Appropriate Durable Record Masters of Landscape Architecture RMIT University 2011
(Un)Classified Landscapes
Acknowledgments
While the research and work within this document is my own, I could not have achieved this without the help and support given by tutors, peers and friends. I extend my gratitude to Charles Anderson, Bridgette Keane, Marieluise Jonas and Craig Douglas as well as my fellow peers for helping me find my feet. I also give thanks to Louise Naimo, Leif Helland, Simone Ivkovic, Matthew Anderson, Marina Wilson, Krishnamurti Worthy and Tayo Wilson who assisted in the testing and evaluating of each project making this research trajectory possible. Thank-you
(Un)Classified Landscapes
S3163970
Appropriate Durable Record Masters of Landscape Architecture RMIT University 2011
Executive Summary
(un)Classified Landscapes and the (re)discovery of urban form
(Un)Classified Landscapes Executive Summary
Can we (re)invigorate the spatial dialogue between ourselves and the contemporary metropolis through tailored mediating garments?
1. This concept was revealed through close reading of Juhani Pallasmaa’s essay ‘The Eyes of The Skin: architecture and the senses’ Pallsmaa, J//1996//The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses//John Wiley & Son Ltd
This research investigates the correspondence that exists between ourselves and our surrounding landscape. Through the frame of garments tailored to both the human form as well as specific urban landscapes, the project(s) seek to (re)invigorate the spatial relationship that exists between us (our body and psychology) and those forms which compose the existing built metropolis. This process of making and testing at a scale of 1:1 throughout Melbourne’s Central Business District begins to build an understanding of our personal position within the landscape as generators of space and of spatial change. As inhabitants of this social geography, our habitual retinalbased psychology often blinds our haptic perception and renders us as separate from the diversely fabricated urban landscape. Our subconscious mind flattens the city into a single surface on which we carry out our daily tasks1 forgetting our own position as manipulators of space. As Landscape Architects, we are constantly (re)arranging the existing urban landscape, building onto it our projections of what it should be and overshadowing the spatiality of (and our position within) the built metropolis.
The projects within this research provoke a (re)realization of the conversation that is in constant relay between our bodies and this existing urban landscape. Investigated throughout the work using the physical, temporal medium of garments, spatial knowledge regarding the research is generated at a scale of 1:1 within the urban context. These garments, tailored to the human body (and increasingly throughout the work, to a particular site) distort the boundaries between body and space, allowing the body to graft to the space and in effect, to wear the spatial qualities of the landscape. Through this mediation of body and space, the garments aim to create an engaging dialogue, forcing the two components into an intimate conversation. Through (re)revealing this forgotten dialogue and (re)positioning our bodies as spatial mediums within the existing metropolis this research begins to establish a mode of Landscape Architecture that is focused around the bodyspace; (re)positioning the body within the landscape and forging a corroboration between body and space.
Alice Lewis s3163970
Contents
(Un)Classified Landscapes Contents
Preface _01 Glossary _03
Book One: Concept and Approach
_06
Overview
_09
Introduction into Concept into Approach: Garments as Research into Approach: The Act of Making
Precedent Dictionary 01
_09 _11 _13 _18
Book Two: Research Projects and Explorations
_22
Overview
_25
Chapter One: Project 01: Distorting Perception
_ 27
Chapter Two: Emergence of a Multi-Dimentional Research System Chapter Three: Recording and Mapping Public Engagement Chapter Four: Material of Felt
_35 _37 _39
Precedent Dictionary 02
_41
Chapter Five: Project 02: Body as Machine
_47
Chapter Six: Investigations into Form and Psychology
_53
Precedent Dictionary 03
_56
Chapter Seven: Project 03: Body.Space.Garment
_61
Chapter Eight: The importance of Site
_73
Precedent Dictionary 04
_75
Chapter Nine: Project 04: Wearing Landscapes Chapter Ten: The Body Space
Case Studies
_81 _117 _120
Book Three: Concluding Progression
_126
Progression
_130
Book Four: Apendix of Misunderstood Explorations Overview
Apendix
_132 _135
Book Five: Bibliography and Digital Material References and Bibliography Digital Material
_137
_156 _159 _161
Preface
Pg 01_02 (Un)Classified Landscapes Preface
“In wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that.” Michael Foucault1
Pg _02 1. Michael Foucault// 1889// The Order of Things: An archeology of the Hunam Sciences// New York: Routledge Classics
This research project was born from my initial acquaintance with Michael Foucault’s ‘The Order of Things’. This acquaintance was no more than myself listening in awe to the words of his preface verbalized by another and yet, amid the chaotic and extreme notions put forward through the establishment and ruin of both Utopias and Heterotopias, one is left with an overwhelming awareness of where our world does not fit. Until this introduction between my ear and Foucault’s words occurred I could believe that our world just was. It was that thing that had no other, that could be no other. And yet, when faced with the literary Utopias (spaces in which the lyricism of language clearly defines ‘things’ with names and orders) and the antipodal Heterotopias (the destroyer of all words and their ability to be formulated into any meaningful union) it becomes apparent that our world rests in neither. Our communal strive for Utopia has halted our progression forward. We have achieved classification
and yet the contentedness with this framework where we reside has ridded our ability to ever think within another system. We are stuck: impregnated with the pre-established knowledge of our own social geography; dividing and classifying the world (the compilation of all ‘things’) without question or indeed even the ability to redefine the magnitude of components within any other frame other than that through which we inherently operate. My acquaintance with the literature of Foucault has remained brief but influential. Similar to the words of Borges resounding through the mind of Foucault, providing the catalyst for the realization of ‘The Order of Things’ in turn Foucault’s own words embedded themselves in mine. This intrusion of my thought syntax, this rude disruption of my unconscious mind was the foundation on which this subsequent research and document came into being.
Glossary
A Dictionary of Terms
Pg 03_04 (Un)Classified Landscapes Glossary
Pg_06 The definitions stated here are based on the use of each word within the context of this research. While most of the definitions have been developed throughout the course of the research itself, all are referenced against the those found in the Oxford Dictionary.
Making Body Form of a human being, our The act of physically constructing form in order to develop personal perceptive tool. knowledge or ideas. Classification The act of arranging or organizing Mediate Intervene in a situation in which into classes to reconcile or engage one or more parties. Context A set of ideas or circumstances that surround a particular space. Model A constructed representation of a moment or idea for the mind Conversation Space The space that exists between to build upon. Models exist as two forms. i.e. building and body. single entities completely subject to human intervention. Dialogue The spatial and sensory Perception correspondence between forms. The act of apprehending by means of the senses or the mind; cognition; Understanding. Environment The world that surrounds us, both constructed and Perceive To become aware of, know or unreconstructed. identify by means of the senses. Existing Precedent Preestablished. Previously developed works carried out by persons influencing Follie Tactile, Transient medium the path or methodology of constructed at a scale of 1:1 that design. is respondent to the environment Projection that surrounds it. The act of applying knowledge to an idea or form. Gestalt One form that cannot be divided into smaller forms. A true form. Process A series of actions taken in order to create a physical form or an Haptic Process or outcome relating to idea. the senses, particularly that of touch.
Reachability The area one body can work with devoid of external aid e.g. ladders. Realize Made as a scale of 1:1 Research The act of acquiring knowledge about relevant facts or theories through investigation in order to draw informed conclusions. Scale Size in relation to actual dimensions. In this document it is often referred to in comparison to the body. Site Portion of the Landscape segregated from the context for particular purpose Social Geography A context inclusive of all things attributing to its existence. Urban Landscape The combination of the formal and spatial aspects of a built metropolis.
Pg 05_06 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
Book One
Pg 07_08 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
Concept and Approach
Overview of Book One
Pg 09_10 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
This preliminary portion of this document is critical to the fluid interpretation of the work as a whole. Book One has been established in order to provide an understanding of both the overall research topic and approach used throughout. This research has been established to gain and provide an insight into the conversation at constant play between our bodies and the existing metropolitan landscape. The approach used has also acted as a gateway into a personal understanding of my own position and practice within the discipline of Landscape Architecture focusing on the body scale.
