#studio31 intevention_#illumnateyourinfrastucture_alex

#illuminateyourinfrastucture alexander holland

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Title: Illuminate Your Infrastructure Audience: Citylink Bypass Location(s): Clarendon Street, South Melbourne Time/Date: 8:30pm 30/03/2014 Duration: 4 hours

Intervention Summary In the wider studio I’m looking at the relationship between manufacturing and the city, and a city’s infrastructure.

Such infrastructure might do good on a wider city scale but causes lots of damage on the local scale.

Can use bottom up tactics to change how we interact with these top down, disconnected spaces created by huge infrastructure?

3 _ Introduction

Alex Holland

Site Photographs

Bypasses do more than damage neighbourhoods. They sever them from each other.

Clarendon street dies under Citylink, cutting Southbank (already so damaged) from vibrant South Melbourne.

5_ Site Alex Holland

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But bypasses also create a vacuum, an opportunity for something new to emerge under them.

If we all take back a little bit of the underpass by lighting a candle, collectively we might create a space people will want to travel through (and maybe use!) again.

7 _ Design

Alex Holland

8 _ Installation

Alex Holland

Installation Sand was ‘borrowed’ from St Kilda Beach. 50 bags were pre-filled.

A table was set up with the sand, paper bags, tea candles, markets, scissors and lighters allowing anyone to join in illuminating infrastructure.

A picnic rug and beers where also provided.

9 _ Installation

Alex Holland

Observations: People were much more responsive than I anticipated. Lots readily took part, quite a surprise considering it was at night under an underpass! Many were surprised how large the space under Citylink actually is.

Even those who went through the underpass daily often did not see how large the space is until they actually stopped to take it in.

Besides from one crazy man who wanted to fight (we calmed him down and he then participated, taking about 20 minutes to draw his bag, the second last bag on the following page), no one tried to stop us.

Perhaps this shows how abandoned the space is?

10 _ Observation

Alex Holland

By providing a blank canvas, ready art & craft supplies and a table, people created their own intervention.

It was quite surprising how intricate some bags where, when they were just to be placed under a bypass and never seen again. Perhaps this impermanence (combined with the novelty of the project) allowed people to be a bit more free than what they would do in their regular life.

11 _ Observations

Alex Holland

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Conclution Although initially uncomfortable under Citylink: the bright lights, the sounds of trucks and cars rattling above, the feeling of being dwarfed by this massive infrastructure, we adjusted easily.

By hour 2, we were sitting down, drawing & drinking beers like we were having a picnic in a nice park.

People would stop by and chat, the lights piquing their interest and softening the space.

Perhaps this was the biggest (and most useful lesson for my project) - all spaces are useful, you just have to get used to them!

Diagrams, Data ?