction I took the project. With the influence of readings post-thesis outline, I looked to divert my meandering path to a one with greater architectural purpose and 1 subjectivity.

1 4

Gordon Matta-Clark

Opposite: Conical Intersect by Gordon Matta-Clark

Lieven De Cauter, "The Capsule And The Network", OASE Journal Of Architecture, 54 (2001), 122–134 5

The walls of Eldon The stop motion video shows the construction of Old Eldon Square, detailing how the walls here have continually been erected, demolished and built upon for centuries. John Dobson and Richard Grainger had originally introduced Georgian terraces as part of the City Centre redevelopment from 18253, though since then, the Square has changed dramatically. A walled garden was removed to allow for the memorial statue in 1923 and significantly in the late 1960s, two of the three terraces were demolished to cater for the Eldon shopping centre we recognise today.

Wall demolished, 1818-25

Eldon shopping introduced, 1976

Upon researching, I discovered that sections of the historical town walls that enclosed and protected the city once stood where this commercial giant now negiotiates, in turn, creating a considerable level of personal interest to the relationship they share with the city, society and myself I would begin to explore.

3 6

Historic England, "Newcastle and District War Memorial", 2021 [Accessed 16 February 2021]

Above: Stop motion stills and QR code to YT link Opposite: Old Eldon Square, c. 1960 7

The Guides “I am not proposing a return to the Stone Age. My intent is not reactionary, nor even conservative, but simply subversive.

The series of guides that follow culminate the thoughts and undertakings of the thesis project this year to illustrate the mix of information, research and ideas collected in search for a reconstituted methodology for intervening with the Newcastle Town Walls and their declining condition. They summon those that are equally concerned with their level of preservation, protection and repair to a socio-political and culturally-reviving call to arms, and invites active engagement in bettering their state and public perception. Their self-resilience can only go so far, and we must act as Unwin alludes, “to give a voice to the voiceless"4.

It seems that the Utopian imagination is trapped ... in a one-way future consisting only of growth. All I’m trying to do is figure out how to put a pig on5 the tracks”

Not to be misconstrued, this declaration does not intend to propose a comprehensive paradigm shift in the way we construct walls in general. Likewise, it is not to be taken as having a brazen attitude. Quite simply, the aim is to raise awareness to the existing issues of the town walls to instil a sense of onus unto ourselves, question our current practices towards dealing with the wall, and start conversations on how we can respond with appropriate though alternative remedies to safeguard their legacy. 5

4 5 8

Simon Unwin, An Architecture Notebook: Wall (London: Psychology Press, 2000), p. 14 Ursula K. Le Guin in Anna Tsing, The Mushroom At The End Of The World (Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, 2015), p. 17

Opposite: Preparing the guides 9

The Guide Appendices With the guide slides preceeding forming the basis of the presentation for the internal examination, the epilogues of the guides more comprehensively break down the processes, reasoning and referencing of the work showcased, as well as any additional research that was not elected to be included, particularly the entirety of the mycelium prodecures and acknowledgement mapping catalogue. 80

History Of The Town Walls Timeline

History of the Town Walls The Town Walls were built between the 13th & 14th centuries to protect from Scottish assault in a time when the North-East of England faced frequent threat of invasion. When constructed, it was approximately 3km long and measured at least 2 metres thick and 7.6 metres high in parts. It comprised of six main gates, seventeen towers, as well as numerous smaller turrets and postern gates.

1136-38 Power struggles between England and Scotland eventually led to the Wars of Scottish Independence. At only 60 miles from the River Tweed, then marking the land border, Newcastle faced frequent threat of invasion with Scottish Kings prepped to take advantage of any weakness in English rule. David I of Scotland, who took advantage of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda to invade Northumberland in three successive years between 1136 and 1138.

1280 A, B, C

1299 D, E

Three of the six main gates towards the West of the City; West, New and Pilgrim, are constructed.

Adjustments to the East side of the wall following the acquisition of Pandon as part of Edward I’s charter. This resulted in the addition of Corner Tower and the wall was amended to make a sharp left turn around the village after its formal incorporation until it reached the river. The construction then returned West, continuing with a defensive section along part of the Quayside.

New Gate fortification, c. 1820

1402

Looking up toward modified Sallyport Tower, c. 1879-80

Nightly watches and perimter searches were kept up upon the wall by at least 100 people, at the charge of the inhabitants.

1603

1695

David I's son, Henry, was given the earldom of Northumberland in the Treaty of Durham (1139). Newcastle was not included in this grant but the Scots ignored this condition and occupied Newcastle until 1157.

In 1342, David II of Scotland invaded Northumberland and laid siege to Newcastle, without success. During this time and in the lead up to the assault, the wall was kept in good condition.

Until this time, the gates maintained a curfew and were closed at night.

East & West wings were added to the West Gate fortifications.

1172-77

The Castle Keep built in 1080, c. 1887

Despite the Castle Keep, built by Robert Curthouse in 1080 and its recognised strength, it was not sufficient to provide adequate protection to local merchants’ properties and business, leading to the decision that a fortified wall was required.

Near the river, a partially demolished section of wall was visible on the bank between Orchard Street and Close Gate, though between the 1840s and the 1980s, it was largely covered by warehouses and habitat.

The area immediately west of the curtain wall began to be leased as a series of plots containing a variety of lean to structures. Numerous joist holes in the outer face of the town wall evidence that these structures were placed against this face.

1802 C Pilgrim Gate is demolished.

The original plans for the wall incorproated Castle Keep as a strongpoint. However due to its location on high ground above the river bank, strong objections were raised, as it would render the residence of the principal burgesses without protection. Therefore the route was amended to travel Southward at Neville Tower to run down to Tyne.

3,000 townspeople and industrial workers from nearby collieries attacked and wrecked the Guildhall in Newcastle. This disturbance had been the result of protests that had already started in the days before when miners from the Heaton Colliery had gone on strike to protest against the rising prices of basic food items such as grain and bread that were caused by a bad harvest in 1739.

1500-1600s During the 16th and 17th centuries, the towers and some of the gates became the meeting places of a variety of town companies who generally added an upper storey to form a meeting hall.

1317 1388

Pandon Gate etching, c. 1820

Under the reign of the Earl of Douglas, another Scottish army assaulted the town, but the attacks were repulsed.

1539

The wall stands to a maximum height of 9.2m including the parapet. The length of curtain wall constructed adjacent to the precinct of the Carmelite Friary remained in existence until its Dissolution in 1539. Excavations reveal that at the time of the walls construction, this part of the Friary precinct was used as pasture land.

John Speed’s Newcastle town walls mapping

1610

1742 Cutlers grant ownership of Plummer Tower to the Fraternity of Masons, who then added an upper storey and a new Western facade. It latterly housed a picture frame making and craft business.

1638-44

1763

The defences were reinforced during the English Civil War in 1638 when England was threatened by invasion from Scotland. In 1640 during the Bishops' Wars, Scottish armies were able to invade Newcastle despite the presence of the town wall. Additionally during in the Siege of1644, the town was stormed by Scots acting in support of Parliament, breaching the wall at White Friars Tower. Following this, the defences were repaired in anticipation of further attack.

The first part of the wall demolished was the stretch along the Quayside including Riverside Tower. They were largely regarded as "a very great obstacle to carriages and a hindrance to the despatch of business".

1803-15 The last repairs to the wall were made in the early 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars. After this, it was deemed that the town no longer needed a defensive barrier to provide protection from invasion.

1819

1828-29

In reaction to the Peterloo massacre in Manchester, townspeople, keelmen and political reformers march from Pilgrim Street to the Town Moor for Newcastle's 'Great Reform' demonstration.

In1828, clergymen discussed the abolition of slavery at the Guildhall. 1829 saw Grainger Street play host to discussions on Catholic emancipation and their demand for inclusion in society and protection laws.

B 1823-25

1838-39

New Gate, followed by Bertram and Ficket Towers, as well as large sections of the Northern wall were removed to allow for the constructions of Blackett Street buildings and the Georgian houses of Old Eldon Square, both part of Richard Grainger’s City Centre development.

In 1838, Chartist gathering of 70,000 at Town Moor to deliver speeches on working-class male suffrage movement. Following this in 1839, Chartist meetings in the Forth Pub, located within what would have been town walls, were banned as movement began to gain momentum.

BLM protestors march up Greys Street to Monument in protest against social and racial inequalites following the murder of George Floyd in the US. Counter-protestors stand on the steps of the landmark.

Partial excavation between Morden and Heber towers revealed that the wall was constructed across an area of narrow ridge ploughing indicating that this area of the Friar’s precinct had been in cultivation prior to its construction.

1830

1740

Sometime prior to the completion of the walls assumed to be in the early-mid 14th century, they were supplemented by an outer defensive ditch known as ‘The Kings Dyke’. It measured over 11 metres wide and 4.5 metres deep, and was situated in front of the Herber and Morden Towers. Located at the back of Stowell Street, these towers and the ditch still remain.

1987

1811

West Gate is demolished along with a section of wall to its South side towards Pink Tower.

2020

Remnents of town wall built upon in Hanover Street, own photo

2013 Commuters protest the rise in rail travel prices and industry cuts at the former site of Stank Tower at Central Station.

(below) West Gate fortification, c. 1786

1285 F

A special tax, or "murage", was levied by the borough to pay for the construction, murus being Latin for wall. It was first levied in 1265, so it can be assumed that construction began soon after that date.

1980

1840

Joist holes at Orchard Street, own photo

Company of Carpenters altered Sallyport Tower with the addition of a banqueting hall on the first floor in 1716 to enhance the grandness of the building. It was then utilised by the Shipwrights' Company.

1702-06

1795-98 D, E, F Pandon Gate is demolished in 1795. Close Gate is demolished having served as a temporary gaol after the fall of the then Tyne Bridge in 1771 until 1797. Sand Gate is demolished in 1798.

1716 1342

1265

Plummer Tower after adaptation, c. 1915

During the Jacobite uprisings of 1715 and 1745, the defences were repaired against the rebels which included walling up all of the gateways. Despite this substantial strengthening, no attacks were forthcoming on these occasions.