Introduction Into Concept
Pg 11_12 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
Pg _11 Fig.1. Spatial Investigation of site detailed in Wearing Landscapes Pg_12 1. Pallsmaa, J//1996//The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses//John Wiley & Son Ltd//15 2. Loidl, H and Bernard, S //2003//Opening Spaces: Design as Landscape Architecture// Boston, MA: Birkhause 3. Pallsmaa, J// The Eyes of the Skin//42
This research project seeks to (re)invigorate the spatial relationship that operates between our own human form (our body and our psychology) and those elements that compose the existing urban landscape. Through a series of projects realized in the physical research medium of garments it begins to generate an understanding of the dialogue between body and space, (re)establishing the body as a notion of space manipulation. These garments, tailored to the human body and increasingly to a specific site within Melbourne’s Central Business District operate as mediating devices between the two forms; (re) revealing forgotten dialogue and (re)positioning the body within the urban landscape. Throughout this research, there emerges a particular mode of landscape architecture that focuses on the body-space; (re)positioning the body within the landscape, celebrating the existing and forging a corroboration between body and space. There exists, in western culture a tendency to experience the world from a dominantly retinal perspective1. As inhabitants of this social geography, our habitual retinal-based psychology often obscures our haptic perception, rendering us as mere spectators within the diversely fabricated urban landscape in which
we operate. We rely on the projection of previously gained knowledge onto the surface of ‘recognized’ form in order to position ourselves within a certain context. In the publication ‘Opening Spaces’ Loidl & Bernard state: “The search for connections is an essential part of the world around us. It happens every second with every glance. We work on a number of individual pieces of information and sensory impressions, constantly and automatically searching for units that we recognize because of prior experience.”2 While this retinal hierarchy is a vital part of our current mode of operation (and is arguably essential if one has any hope of achieving anything) it denominates the vast array of sensory experiences that create ‘space’ and position us as observers rather than producers of the landscape. “Vision reveals what touch already knows…our eyes stroke distant surfaces, contours and edges and the unconscious tactile sensation determines the agreeableness or unpleasantness of the experience. The distant and the near are experienced with the same intensity and they merge into one coherent surface.”3
As Landscape Architects we are constantly (re)arranging the existing urban landscape, building onto it our projections of what it should be and often discounting the fantastic spatiality of the existing contemporary metropolis. This research, conducted through follies as garments that mediate between body and space, (re) invigorates our engagement with this existing urban landscape. Through the use of increasingly site-specific garments it aims to make one feel the space with all the senses and generate knowledge on a scale of 1:1 regarding the relationship that exists between the two forms. It is the aim of this research to determine the possibility of (re) introducing the body to the landscape, forging an intimate engagement in order to (re) establish the body as a sensory receptor. This research then generates knowledge through which we may begin (re)thinking the current urban realm and how this may generate new approaches within the discipline of Landscape Architecture with a focus on the body space as a parallel component to built form.
Into Approach: Garments as Research
Pg 13_14 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
Pg _14 1. koda, H//2001//Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed. 5th ed//New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art//8
The projects within this research aim to (re)invigorate the dialogue between the human body and the existing city scape. The following document details the exploration of this concept through the making and testing of mediating garments. These garments are physical, spatial machines for generating knowledge at a scale of one:one. They are body-scaled for researching the body-scale, realized and constructed so as to react and mediate between the two forms of body and landscape in question. While these garments have been designed, made and tested within the discourse of landscape architecture the fundamental properties of apparel still support and surround their being. Generated through a pattern derived from spatial qualities within particular landscape scenarios the garments form malleable, transient research tools. Based around the disguise of costume and the notion that
“through the artifice of apparel the less than perfect can camouflage perceived deficiencies and in some instances project an appeal for beyond those gifted with characteristics accepted as ideal in their culture and time.�1 These garments begin to act as costumes of the landscape. The garments allow the body and the landscape to simultaneously project views of their own form, blurring the boundaries between and forcing the two into intimate conversation. While each body is subject to an individual interpretation of this conversation, it is the intention of the garment to mediate the dialogue between the body and the metropolis, generating an appreciation of the existing urban form. For this purpose, these garments are temporal in their ability to be shifted; carried through space and time, corroborated in part
by the human body and in part by the existing landscape (with varying levels of site specificity) yet leaving no physical trance on either party. These transient garments, existing as realized research mediums, form the basis of research throughout this work. The construction and testing of each resulting in subsequent investigations in order to better inform the research in regards to notions of body and site as well as my own position within the discourse of Landscape Architecture.
Into Approach: The Act of Making
Pg 15_16 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book One
Pg_15 Garment as Follie corroborated by both body and site. Pg _16 1. Pallsmaa, J//1996//The Eyes of the Skin//15 2. Calvino, I//1974//Invisible Cities//Great Britain: CPI Cox and Wyman//28 3. Borges cited by Pallsmaa// 1996//14
Throughout this research the garments are positioned within the model medium of ‘follie’. While follies do rest in part within the medium of ‘model’ during the course of the project a separation of the two concepts has arisen and as a result a short definition of how each is situated through this body of work is given here: In the context of this research, models are defined as forms brought into existence as projected representations of thoughts that are built. They exist as an entity unto themselves, while remaining subject to the force of human intervention. They operate as abstracted machines or scaled depictions surrounding ideal thoughts forming a platform for the mind to build upon. They are both a valued and necessary component of design. “Model making puts the designer into haptic contact with the object or space. In our imagination, the object is simultaneously held in the hand and inside the head, and the imagined and projected image is modelled
by our bodies. We are inside and outside the object at the same time.” 1 The fundamental flaw of models within this particular body of work comes into fruition with the notion that they exist as a singular object. While models are malleable through human force and decision, they remain stationary amidst the fluctuating space in which they exist. This notion is perhaps best conveyed by Italo Calvino’s depiction of Fedora: “In every age, someone looking at Fedora as it was imagined a way of making it the ideal city. But while he constructed his miniature model, Fedora was no longer the same as it was before and what had, until yesterday been a possible future for the city became only a toy in a glass globe.”2 Follies, on the other hand, are situated somewhere in the void between the ‘real’ and the ‘(re) presented’. They are neither and both at the same time: transient, dynamic, spatial tools existing in constant conversation with the environment in which they
are positioned. Like the model they come into being through a human projection of an idea. However, unlike models, follies rely on the surrounding context in order to operate. Similarly to the taste of the apple being in the contact of the fruit with the palate rather than in the fruit itself3 follies derive their meanings and form from the interaction with the surrounding landscape, built upon it as realized representations. Through this frame the garments constructed throughout this research project operate as follies. They are one:one scale forms coexisting with a body and a space; able to be moved to and through any landscape, adapting to changing conditions. This project, therefore, is conducted through follies, as garments, as research.
Precedent Dictionary Part 01
Pg 17_18 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
Precedent Dictionary Part 01
Precedent Dictionary Part 01
Vivienne Westwood
Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871
“The only reason I’m in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity’. Nothing is interesting to me unless it has that element.” - Vivienne Westwood1 The British fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood takes the familiar elements of garments and warps them to create extremities in both frames of form and culture. Similar to the apparel of Westwood, the (re) creation and (re)framing of the familiar in order to provoke new trains of thought is a strong underlying notion within this overall body of research.
Pg 19_20 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be as it is because everything would be as it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be and what it wouldn’t be it would. You see?” -Lewis Carroll2 This text operates in part as a story and part as an illustration of the ability to rearrange the literary world. This project was born form the question: how can this notion be paralleled within the context of realized form? How can we begin to (re)think the way we operate?
Landschaftspark Nord
Duisburg
Latz & Partner 1991
A park created between the formwork of an disused steel smelting plant. At first glance, the most predominant aspect is the juxtaposition between scales. Then comes the realization that this colossal industrial space is beautiful, almost sublime. Both are fascinating in the sense that bodies, the same as the one you are in, constructed the giant towers that ascend into the sky above you. It is real and unreal at the same time. To achieve this notion within the city grid is something this project strives to achieve.
Rainbow Church
Public Receptors
Tokujin Yoshioka 2010
Gabi Schillig 2009
This installation at MUSEUM. BeyondMuseum in Seoul, Korea lets the body feel light with all the senses. The form itself is a single stain glass constructed of 500 glass prisms. These prisms refract light causing a rainbow of colour while also slitting and distorting any view through the window itself. This disconnects the body from the external world. The experience becomes inward, focused on just the body and psychology of the individual in combination with the light that surrounds it.
While the work of German “Space is all one space, and Architect Gabi Schillig has thought is all one thought, influenced the research of this but my mind divides spaces project to a large degree, there into spaces into spaces and are some intrinsic differences. thoughts into thoughts These lie mainly within the into thoughts. Like a large classification of the devised used. condominium. Occasionally Where the structures of Schillig I think about the one space take on an almost architectural and the one thought, but property allowing habitation usually I don’t. Usually I think of space, those in this research about my condominium.” project are focused more - Andy Warhol1 toward challenging perception While this text by painter, print and (re)positioning rather than maker, filmmaker and writer habitation of space. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is highly personal in regard to his views it remains a catalyst within the frame of this project for (re) thinking the existing.
