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CITY IN FLUX RESEARCH
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CITY IN FLUX
MANCHESTER SORTED BUZZ ANGIN GAFF SOUND DEAD
“WHAT “THE
TV ICONS
RED DWARF THE STREET SCOTT & BAILEY CORONATION STREET SHERLOCK HOLMES SHAMELESS LIFE ON MARS WATERLOOO RD ROYLE FAMILY BAD EDUCATION COLD FEET
MANCHESTER DOES TODAY, THE WORLD DOES TOMORROW”
THING ABOUT MANCHESTER IS... IT ALL COMES FROM HERE” NOAL GALLAGEHER
“AND
ON THE SIXTH DAY, GOD CREATED MANCHESTER”
“MANCHESTER
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LANDMARKS
DIALECT
PETER SAVILLE MATT BUSBY TONY WILSON L.S. LOWRY PROF. BRIAN COX DANNY BOYLE KARL PILKINGTON RICKY HATTON THE GALLAGHERS RYAN GIGGS
HACIENDA MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL
HAS EVERYTHING EXCEPT A BEACH” IAN BROWN
SHAMBLES SQUARE BEETHAM TOWER CHEETHAMS SCHOOL STRANGEWAYS AFFLEKS PALACE PICCADILY GARDENS OLD TRAFFORD DEANSGATE LOCKS URBIS CANAL STREET TOWN HALL
HAPPY MONDAYS THE VERVE OASIS 808 STATE
MUSIC AREAS
ELBOW TWISTED WHEEL
GREAT NORTHERN SQUARE NORTHERN QUARTER DEANSGATE ANCOATS
THE SMITHS
ALBERT SQUARE CANAL STREET ST PETERS SQUARE MARKET STREET OXFORD RD PICCADILY GARDENS SPINNINGFIELDS CHINATOWN CURRYMILE
STONE ROSES
THE 1975 NEW ORDER INSPIRAL CARPETS THE COURTEEENERS JOY DIVISIOM
CITY IN FLUX
CONCEPT MINDMAP
CITY IDENTITY
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What seperates different areas of a city apart from one another? What makes them different? In the majority of cities - there are different areas - some more well known than others. Some are known for their dining and bar scene, some are known for a certain famous landmark. Never the less there is always something or certain things that stand them apart from one another.
What identify’s Manchester from other citys? What aspects of its history contribute with other factors to create the citys identity? Manchester is known for its architecture, but which pieces stand out the most to people visiting? What famous landmarks contribute to Manchester’s identity? Attractions, historic places, museums, shopping, dining, bars?
What is the difference between the kind of people spending time within the city’s different areas? Do the areas they spend a lot of time in differentiate them from other groups of people? What attracts certain people to spend time in certain areas within a city?
What contributes to a citys identity? shape, texture, colour? What would somebody notice most when walking down the street of a busy city? Details of buildings, graffiti, window displays, homeless people, street performers, rubbish? What shows the citys ethos or values?
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ARTIST RESEARCH
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BOAT MAGAZINE
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BOAT Magazine is a independant trvel and culture magazine that focuses on a different inspiring city. For each issue Boat shines a different kind of light on cities with big stories to tell. With each issue Boat physically moves to the city for a few weeks, setting up their studio and working with localsto create the content. Digging deep into each city, Boat presents gritty, honest and inspiring editorial. Their aim is to act as a so called ‘reset button’, changing and updating readers perceptions of what the city is actually like.
tell. So what better place to present than our home town of London.” In the London issue Boat distilled the living, breathing, sprawling city and conveyed the city without resorting to cliche. There was an olympic feature, a look in to the hidden markets, illustrations of maps, and photos from the top deck of a London bus.
“We choose complicated cities with big stories to
boatmagazine.com eyemagazine.com
Those map illustrations were part of a event called ‘London Series’ where illustrators were asked to create a depiction of ‘their own London’ with no maps yet mapped in a way a stranger could follow.
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ARTIST RESEARCH
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GEORGE BYRNE Byrne is a Australian photographer who moved to LA to capture very distinct LA scenes - bright colours, sharp edges, afternoon shadows. He finds inspiration for his photography by simply ‘driving around the city’. ‘I’ll see a situation that catches my eye on the street and then act on it. Usually on my way to capturing whatever caught my eye, i’ll notice something else and shoot that aswell.’ In a city such as LA home to both extreme wealth and poverty there is never a dull
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moment for such a photographer such as byrne. Often drawn to lone human subjects in streets, there is a distinct feel to the street life in the city. anothermag.com georgebyrnephotography.com lanant.com
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ARTIST RESEARCH
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SARAH MORRIS Since the 1990’s Morris has been making abstract paintings to investigate what she describes as ‘urban and social typologies. Her work, based on different cities are derived from close inspection of architectural details combined with the phsycology of a city. Her work uses vivid colours derived from a citys unique vocabulary and palette. The painter/filmmaker claims she finds her main inspiration from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Beijing, and her film work depicts the multifarious and complex layers behind those cities.