As the border wars between England and Scotland declined and in particular, following the union of the two crowns in 1603, the wall was allowed to deteriorate in condition and significance.

1157

The walls successfully defended itself on two occasions but large parts fell when it was breached during the Siege of 1644. Subsequently, the wall subject to repairs in 1648 and then furrther in 1667 as preparation for suspected Jacobite attacks which never arose. Since then, the wall began to deteriorate in condition and in use, becoming largely redundant as a defence when hostilities declined and sections posed obstacles to movement and business. Large quantities of the wall were demolished in the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.

1715-45

Siege of the Town Wall, c. 1644

1845

1964

(above) Anti-Brexit protest

Carriagemen and Colliers used Ever Tower as a meeting house until its partial demolition in 1845. Durham Tower utilised as a coalyard for a school until mid-19th century.

Morden Tower has been utilised as a venue for poetry readings since 1964, and continues to be to this day.

2018 Hundreds of people gather around Monument and the former site of Ficket Tower to protest against the Brexit referendum decision resulting in Britain leaving the EU.

1917 100 people assembled in the Old Town Hall opposite St. Nicholas Cathedral for the first meeting of the local Workers' and Soldiers' Council to discuss the revolutionary movement in Russia.

2019 Academic Unions gather to demonstrate and strike for greater pay at Old Eldon Square. This was previously the site of Northern section of the wall.

1909 Suffragette demonstrations at Haymarket following imprisonments for property damage at Barass Bridge to Pink Lane and former Carliol Tower area. This was followed by hunger strikes when their request to be treated as political prisoners was rejected. Subsequently, they were forced fed by the police.

2015

Allen Ginsberg delivers a poetry reading, c. 1983

Anti-Pegida protestors against Islamaphobia concregate at the Chinatown gates to march towards (over the historic line of the wall) the junction of Newgate and Pilgrim Street (previous main gates). Counter-protestors are seperated by a line of police.

Presence of the Town Walls

2km

For too long now the walls have been neglected, pushed to the distant periphery of our thoughts and allowed to deteriorate. Once a barrier of might and strength, their significance, use and existence

B 1km

have been altered to suit subsequent generations of modernisation and convenience, rendering any remnants that have survived extinction, redundant.

0.5km

Today, the only substantial remains of the wall reside toward the Western end of the City at the back of Stowell street, as well as a significant stretch from Orchard to Hanover Street, to the height of the parapet walkway. Upon surveying, detailed in the extensive mapping catalogue to follow, the condition is evidently decreasing. Adjoining or neighbouring constructions lack quality detailing and areas lack adequate upkeep or maintenance. Ten of the original towers have since been removed, leaving only seven standing, many of which are decaying or dilapidated. All of the gates were carved away to allow for passage which developed into the current road infrastructure of today. In order to ensure its histories are not relegated to the annals of time, we must recognise the walls as more than mere obstacles used to demarcate what is yours from what is theirs, more than shelter from the elements, and beyond patterns of stone or brick and mortar.

D Line o f

Hadri

an’s w a

A E

Surviving towers

A B C D E F

West Gate New Gate Pilgrim Gate Pandon Gate Sand Gate Close Gate

Line of wall (lost) Line of wall (found) Line of Hadrian’s wall

Legacy of the Town Walls

2km

Demolished 1818-25 New Gate was turned into a prison in 1399

The legacy of the walls remains at risk to such effects. Recognised buildings and landmarks of the city now occupy the area on the route of where that the wall would have ran through. The is very little reminder in these prominent city areas or rest of the demolished route of the wall, other than an embedded marker at intervals in the pavement or the name of a street. We fail to acknowledge that when we stroll along the Quayside to peruse the market stalls, we do so at the liberty of the wall. Or that when we frequent the monolith of Eldon, this currently traverses where the northern stretch of the wall once stood. Now it would be naïve to recognise all past demolition of the wall as blasé when the removal of specific sections were necessary acts in order to regenerate Newcastle amid the industrial revolution. Though saying this, it is doubtful the average person could recount details of the wall gone by. This poses problems to the levels of understanding and appreciation of the walls and their regionalities, potentially harming its legacy for generations to come.

CARLIOL

BERTRAM

FICKET

PLUMMER

ANDREW

1km EVER Meeting house of Carriagmen & Colliers until 1845 partial demolition

‘The Kings Dyke’ (defensive ditch)

MORDEN Utilised for poetry readings since 1964 Friars granted garden access via postern gate in 1280 Line o f

Hadri

an’s w a

Sections of wall removed to allow for Blackett St. buildings and Old Eldon Square

Demolished 1820s

AUSTIN

0.5km

HERBER Restored by the Feltmakers in 1770 for use as meeting house

DURHAM Utilised as a school coalyard in 19th century

Result of Newcastle's acquisition of Pandon by Edward I's charter of 1299 Section of Hadrian’s wall uncovered outside Mining Institute in 2017

PINK GUNNER STANK

The Guildhall (c. 1655) acted as council chambers until 1863

NEVILLE Castle Keep (c. 1177) housed a fort & settlement called ‘Pons Aelius’ to guard a bridge over the River Tyne

RIVERSIDE

Historical natural defence area of the Quayside

Historical note Demolished towers

Demolished 1763

WHITE FRIARS After the fall of the then Tyne Bridge in 1771, Close Gate acted as a temporary gaol

SALLYPORT

WEST SPITAL

Demolished 1847-52 for Central Station

Company of Carpenters built upon the original tower in 1716 to construct more grand and stately aesthetic

CORNER

Black Gate (c. 1250) provided a greater outer gateway to the Castle

Section of wall between White Friars and Close Gate was breached by Scots in the Siege of 1644

Cutlers grant ownership to the fraternity of Masons in 1742

Surviving towers Line of wall (lost) Line of wall (found) Line of Hadrian’s wall

Breaking down legacy Gates Demolished Note A West 1811 2nd largest gate in the wall, foot passage added in 1782 B New 1823 Largest gate in the wall, turned into a prison in 1399 C Pilgrim 1802 Repaired in 1716 by the Joiners' Company, introduced foot passages in 1771 D Pandon 1795 Once the hall of the Barber Chirurgeons E Sand 1798 Demolished due to danger and nuisance for pedestrians F Close 1797 Acted as a temporary goal after bridge collapse in 1771

Above: Neville Tower, c. 1820 Opposite: Morden Tower, c. 1920 87

Towers (purple text indicates demolished towers) Demolished Note Durham - Utilised as school coalyard in 19th century Herber - Restored by Feltmakers in 1770 for use as a meeting house Morden - Poetry venue since 1964

Ever - Carriagemen and Colliers meeting house until 1845 Andrew 1818 ... to extend cemetery Bertram 1824 ... with sections of wall for Blackett street buildings and Old Eldon Square Ficket 1825 ... for St. James' Chapel Carliol 1880 ... for free library on now John Dobson street Plummer - Cutlers granted ownership to Masons in 1742 Austin 1820s Hall of the Coopers before the Ropers, repaired in 1698 Corner - Constructed as a result of Edward I's acquisation via 1299 charter Sallyport - Company of Carpenters grandised the tower in 1716 Riverside 1763 ... with large sections of wall redundant for defence to benefit passage & business White Friars 1840 Point of the breach under Scottish assault in 1644 Siege Neville 1849 Wall hidden under newer construction of the timeWW West Spital N/A ... demolished along with railway tracks & old station Stank 1847 Gunner 1811 Pink 1852 ... to allow for Clayton St. West developments

1967 1838

Historical protest and the Town Walls

1880

1871

2km

1909

Newcastle, the town walls and protest share an interesting and ever-evolving relationship. The urban form of the city allows for an echoing of events in spaces throughout time, where protest historically

B MP

1km

(blue)6 lay outside the boundaries of the walls. Gradually as these posed less of an blockade, demonstrations progressively drew to and through its centre. Over time these sites have changed and recent protests (next mapping in orange) share a greater affiliation to the wall, intersecting where it exists or once resided. Work of the previous semester was beginning to be more concerned with this and avenues of deabte (see appendix), though the hope now is that rather than look into the manifestation of protest, the work itself can become a form of protest, in that it looks embrace a political radicalism and combine it with my own vested interest in the region to make solemn declaration in strong objection to our current treatment of the wall.

1936

1819

1920

0.5km 1765

D Line o f

Hadri

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1633

1829

1839

1828 1740 1660

Protest (dated) Surviving towers

1809

Line of wall (lost)

F 6 89

Radical Tyneside, "List Of Events", 2021 [Accessed 25 February 2021]

1871

1917

Line of wall (found)

1851

Line of Hadrian’s wall

Exploring radical Tyneside (blue text indicates protests level of relationship to the inside of the wall or where its demolition promotes its undertaking)

Above: Suffragette demonstration, c. 1909 Opposite: Jarrow March en route to London, 1936 91

Year Protest note(s) 1633 Apprentices riot over lime kiln construction and use of land at Ballast Hills in Ouseburn 1660 500 keelmen park their boats across the arches of Old Tyne Bridge to block passage over newly imposed working conditions 1740 3,000 townspeople and industrial workers strike at Guildhall over rising food prices 1765 High Bridge radical sermons by Rev. James Murray at an indepedent chapel over civil rights allowance to Roman Catholics 1809 Keelmen strike for wage improvements 1819 March from Pilgrim Street to Town Moor for Newcastle's 'Great Reform' demonstration in reaction to Peterloo massacre 1828 Meeting among clergymen advocating the abolition of slavery at Guildhall 1829 Grainger Street hosts discussions on the demand for Catholic emancipation and laws excluding their inclusion in society 1838 Chartist gathering of 70,000 at Town Moor to deliver speeches on working-class male suffrage movement

1839 Chartist meetings in the Forth Pub banned as movement gains momentum 1851 Welcoming of Eastern European refugees at Nelson Street music hall 1871 (L) Demonstration of 20,000 men in favour of nine-hour labour movement at Town Moor 1871 (R) Major strikes in the iron trade 1880 Thousands gather in South Shields as election violence breaks out 1909 Suffragette demonstrations at Haymarket following imprisonments for property damage, followed by hunger strikes when their request to be treated as political prisoners was rejected 1917 100 people assemble to discuss Revolutionary Movement in Russia at Old Town Hall opposite St. Nicholas' Cathedral 1920 Newcastle Socialist Society hold forums in Royal Arcade to debate issues 1936 Around 200 men (crusaders) march from Jarrow to London in protest against unemployment following industry closures and poverty suffered in the town and the North East