The Philosophy Warhol
of
Andy
Andy Warhol 1972
Pg _19 1. Westwood cited in Wilcox, C// 2004//Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion//London: V&A Publications//7 2. Carroll, L//1871//Through The Looking Glass//London: Hamlyn Classics Dragon Press Ltd//114 Fig. (1): MiniCrini, 1985 available in Wilcox//2004//73 Fig. (2): Personal (re)presentation of Alice Through the Looking Glass. Fig. (3): Latz + Partner//2002// available at: www.latzund Pg _20 1. Warhol, A//1975//The philosophy of Andy warhol: From A to B and Back Again//Harcourt Brace Jovanovich//115 Fig. (1): Yoshioka//2010//available at: www.tokujin.com/en Fig. (2): Public Receptors//Schillig//2009//70 Fig. (3): Lo Slavoco//2007// available at: www.rusynacademy.sk/eng/andy
Pg 21_22 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
Book Two
Pg 23_24 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
Research Projects and Explorations
Overview of Book Two
Pg 25_26 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
Operating through the notions of concept and approach put forth in Book One this second part details the design, construction, testing and outcomes of the projects themselves. It also expands on further explorations provoked by the outcomes of each project. These subsequent explorations have been carried out in order to inform the proceeding project(s). This book simultaneously details the opportunity for myself to begin to directly apply previously gained knowledge from a time spent in the disciplines of fashion and costume into the research itself.
Chapter One
Project 01: Distorting Perception
Design and Construction This project marks the first realized iteration of (Un) Classified Landscapes. It is the pilot of the physical research mediums. The intent surrounding the design and construction of this initial modular garment is the altering of our current perception through enhancing and/or reducing sensory engagement with the existing landscape. It was proposed that the wearer would (re)arrange the garment in relation to certain environmental conditions they wished to enhance or subdue and as a result distort the familiar into the unfamiliar in order to trigger new trains of thought. Through this frame the
Pg 27_28 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
garment was constructed as a modular and non-site-specific system. The wearer could (and deemed would) detach and (re) attach the combination of thirtythree felt equilateral triangles of equal size through a systematic arrangement of heavy-duty press-studs. This design provided the opportunity to manipulate the sensory receptors of the individuals’ body. The Ultimate aim was considered to be the re-perceiving of existing form in order to provoke (re)use and ultimately (re)classification of those forms that compose the existing contemporary metropolis.
Pg _28 The modular garment designed to be the interface between this particular body and the existing urban metropolis.
Chapter One Project 01: Distorting Perception
Testing the Dialogue Upon completion of the garment it was handed to a body and tested within Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD) at a various locations. Each location represented a different formal composition resulting in a range of spatial qualities. Documented through the mediums of observation and photography, information regarding the dialogue at play between the body and the urban form emerged in various situations and configurations.
Pg 29_30 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
Pg _30 Testing path of the project focusing on the five testing locations
Chapter One Project 01: Distorting Perception
During the testing process the body and the garment were introduced to five spaces within the Melbourne CBD. As stated, these spaces covered a broad cross-section of the existing spatial typologies and demographics within the urban fabric. It is important to note that while these spaces were established as destinations for the project prior to the testing, they were never approached as ‘sites’. Rather they exist within the research as components representing Melbourne as the testing ground for the realization of this project and those which were to proceed.
Pg 31_32 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
SITE 01 RMIT BOOKSHOP Time: 10.00 am Weather: Cloudy. 16 Degrees Mood: slightly uneasy. attracting attention
SITE 02 MELBOURNE CENTRAL SHOPPING CENTRE Time: 10.30 am Weather: Cloudy. 17 Degrees Mood: timid, exposed
SITE 03 MYER OVERHEAD WALKWAY Time: 10.40 am Weather: Cloudy. 15 Degrees Mood: relaxed, secluded
SITE 04 COLLINS ST SIDEWALK Time: 11.30 am Weather: Partly Cloudy 16 Degrees Mood: quite uneasy/people avoid
SITE 05 BOURKE ST PEDESTRIAN MALL Time: 11.00 am Weather: Partly Cloudy. 16 Degrees Mood: attracting much attention.
Chapter One Project 01: Distorting Perception
Evaluating the Follie While the garment itself proved quite ill informed, the process of testing this follie revealed a series of unrealized aspects regarding the research and the project as a whole. The primary notion that arose was the intricacy and confusion of the modular structure itself. The time needed to assemble the limitless configurations projected the focus of the driving body towards the corroboration of the body and the garment rather than the conversation between the body and the space through the garment. More often than not the garment was worn as an item of apparel. While this was perhaps a downfall on the side of sensory research it provoked a closer investigation into individual forms, psychology and public inhibitions (Chapter 6). When the conversation between the Pg 33_34 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
body and space did come into play it was often surrounding the notions of anchorage and habitation rather than the (re) use of form. Another significant aspect that arose from this process of making and testing was the revelation regarding the multiple layers that this follie traversed. Originally viewed as a machine for generating knowledge of the dialogue between the body, garment and formal space, it soon became evident these parts did not exist as three separate components. Rather, each were compartmentalized, some overlapping into the realm of others. Through this follie both the complexity of the urban landscape and the relationships within began to be revealed through the frame of public engagement.
Pg _34 Fig.1. The complexity of the structure drew attention away from the space and focused it on the body:garment correspondence. Fig.2. Body anchoring into the urban fabric through the modular arrangements. Fig.3. The obscurity of the garment lent itself to notions of habitation. Fig.4. Once arranged on the body the garment was often worn as a conventional garment.
Chapter Two
Emergence of a Multi- Dimensional Research System
Throughout the exploration of the previous project ‘Distorting Perception’ fundamental differences began to emerge between the investigative criteria of the research and the composition of the metropolitan landscape as a whole. While the previous project was focusing on the interaction of the body with existing urban form, there emerged a high level of unexpected public interaction which had a great affect on the body within the garment and subsequently, the garment itself. Until this point in the research there project had been divided
Pg 35_36 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
into three components of Body, Garment and Urban Landscape. Yet through the previous follie a fourth aspect emerged: one of public engagement. Further along in the research this categorization system was disrupted completely. This is attributed to the culmination of projects and subsequent outcomes and is expanded on in Chapter Ten.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
SPACE
GARMENT
BODY
Chapter Three
Recording and Mapping Public Engagement
Leading on from the previous exploration, recording public engagement became a seemingly vital component in the testing and evaluation of each garment. For the purposes of a grounded investigation, the level of engagement between the wearer of the garment and members of the general public was divided into four main categories. These were:
These categories were derived from the initial investigative garment. Data collected through this categorization system was intended to be of a quantitative nature and only cover a sample population (those that come within the testing ground). It would, however, provide insight into the affect of the garment upon those people not directly involved with the follie. This recording of public (1) not noticing engagement proved impossible (2) viewing without halting to quantify though similarly movement to the preceding exploration (3) viewing and pausing of Chapter Two, this was not movement discovered until the completion (4) viewing, pausing and verbally of the fourth project and as interacting. a result is expanded upon in Chapter Ten.
Pg 37_38 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
Pg _38 The levels of public engagement divided into four parts depending on nodes of interaction. The fundamental flaw of this diagram is that it assumes the levels of engagement build onto each other and does not allow for a cross-combination.
Level Four
Retinal _visual observation
Level Three
Verbal _spoken engagement
Level Two
Movement _pausing
Movement _walking
Level One
Chapter Four Material of Felt
The material of felt has been used rigorously throughout all the projects that compose this research project. The 3mm thick, duel fibre (80% wool, 20% polyester) meshed fabric was originally employed for the construction of Distorting Perception after a series of short investigations into other material possibilities and has continued to be employed since. The fabric was originally chosen for its strength, durability, insulating properties and poor drape resulting in the fabric somewhat supporting the garments own identity. The garment relied on the body for support yet still maintained a component of its own form, positioning the garment a separate organism to the body. There was also an appealing anti-frey property which made the original triangular design possible.
Pg 39_40 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Two
While the original intent of these research projects was to engage a range of different fabrics and techniques in order to inform the research, it soon became evident that maintaining one constant fabric type would allow the focus of the project to be upon the dialogue between the body and space through the garment and not on the garment itself. The resulting challenge of manipulating the project material into the shapes and needs of proceeding construction initiatives also supports the concepts behind the overall research. Indeed, the selection of materials to represent landscape aspects could be assigned to an entire research project in itself.
Surface Scale Cuticle
Cortical Cell
WOOL FIBRE
Medulla (air space)
Polyester
POLYESTER FIBRE
Needle Mesh Blended Fibres
FABRIC STRUCTURE
Pg _40 This page details the makeup of Felt to provide a background of the general structure of the fabric.
