A selection of projects from semester one, 2020 at the University of Western Australia School of Design.
Designed and edited by Lara Camilla Pinho and Andy Quilty. Cover illustration by Ava Minji Kim. Right: Anthony Murphy. New Perspective. 2020.
CONTENTS 8
FINE ARTS AND HISTORY OF ART
12 14 22 34 44 56
Fine Arts ARTF2020 Moving Images ARTF2030 Art & Life Manipulation ARTF2040 Earth, Water, Air & Fire: Material Explorations in Environmental Art ARTF1054 Drawing Foundations ARTF1052 Record, Visualise and Imagine
66 68 74 80 86 94 98
History of Art HART3301 Manet and the French Avant-Garde HART3331 Visual Culture and Art in America: 1900 - 2000 HART2223 Modernism and the Visual Arts HART2370 Global Art Histories HART 1000 Great Moments in Art HART2044/HART3044 Chinese Art: Contemporary and Traditional
106 ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN 110 Architecture 112 ARCT1001 - Architecture Studio 1 114 ARCT1011 - Art, Technology and Society 116 ARCT2000 - Architecture Studio 2 132 ARCT2010 - Parallel Modernities in Art and Architecture 136 ARCT3000 - Architecture Studio 3 162 ARCT3010 - History and Theories of the Built Environment 166 ARCT3050 - Active Matter 168 ARCT5101 - Architecture Studio 226 ARCT5201 - Detailed Design Studio 234 ARCT5502 - Independent Design Research 248 ARCT5520 - Drawing Resilience 256 ARCT5580 - Advanced Architectural Animation 258 ARCT5593 - The Architecture of Furniture in Production 260 Architecture/Landscape Architecture 262 ARLA1000 - Design Studio - Groundings 270 270 276 284 292
Landscape Architecture LACH2000 - Landscape Architecture Studio – Considerations LACH3000 - Landscape Architecture Studio – Expansions LACH4422 - Design Studio – Making LACH 5511 - Independent Dissertation by Design Part 2
298 Urban Design 300 URBD5804 - Urban Design Studio 1
Image: Hamish Maclean. Monocrop. 2020. Digital images, AI.
WINTER COLLECTIVE 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an environment in which crisis and opportunity represent flip sides of a coin. Around the world education became wholly an online experience and students at institutions everywhere, in courses of all kinds and at all levels of study, shifted in rapid time to learning in a remote though connected way. This has been the case in the School of Design at UWA since we moved entirely to online delivery from 23 March, at the start of our fifth week of semester. Lectures, tutorials, labs and studio classes have all been conducted through a combination of the University’s Learning Management System (LMS), Microsoft Teams, Zoom and a host of other collaborative platforms. Staff and students alike became proficient in ways we would not have imagined possible, and despite many a challenge along the way, found some positives in the new modes. 2020 is a year we won’t quickly forget. The level of disruption unleashed by the virus has been unheralded in the higher education sector, and the impacts and consequences will be felt for some time to come. In this situation, high quality education and the championing of creative thinking and resourcefulness will be essential to the vibrancy and welfare of our societies and our urban, regional and natural environments. We have seen, too, that collective thinking is fundamental to the security of public health: in the near future the trade-offs between individual entitlements and public good will play out in decisive ways. Our students have been already expertly navigating this balance in their lives and their work. I am extremely proud of the way that our staff and students have adapted their approaches to teaching and learning, and especially impressed that such a large number of our students were able to remain enrolled and complete their studies in first semester. That the standard of work has been maintained at regular high levels is a great credit to our School community and bodes very well for the remainder of the year. I recognise too that some students were more greatly affected by the challenges and chose or felt compelled to defer their studies – we hope to see them return in the second half of the year. Academic staff members Lara Pinho and Andy Quilty are to be commended for their initiative to produce this digital catalogue of student work completed during what will evermore be known as the time of COVID. It represents a wonderful opportunity to share the innovative, imaginative and skilful outcomes from the breadth of courses we offer: Architecture, Building Information Modelling, Fine Arts, History of Art, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design. This collection highlights the capacity of our students to respond to the challenges surrounding and confronting them with intelligence, perseverance, passion and good will. The lessons they take from this semester may not all yet be recognised but they will undoubtedly form a valuable resource in their future endeavours. Dr Kate Hislop Dean/Head of School School of Design
Image: Bronte Hands. The Fragility of Life, the Resilience of Culture (detail). 2019. 6
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fine arts and history of art.