Modern protest and the Town Walls

2km

Protests 1* Black Lives Matter, Monument, 2020 2* Academic Unions for greater pay, The Green, 2019 6 7 8 9

1km

Boycott Ashley, Northumberland St, 2019 Against RMT rail prices and cuts, Central Station, 2013Anti-Pegida demonstration, Chinatown, 2015 Anti-Pegida demonstration, Newgate St, 2015

Marches 1 Pegida Anti-Islam march, Grainger St, 2015 2 Anti-Pegida between protests, Newgate St, 2015 3 Pro-LGBT rights, Times Square, annually 4 March up Black Lives Matter, Monument, 2020 5 EDL March, B1307 beside Eldon, 2017 6 Boycott Ashley, St James' Park, 2019 but reoccurring

0.5km 2 9 Line o f

Hadri an’s w all

D 1

A E 7

Protest (sized) March (direction)

Surviving towers

Line of wall (lost) Line of wall (found) Line of Hadrian’s wall

Material fabric & grain of the Town Walls

2km A

Tracing down to the material fabric and grain of its surroundings, we can gage a sense of purpose, aesthetic and application and draw out ethnographic points of interest that otherwise would have been

B 1km

missed.

Commercial Hub of Eldon

E 0.5km F Line o f

B5, I9

Hadri

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D ll

Building upon the built

2km A

There are notable instances where the walls and neigbouring buildings have been preserved through a continual process of being built upon and altered. Most if not all of these areas despite the character they

B 1km

possess, exhibit coarse and damaged appearances.

E 0.5km F Line o f

K7, D3

Hadri

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D ll

Ecological observations

2km A

B Across the walls, there are multiple points of ecological note. Stone has weathered and eroded to a majority of surviving sections, most bled or grows new habitat, and salt has crystallised upon its surface at the Orchard

B 1km

Street stretch. The walls too are protesting.

E 0.5km F Line o f

E2, I5

Hadri

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D ll

100

Below: Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989

The walls are alive When understanding Cruz7 in conjunction to the previous mappings of ethnographic interest, there are notions of consciousness across the walls, in that they actively respond to the situations and conditions they face. Be it the role they undertake, the natural environment, or an adaptation brought about by a certain time or culture. Instead of understanding them as static objects, I looked to recognise the agency the wall possesses in shaping our spatial experiences and perceptions as a result of these findings.

Marcos Cruz, The Inhabitable Flesh Of Architecture (London: Routledge, 2013), p. 7

“Walls work as extensions of the human, inasmuch they reflect the vulnerability and strength of ourselves” Marcos Cruz 101

Protestor interaction with walls In efforts to recognise this agency the wall possesses and still with the prevailing thought of incorporating avenues of radicalism from last semester, I looked at the ways protestors interact with walls. Be it sprawling a distaste towards political regimes, their erection to divide opposing factions or equally, their demolition in attempts to reconnect societies, the two have historically sustained a rather elaborate relationship. I remained curious at this stage to explore this in connection to the idea of the walls and their responsiveness. 102

... A sensitivity to light ...

Responsive wall maquettes In reply, I produced a series of maquettes to explore and begin visualising how such a reaction scenarios might be expressed. I aimed to depict changes to the walls properties when confronted with environmental elements.

... Or a contortion to rain

The influence of wind ...

103

104

As well as induced conditions.

... An ignition

... A shift to movement ...

However, although I had felt these maquettes were a good way to begin visualising and testing ideas in the ambitions of deciphering a method of intervention, I now recognise them as convoluting the process. I was actively searching for something tangible and in that, I was rushing towards a pre-determined ends I remained

... The reverberation of sound ... 105

wary of avoiding in my practice. Like walls, I looked to adapt and alter my approach to suit what is relevant and portrayed in front instead of desiring fated outcomes. 106

Exploring the fractured

2km

Rather than looking to intercept and anticipate the way walls may become fractured, there is more important work in observing the way they their current state is already fractured. By tailoring the preceding research, we can greater inform remedial conversations about what we can practically do, as opposed to undertaking speculative problems with unavowed and underthought propositions. In looking to limit the impulse of fated outcomes, the work of Ingold provided useful insight at this stage. At length, he speaks of a desire to read creativity forwards as to grant the process greater capacity over the product. “Rather than reading creativity ‘backwards’, from a finished object to an initial intention in the mind of an agent, this entails reading it forwards, in an ongoing generative movement that is at once itinerant, improvisatory and rhythmic”8

B 1km

0.5km

D Line o f

Hadri

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A E

To achieve this, it was essential at this point that I became more physically-interrogative with the condition of the walls and be hands-on with my workings.

F 8 Tim Ingold, "The Textility Of Making", Cambridge Journal Of Economics, 34.1 (2009), 91-102 <https://doiorg/10.1093/cje/bep042> 107

108

Interrogating the fractured Additional survey work, including rubbings, to specific areas pulled out from the previous mapping analysis aided my material understanding and association to my research further. The detailed area of the Irish Tyneside Centre exhibits these endeavours, via the crude application of lime mortar cement to the face of the wall that haphazardly fills in gaps. A number of brick courses that would connect have been discarded from a height to ground level where observations reveal the decaying condition of those remaining and the adjoining tiled wall that is beginning to fray and crack.

Survey work and construction of detail interrogation 109

This is not the treatment this part of the wall deserves, or lack of response others receive. 110

111

112

Our current restorative and walling practice The appearance of walls and their amendments can express many things, be it the skill of the persons who built it, the availability of material, its location or purpose, to the intentions of the one that conceived it or attitudes of a certain time and environment9. We can learn from examples of our current restorative and walling practices concerned with repair as to inform our direction. There are those which meticulously replicate traditional techniques to restore a wall to a former condition like at Hadrian’s, where supplementary mortars are only applied as an absolute necessity as to mitigate inaccuracies. Or that of the Western wall, where routine inspections help combat the erosive nature of the stone with limestonebased grout to sensitively ensure the walls survival.

Above top: Limestone-based grout injection at the Western Wall Above left: Concrete paved section of the Great Wall in Suizhou Above right: Maintenance repairs at the Berlin Wall, c. 1969 Opposite: Traditional restorations at Hadrian's Wall 113

Conversely however, there are those which fail to adequately respond to conditions. At a section of China’s Great Wall, stretches of construction have been inexpertly paved over with concrete, encasing histories and cultural values in the process.

Unwin, p. 77 114

of carbon dioxide10.

Environmental impact of significant walls +50ft

1000 miles -15ft

Repairs of this nature not only damage the natural beauty of a landscape, they bring about sizeable environmental ramifications too. The border, or 'Trump Wall', between the United States and Mexico is one such example where vast quantities of resources and capital are regularly proposed to go into its mass or repair.

Now it would be a disillusioned thought not to appreciate the significance and specificities to repairing a considerable number of major walls around the world, and sweep them under the carpet because of a latter minority of instances. There is an undeniable necessity for their preservation through the historical, cultural or sociopolitical reminder they look to uphold. Though if we can look to alleviate just a fraction of the wider problems of this practice, a difference can be made.

For every cubic metre of concrete that is utilised in the construction of the wall, it results in roughly 380kg of carbon dioxide emissions. In the production of steel, 1kg emits 1.8 kg of carbon dioxide. On this basis, the total construction estimated for 1,000 miles of the border with its 50ft height and 15ft underground is astronomical. A wall of such size would require 9.7 billion cubic metres of concrete and 2.3 billion tonnes of steel, producing 7.8 billion tonnes

10 115

Below: Intensive construction of 'Trump Wall'

Aylin Woodward, "Trump’s $5 billion border wall plan could wreak environmental havoc", businessinsider, 2019 [Accessed 7 January 2021] 116

Design Phase

In the construction, operation and maintenance of buildings, the built enivronment contributes

45% of the total carbon emitted in the UK

Material manufacture & sourcing

Distribution

Assembly on site

Before they are even lived in, a house built using conventional methods will produce

51% of its lifetime CO₂ emissions during the construction process

But when you use bio-based materials, the level of carbon emission lowers significantly, with

we can influence this during

51%

In use

they give back CO₂

In the UK, 45% of the CO₂ emissions produced are the result of construction in one form or another, where at a large scale, concrete and steel have become the ubiquitous standard to build with. Despite significant strides through architectural and government initiatives to rectify this, as well as a growing industry consciousness to the issue with more structures now being constructed with environmental savviness, it is still not enough and creative solutions are needed. If we take the example of a conventional house built with bricks and mortar, 51% of the CO₂ produced in its lifetime is during the construction process, with the sourcing or manufacturing of material the main instigator of this. However if we looked to construct with bio-based materials, we can significantly lower the level of emissions released by 50% and better the environment in the process11. Although not specifically targeted at wall building practices, such principles of design, construction and maintenance should be the same.

50% less released

They respect the local origin and natural growth cycles, moreover,

Tackling our practices

Demolition or refurbishment

We may look to achieve this by introducing bio-based materials to our conversations on the refurbishment of the town wall. The necessity of remedial action is acknowledged, though instead of inadequately prolonging their current state of deterioration with mimicking restorations, should we be looking at sustainable alternatives to reinvigorate their condition?