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For example her work on Beijing explores the city’s reinvention and renewal through close examination of the construction of the recent olympic complex. Her work in Rio began with her interest in the citys identity as a distinctly modern city attured to finance and medicine. “I don’t view my work as resowed, like the structures i depict, it’s constantly in motion. My work relates to power: power is always in flux...” uk.phaidon.com whitecube.com artspace.com sarahmorris.info
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ARTIST RESEARCH
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8VO DESIGN GROUP 8VO is a london based graphic design firm formed by Simon Johnston, Mark Holt and Haish Muir. They began work for factory records in the late 80’sand found that the factorys notoriously disorganised way of working left them to do pretty much what they wanted - complete creative freedom. By deconstructing the production process and infact doing whatever they could, that they hadnt already done
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worked perfectly with the ground breaking music scene movement that was happening in Manchester at the time which they found themselves creating work for. The signage they created for the hacienda nightclub are instantly recognisable to thos who spent time there in the 80’s/90’s. hamishmuir.com/8vo hamishmuir.com/octavo eyemagazine.com
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CONCEPT MINDMAP
DIRECTION
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In a city often buldging full with people all with somewhere to be, if you sit back and take a moment to watch everybody scurrying, the thought of direction comes to mind. Do all of these people have a lot or very little direction? In that moment or in general? Where are all these people travelling to? And why in such a rush? What has brought them to the city?
There are many different signs you come across when travelling through a city, but what are their purpose? Road signs to direct people through the city and to and from leaving the city. Signs directing people to different locations within the city and navigating them around these locations. Signs to show puplic transport locations, there journeys and times. Shop, resteraunt and bar signs
Are they shopping, working, dining, drinking, sightseeing, walking a dog, running, do they live there? If omeone was to be living in teh city what is it that could have attracted them to move there? The neighbourhood, the location, the views, the local amenities, the weather?
If people are constantly following signs and directions, does this mean that signage makes people conform? Are they conforming to one another or to the city? Where is the variety or signage leading people? literally or metaphorically? Is it the signs that lead people to be in such a rush?
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JEFFREY SMART Jeffrey Smart is a painter known for his prescisionist depictions of urban landscapes. His work shiws stark portrayls of contempary life, both realistic and absurd. Smarts inserimetal paintings encompass lonely urban vistas often refered to as surreal. But Smart contends that it is infact the modern world that is surrea and not his depictions of it. ‘I find myself moved by man in his new enviroment and want to paint it.’ Smart was clearly fascinated with the built enviro-
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ment around him. Smarts paintings include a lot of every day detail, but one subject that seems common throughout his work is his use of road signs within the streets he paints. maybe a coincidence but maybe this could be a significance to conformity or ‘following a path’. the guardian.com artgallery.nsw.gov.au etchinghouse.com
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PAULA SCHER
Paula Scher is a graphic designer who first made her reputation by designing album covers in the 70’s. After joining Pentagram in the early 90’s Paula began to contribute a lot of ‘poster’ work for big names such as The Public Theatre, MoMa, NY City Ballet and Microsoft. However in 2006 Scher painted a selecition of maps for an exhibition in New York. In the maps she created lines that represented the seperation of political alies and dividing enemies. For instance the USA
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was painted in blocky white print and full with lists of facts comprehending what we think about cities. Africa represented in a stark black and white pallette hinting at a tortured colonial past. Further exhibit pieces by Scher where prints of ‘the world’ containing large scale images of cities, states and continents. It was not credited to be a reliable map but convey a sense of the places that are mediated and mangled. dinca.com wikipedi.com google.co.uk
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ZERO PER ZERO The graphic design duo of Kim Ji-Huch & JInsol have an aim to capture the character of a city within their maps and railway system maps. By using shapes and forms associated with that city to make them appear friendly and approachable. The elaborate prints from their first UK exhibition were created as purely personal projects with the intention to preserve some of the sensation living within a city. Even though some of zero per zero’s maps may not be that transferable as geographical accuracys are not exactly emphasized and a lot of the writing is tricky to read - their maps should still be seen as beautiful works of design. Their aim is not for a crystal clear, flawless info design but is to capture
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the essence of a city. Each map uses a symbol of the city as a starting point - a heart for New York, Han River for Seoul, a tulip for Amsterdam. The detailed illustrations of famous buildings pictured alongside the systems capture the feeling of busting city centres. thefozisblack.com eyemagazine.com zeroperzero.com
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STEPHEN WALTER “Iv’e always enjoyed crowds,, events, and a place that brings everyone together.” A London based artist who’s interest in maps stems from a love of landscapes. His exhibition ‘The Island’ is said to be a celebration of realty - a place where we’re all part of and can relate to. The exhibit satirises the Londo centric view of the English capital and how it is independant from the rest of the country. The maps of each of the citys boroughs are pencil drawn in meticulous detail showing
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a wealth of local information. ‘With ‘The Island’ i began to collect an array of signs and symbols from the city as a starting point for me to build new images. The signs and symbols led me to look at maps and their keys. With an ingrown passion for the city of London it is then I began to make my maps.”