Image: Eleonora Brusasco. My Last Eggs. 2020. Mycelium grown over wood pulp & bird seeds, and mise en scène. 8
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ART FOR UNIMAGINABLE POSSIBILITIES Humanity is facing crisis after crisis; biology is challenging our bodies and social structures; ecology is in dire condition; the virtual and digital is the new experience; fact and fiction are becoming indistinguishable and reality is stranger than fiction. Arguably, never before has artistic expression and discourse been as important as in the year 2020. Art takes the imposter position, of a (serious) play which humbly strips us naked and articulates for us who we are as a species and as a society. Artistic expression, as explored, researched and presented here brings forward new values and different (unimaginable) possibilities in time of crisis. It is the artistic medium which can offer these much needed trajectories. The students here are not preaching but rather suggesting; offering voices of change through inclusiveness and a new hope through a celebration of diversity and queerness. Artistic medium is sensorial; its effect is both cognitive and emotional, involving sight, sound, touch and even smell and taste. These sensoria which are vital for connection with the audience are incredibly challenging to teach and learn via Zoom. The artworks presented here were developed in bedrooms, backyards and kitchens with the teachers delivering their lessons online. The artworks represent a snapshot of the 2020 COVID-19 experience in Western Australia. The Fine Arts and History of Art Department in the School of Design is unique; it allows for multidisciplinary studies and encourages expression which engages with its surroundings, through different materiality and theory as well as access to techno-scientific literacy. The students present worlds under construction, and possess the courage to imagine a different future and the ability for historical reflection and personal narratives. Our program allows for gaining expertise in streams such as Film and Immersive Media; Art and the Environment; Art and the Life Sciences/Biotechnology alongside the more “traditional� mediums of drawing, painting, ceramics and print making. Additionally the program allows for exploration of historical and critical narratives in units such as Global Art Histories, Modernism and the Visual Arts and Art and Social Justice. We, the staff, are doing the best we can to give our students the tools of resilience for an unknown and unpredictable future. However, it is the students themselves, the future artists, thinkers and makers of tomorrow who teach us about these possibilities, and these hopeful futures that acknowledge and celebrate the importance of art and culture. More than ever, art is critical for a just and aspiring world. Dr Ionat Zurr Fine Arts Major Coordinator
Image: Andrea Tammaro. Digital Video still from Homesick. 2020. 10
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fine arts.
Image: Dylan Ah-Tive. How I Live Now. Digital video still. 2020. 12
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ARTF2020 MOVING IMAGES Unit Coordinator: Dr Vladimir Todorovic
This unit is designed for students wanting to specialise in the subject of film and learn the basics of cinematography, montage and moving images. In this unit students are offered a creative and analytical introduction to the key methods, means and concepts of working with moving images. This is a practice-based studio unit where students start to work with cameras, sound recording devices and non-linear editing platforms. In a supervised learning environment, students ideate, produce and edit their photo and film essays, documentary and narrative films, animations or video installations. Incorporating the diversity of approaches and technologies available, the unit establishes the basic working methodologies for the production and dissemination of moving images. This is the first unit in the film specialisation for students enrolled in the Fine Arts major.
Image: Dylan Ah-Tive. How I Live Now. Digital video still. 2020. 14
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ANDREA TAMMARO Homesick
The act of going through old footage that I had recorded during my childhood and teen years offered some comfort during these difficult times. That is where the idea of “my favourite place� clicked as the place of memories. It was clear that this place was not my country itself, as there is a current humanitarian crisis there that only gets worse. Returning would be not only dangerous but also sad as the deterioration of the nation is fast, and it is no longer the same place as the one in my childhood memories. Even though it is impossible to return my home country, because of the global pandemic, or the crisis in my country, there is still a way to go back to this place. This way is through documentation, pictures and videos stop a moment in time and replay it forever. They provide a constant reference for the future that unlike memories, will not fade with time. https://vimeo.com/459617128
Image: Andrea Tammaro. Homesick. Digital video still. 2020. 17
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SHIORI TAN Untitled
This video project is based on and inspired by the recent events of COVID-19/ coronavirus in this year 2020. As someone who is experiencing this pandemic first-hand, and seeing the effects and changes that have impacted the entire world, it has shocked me to see how negatively people responded to it (i.e. stockpiling, protesting, racism etc.). I believe that personally experiencing this may help me tell a story better since I know what it feels like and hopefully can convey this emotion or perspective into my work.
Image: Shiori Tan. Untitled. Digital video still. 2020. 19
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DYLAN AH-TIVE How I Live Now
How I Live Now is a short comedic documentary that explores the everyday life of Brahms, a character created and played by me. It looks at his everyday life months after a global pandemic has killed everyone but him and his camera man Jerri, who for comedic purposes is never seen or heard, and their journey to create the last ever film. I wanted to look at the nightmare of being the last person alive and what that would do to someone mentally whilst framing it in a comedic way. I wanted to have a brief glimpse of Brahms everyday life, who he is, what he enjoys but also how this whole event has changed him. Brahms is very much in a way myself, my darkest thoughts and feelings but also how I would handle the situation. Brahms is in a way creating this film to handle the loneliness he feels during this time, this was meant to mirror my experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and how I turn to light-hearted media to cheer me up but how I also put all my effort into making and creating a film I wanted to watch, a film that people would smile at and enjoy.