11 117

Pascal Leboucq, The Growing Pavilion Documentary (Eindhoven: Company New Heroes, 2019) 118

The need for sustainable foresight

12 13 119

Rima Aouf, "Bricks Made From Loofah And Charcoal Could Promote Biodiversity In Cities", Dezeen, 2019 [Accessed 4 April 2021] Jonathan Watts, "Concrete: The Most Destructive Material On Earth", The Guardian, 2019 [Accessed 4 April 2021]

Hempcrete

Mycelium

Cork

Eggs

Ocean Plastic

•Self-activating limestoneproducing bacteria is embedded into building material such as concrete or mortar

•Bricks are composite materials made of earth mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung

•Mixture is generally made up of hemp curds (shives), lime and sand or pozzolans

•Foraged mushroom samples are combined with agar (gelatinous substance obtained from seaweed) and allowed to grow

•Able to upcycle leftover cork from the wine cork making process or in cork forestry, rather than harvesting alive trees

•Egg shell in instances has been used as an aggregate substitute or a cement replacement in concrete producution

•An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans annually, creating sizeable problems for the aquatic ecosystems

•Comprised of soil, cement, charcoal and organic loofah (the plant commonly used for bath sponges)

•When cracks appear during setting or over the concrete lifetime, dormant bacteria mixed within its material makeup starts to produce the limestone that eventually repairs the cracks

•Soil typically contains levels of sand, silt and clay

•The formed mass will expand when introduced to a substrate of agricultural waste and sugar and left to develop for 3-7 days

•By heating granules, they are able to expand to fill a mould while releasing natural resins that bind them together into a solid form

•Egg white when mixed with lime, powdered brick and bamboo sap forms a mortar known as ‘magamasa’ in the Philippines, used for binding and protecting materials in 18th century church construction

•Harvested waste is able to be processed through industrial shredders to reduce plastic into smaller pieces

•Charcoal utilised only in small amounts on the bricks' surface, serving to purify the air by absorbing nitrates

•Straw and dung binds the brick together and allows it to dry evenly, thereby preventing cracking due to uneven shrinkage rates through the brick

•Once the mixture is combined together with water, it is formed into blocks and allowed time to cure •Able to be produced on-site as slabs also, poured between timber boards and equally allowed to set before their removal

•Bricks are usually made by pressing mud mixture into an open timber fame and leaving it to set

Loofah

•Mixture is then shaped into brick moulds, removed and then left to strengthen with a vacuum chamber for 7 days

•Compressed under super-heated water, the plastic is able to be compacted and fused together to form blocks

•Once set, the brick is then baked high to kill any organisms

APPLICATION QUALITIES

Sustainable alternatives must be suggested and explored to combat our current practices in construction and in relation to the town wall, remedy areas in need of preservation and repair. Current treatment to their condition at present is minimal to non-existing. In parts where it remains, it is left to decay and gradually fall into a state of disrepair. This poses not only just historical problems but environmental and ecological ones as well. Looking to alleviate these scenarios and the wider harmful commonalities of the construction industry should be our aim. In these material proposals and experimentation to follow in search for intervening strategies, solutions look to sensitively induce a symbiotic relationship between natural repair and the wall which champion environmental agendas and sustainable practices.

COMPOSITION

Our current building practices within the construction industry are unsustainable. Sand is the most mined material in the world for use in construction12, and if the cement were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of CO₂ in the world with 2.8 billion tonnes annually13.

Adobe (waste)

MATERIAL

Bacteria

+ Increases the lifespan of concrete

+ Inexpensive material with a small resource cost

+ Reduces the need for environmentally harmful demolitions

+ Walls are able to serve as heat reservoirs due to the inherent thermal properties as a result of the brick thickness

+ Decrease the amount of new concrete structures produced and lower maintenance and repair costs for homeowners and cities - Infancy stages of development so only able to rectify minor defects in the surface of the concrete

- All walls are load-bearing, carrying their own weight into the foundation so sufficient compressive strength must be ensured

+ Easy workability + Lacks the brittleness of concrete and consequently does not need to cater for expansion joints

+ Made entirely from biodegradable materials

Cork House by Matthew Barnett Howland

+ Reduced requirement for cement bestows environmental benefits

+ Forming process is non-toxics and requires no use of adhesives

+ Efficient making process, in turn providing cost benefits and reducing time till construction

+ Components possess the ability to be pre-fabricated away from site

+ Economical benefits

+ High thermal and acoustic properties

+ As well as bricked applications, mycelium is able to be cultivated over panels. These are lightweight, adaptable and allow for high sound and temperature insulation

+ Assembly able to be constructed by hand without the requirement for mortar or glues and allow for dismountability

+ Lightweight considering its mass + Provides high level of thermal capability due to its thickness, enabling the mass to act as insulation

+ Entirely biodegradeable - Caution against water and rising damp levels is advisable due to the plant-based compound within its makeup

- Low structural capabilities

+ Efficient use of all the product (shell, white and yolk - the latter is taken for culinary purposes) - Very rudimentary stages still amid rigourous testing for large-scale application opposed to sealant capabilities

+ Produces 95% lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GhG) compared to concrete blocks - Unable to be used in extensive construction due to plastic compressing under high structural loads

+ Less aggregate required than concrete, a key advantage given the scarcity of sand + No steel reinforcement required within reason due to the strength and flexibility of loofah fibres + Actively promote biodiversity in being x20 more than standard building blocks, enabling the naturally formed air gaps in the loofah fibre network to harbour animal and plant life

+ Sensorily provocative + High resistance to fire

- Application is typically reserved for facade treatments

120

Soil

Clay

Sand

combined with H₂O Mud

Straw

formed and allowed to dry

Adobe brick

121

Exploring adobe Building upon previous tactile understandings, I began to explore the capacities of adobe, a mud-based composite. Made by mixing quantities soil with clay, sand and water before combining with straw to provide a level of strength and rigidity. Although a start, I felt their application would be limited and as a material, it did not possess the level of complexity I hoped to explore in search for sustainable remedies.

Getitng hands-on with adobe 122

123

124

Mycelium investigations Not content with the sophistication previous explorations, I continued with investigations into mycelium, the thread-like roots of fungus. Fungi itself plays an important role within our ecosystems, helping to recycle nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter, and providing food and shelter for different wildlife14, yet it can be so much more than this. Recently, through the growth of mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungus consisting of a mass of thread-like hyphae that may form fruiting bodies of mushrooms, a myriad of applications have been achieved.

Harmful inorganic CO₂ from auto and factory emissions

respired CO₂ Photosynthesis respired CO₂

following reabsorption of organisms

Animal wildlife

Plant life and vegetation

1. Harvesting mushroom

Decaying plant and animal organisms 2. Plant sample for growth

respired CO₂

Factory combustion

8. Reuse for soil enrichment

3. Allow for expansion

Plant life and vegetation

Created by harvesting mushroom samples, allowing mycelium cultures time to grow, and then letting them expand in a variety of different natural susbtrates, we can construct products to build with in a way that does not require the extraction of material substance or minerals from the earth which add to our carbon footprint. In fact, they give back. whole sustainable cycle start again.

Fossil fuels

7. Biodegradation after use 4. Form into moulds

extracted for production

6. Creation of product

5. Inertization through heat

allow 3-7 days to strengthen within a vacuum

14 125

Northumberland Wildlife Trust, "Fungi Species", 2021 [Accessed 7 April 2021] 126

Modular Architecture

Mycelium investigations

Grown Architecture

Furniture/Textiles

Alternative

Mycelium represents a shift in the way we can approach the use and disposal of construction materials15. As a 'living material', it actively takes in carbon from the atmosphere to clean our air, reduce the embodied footprint of a construction project, help to address the changes wrought by global warming and even cut costs16. Myco-products remain completely biodegradeable, meaning that even after use, any deconstruction remains entirely environmentallyfriendly. They are able to be returned to the soil and allowed to naturally decompose to give carbon back to the atmosphere and plant life, enabling the whole sustainable cycle start again.

APPLICATION

From architecture to manufacturing furniture and fashion, packaging, bacon and canoes, or even coffins, their uses are growing. However, it is their potential use as a building material that has helped us to understand how we can significantly better the environmental impact of the construction industry.

15 16 127

Eduardo Souza, "Mushroom Buildings? The Possibilities Of Using Mycelium In Architecture", Archdaily, 2020 [Accessed 7 April 2021] Laura Dorwart, "Magic Mushrooms: How Fungus Could Help Rebuild Derelict Cleveland", The Guardian, 2018 [Accessed 7 April 2021]

QUALITIES/USES

Pascal Leboucq & Krown design studio + The Growing Pavilion (top) A temporary events space for the Dutch design week constructed with panels grown from mushroom mycelium attached to timber frame. This external shell is able to be removed, repurposed or replaced as the product begins to naturally biodegrade.

David Benjamin of architects, ‘The Living’ + Hy-Fi, centre piece for MoMA’s music festival 2014 (bottom) First large scale structure to use mycelium technology. The piece stacked mushroom bricks to create three merging cylinders designed to intrigue and draw breezes through

Dirk Hebel & Philippe Block + Self-supporting fungal structures

Biohm + Mushroom insulation

Aleksi Vesaluoma + Shell mycelium pavilion (top) Created a series of structures that allowed mycelium when mixed with cardboard and formed into “sausaged” tubes, would grow insitu over a month long period

Beetles 3.3 studio & Yassin Arredia design + Shell mycelium pavilion(bottom) The studios teamed up to create the temporary installatory pavilion in Kerala in an effort to promote the construction and ecological benefits of mycelium. They allowed the framework to house mushrooms spores to then treat and transform into fungi covered panels

Perkins + Will + Tactical Mycelium

Sebastian Cox & Ninela Ivanova + Mycelium lampshades (top)

Bob Hendrikx + Living cocoon (top) Coffin made from mycelium that contributes to the decomposition process of bodies, as well as improving the surrounding soil by removing harmful substances and creating richer conditions for plant growth.