Coarse Plain Weave
Precedent Dictionary Part 02
Pg 41_42 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
Precedent Dictionary Part 02
Precedent Dictionary Part 02
Pg 43_44 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
Metapolis Ballet
Four Bodies - Weight
Nexus Architecture
Zaha Hadid Architects 1999-2007
Franz Erhald Walter 1968
Lucy Orta 1993-1998
“Weaving a topography of different layers in different materials, metapolis evokes rhythms of the city - creating a fluid, hybrid ‘breathing space’ that coincides with the movements of dancers through...choreography.” -Zaha Hadid1 Through the combination of architecture and dance the human body has been transformed into a visibly spatial medium. Similar to the approach taken thought this research project, the body becomes the simultaneous maker and occupier of space.
“I am the sculpture” -Franz Erhald Walter2 Parallel to the views of this project, the textile sculptures produced by the German artist perceive the viewier as part of the work. The spectators become generators of space.
“Art can react in many forms. It can challenge our feelings about ourselves and our bodies, and challenge our beliefs in the social structures and values around us. My work breaks down barriers between clothing and architecture to remove many of the limitations they represent and with the intention of eventually leading to some sort of transformation.” -Lucy Orta3 While the base motives of Orta’s work intertwine with those of this research project the dominance of shelter within Orta’s structures renders them separate.
Pg _43 1. Zaha Hadid Architects// Metapolis Ballet// www.zahahadid.com/design/metapolisballet//accessed: 20.08.2011 2. Walther. F cited in Schillig G.//2009//Mediating Space: Soft Geometries, Textile Structures, Body Architecture// Stttgart: Akademie Schloss Solitude//12 3. Orta cited in Quinn. B//2003// The Fashion of Architecture// Oxford: Berg Fig.(1): Metapolis//1999// available at: www.zaha-hadid. com/design/metapolis-ballet Fig.(2): Franz Erhard Walther, Four Bodies (Weight), number 31 from 1.Werksatz, 1967, cotton Fig.(3): Nexus Architecture// 1996//available in: Quinn. B// The Fashion of Archicture Pg _44 1. Pearl cited by Stern, A//1993// Verbal Abuse: A Corset Moment With Pearl//Issue 3: New Religions Fig.(1): The Talented Mr. Pearl//1980//available at: http://lebeaubrummell. blogspot.com Fig.(2): Plug-In City//1964// available at: http:// edwardlifson.blogspot. com/2009 Fig.(3): Divisor/Divider//1968// Available in Schillig.G// Mediating Space//2009
Mr. Pearl
Walking City
Divisor/Divider
1997
Archigram 1964
Lygia Pape 1968
“Of course the waist-size magic-number is eighteen. Any number below eighteen becomes extremely potent - yes I would say magical. The smallest I have known is thirteen, so the numbers between 13 and 18 are very potent, each denoting some ultimate point.” -Mr.Pearl 1 Apparel can manipulate the body, changing the physical shape temporarily to achieve a desired image of the self. This artifice has remained evident throughout this research project through the use of apparel as the main research medium.
As a project of the avant-garde architectural group of the 1960’s Archigram, Walking City introduces the idea of creating new realities built within the familiar. This project was purely speculative, formed from a desire to quell the mundane view toward the march of modernity. Yet in its conceptualization as a fantastical machine there appeared a blatant disregard for social infrastructure. People became nothing more than objects processed through this giant, transformative machine.
As part of the neo-concrete movement of the 1950’s the work of Lygia Pape introduces ideas surrounding the creation of constantly evolving forms. This particular project (pictured above) is formed out of a simple piece of cloth and challenges notions surrounding human engagement and sensory experiences.
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Chapter Five
Project 02: Body as Machine
Design and Construction The garment for Body as Machine never reached physical completion, nor was it ever tested within the urban landscape. This garment was designed and partly constructed with the intent of better understanding the dialogue of a human body in corroboration with the selected garment material of felt. This material was selected, among other properties, for its poor drape resulting in the existence of its own structural form and has been employed as the base material in all garments within this research. This particular garment was forged from the scraps of that which preceded it (Project 01: Distorting Perception) using a sew-as-you-go method of
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creation. This arbitrary and highly unsystematic formulation of the garment led to the realization of a garment resembling a conventional spray-suit. The process was halted when it was revealed this structure was unconsciously tailored to the human form. This led to a very bias investigation surrounding the ability of felt to be moulded into the human form rather than analysing the dialogue between the two. The body had become the driver both in construction and testing. The body had, in effect, become the machine.
Pg _48 The arbitrary process of making that unconsciously resulted in the familiar emerging from the unfamiliar.
Chapter Five Project 02: Body as Machine
Testing the Dialogue This garment was never completed. It exists still in a halfmade form, yet never-the-less was tested upon a body in order to understand and inform the research through the frame of the body:garment interface. It was not, as can be seen from the image (right) tested within the urban context. This process involved a body dressing itself in the garment and an observatory and photographic study of the process revealed moulding and manipulation of each form in relation to the physicalities of the other.
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Pg _50 The main concept that was revealed throughout this testing process was the process of getting dressed.
Chapter Five Project 02: Body as Machine
Evaluating the Follie The outcome was, as previously stated, a process of dressing. When the garment was positioned on the body it began to move as the body moved; shifting and twisting with the body inside. While there always remained a few minor components of the garment which upheld a slightly separate being (note the elongated legs and sleeves) the majority of the garment succumbed to the command of the body. Similar to a conventional item of apparel, this garment allowed the body to become its machine.
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Pg _52 The garment moved with the body, driven by it, yet still held a resemblance of materiality
Chapter Six
Investigations into Form and Psychology
The combination of the last project, still existing in semicompletion, as well as the preceding studies led to this exploration regarding form of individual bodies and their accompanying psychology. This investigation was carried out through a short intervention focusing on individual’s interpretation of public decency and personal necessity. Each participant was provided with the same set of six fabric pieces and the instructions to dress themselves for the public realm. Observing the completion of each garment, while there remained variation within the aesthetic embellishments there was also a underlying consistency. There appeared a seemingly automated uniformity in the obscuring of those areas deemed as ‘private.’
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This short intervention led to the conclusions that the garments constructed for the purposes of researching the conversation between the body and the landscape should be versatile in their ability to be ‘worn’ as with each of our physiologies there comes a set of individual necessities that we require in order to operate. There is also a level of considered ‘social decency’ that must be maintained in order for the body to feel comfortable enough to focus on the relationship between body and space instead of solely the image of self being projected onto the external landscape.
Pg _54 Accessory
Garment Area
Areas commonly concealed
This short intervention was carried out on a series of bodies and mapped to draw comparisons of individual interpretation.
Precedent Dictionary Part 03
Pg 55_56 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
Precedent Dictionary Part 03
Precedent Dictionary Part 03
Pg 57_58 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
City Slivers
New Look
Holocaust Memorial
Gordon Matta-Clark 1976
Christian Dior 1947
P. Eisenman & B. Happold 2005
The american-born artist/ architect commented on social views through the deconstruction of built form. The carved building above represents both the decay of the American city as well as the idea that ‘The American Dream’ was evaporating. Through the lens of (Un)Classified Landscapes the interpretation of this work rests in the new outlooks that are produced - the disruption to the everyday outlook as a result of this physical destruction of familiar built form.
The garments of the New Look collection operated as representations of society; a reflection of the notions of freedom and embellishment after the demise of the German Occupation of WWII. The power of clothing to promote societal change is a concept evident throughout this research project.
Through the combination of engineered topography and two thousand, seven hundred and eleven concrete ‘stele’ this solid landscape, upon human interaction becomes a space of intense and extreme sensorial chaos. The body becomes immersed in the site, disorientated in its encounter with the unexpected within the expected. It is this sensorial aspect of space that forms part of the underlying motives of this research project.
Arkadius
Pg _57 Fig.(1): City Slivers//1976// available at: http:// maisdjenniferc.blogspot. com/2010/06/gordon-mattaclark Fig.(2): Miss Dior//Richard Aveon//1957//available at: http://misscherie.tumblr.com Fig.(3): Personal Photograph Pg _58 Fig.(1): Remote Control Dress//2001//available at: Quinn. B//2003// The Fashion of Architecture// Oxford: Berg Fig.(2): Timber Seat//1994// available at: http://www.west8. nl/projects/ Fig.(3): Vision Plan for Paris// http://www. philosophyandthecity.org
Arkadius creates forms that are classed as garments, yet extend far beyond the conventional bounds of the body. In his designs, the human form becomes merely the driver for the vast parasitic structures that seem to develop a life of their own. While the work of Arkadius does delve into the notion of changing the approach of everyday ideals, it does so through a very onedimensional passage: that of a singular religious group. Through this approach the work is geared towards blurring the void between our own emotions (both singular being and collectively) of tragedy, loss and that of the after world.