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CONCEPT MINDMAP
PERSPECTIVE & POINT OF VIEW
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What makes a city? What elements are discovered when you ‘break down the city’? Bricks, buildings, people, directions, shops, bars, resteraunts, walkways, lights, trees? Can subtraction of elements from a building show the real meaning and/or use? Is that the aim of artistic movements suh as ‘Building Cuts’? Is subtraction to buildings more relevent than addition to them?
How does the way we look at things affect our perspective and point of view on a city? Angles, size, shape, directions, depth, distance, height, width, position are all elements in which can affect how we see something. Can these elements deceive our view on something? A particular attitude towards, or a way of regarding something; a point of view. A literal point of view or how we see something?
Are abandoned buildings/places a big part of the city which you dont see? A double dimension city? Can subtraction to buildings/parts of the city find something different and unintended? Addition and Subtraction to buildings with the intention to find new passage ways and views.
As we look around a city, how many perspective points are seen by the eye in a single look? buildings, roads, signs, cars, people, trees all work together to give off a certain amount of perspective points. One-point, two-point, and three-point perspective are dependent on the structure of the scene being viewed.
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ANDREAS GURSKY Andreas Gursky is a photographer known for his large format architecture and landscape colour photos, ofte employing a high point of view. Gursky is drawn to large, man made spaces and makes his photographs distinctive by their inclusive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contempary life. Since the 1990’s Gursky has concentrated on sites of commerce and tourism, mak-
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ing work that draws attention to todays burgeoning high technology industry and global markets. His imagery ranges from vast architecture of hotel lobbies and apartment buildings to stock exchanges. whitecube.com amissingplanet.com
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SOHEI NISHINO
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Japanese artist Sohei Nishoso’s diaroma’s represent his own wanderings around the world’s major cities. He explores these vast urban spaces, taking thousands and thousands of photos as he goes. Then, he edits them down to just a few thousand, hand-prints them, and cuts and collages to produce massive composite representations
of the city as he experienced it. The multiple perspectives inevitable from such a project evoke a likeliness to Cubist imagery. itsnicethat.com
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ABIGAIL REYNOLDS Reynolds starts with a vintage book plate as the ‘base’ of the collage, and then searches for other old photographs of the location taken from a similar perspective and scale. These images are then cut and folded into a lattice-like form to create a new kaleidoscopic representation of the place, which Reynolds
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describes as ‘suspended in time’. The creative process is as interesting as the final work, an exploration into time and space. ‘The act of folding one image into the other pushes them out into three dimensions in a bulging time ruffle’. itsnicethat.com
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GEORGES ROUSSE George Rousse is a artist and photographer who has been creating his painted single perspective installations in abandoned and soon-tobe demolished buildings since the 1980’s. Finding influence from Land Art as well as specific works like Suprametist painter Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, Rousse pre-dates the modern trends of illusionistic installation, having perfected his trademark geometric style and his fondness for desolate locations decades ago. According to his site’s bio, Rousse considers himself a painter, sculptor, architect, and ultimately a photographer, but considers his
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raw material to be his great inspiration: Space. Upon selecting a site, Rousse goes about creating a unique angular perspective, that when photographed, compels the viewer to re-analyze their own surroundings, possibilities, transformations, and ultimately, Space. “The convergence of these spaces goes beyond a visual game: Like a hall of mirrors, enigmatic and dizzying, it questions the role of photography as a faithful reproduction of reality; it probes the distances between perception and reality, between imaginary and concrete.” beautifuldecay.com
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GORDON MATTA-CLARK An American artist who originally studied architecture but did not practise as a conventional architect. His practise introduced new and radical modes of physically exploring and subverting urban architecture, and reverted the process of our linear way of thinking. His architectural gestures have the potential to be statements against certain social conditions. Many architects felt they could contribute to soceity through building structures, Matta Clark felt he himself couldnt alter the enviroment or make any significent change. His idea and study of what he called ‘Anarchitecture’ called for an anarchistic approach to architecture - marked physi-
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cally by a process of deconstructing rather than the creation of structure. It was thus his choice to focus on existing structures in neglected areas to exacute his work. “Architecture could be used to symbolize all the hard shelled cultural reality were meant to push against and not just building of ‘architecture’ itself. That’s where Gordon came up with the term anarchitecture, and that suggests the meaning we all gave it.” cabinetmagazine.com spatialagency.org tate.co.uk
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