Philip Ross + Fungi furniture (middle) Shapes mycelium expanded substrates into furniture shapes to demonstrate how fabrication can be achieved sustainably utilising the environment and local agricultural waste

Ecovative

+ Natural packaging (middle) + Mycelium vegan chicken and bacon products

Aniela Hoitink + Textiles form mushroom dresses (bottom) Disc shaped textiles which aim to create a living and wearable garment that alters the practices and perceptions of the fashion industry

Danielle Trofe + Mush-Lume table lamp and plant pots

Studio Eric Klarenbeek

Katy Ayers + “Myconoe”, mycelium canoe (bottom)

IKEA + Alternatives to styrofoam packaging

Mycotech + Watches with leather alternative straps

+ Mycelium colonisation of 3D printed chairs

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Foraging for mushrooms In search of some mushroom samples with the hope of developing the mycelium from, I ventured out into Jesmond Dene. Fungi typically occurs more commonly in the autumn months, though there are some varieties that grow year round. At the beginning of April, the time of foraging, the samples were found around the stumps or bark of decaying or felled decidous hardwood trees. The mushrooms which were collected were the 'glistening inkcap' (bottom right), which showed evidence of mycelium strands at the roots of their clusters, and the 'artist's bracket' (left), a woody and hardened species. 129

“Patterns of unintentional coordination develop in assemblages. To notice such patterns means watching the interplay of temporal rhythms and scales in the divergent lifeways that gather”17

Tsing, p. 23 130

Assembly for growth #1 To prepare the petri dishes for the mushroom samples, the solution needed to be made. By boiling gelatine, beef stock and sugar at a high heat, this formed the plyable jelly-like substance ready to be transferred to set. Once refridgerated and solidified, I transferred the roots and some of the mycelium filaments that were present to the food source and allowed time for them to colonise the petri dish as preparation for the next step of inoculating varying susbtrates. Apprehensions arose at this stage due to an inexperience with this process, a warriness over the gelatine used, potential contaminants its production, and type and area of fungi used in the process. These were rightfully warranted, as the image to the right shows the growth of mould on the sample as opposed to mycelium. 131

132

this first procedure in its preparation, as substrates, these still remain desirable in numerous ways. The organic substance possesses inherent structural properties, ideal when the matter begins to be consumed18. Importantly, they also offer the opportunity to upcycle agricultural excess products and save cost, all the while allievating the need for unnecessary material extraction or resources to improve sustainability of our built environment.

Preparing substrate for expansion Unaware at the time that the substrate would benefit from pasteurisation, the three samples which seemed viable to use for expansion (which I now believe were contaminated/mold in the first place) failed to metabolise into a mycelium rich substance. Regardless, I filled vessels with varying waste substrates; sawdust, straw and flour, coffee ground and dried moss. I also provided additional fructose-heavy food sources; laced sweets, energy drink and cat food.

Barbara Imhof, Built To Grow: Blending Architecture And Biology (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2016), p. 96

The mushroom mass was then transferred into the substrate with the hope of allowing it to increase in volume at 17-24°C over the next 3-7 days. Despite the failings of 133

134

solution in a pressure cooker; and altering the type of mushroom applied for growth. Although it is favourable to change only one or perhaps two experimental conditions as to ensure what factor resulted in success, at this stage, I was more hopeful after further research into the process at this stage that this attempt may provide the betterment. I returned to forage the alternative mushrooms (shown far left of harvesting) and also looked to see how store-bought king oyster mushrooms would fare. The images to the right show the samples progressing a similar vein to the first procedure so I opted to not take this attempt any further.

Assembly for growth #2 Rightfully wary that my previous apprehensions were warranted, I conducted a second procedure in tandem with the unsuccessful first attempt. I am of the impression that it was the solution used in the petri dishes, the type of mushroom used and the presence of soil or other outside contaminants that hindered their success. I began by changing four variables; substituting the type of setting agent used to a vegan alternative agar powder; removing beef stock and sugar for nutritional yeast and barley malt extract; sterilising the 135

136

Opposite: Straw and flour inoculation Top: Coffee inoculation Bottom: Dried moss inoculation

Inoculating the substrate #3 Informed by the two previous procedures, I opted not to grow mycelium from scratch and instead acquired oyster grain spawn coated with existing dormant myceliumfrom an external source. Prior to inoculation, all substrates were pasteurised for 24 hours in order to sterilise any contimanants present. Samples were all individually inoculated on the basis of 1/4 spawn to substrate ratio and allowed a two weeks growing period in an attempt to fully populate the matter. The same substrate materials as the first procedure were used. 137

138

Observations of mycelium expansion Day 1 - 3 Mycelium growth began to visually stagnate approaching the halfway point of their two week incubation period. Most likely, this is because growth is most visible on the surface as the mycelium begins its search for immediate nutrition prior to colonise the deeper substrate fibres. Moreover, growth is expected on the surface initially due to the abundant levels of oxygen present there19. Pictured is the progression of mycelium expansion over days 1-3, reading top to bottom. From left to right, the substrates are sawdust, straw and flour, dried moss and coffee grounds.

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, or 19 139

N. A Gow and Geoffrey M. Gadd, The Growing Fungus (New York: Springer, 2008), pp. 4-5 140

Observations of mycelium expansion Day 4 - 6

141

142

Observations of mycelium expansion Day 7, 10.5 and 14

143

144

Forming and drying Following the two week growth period, the colonised substrates were then transferred from their host vessels and to a mold and then formed into bricks. In this, it became apparent that this process breaks up the rigidity of the mixture slightly and that should inoculation of the substrate happen directly into the mold, then this would alleviate the problem somewhat.

Above & opposite: Straw & flour and sawdust forming 145

Following, the formed samples were then placed into an air tight and warm environment and allowed to dry for two days prior inerisation (sterilisation through heat at 70°C for 3-4 hours). This process looks to strengthen the bricks and kill the mycelium organisms in the mass to prevent further growth from occuring. 146

Creation of the mycelium brick

Opposite: Straw and flour brick Top: Sawdust brick Bottom: Dried moss brick 147

148

settlement cracks Traversing vertically down from the turret points of the wall inbetween the joints of the stone, considerable settlement cracks circa. 10-15mm appear. In places, whole stones are split. These have most likely occurred due to drying shrinkage, or thermal and moisture changes in the construction over time. If left untreated for prolonged periods of time, structural problems in the walls make-up may begin to arise.

missing blocks & joist hole damage

Across the entire run of the wall, there are mulitple gaps that reference where lean to structures once stood against the face. Over time, these gaps have become weathered and display signs of damage, be it cracking or erosion. In some instances, this has impacted on neighbouring stones, increasing gaps as they fall or fray. At higher level, complete sections of the wall are missing and abruptly end. This is largely historical from past demolition and it is not suggested they be restored to their former state. At foundation level, stones are episodically missing.

subsidence cracks

Identify testing grounds One of the most substantial intact stretches of the wall of Orchard Street looks to provide a testing ground for the preceding research. In a relatively confined space, multiple instances of damage are in need of repair. Various forms of cracking, heavy erosion, crude remedial work, worn mortar joints and damage to the inside of blockwork pose serious consequence to its vitality. The hope in utilising this area of the wall as a testing ground for any response is in efforts to raise its profile and ensure it receives immediate attention. 149

Along the base of the wall, there are marginal instances where cracks circa. 5-10mm are beginning to form. Generally, the strain from the weight of the structure above transfers to the ground conditions and can cause sinkage. Collapse is not likely to occur due to the substantial nature of the wall, though remedying application is necessary to prevent further cracking and chance of stones dropping out.

hairline cracks

The latest brick wall and its substantial mortar infill that adjoins the town wall displays hairline cracks continually down both sides. Tends to be a sign of simple expansion and contraction movement due to humidity, temperatures and how the combinations of certain materials expand at differing rates. Any required repair would require the crude application of further sealant to the gaps, damaging any aesthetic and connection with further supplementary remedy.

weared mortar joints Over time, the lime mortar joints on the surface between stones, specifcally those from approximately waist height and above, show signs of fray, cracking or are missing completely. Traditionally, repair requires the repointing of gaps with cement to prevent further deterioration of the wall and help to exclude weather conditions.

erosion The front face of this section of the wall is frequently observed to have significant erosion damage. The orientation and geography of the wall, located high on a hill, means heavy wind and rain gradually loosen and help detach the soft material on the surface of the stones. This low durability of the exterior is noted to regularly crumble with the slightest touch. Additionally, the use of the non-resistant lime mortar in the wall means any excessive waterfall on the surface leaves the joints susceptible to further erosion.

crude repair work Occasionally along this stretch of wall, there are instances of crude repair work. Holes and cracks are unmethodically supplied with debris with little forethought for the appearance or future material or historical consensus of the wall. Cement creeps on to the original face of the wall only as a reminder to the shoddy workmanship provided. The larger infills of brick that rectify lost sections of the wall (*) sit contrary to this and portray successful examples of remedial action, which also adhere to SPAB.

150

Opposite and below: SPAB approved repair work examples

Considering SPAB SPAB, was founded by William Morris over 140 years ago, whose manifesto served to enlighten those that care for old buildings and shared concern over their protection. With each generation since its founding, careful consideration has been sought to apply principles to particular problems of the age. In this, the SPAB Approach looks to represent and interpret the original manifesto for modern day audiences, aiming to promote the worthwhile nature in the value and of caring for the fabric of old buildings20. The following comments are taken from this document concerning context, history, materials and sustainability and look to 20

Matthew Slocombe, The SPAB Approach: (London: SPAB, 2017), p. 4

“It is for all these buildings, of all times and styles, that we plead upon those who deal with them, to put Protection in the place of Restoration”

support the work of the project and its intervening action with the town wall. “Buildings are likely to age and weather according to the conditions on a particular site. For these reasons, the Society does not support the moving of buildings to new locations nor their reduction to mere facades. Also, repairs carried out insitu, rather than on elements dismantled and moved to the workshop, will help ensure a maximum amount of the existing fabric is retained, thus maintaining integrity and continuity”. “Restoration of the kind opposed by Ruskin and Morris sets out to turn back the clock or to recreate the past. It is often a destructive process and may leave a building without the signs of age or evidence of its past interaction with people. Knowledge of an original design is not sufficient reason for erasing later change, particularly where this change has added positively to a building’s historic interest”. “Sometimes the use of alternative materials may be more fitting and effective, allowing new work to be distinguished from the old, and illustrating that an intervention has occurred. Equally, use of alternative materials can sometimes assist the maximum retention of historic fabric”. “We need to consider the impact of our treatment of old buildings on future generations. Overall, the SPAB Approach is about understanding, care and conservative repair. It is a simple message of sustainability. Through the protection of building fabric, the stories and beauty embodied in old buildings can be enjoyed by us and by generations to come”.