Timber Seat
Vision Plan for Paris
West 8 1994
Le Corbusier 1925
The timber bench designs developed by West 8 in the 1990’s and (re)appropriated since, introduce the concept of a bench as a meeting place. It is a scaled space inviting the body to take ownership of the space. The garments created throughout this project operate on the same basis - producing a versatile intimate meeting point between the body and the external landscape.
This utopian city plan was a bi-product of the urban influx and consequential housing shortage of post-war France. It was intended to house three million inhabitants in a perfect grid formation of multiple glass towers. The precision with which the this idea was laid out on the ground, the complete methodology and practicality could be likened to men’s tailoring. The flaw of this structural system, however, was it’s incompatibility with the social and human needs of the city. Somewhere amidst the translation from a perfectly tailored city to a realizable project this dialogue was silenced and as a result the metropolis remains, still, an unbuilt utopian idea.
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Chapter Seven
Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
Design and Construction The intent of this garment began as an expansion on the previous realized Body as Machine. The fundamental difference arises through the expansion of the focus area. Where the preceding project was focused on the interface between body and garment, Project 03 is constructed through the analytical frame of revealing the correspondence between body and space through the garment in relation to tendencies of inter-connectivity. Throughout the testing process however, it operates almost in parallel to its preceding in that it reveals more about the body:garment relationship than the dialogue between all three.
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Designed and made as a single module with no apparent mode of wearing, the occupying body has complete control over both the placement and operation of the garment. The form is constructed of felt in two colours to allow for the differentiation between inside and out, allowing a clean exposure of the manipulation of the garment by the body. The physical structure of the garment itself also includes a number of notions (zippers, eyelets and press-studs) in order to test their influence on the garment itself as well as methods though which to augment the garment with the landscape. This testing of physical properties and the interface between body and structure involuntarily became the recorded testing. As a result, the initial motive of (re)realizing the conversation that relayed between all three components was somewhat overshadowed.
Pg _62 Pattern drawn for the construction of the garment. The variations in cutting techniques and various notions were added to allow a close investigation of the effect of each on the garment, body and landscape.
Chapter Seven Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
Testing the Dialogue Similar to the first project within this series, the garment was given to a body and taken to a range of locations within the Melbourne CBD. These sites bore no system of hierarchy in terms of specificity to the project but rather represented a range of spatial qualities through which to traverse the city grid. In each space the body wore, manipulated, discovered and removed the garment. Each location brought new ideas and opportunities to the overall research trajectory.
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Pg _64 Plan of the testing path, focusing on the four sites chosen. Each site has a different spatial characteristics in order to gain an informed view of how the garment could begin mediating between.
Chapter Seven Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
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SITE 01 ARGOS BUILDING La Trobe and Elizabeth Street Time: 02.30pm Weather: Cloudy. 19 Degrees Mood: confusion. attracting attention
SITE 02 DREWERY LANE Time: 03.00 pm Weather: Cloudy. 19 Degrees Mood: gaining confidence experimental
Chapter Seven Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
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SITE 03 CHINATOWN Lt. Bourke and Russel Streets Time: 03.40 pm Weather: Cloudy. 17 Degrees Mood: timid but curious
SITE 04 RMIT ALUMNI COUTYARD Old Melbourne Gaol Time: 04.05 pm Weather: Cloudy. 18 Degrees Mood: Highly playful Seemingly comfortable
Chapter Seven Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
Evaluating the Follie Throughout the testing procedure of this garment, and that of the preceding garments, there arose a flaw within the projects to date. There was revealed a fundamental fault, an absence, an overall detachment between the garment and the surrounding landscape. Designed to generate knowledge regarding the dialogue between the body and the existing landscape, this project disregarded the discipline through which it was framed. Existing as a non-sitespecific module the garment became almost an architectural shelter similar to those produced by such Body Architects as Gabi Shillig and Lucy Orta.
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Aside from this discovery, throughout the process of testing and evaluating the garment aspects of movement and attachment began to emerge on a repetitive basis. The most predominant (and possibly quite obvious, though which had remained understated throughout the previous projects) was the ability of the body to transform the garment from a two-dimensional, dormant object into a moving, shifting organism. The structure was in part supported by the body within and in part by its own structural integrity. Once supported as such, however, the magnitude and variety of notational embellishments employed in the construction of the garment itself began to cause a confusion of possibilities similar to that experienced by the body and modular structure of project 01.
Pg _70 Fig.1. Explorations into the transformation of the garment into a living organism. Fig.2. The confusion experienced through notational embellishment.
Chapter Seven Project 03: Body.Garment.Space
The obscuring of sight to release public inhibitions to varying degrees became a recurring event on all sites as did the anchorage properties of the garment itself. The process of making and testing revealed many structural findings regarding the reliance of the garment on the body, the repetition of movement and the obscuring of sight to release public inhibition. This particular project also demonstrated the necessity of ‘site’ in grounding the research as an informative tool within the discipline of Landscape Architecture.
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Pg _72 Fig.1. Ideas on the obstruction of sight to release public inhibition Fig.2. Body and Garment anchoring into the urban landscape Fig.3. Attempting to understand the residue of impact left the garment, landscape and body by the other.
Chapter Eight
The Importance of ‘Site’
Until this point the notion of a specific ‘site’ had not featured within the research. Melbourne’s Central Business District had lent itself as a testing ground yet no specific location had been adhered to with any sort of rigour. In light of the previous projects and the recurring operation of garment as an architectural infrastructure, ‘site’ became a necessary constant for undertaking a grounded investigation as well as testing and positioning the research. Through the establishment of one site a pattern could be tailored to both the body and site. Instead of being an abstracted idea built into a realized form, the garment would be the combined product of a matrix of spatial qualities. Through the frame the garments would become costumes of the chosen location. The body could
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be clothed in a physical depiction of the spatial qualities of site with the ability to anchor into a particular selected surface. This site specific method of generating the form of the garment from the space would ultimately allow for a (re) invigorated mergence of the boundaries of body and space. This intimate engagement will ultimately (re)position the body as a special receptor within the contemporary metropolis.
Pg _74 An investigation into disconnectedness of garment, body and site within the realized projects thus far.
Precedent Dictionary Part 04
Pg 75_76 (Un)Classified Landscapes Precedent Dictionary
Precedent Dictionary Part 04
Precedent Dictionary Part 04
Diana, Prindess of Wales Parco Rubattino PGT Milano Memorial Fountain
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Gustafson Porter 2004
2006
While there is not adherence to the medium of textiles within this design, the folding of the landscape and the pleating and scrunching of the concrete in the fountain links the two disciplines together. This project, among many designed and realized by Gustafson Porter seems to approach the land as a sheet of cloth, manipulating and embellishing to achieve desired effects and resultant affects.
Constructed beneath a multlilane raised freeway in the Northeast of Milan, Italy, this park enhances the existing infrastructure to gigantic proportions through the use of water as a reflective mechanism. While there are many other elements within the design of the park itself, it is the simplicity and phenomenology of this aspect that is of influence to this research. Through the use of the familiar material of water, the familiar element of a freeway is thrust into new and distorted dimensions.
Gego
“Gego used lines as conceptual and visual tools to create in-between spaces within her works. Whether drawing lines on paper or projecting them into space, the artist sought to make visible the invisible. She believed that line could express what is not physically present in nature––including thought, intuition, and emotions. By manipulating the density of the lines or by interrupting them, she brought light, shadow, and feeling into her linear works.” -M.Carmenn1
Pg _77 1. M.Carmen Ramírez, C. de Zegher, R.Storr, and J. Manrique //2006//Between Transparency and the Invisible// Houston Museum of Fine Arts Fig.(1): Diana, Prindess of Wales Memorial Fountain// available at: www.urban75.org/london/ hyde-park-london.html Fig.(2): Unknown Places// available at: http://milanop h o t o g a l l e r y.w o r d p r e s s . com/2008/04/28/unknownplaces-parco-rubattino Fig.(3): reticularea// available at: http://.tumblr.com/gegoreticularea-1969 Pg _78 1. Hussein Chalayan cited by Quinn //2003// The Fashion of Architecture//Oxford: Berg//122 2. Yohji Yamamoto recorded in The Talks (31/08/2011). Full transcript availible at: http:// the-talks.com/interviews/yohjiyamamoto/ Fig.(1): Remote Control Dress//2001//available at: Quinn. B//2003// The Fashion of Architecture// Oxford: Berg Fig.(2): Yamamoto// available at: http://yeonsook.wordpress. com Fig.(3): Dress by Maison Martin Margiela//1990//available at: http://pheasantsvultures. blogspot.com/2010
Remote Control Dress
Yohji Yamamoto
Hussein Chalayan 2001
“I think of modular systems where clothes are like small parts of an interior, the interiors are part of architecture which is then part of an urban environment. I think of fluid space where they are all a part of each other, just in different scales and proportions” -Hussein Chalayan 1 Chalayan’s garments evolve from ideas and are constructed around the body in accordance to architectural geometries. They establish a dialogue between the body, the garment and the urban environment, each of equal importance and all operating at their own individual scale.