William Morris 151

152

Politics of material Mycelium and the wall are not too dissimilar. When we think of the wall, we think of its immediate exterior; a seemingly strong and stable façade made up of large blocks of sandstone. Yet if we looked beyond this face value, the discarded material of rubble and dutiful aggregate that form its skeletal core to provide its recognised appearance, may get some credit. The same can be said of mycelium. Its inherency to colonise deep into substrates past what is seen on the chitinous surface is what enables the thread-like hyphae to connect, interlock and harden into a set mass. These intricacies of mycelial structures are only seen when we examine the growth up close. From a 10cm² area at the base of the wall, the items to the left were collected; pebbles, sand, plantlife, glass fragments, slate, twigs and a woodlouse. These are just a number of details that make up the wall which only when we interact with, do we realise the filigree nature of its being as opposed to an impenetrable mass.

Above: Samples collected from Orchard Street wall 153

We need to question what it is we are trying to portray with the material we present, and if these choices be literally ‘set in stone’. 154

Cultivating a cure The project looks to suggest mycelium for any initial intervening action. Mycelium here however is totemic, it merely represents the ideas of the culmination of research and that should action be desired, a means is available. Looking to implement this, it would be rather artless and insincere to urge for sustainable changes and not put them into practice. Of course mycelium itself is innately “green” and renewable without any lasting effect on the environment, though if we can go further, why not? Within the proximity of the Orchard Street testing ground and the town walls themselves, there are multiple forested and habitat areas where certain fungi is able to be foraged for most, if not all of the year. Most mushrooms are able to be utilised in the production of mycelium, though those most viable are the Reishi, Lion’s Mane, Maitake (Hen of the Wood), Birch Polypore and notably, the Oyster. Of these, it is only the latter two which are naturally sourceable in the UK and local to Newcastle (see next). 155

156

Town Moor

Sustainability via regional sourcing

Heaton Park & Jesmond Dene

Lion ’s M an e

Maitak e

Birch Polypore

Leazes Park

is Re hi

st e Oy

r Wall testing ground

Pipewellgate 157

158

Technical capacity of mycelium It is necessary to address to understand their capacity when suggesting intervention with the wall. Mycelium looks to heal and bind. It morphs to suit its surroundings, filling in vacant gaps of the substrate or surface it begins to colonise. In doing so, it gradually begins to increase the rigidity of this matter to provide a greater overall strength. Relative to weight, mycelium is stronger than concrete, though compressively, current application is not quite comparable21. In the case of the testing ground, it will mostly be utilised to infill damaged areas as opposed to attributing them with a structural responsibility. Generally remains durable to hostile environments and as a result, maintains high absorbency properties, key given the level of rainfall upon the town walls surfaces and their erosion. Consequently, microecosystems with plantlife and smaller wildlife are able to be induced, creating symbiotic relationships between material and the wall.

21 159

M. Z. Karimjee, Biodegradable Architecture Finite Construction For Endless Futures (2014)

Working with the joistholes These areas include joistholes that historically would have secured lean to structures to the wall though currently remain susceptible to wearing (see timeline, 1830). Morphological self-repair

Symbiotic

Strength and rigidity

Insulative

Durability

Absorption

Upon surveying, there is no clear rhythm to their occurrence and appear rather sporadically, although historically there would likely have been just reason. Measurement-wise, the lower joist holes are located 60cm from the ground, all for the most part approximately 70-100mm W x 150-200mm H x 70mm D. There are plenty instances where holes are larger, some times a whole stone, the average of which is 500mm W x 350mm H, which occur from halfway to two thirds up the wall. It tends to be spaces just above 225cm from the ground that generally measure 250-300mm W x 120-150mm H x 120-150mm D. There is the occasional large stone missing at the base of the wall. Numerous small holes are present. To the other side of the wall not pictured, there is minimal to no weathering, with only a handful of joist holes of a standard brick dimension 3m high. Bar these commonalities mentioned, it is assumed that when working with the wall, applying best guesswork and use of existing patterns is fair given the lack of continuity. 160

Nurturing a mycelial response To build upon earlier mycelium research, the following documents the process of developing a site specific block to be located in the town wall. A differing factor in this blocks production was the use of oyster grain spawn already encompassed in mycelium, as opposed to growing mycelium from scratch (which proved difficult, albeit a worthwhile step in the process). Progressing on, the most sucessfully colonised substrate selected to nurture a mycelial response was straw and flour. Learning from past experiences, I found it favourable to inoculate the substrate directly into the mold as to keep the block intact, remove the need for forming and thus mitigate the potential of mycelial matter breaking up and damaging the output. Opposite shows the growth of the mycelium (days 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 10.5) over the course of two weeks. Visual changes being to plateau at the beginning of the second week. 161

162

Day 14 Demolding the mycelium block

163

164

A guerrilla form of repair Approaching the implementation of the mycelium block, I increasingly felt matters had to be taken into my own hands. Action begets action. Inaction achieves nothing. Continually through the project I have aimed to embody this statement, hapticly engaging with the wall and remaining physically-investigative. It may be argued that this 'guerrilla' approach goes against the social or political norms, though with the lines blurred and attention clearly lacking, if someone doesn’t instigate conversation, then who will? 165

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Growing for degrowth Returning a week later, the block remained intact and undisturbed. On closer insepction, it has begun to develop primordia, the fruiting body of mushroom. In this, I began to think about the future capacities of mycelium. Mycelium ages uniquely. The speed in which it degrades is directly determinable based on how it is treated22. At the mercy of the external elements, although notably durable, this process will begin sooner. Gradually, the mycelium will disintegrate and lose rigidity in the mass of substrate. Dpeending on the compaction of the mycelium, this can take anywhere from 12 to 36 months.

22 167

Bridget Ayers Looby & Rebecca Ramsey of Perkins + Will, Tactical Mycelium: An Exploration Of Mushroom Mycelium As Ephemeral Building Material (2017) 168

The social enterprise of mycelium Untreated mycelium blocks are still alive, so eventually, provided there are not any major outside influences or contaminants, it will begin to fruit wit primordia and eventually, mushroom. From 12 to 24 months, this can become harvestable produce for local communities, or if decay is too severe to the structure of the block, it should be replaced to allow the cyclical benefits of mycelium to begin again. The act of decomposition from the outside may seem like a negative affect when looking to remedy the wall, though such occurrences will help to maintain continual interaction with them as to ensure their upkeep, preservation, protection and repair. Additionally, the enterprise allows for input from the locality, utilising byproducts from communal activities in the production of the mycelium blocks that will be placed in the wall, inducing further a sense of guardianship and place. 169

170

Colonising the cracking An informed imagination of what the mycelium colonisation of the worn mortar joints would look like a year after insitu inoculation. 171

172

“Like all walls it was ambiguous, two faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side you 23 were on”

23 173

Ursula K Le Guin, The Dispossessed (New York: Harper & Row, 1974) 174

Semester 1 Appendix Group Primer Venturing to the Metrocentre is a journey and experience far from alien for myself. Having grown up barely five minutes drive up the road, I recall strolling through The Village as a small child clasping the hand of my mother and being fascinated with the interactive animals made of brass hidden among the nooks and crannies of the cobbled walls. Such very human elements of the shopping centre remain engrained in my memory yet, I had never took a step back to abandon these preconceptions in an effort to understand the space from a differing perspective.

A journey to the island of Metropolis 175

Approaching the site as a collective free from motive or any protagonist at this stage, we recognised the isolated nature of the complex and very much perceived this as a destination, or an island, governed only by itself. Surrounded by a moat of cars and seldom accessed by foot, the shopping centre acts as a capitalist machine, manipulating the desires of the consumers who have driven here through strategic advertising, use of land and surveillance. We had drawn common parallels to avenues of power and authority, of which we would come to individually explore and regroup in a visual output, something which would look to create a sense of melancholy and uphold socialist ideals. 176

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres in your skull”

Protagonist I write this weary-eyed with empty stomach, tucked away in the alcoved corner of my apartment. The peculiar geography of this my only escape from the endless monotony of camera scopes, drones and search lights. Beyond this small crumb of utopia, I am watched everywhere I go. My life feels as though it is the consequence of mass-surveillance, the totalitarian regime has a vice-like grip on me and my every action, word, or thought. Its talons are dug deeper every day, an unimaginable influence on the social-realm that plays out before our very eyes.

industry. I do not see freedom amidst this slavery. I leave my residence in Whickham Mansions and walk there begrudgingly, passing poster after poster of the party’s message, each one illustrated with the face of Big Boris. They tell me, “We are all in this together”, yet why are so many dictated by so few? They try to mould my perceptions, tell me what I must and must not to do. Even if I dared to, I cannot even get close enough to someone to speak of these thoughts that race my mind. I arrive entangled in a web of conformity – repressed. I do not feel strength in this wilful ignorance.

Any sound I make above that of a very low whisper is picked up, every movement I make is observed. I have to live – do live, from habit that becomes instinct – in the assumption that even the slightest murmur is overheard and except in darkness, every stride scrutinised. There is no way of knowing at what moment they are watching, of who is watching, or why. I am trapped in this place, like a prison, I must endure a Panopticon existence. It feels like a war, and this terrible war wages constantly in my mind, that even the brief release of a lucid sleep at night does not quell – I do not find peace. I wake in the morning all too aware of these horrors at play and open my curtains, hoping to seek some solace but it never comes. I see the Ministry of Truth, my place of work sited at the centre of the Metropolis complex that now plagues the once serene landscape, or so my elders tell me, with juxtaposed vernaculars and forgotten 177

Winston’s Diary extract, 26th October

I want change and although pessimistic, even if I wanted to stop it is too late. I have committed to the act. What I am writing alone is enough for the gorilla-faced Thought Police that patrol the Metropolis to detain me. Or worse still if the rumours are to be true – sentence me to hard-labour at in Eurasia beyond the tracks, a fate far worse than death. I will not delay – I must act. 178

group members, are stylistically elaborated and narrated on within the short film. They are intentionally loosely drawn as if by the hurried and frantic hand of Winston in fear of being caught until he finds an alcoved corner, emulating Orwell’s writing24.

Metropolis Surveillance Mappings I undertook extensive mappings of the upper and ground floor (next) of the Metrocentre documenting surveillance cameras; their number, size, assumed angles, location and what they viewed – as well as security guards; noting their number and direction of travel around the mall. The mappings would be utilised to explore whether there were notable areas of mass surveillance (seen on the maps and zoomed-in clusters) and what they viewed. Additionally and in contrast, where was the least surveyed, why this was the case and whether there were blind-spots for ‘Winston’ to document these findings. These aspects, among others that were the focus of my 179

George Orwell, 1984 (London: Penguin, 1991 reissue) 180

181

182

07:32 A moat of cars and paper skeletons

10:18 Vacant brewery expanse

Robinson's Island The short film output aims to artistically portray where aspects of power and authority are present at the site of the Metrocentre. The story is acted out from the eyes of an oppressed protagonist, an anonymous character whose identity is formed from the culmination of our individual protagonist explorations into areas such as advertising, land ownership, consumerism and surveillance. The second voice to the film of the narrator was inspired by that of Vanessa Redgraves in Robinson in Ruins25 and provides an overarching commentary to our protagonists journey, subtly delineating historical, social and economic strands of power. Keiller’s work also influenced the POV-style in which we shot the film, as well as the protracted views of nature and the landscape towards the climax of the piece. In the story, our stoic protagonist desires freedom and searches for a reprieve from the environments of control they experience in the Metrocentre journeying from site to site in hope of this before stumbling upon a large expanse of an abandoned brewery site where they eventually achieve some feeling of solace and autonomy, albeit temporary.

Film stills and QR code to YT link 183

Patrick Keiller, Robinson In Ruins (Oxfordshire: BFI, 2010) 184

24 29 27 23 22

Addressing the presence of Raven’s base powers26 in my everyday life, the mapping illustrates where I am directly affected or encountered with these. The analysis found that coercion primarily informed my actions and movements to a greater extent throughout the day more than other potential influences. Notably, social media frequently contributed to this (in red writing/ exclamation marked). Invading my activities, it appears to habitually inform a number of my decisions and routine. But why is this? And what could this eventually mean?

26 185

Bertram Raven & John French, The Bases Of Social Power, Studies In Social Power (Michigan: Univer, 1959), pp. 150-167

2 3

19 18

Eldon site vicinity

A foothold into the thesis

1, 30

8 7

4 6

14 11 12

Coercive Monument Legitimate Origin (home) Referent Instance of power

Reward (scaled on impact Expert to agency) Informational Eldon site vicinity

186

Our society is more digitally-orientated than ever before. In just the last 50 years, significant technological advancements have considerably altered our expectations, perceptions and experiences, shaping how we have come to operate in our day-to-day lives – but why is this? It has become not just convenient but conditioned into human nature, that we turn to our smart devices when we need something, be it for entertainment or even just habitually, on instinct. At the click of a button or the swipe of a screen, I can instantly order the latest gadget from halfway across the world to arrive the very next day; I can book a taxi to take me wherever I want to go without conversing or exchanging money in the process; or I can update my friends instantly on my how my #brunch was #goals. However, in forming an endless matrix of possibility, the birth of the digital-realm has created an ubiquitously shared reliance on technology where social media conciliates nearly every form of social interaction27. Generations of individuals have become addicted to self-gratification and the quest for data while remaining polarised in opinion on socio-politically critical issues. This forms the questions, when does technology stop being a benefit and ultimately, how could this shape our society and the environment we surround ourselves with? 28

27 28 187

“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse” 28

Sophocles

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism (London: Profile Books Ltd, 2019), p. 4 Qouted in Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma (Netflix, 2020) 188

social movements; or in the quite literal sense with terrorist organisations like ISIS using distinct hashtags on videos of executions to gain viral exposure, inciting fear and antagonising violence in the process29.

Weaponising social media Since the rise of social media as we know it today in the early 2000s, with the launch of platforms such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, it has allowed us to connect with friends and family, stay up-to-date on current affairs and share our thoughts and opinions, however lowbrow they might be. Conversely though, inasmuch of this latter point, it has served as a catalyst for distortion and intolerance. Whether it be the waning confidence in troops of teenagers whose insecurities are increasingly bombarded to keep on-trend, or conform to unrealistic standards of beauty; be it the hordes of internet trolls that perpetually degrade others, undermine truth by spreading fake news and conflict opinion on critical 189

As we move through our digitalised lives, social media acts as the mediator to a militantly polarised society. Schneier calls for a place decentralised from private parties where there is scope to speak, converse, gather and protest free from discrimination or control, while contending the laws and values we hold common to our real-world lives do not apply on these platforms because everything is public (not least our data) and our interactions are limited30.

29 30

Peter W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking, Likewar: The Weaponisation Of Social Media (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), p. 5 Bruce Schneier, Data And Goliath: The Hidden Battles To Collect Your Data And Control Your World (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015), p. n/a 190

(Anti)social Interactions 3.8 billion people actively use social media in the world. Today, this equates to just short of half the amount of people on the planet, the average of which when on the internet will use the web for one reason or another for 6 hours and 43 minutes per day, with 2 hours and 24 minutes spent on social media. This has increased year on year, and it is estimated that humanity will spend 1.25 billion years on the internet in 2020, equating to 40% of our waking lives, with well over a third of this time on social media platforms alone31. Up by 321 million on 2019, as the volume of people using such platforms continues to surge our digital connectivity, our real-world interactions become less. Lanier attains the practice of social media promotes division and impersonal responses, where the idea of friendship is reduced to a database-filtered algorithm vacant from the idea of ever interacting32. Research shows the more one spends time in their social network, the more this stimulates negative emotions that prove detrimental to individual well-being. Users paradoxically become isolated and increasingly overwhelmed resulting in increased levels of anxiety, paranoia, depression and suicide33.

31 32 33 191

Simon Kemp, "Digital 2020", WeAreSocial, 2020 [Accessed 25 November 2020] Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto (London: Penguin, 2011), p. 53 Zuboff, p. 463-465 192

Digital Panopticon Real-world fruitions as to the weaponisation of social media as a Panoptic tool of digital surveillance are exemplified when former-political consultancy and data firm, Cambridge Analytica, infamously acquired the data on a countless number of Facebook user profiles from academic, Alexander Kogan, who harvested the data via the smartphone application, ‘This is your digital life’. Kogan obtained largely private information about individuals sex, race, gender, intelligence and even childhood traumas based on what they had ‘liked’, shared or interacted with. Research highlights examples of unexpected yet consistent correlation, where users who had liked ‘curly fries’ showed higher intelligence. ‘Hello Kitty’ likes indicated outspoken political views, or those who

“It is not solely a builtform, but a mechanism of political power”34 Michel Foucault 193

posted about their confusion after naps, often tended to be more sexual people35. In total, this sensitive psychological data was gathered on approximately 270,000 individuals and unbeknownst to them, the data from a myriad of their friends profiles, infiltrating a total of somewhere between 50 and 87 million people36. Sold on to Cambridge Analytica, this data was abused and exchanged with certain political campaigns who utilised it to target the predictability of individuals behaviour. By providing misinformation or an influx of a specific agenda to align with their views, the aim was to influence their political orientation for upcoming elections. Notable involvement in publicly-conflicting instances include the 2016 US presidential race and Brexit referendum, of which Donald Trump won and Britain voted to leave the EU37, compounding the surveillance capitalist society of today and unfathomably altering the social landscape. 34 35 36 37

Michel Foucault, Discipline And Punish, trans. by Alan Sheridan (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977) Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham Harrison, "How Cambridge Analytica Turned Facebook ‘Likes’ Into A Lucrative Political Tool", The Guardian, 2018 [Accessed 30 November 2020] Zuboff, p. 279 Nicholas Confessore, "Cambridge Analytica And Facebook: The Scandal And The Fallout So Far", NY Times, 2018 [Accessed 27 November 2020] 194

Mapping data & digital users The submarine network of cables that traverse the ocean floors across the globe are pivotal components for how data is transmitted in modern society. Approximately 750,000 miles of infrastructure, a growing number of which are owned by social media corporations, connect the continents to support our insatiable demand for digital engagement, as well as provide nations with the necessary means for communication38. Indicated in orange are those countries that attain the most active Facebook users than any other in the world according to the World Population Review39. In the UK, 44 million use Facebook for a variety of means, highlighting the considerable cause for concern to the explored adverse upon individuals. The boxed percentages show the number of a specific continent areas population with stable access to the internet.

38 39 195

NORTHERN EUROPE

67%

EASTERN EUROPE

49%

NORTH AMERICA

69%

SOUTHERN EUROPE

54%

CARIBBEAN

NORTHERN AFRICA

CENTRAL ASIA

59%

WESTERN EUROPE

22% EASTERN ASIA

39%

51% CENTRAL AMERICA

71%

59% MIDDLE EAST

27% 64%

WESTERN AFRICA

SOUTHERN ASIA

13%

63%

MIDDLE AFRICA

SOUTH EAST ASIA

6% 8%

EASTERN AFRICA

57% 67% SOUTH AMERICA

OCEANIA

36% SOUTHERN AFRICA

Adam Satariano, "How The Internet Travels Across Oceans", NY Times, 2019 [Accessed 5 January 2021] "Facebook Users By Country 2020", World Population Review, 2020 [Accessed 5 January 2021] 196

Data centre (location)

Mapping data in context

Eldon site

2 4 3

197

The mapping pinpoints the location data centres in Newcastle and the surroundings of the city. The purpose of the mapping was to further understand the physical nature of the internet in context while researching into the unsustainable actions of our internet activities. It is estimated that data centres energy consumption will treble to denote 9% of the global electricity supply40, posing environmental ramifications. It is claimed that by 2030, data centres will have a bigger carbon footprint than the entirety of the world aviation industries41.Studies indicate there 10,500 such data facilities in the country42, which amid a growing digital industry that shows no signs of decelerating, suggests worrisome connotations to our current climate battle. However, academics note data centres are not the culprit. Instead, emphasising an excessive social media use, mobile phones and our consumerist tendencies as key antagonists to potential climate impacts43. Is social media the most constructive or ethical space to manoeuvre?