“All I wanted was for women to wear men’s clothes. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman’s body. A pair of brilliantly cut cotton trousers can be more beautiful than a gorgeous silk gown.” -Yohji Yamamoto2
Martin Magiela 1990
The Belgian fashion designer established a dialogue between clothing and disused space during the social unrest of the 1990’s. Drawing on the notions of the disregarded and derelict his collections brought to light issues of recycling and reinvigorating those spaces that had been subject to decay. This was a concept not only evident in the garments themselves but in the staging of numerous fashion shows in the abandoned parking lots, plots and warehouses of Paris’ forgotten suburbs. This notion of dialogue has influenced the course of this research greatly.
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Chapter Nine
Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Design and Construction Equally tailored to the human form as well as a specific site within the Melbourne CBD, the fourth iterative garment is constructed on the foundation of the preceding projects in order to (re)invigorate the spatial dialogue that exists between ourselves and the contemporary metropolis. Drawing on those notions of site-specificity discussed in the previous exploration of Chapter Eight, this project focuses on the physical (re)presentation of the spatial qualities of site and physical anchorage opportunities in order to force the body into an intimate conversation with the surrounding landscape. Through a garment constructed within this frame, the body is dressed in the space, can feel the space, can become the space. By blurring and distorting these boundaries, the body is (re)introduced and (re)positioned as part of the surrounding landscape.
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The highly site-specific nature of this fourth project has rendered it necessary for a shift in the general approach of design and construction employed within the previous projects. While those previous garments focused largely and for the most part unintentionally upon the interface between the body and the garment in question, the expanded design criteria prompts a rigorous adherence to the notions of body and space, locating the garment as a mediator between these two forms.
Pg _82 Depiction of the realized garments in relation to site criteria
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
The site chosen for the creation of this garment is Drewery Lane within the central north of Melbourne’s CBD. While previous garments had been taken to this space for prior testing it had remained, until this point, part of the cross-sectional representation of the diverse urban fabric of the city. This laneway has both entrances and exits, commercial and residential, built and decayed. It is a landscape forged from the architecture of the urban metropolis. Yet, amongst this rectilinear formation of brick and concrete the juxtaposition of uses, materials and architectural eras have resulted in intrusions and extrusions through which a garment might begin to anchor itself into the space.
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Pg _84 Plan and Perspective view of the ‘site.’ The actual location for which the garment is made is a vertical wall and groundplane mid-way along the Laneway.
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
The method of designing this garment as a research tool relies on a breakdown of the spatial qualities of the selected site in Drewery Lane. For the purposes of producing a kit of parts in order to physically realize the garment itself, those qualities deemed the most predominant within the space were drawn out. In total, six were identified as having significant characteristics. These six qualities, when separated from each other, took on almost human characteristics. They were defined into the categories of: Rectilinear, Topography, Material, Orifices, Growths and Reflection.
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Each quality was then translated into a virtual three-dimensional form. This digital stage of the matrix formation allowed the spatial qualities to be broken down into how each existed within the laneway site, separate from the tangible, malleable medium of felt. These forms were then used to inform the physical realization of each component in felt. Each spatial quality received a number of iterations, each relating back to the virtual form that in turn related back to the spatial quality within the laneway. Out of each set of fabric iterations, one was decided upon to build up a kit of six techniques with which to design and construct the realized garment.
Rectilinear
Topography
Materiality
Orifices
Growths
Reflection
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
In order to extract a kit of parts for the design and construction of the garment, the landscape divided into a controlled number of spatial qualities. In actuality, however, Landscapes operate as assemblages of all these components, as well as many others not regarded within the research. Each spatial quality is made possible because of its relationship and adjacencies with the others surrounding it. They are not individual entities but rather amalgamations of a magnitude of separate aspects. These notion of landscape assemblage has formed the basis through which this garment has been designed.
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Pg _88 The assemblage of six spatial qualities of the site shown through digital modeling
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Developing a system of spatial hierarchy within the project site, the felt design components begin to be positioned and inserted into the garment design in relation to the scale, positioning and hierarchy of each existing within the laneway. Through this system, a pattern through which the garment can be made and embellished comes into fruition. The designs on the page opposite illustrate the systematic overlay of these components with the foundation derived from possible spatial sensations of the rectilinear aspect of the laneway form, personally regarded as the most predominant.
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orifice
orifice
orifice
orifice
topography orifice orifice
growth
orifice
orifice orifice
orifice
orifice
growth
topography orifice
orifice orifice
orifice
growth
growth
topography
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Application of these design concepts to the human form and the specific site, however, formulated a different pattern altogether. While there still exists some evident similarities and the hierarchy of spatial qualities remains the foundation for design, the adherence to body and site dimensions in combination with the need for the structure to be made resulted in a body:space generated shape. A tailoring pattern was then drafted from this base structure in order to construct the design.
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Pg _92 Scaled pattern pieces used in the measuring and cutting of both felt and woven lining fabrics.
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Using the conventional techniques of tailoring the garment was constructed and realized through the project fabric of felt in combination with a light polyester-cotton weave.
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Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Testing the Dialogue The garment testing followed the methodology established and employed throughout the previous projects. Beginning with the site in Drewery Lane, the garment was then taken by a designated body to a series of four additional sites, all within the Melbourne CBD. Similar to those of the previous study, these allowed for a broad crosssection of the fabric of this immediate metropolis.
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Pg _96 Testing path taken though out the Melbourne CBD.
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
SITE 01 DREWERY LANE The body within the garment slotted into the location for which the garment was tailored. While the body explored the potentials of the garment, operations within the lane continued as normal. Allowing the garment to be simultaneously corroborated by the body and the site let the body focus on the dialogue at play rather than the support and justification of the existence of the garment. In this respect, the site was supporting the garment in more than a physical sense; it was providing reason for both the body and the garment to exist within the space.
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SITE 01 DREWERY LANE Project Site Time: 10.35 am Weather: Partly Cloudy. 20 Degrees Mood: Apprehensive Curious
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
SITE 02 BOURKE STREET MALL Upon entering Bourke St Mall, the body automatically attempted to (re)anchor the garment to the space, yet due to the proximity and high of the anchorage points the mass of the garment remained supported by the body. This seemed to cause a shift in the focus of the project back into the realm of the body:garment correspondence. The main juxtaposition between this site and the previous project site was the public interface with the body and the garment and the shift in reception and projection of all bodies occupying the space.
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SITE 02 BOURKE STREET MALL Pedestrian Plaza Time: 11.35 am Weather: Cloudy. 20 Degrees Mood: Apprehensive Much Attention
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
SITE 03 PARLIAMENT STATION ENTRANCE While this third space shared some very similar qualities to that of the Bourke St Mall, there arose recurring patterns within the movement of the public populous. These patterns were predominantly so as to avoid the body within the garment, which provoked an extrusion of the bodies actions.
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SITE 03 PARLIAMENT STATION ENTRANCE Metro Train Station Time: 12.10 pm Weather: Cloudy. 20 Degrees Mood: Quite Confident Much Attention
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
SITE 04 FLAGSTAFF GARDENS Absent of anchorage points and within the context of a park, the body and garment adopted a floppy characteristic. Instead of supporting the garment vertically, the body let itself be dragged to the ground. The context provoked not only a sense of playfulness to the body inside the garment but also an openness for those other bodies occupying the space to spectate openly.
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SITE 04 FLAGSTAFF GARDENS Public Park Time: 12.50 pm Weather: Cloudy. 21 Degrees Mood: Highly Playful Seeking Attention
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
SITE 05 LA TROBE STREET Back on the hard surface of the city street the body once again anchored itself to a location. Other occupiers streamed by, glancing uneasily. This obvious discomfort of the people around triggered a shift in the attitude of the garment wearer to appearing somewhat uncomfortable.
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SITE 05 LA TROBE STREET Street Scape Time: 01.15 pm Weather: Cloudy. 20 Degrees Mood: Quite Confident Tired
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Evaluation of Follie While this project produced a range of actions and explorations the most prevalent among those photographic and observatory studies have been recorded here. The first and foremost observation of this project testing was the anchoring properties of the garment itself and the almost automated actions of the body within to attach to the landscape. In the specific site of Drewery Lane the garment was simultaneously supported by the body and the space. This action of anchorage was repeated throughout the remainder of the sites but with little success.
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Pg _108 Snapshots of the anchorage process across all sites with the main focus centred in Drewery Lane
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
This process of moving sites and re-anchoring into space provoked the body occupying the garment to shift the perspective from inwardly focused to an external projection onto the surrounding occupants and landscape.
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Pg _110 Explorations into the shift of focus from inward to outward
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Within the site of Drewery Lane the focus was geared toward the conversation between the body and the space, able to be explored through the garment. When taken into other locations the focus of the body within became projected outwards onto the general public. There appeared to be an underlying performative aspect surrounding a justification for the garment existing within any environment that was not the space for which it was originally constructed.
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Pg _112 Notions of the justification of attitudes within sites.
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
Earlier in this research a system of mapping and recording public engagement was developed to little success. This project proved its impossibility. Not only was there a vast array of categories that were unaccounted for within the initial table but it would have been impossible to quantify such data. Public engagement is not an informative aspect unto itself but rather forms the foundation as part of the larger landscape system though which the conversation between the body and the space is in play. The general public are, to a large extent, the makers of the urban landscape.
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Pg _114 A short investigation into the levels of public engagement in comparison to the earlier system development.
Chapter Nine Project 04: Wearing Landscapes
The previous discovery led to the realization of the final outcome of this project and arguably the research as a whole. Throughout the research thus far the projects had addressed the three main criteria of body, garment and urban landscape with the general public forming a fourth sub-category. What arose from this project, in collaboration with those proceeding it, was that the bodies make the landscape. They are not separate totalities but rather the bodies and the landscape operate as an assemblage, each constantly informing and manipulating the other.
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Pg _116 Engaging the notion of Bodies as generators of space.
Chapter Ten The Body Space
Prior to the exploration of the preceding garment, the research of this project was focused around three main aspects of body, garment and physical built environment. While these three aspects remain the main focus throughout the duration of this research they exist within a multi- layered, inter-connected situation. The body is not just a ‘body’ but rather a precise culmination of physical form and individual psychology. It operates in direct relation to the mind, which was in turn subject to public inhabitation. The landscape, similarly, while forged from the dense architecture of the city scape is equally forged by the people that occupy it. The public occupants, parallel to the garment-wearer (only divided from the general populous due to his/her positioning as the locus of this investigation) are in turn subjected to their own inhabitations and as such are involved with varying levels of engagement with the surrounding landscape (the combination of form and people).
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The garments stand as a mediation device between these two parties. Both forms attract and repel interactions and perceptions of landscape, which is in turn produced through the combination of inhabitants and form. “(Our bodies are) surely the locus of (our) world. Not in the sense of a viewing point of the central perspective but as the very locus of reference, memory, imagination and integration.” 1 The inter-connectedness of all forms becomes apparent and the garment mediates between these forms. The follie makes us (re)remember the dialogue that creates the ‘between space’ and repositions us as generators of space; equal parts of the urban landscape.
Public Inhibitions
Body Space Physical Form
Garment Performance
Body Interface
Garment Space
Mediation
Public Interface
Physical Space
Landscape Space
Temporal Space
Body Space Public Receptor
Levels of Public Engagement
Pg _117 1. Pallsmaa, J//1996//The Eyes of the Skin//11 Pg _118 Emergence of the links between the different components of this project and the revelation that the combination of these ‘made’ the landscape.
Case Studies
Pg 119_120 (Un)Classified Landscapes Case Studies
Case Studies
Positioning
Case Studies
This short booklet of Case Studies has been established in order to position the research to date amongst projects within the same field. While there exists, within the discipline of Landscape Architecture many projects that overlap this research trajectory to some extent, those compiled here address the (re)positioning of the body within space through various approaches.
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Understanding Body Rainbow Church Seoul, Korea
Tokujin Yoshioka
The Rainbow Church, realized in Seoul, Korea in 2010 invites the body to feel the element of light with all the senses. Constructed from 500 triangular crystal prisms, the sunlight outside is refracted and thrown into the space in an array of shapes and colours. The seemingly invisible form of light transforms the otherwise stark, white interior into transient landscape of shifting rainbows. The crystals also refract and distort the external context, only allowing a manipulated view of another space. The body is left alone to experience the light. While the mediums used within the research are quite different, there is an underlying tone
of this work that is evident within that of (Un)Classified Landscapes. As the body enters the space, its presence is merged into the design. The rainbows welcome the new form; curling around the human shape, never hindering movement but rather adapting to this new dimension, contented in the corroborative aspect the body brings. It is this notion of body as space that has come to be prevalent within this research. There are, however, some fundamental differences that throw apart the designs of the Rainbow Church and that of this research relating to the previously discussed notion of ‘body space’. While the
realization of the dialogue between the body and the space is an operational aspect within the Rainbow Church, it is framed through the notion that in doing so one will (re)realize the singular element of light. Within the research however, the notion of ‘body space’ could be argued to be the basis of the concept itself.
Celebrating the Existing Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord Rhur, Germany Latz & Partner Case Studies
Woven through and within a disused smelting plant, this public park in southern Germany highlights the phenomenology of the gigantic infrastructure of the post-industrial landscapes in order to forge an understanding and acceptance of the regions history. As one moves through the space; traversing the infrastructure at a range of levels, the complete incongruity of the landscape begins to emerge. The bodyscale no longer feels like the body-scale but instead seems miniscule in comparison to the towering metal and brick pillars. We are thrown from our own dimension by our own creation. This realization of the existing was a catalyst for this research trajectory and yet remains Pg 123_124 (Un)Classified Landscapes Case Studies
separated from it through the adherence of the park to this aspect alone. This landscape allows the body to experience the power of our own creation. It established a dialogue between what we have done and what is possible for us to still do. This (re)realization of our ability to manipulate form is an aspect that has remained prevalent throughout the research. It has remained so through the notion that we as bodies, do not forge the landscape through built form alone, but by our occupation within space.
Provocation through Design The Garden of Australian Dreams Canberra, Australia Room 4.1.3
Pg_124 1. Weller, R. 2005. Room 4.1.3. Innovations in Landscape Architecture. Pennsylvania University Press. Philadelphia, USA
Perhaps the most controversial designed landscape within Australia, ‘The Garden of Australian Dreams’ is presented as a veritable mess of stereotypical cultural and historical references. The space itself occupies the central courtyard of the Australian National Museum where it “brings the ancient centre of the country into conversation with the Nation’s costal political and bureaucratic headquarters.”1 Through the medium of Landscape Architecture, a textbook of Australia’s political history is developed. Seemingly literal translations of events and locations are stingingly implanted into the solid surface causing an overlay of information.
Upon entering the space, the body is thrust into a turmoil of government legislation and backyard ideologies. This notion of (re)remembering space and place is not uncommon within the discipline of Landscape Architecture, however the highly literal translation of events causes the body to be strangely removed from the scene. The body operates upon the landscape, seeing the documentation of a colonized nation beneath its feet yet similar to words in a textbook, it is not able to entre into the conversation. The opportunity for the body to (re) realize its position within this context is lost amid the constant scramble for hierarchy upon the patterned ground plane.
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Book Three
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Concluding Progression
Conclusion Progression
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(Un)Classified Landscapes details an exploration into the correspondence between bodies and space. While the initial research topic was, and still is, regarding the (re) invigoration of spatial dialogue between the human body and the contemporary metropolis, it has become largely focused on the role of the body within the urban landscape. Throughout the research the body has come to be regarded as a part of the landscape, parallel to that of built form. Through this frame there emerges a particular strand of Landscape Architecture that focuses on the body-space; allowing the body to (re)realize its position as a generator of space and spatial change. In doing so, the corroboration of
body and space is foregrounded. The body is as much a part of the landscape as those forms that surround it – both engaged in a ceaseless dialogue, an evercontinual conversation of space. As someone who understands the Landscape from a distinctly body scale, this research has fostered an understanding of how this approach to the bodyspace can become a generative tool within my personal position within the discipline of landscape architecture. If a fifth iteration were to be added to the line of projects that make up this research, however, the form of its existence is still unclear. A garment, or a designed landscape space? The initial research regarded the realized garments made for projects
as merely generative tools for understanding the relationship that exists between body and space. And yet, over the course of this research, this position has been proved wrong by the very garments themselves. If the body has been established as part of the landscape, then so too are the garments that it corroborates. Theoretically, the garments are themselves small landscapes; transient landscapes able to be worn and shifted. Is this then also an emergent strand of Landscape Architecture? This concept of garments as landscape remains at this point unexplored. It exists instead as a path into an exciting future.