40 Tom Bawden, "How Liking Something On Facebook Can Damage The Planet", The Independent, 2016 [Accessed 9 January 2021] 41 John Harris, "Our Phones And Gadgets Are Now Endangering The Planet", The Guardian, 2018 42 "UK Data Centres – Carbon Neutral By 2030?", UKERC, 2020 [Accessed 9 January 2021] 43 "How Liking Something On Facebook Can Damage The Planet" 198

From early modes of data like prehistoric cave scrawling the library of Alexandria and messenger pigeons of the Syria - to Caxton introducing the printing press in Britain and Graham Bell's telephone calls - Hollerith's tabulating machine, Russian propaganda trains and Tesla's prediction of analytically unimaginable pocket devices - Turing's Enigma-cracking marvel and the conceptualisation of the cloud - to computers and floppy disks, the internet or smartphones, the means by which we communicate have significantly expanded the way we all interact and come to immeasurably alter how society functions through time. The apparatus we have come to commonly use as primary forms of communication has been

Data and communication through time

1995

BIGATA

datum

1928

1967

2020

concentrated through various social medias since the turn of the millennium. Currently, more data has been created in the past two years than in the entire history of humanity aided significantly by these technologies, with Facebook and Twitter users sending on average half a million comments and tweets per minute on each platform44. Do we really want to maintain this practice of interaction that forces polarisation?

44 199

Bernard Marr, "Big Data: 20 Mind-Boggling Facts Everyone Must Read", Forbes, 2015 [Accessed 12 January 2021] 200

Our online voices Post-review and in an effort to better question what direction I took the project from this point, I chose to focus on the more radical political avenue of social media the thesis was alluding to, rather than focus on an understanding of how our social media data works, is utilised and abused, something that would have inevitably formed a more sci-fi based project with minimal rationale or personal representability. I have done this by initially exploring into the idea of protest that stems from our actions online and how these digital undertakings manifest into the street. Behind the veil of the keyboard, social media offers us an escapism from the mundane. We can be and say whatever we want without a seen, or at least immediate, consequence. Influenced by the most powerful in society who write, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts"45 in reaction to minorities protesting for social and racial equality, we argue on our feeds among friends and family about wearing masks or who we voted for in the last election, in turn revealing our most Machiavellian of opinions. Our emotions come to life on these online platforms to create a breeding ground for ferocious political argument, where our posts fuelled with feeling amplify societal polarisation that spills over into the physical realm46. 45 46 201

Donald Trump tweeted this in response to the BLM protests occurring in Minnesota on May 29th 2020 Lina Dencik and Oliver Leistert, Critical Perspectives On Social Media & Protest: Between Control And Emancipation (London: Rowman & Littlefield Intl., 2015), p. 55 202

“We unfriend people on Facebook we don't agree with and ban them from our lives”

Online abuse TEDTalks Cekic in her talk, ‘Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail’47, speaks on the influx of emails that she received once she had become one of the first women of minority background in Danish Parliament in 2007. As a Muslim of Kurdish decent, the contents of the mail were largely of a discriminatory and racist nature, with terms such as ‘raghead’ or ‘terrorist’ ever-present in her inbox. At first, Özlem would ignore and delete these as to not satisfy the views of bigots.

In a similar ilk to Cekic, in his talk, ‘Empathy is not endorsement’48, Marron indicates the flipside to his online success is internet hate. Marron denotes that his work online, such as ‘Unboxing intangible ideologies’ and ‘Every single word’, where he trims popular films to only the words spoken by actors of colour to empirically talk about significant social issues, is commonly met by insensitive slurs and abuse.

However, after encouragement from a friend, she would come to arrange met ups with those who hatefully emailed in an effort to amicably confront and discuss their comments over coffee. After numerous encounters like this, she paradoxically cites the surprising amount of commonalities and prejudices shared with the emailers. Cekic notes how dialogue aided an understanding into the political demonisation of distinct groups and that such face-to-face conciliation acted as a powerful mechanism to disarm intolerance, attaining this is much more constructive than simply unfriending someone who does not align with your views. She concludes by challenging us all to actively engage with others who we disagree with in order to contest the societal rhetoric and recognise the importance of democracy.

47 203

Özlem Cekic, "Why I Have Coffee With People Who Send Me Hate Mail", Ted, 2018 [Accessed 3 January 2021]

However, Marron attains that comment sections are irreflective of our day-to-day-selves and serve as way environment to release anger of the world onto strangers. In response to this, he developed a coping mechanism, simply asking commenters “Why did you write that?”, and inviting them to phone calls in an effort to provoke a cathartic conversation that actively employed change to how people express themselves in their online interactions.

Opposite: Cekic and Marron delivering their TEDTalks

Dylan Marron, "Empathy Is Not Endorsement", Ted, 2018 [Accessed 3 January 2021] 204

Debate in the physical realm Exploring the occupation of the physical realm by digital means, recent protests highlight this further. 2011 in Egypt concluded with the unseating of the incumbent President, Hosni Mubarak, after three decades of reign. Social media in this instance was able to provide opportunities for organisation and protest that traditional methods were not able to offer. Demonstrations gained viral recognition and created discussion on Twitter and Facebook through divisive hashtags such as #revolution and #jan25 (the date of the protest mobilising)49. Similarly and at present in Belarus where civilians are aiming to oust Lukashenko, protesters communicate using secure social media application, Telegram, to organise and spread news about repressions in the country after the state blocked access to standardised digital channels50. This influx of digital traffic has resurfaced itself onto the streets and courtyards of Minsk in the form of local protests, lectures and concerts which facilitate dialogue on topics frequently debated where possible online. Other social subjects such as BLM, COVID-19 and the climate crisis that remain frequently and polemically discussed online, and of late, regularly manifest into protests that occupy the street. Yet where is the designated space we as the public can attempt to productively debate these if not social media? 49 50 205

Maeve Shearlaw, "Egypt Five Years On: Was It Ever A 'Social Media Revolution'?", The Guardian, 2016 [Accessed 5 January 2021] Shaun Walker, "Belarus Protesters Use Telegram", The Guardian, 2020 [Accessed 5 January 2021] 206

As long as there has been a means to communicate, there has been disagreement. Debate can manifests itself as a solution to such, in the Greek agoras and Roman forums of past or Parliaments of now, with revolt and protest the amalgamation of extreme discrepancies or oppression in order to challenge the hegemonic rhetoric. Be it the suffragettes campaigning for the vote or civil rights movement of the 1960s that wages on today in the form of Black Lives Matter - opposition or support to continual war, the breaking down of old physical walls or arguing demagogues on the construction of new ones proposed - climate change activists or marchers without masks, protests act as powerful tools for political change.

Protest and debate through time

2020

pollice verso

1913

1989

1963

2011

Fundamentally, they are about the production and control of space, whether discursive or physically51, aimed at occupying our conversation and the public realm to facilitate collective change. Considering the relation to social media, it is argued that since its introduction, the idea of space has been radically annihilated through resistant practices instigated on digital platforms which marry the idea of discussion with resistance in the physical environment52. A solution seems necessary.

51 52 207

Dencik and Leistert, p. 89 ibid., p. 103 208

Protest (sized)

Mapping protest in context

March (direction) Strike Eldon site

The mapping opposite communicates the relationship between the city and protesters. Illustrated are some of the most recent protests, marches and strikes have been in Newcastle and their location to the vicinity to the Eldon site. The larger-scale protests and demonstrations with a greater social affiliation tend to congregate towards the more open public spaces and focal points, specifically Monument, and locate themselves near the centre of Eldon and the greater populated edges. Marches appear more inclined to either commence or conclude at Monument, likely attributed to its visibility and accessibility in the city. All demonstrations of a more bespoke nature seemingly amass in the proximity of an institution they dispute, for example rail prices outside Central Station and boycott Ashley beside the stadium.

209

1* 2* 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Black Lives Matter (and counter protest), Monument, 2020 Academic Unions for greater pay, The Green, 2019 Fridays for climate change, Civic Centre, 2019 Anti-lockdown/COVID-19, Civic Centre, 2020 Vegans against animal abuse, Haymarket, 2018/19 Boycott Ashley, Sports Direct on Northumberland St, 2019 Against RMT rail prices and cuts, Central Station, 2013Anti-Pegida demonstration, Chinatown, 2015 Anti-Pegida demonstration, Newgate/Grainger St, 2015

1 2 3 4 5 6

Pegida Anti-Islam march, Grainger St/Bigg Market, 2015 Anti-Pegida march between protests, Newgate St, 2015 Pro-LGBT rights, Times Square, annually March up Black Lives Matter, Monument, 2020 EDL March, B1307 beside Eldon, 2017 Boycott Ashley, St James' Park, 2019 but reoccurring

1 *

Newcastle University strikes, Kings Gate, 2019 Demonstrations in location vary

2 9

210

10 Informal discussion

Formal discussion Eldon site

Mapping discussion spaces in context

The purpose of the mapping opposite is to highlight interpretations of formal and informal discussion sites in Newcastle and their location to the vicinity to the Eldon site. While aiming to identify viable platforms for discussion that already exist, this revealed the distinct lack of and utilisation of public and engaging congregation space or accessible spaces specifically designed for dialogue.

6 *

2 *

5 7a

Although precedent of sites designed to entice public engagement have been evident (see images left and red asterisked runs), they are only temporary. When removed, these spaces feel less sociably attractive and stopping to rest or converse is unmistakably less purposeful. They become passing places between destinations or revert back to landmark locations we largely use only to arrange to meet at.

1 3 4

Importantly of note, the most populated of the temporary installations correspond with where the most active sites of protest are in the city, and which also surround the Eldon site, supporting the potential for a proposed intervention location. 4 6

211

1 Monument 2 The Green 3 Pubs (and sporting venues) 4 Grainger Market 5 Times Square 6 Quayside Market 7 Fruit vendors 8 University Campus 9 Civic Centre 10 Heaton graffiti walls

1 Newcastle debate club 2 Northumbria debate club 3 Magistrates Court 4 Quayside Law Courts 5 Churches 6 City Hall 212

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