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Book Four
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Appendix of Misunderstood Explorations
Overview of Book Four
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This portion of the document provided an insight into some of the paths traversed while searching for the research trajectory of (Un)Classified Landscapes. Through this frame, this appendix details a somewhat personal journey of discovery regarding my own approach within the discipline of Landscape Architecture.
4.1
Glaciers and Agriculture
Integrating excess glacial melt with agricultural strategies and community ventures in rural Nepal. This research trajectory began on a whim. It was derived mainly from a frustration at my own inability to comprehend the type of designer I am and partially from a fascination of spaces I do not understand. In this particular case, the space is Manang – a small mountainous community supporting approximately 400 inhabitants and resting at 3,519 m (11,545 ft) in the Annapurna (Himalaya) Conservation Region of northern Nepal. This project focused on the integration of excess glacial melt caused by climate change with agricultural strategies and community ventures in rural Nepalese communities. Reflecting upon this notion now, though the real driver of this project was the notion of understanding a scale and space of which I had absolutely no comprehension.
Pg 137_138 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg_139 Initial investigations into harnessing hydrology within the region.
4.2.1
Exploration of Follie: String
At the time of construction this follie bore significant discoveries regarding the previously stated research trajectory of Glaciers and Agriculture. Though, like many abstracted forms its meaning and application can be redirected in relation to the context in which they are interpreted. On this page it represents less of a concept and more of an ability to understand design through a process of making. For me, there is something intrinsically grounding about designing though making, particularly at a Follie scale.
Pg 139_140 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg_140 Explorations into possible design alternatives through the act of making.
4.2.2
Exploration of Follie: Sand
What began as simply a hole in the shoreline of the Victorian coast quickly expanded into a network of tunnels and troughs all scaled to the dimension of my own hand. As the tide rose, the tunnels disappeared far swifter than my own physical manipulation. The sea had taken back its own; smoothing the surface and leaving no trace of what had been constructed moments before.
Pg 141_142 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg_142 Iterative investigation into the construction and deconstruction of this engineered sand follie
4.2.3
Exploration of Follie: Tree
Constructed completely from found materials, this follie provided a gateway into the final research trajectory. Within the follie medium there is a limitation of materials, time and reach-ability that are the cause of outcomes often vastly different to the ideas first projected. This importance of physical ‘making’ has also been, to a large extent influenced by a personal tendency to detach myself from scale within the digital medium. While this form was constructed by the body, it was corroborated by the existing landscape. As the structure grew, the weight and placement of it began to support the landscape on which it was born - the two becoming reliant on each other.
Pg 143_144 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg_144 Follie and subsequent outcomes viewed through the frame of Glaciers and Agriculture.
4.3
A Personal Process of Making
The discovery of my understanding and process of ‘design through making’ stems, in part, from the design and construction of apparel. It is a passion that began long before my intrigue of arranging space and has continued on a parallel basis ever since. There is something fascinating that surrounds the ability of garments to make the body look and feel a particular way, to take up a particular space and to create an affect within the surrounding environment, as Harold Koda so eloquently states: “through the artifice of apparel, the less than perfect can camouflage perceived deficiencies and in some instances project an appeal beyond those gifted with characteristics accepted as ideal in their culture and time.”1 In this way, my garments I make become more like costumes than
Pg 145_146 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
clothing. But it is the process of physical construction required to create such desired affects that so intrigues and excites me. Building onto a body surface, manipulating the contours of curves and lines at a distinctly human scale is intrinsic to my understanding of landscape.
Pg _145 1. koda, H//2001//Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed. 5th ed//New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art//8 Pg_146 The design and construction of juggling costume constructed in late 2010.
4.4
Ideas on Garments and Space
How can the individuality, spatiality and process of garments become a tool of Landscape Architecture? This iteration steps through the spatial aspects of a hypothetical garments affect and projected sensations but barely touches on the notion of construction and form. It was not so much a design, as an investigation - it did not have an aim, the intended outcome was unclear and the whole process appears to be a desperate struggle to merge an approach to garment design into something spatially located within the discourse of Landscape Architecture. Interestingly enough, these notions of body and space were brought to the forefront of the research trajectory at a later stage (expanded upon in Book Two).
Pg 147_148 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg _148 Explorations into the spatiality of garments and their continual fluctuating existence.
4.5.1
Landscapes of Apparel: Precedent Scapes
Precedents had become an important part of this process of merging the two disciplines of Landscape Architecture and Costume Design. However, in my steadfast mind-set of not seeing fashion as a solid form that had to be made but rather as a spatial experience that just was I analysed fashion designers from the perspective of what they had achieved rather than how they approached realization.
Pg 149_150 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg _150 Garments and Landscapes designed through the frame of Fashion Designers Vivienne Westwood, Shimni Park and Issey Miyake.
4.5.2
Landscapes of Apparel: FabricScapes
This exploration takes on a step-by-step process of the construction of a previously made garment and assigns each method to a particular move in landscape. In this way, the conventional method of designing landscapes is inverted, following a different set of rules. Through the construction of a set of models based on techniques extracted from the particular garment, this idea was imposed onto an existing space on Moonee Ponds Creek. It resulted in a solid, stagnant form and lacked the notion of testing, making and temporality that is such an intrinsic quality of garments.
Pg 151_152 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg _152 Design scenarios developed through the medium of fabric using the techniques of pleating, joining, shoulder pads, heat setting and gathering.
4.6
(Un)Classified Landscapes Initial Iterations
This iteration was completed shortly after the first realized felt project of Distorting Perception. These designs for wearable structures adhere closely to one of the bodily senses rather than a self-determined range. Each one would be constructed from a separate material in relation to the desired outcome. It was at this point within the research that one fabric should be adhered to constantly throughout the entire research project. To change fabrics and materials would have been separate tangents of research, and so these designs remained within the two-dimensional form of drawings.
Pg 153_154 (Un)Classified Landscapes Appendix
Pg _154 Series of sketch designs adhering to the sensed through a variety of materials and techniques
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Book Five
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References, Bibliography and Digital Material
References and Bibliography
This part is made up of selected references that have influenced me to varying extents but do not appear predominantly within this document and also a complete bibliography of all citing and images from within the document.
Pg 159_160 (Un)Classified Landscapes Book Five
References
Bibliography
Cook, P. 2008. Drawing: The Calvino, I. 1974. Invisible CitMotive Force of Architecture. ies. Great Britain: CPI Cox and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. London, Wyman England Carroll, L. 1871. Through The Gough, E. 1940. The Principles Looking Glass. London: Hamlyn Of Garment Cutting. Sydney: Classics Dragon Press Ltd Halstead Press Foucault, M.1889. The Order Grosz, E. 1992. ‘Sexuality and of Things: An archeology of the Space: Bodies-Cities.’ Beatriz Co- Hunam Sciences. New York: lomina: New York Prinston Archi- Routledge Classics tectural Press Franz Erhard Walther, Kirsh. 1995. ‘The Intelligent Use Connection (Head), number 31 of Space’. Artificial Intelligence, from 1.Werksatz, 1967, cotton vol. 73, Number 1-2, pp 31-68. koda, H. 2001. Extreme Beauty: Kyoto Costume Institute. 2004. The Body Transformed. 5th ed. Fashion: From the 18th to the New York: The Metropolitain 20th Century. Kyoto: Taschen Museum of Art Robert, D. ‘Haptic Perception’ Loidl, H and Bernard, S. 2003. Chapter 1, 12, 14 and 18 ‘Opening Spaces: Design as Landscape Architecture’. Boston, Steenbergen, C. 2008. Composing MA: Birkhauser Landscapes: Analysis, Typology and Experiments for Design. Pallsmaa, J. 1996. ‘The Eyes of Belgium: Birkhauser the Skin: Architecture and the Senses’ John Wiley & Son Ltd Weller, R. 2005. Room 4.1.3. Innovations in Landscape Quinn, B. 2003. The Fashion of Architecture. Pennsylvania Architecture. Oxford: Berg University Press. Philadelphia, Schillig, G, 2009. Mediating USA Space: Soft Geometries, Textile Zumthor, P. 2006. ‘Atmospheres: Structures, Body Architecture. Akademie Schloss architectural environments; Stttgart: surrounding objects.’ Basel: Solitude Birkhauser
Stern, A. 1993. Verbal Abuse: A Corset Moment With Pearl. Issue 3: New Religions 1993. Warhol, A. 1975. ‘The philosophy of Andy warhol: From A to B and Back Again’. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Wilcox, C. 2004. Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion. London: V&A Publications Zaha Hadid Architects. Metapolis Ballet. www.zaha-hadid.com/ design/metapolis-ballet. accessed: 20.08.2011
Digital Material
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