Image: Dylan Ah-Tive. How I Live Now. Digital video still. 2020. 21
ARTF2030 ART & LIFE MANIPULATION Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr
COVID-19 has demonstrated, in a spectacular and alarming way, how biology and culture are entangled. Furthermore, it has reinforced the vital need for cultural articulations of the complexity of biological processes and questions such as “what is life?” and “what is a ‘good’ life?” Artists are increasingly working with life (sciences) as a palette for making art. This unit provides the basic practical and theoretical working methodologies for the growth, construction and care of works of art that include living elements. Students investigate the basic techniques of growing and manipulating living systems and organisms for cultural expression. In this unit, the biological laboratory (or the backyard and kitchen) functions as the artist’s studio so that students can experience ‘hands-on’ engagement with the interaction between art and bio-technologies. Additionally, students are expected to interrogate and reflect upon the ethical, political and aesthetic issues of biological art. This is the first unit in the art and biotechnologies specialisation for students enrolled in the Fine Arts major.
Image: Jason Maxlow. Glass - Bread - Face. 2020. Glass, sourdough yeast, film equipment, chickens, quendas and more. 22
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ELEONORA BRUSASCO ‘My Last Eggs’
My final artwork is a series of four photographs I took depicting my two mycelium eggs, sometimes accompanied by my mycelium flowers. The series follows their natural progression from hatching though vigorous youth into more contemplative ‘middle age’ (for want of a better term!). I have never worked with mycelium before, and therefore did not have much of a preconceived idea of what it would look like. I feel that this state of ‘ignorance/innocence’ was helpful as it allowed for a more unfettered imagination. In my first assignment I imagined a number of artworks involving mycelium, as well as other media e.g. bacteria and yeast. I envisaged feeding the mycelium a wide variety of ‘foods’ to see how this would emerge/be incorporated in the final product. Keeping things initially broad meant that I made a huge amount of moulds for my mycelium-instead of putting ‘all my eggs in one basket’. This was very helpful as a significant proportion of them didn’t make it. My graduating class (as I affectionately called them) consisted of 1 large heart, 3 flowers of different sizes and 2 large eggs. I felt genuine excitement when, after what felt like ages (about 6 weeks) had passed, I was finally able to open my moulds. As I carefully opened and removed the paler egg from its mould, it gradually revealed itself, and I was surprised at how beautiful it was. The speckled effect caused by the uneaten bird seeds was lovely. I later realised that I had not read the instructions properly, and had not boiled the birdseed - I had only soaked them in the hydrogen peroxide/water solution. Perhaps if I had boiled the bird seed the mycelium would have been able to eat them, and there would be no speckled effect? An example of collaboration producing unforeseen/unforeseeable effects.
Image: Eleonora Brusasco. My Last Eggs. 2020. Mycelium grown over wood pulp and bird seeds, and mise en scène. 25
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HAMISH NINYETTE-MACLEAN MONOCROP
Monocrop is an AI-based exploration of post-human plant life, generating potential artificial plant life in an endeavour to regenerate an ecosystem from anthropocentric destruction. The generative adversarial network (GAN) created draws from a database of commercial product shots of plants to create new organisms, digital chimeras of commercial interest. The resulting outcome is a series of videos depicting various iterations of the same GAN learning or ‘evolving’ digital plant life, allowing us to perceive the potential for artificial intelligence to interpret and then harness ecological randomness. These diverse creations pull at each other all in competition to be the best reproduction of their progenitor dataset, eventually succumbing to their own nature as the GAN inevitably replaces them with more advanced digital flora.
Image: Hamish Maclean. Monocrop. 2020. Digital images, AI. 27
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LEYLA ALLERTON
Wings for female worker ants. In the ant community, males and females have different roles. The Queen ant is responsible for producing offspring, while all other females are worker ants who never reproduce. Instead, their job is to collect food, look after the Queen’s offspring and work on the nest. The male ants have essentially one purpose — to mate with the queen — and they often die after fulfilling this duty. Another distinguishing feature is wings. The queen and male ants have wings while the female worker ants do not. I felt sympathetic for the female workers and prompted by this inequality, I decided I would make wings for them. The design of the wings was modelled on the male ants wings which have veinlike details running through them. I wanted the female wings to be similar in form but prettier, with a kind of strap to render them wearable. I created the wings on a larger-than-life scale, but the hand stitched details are delicate and belong to an ant-sized realm; they are understood with closer inspection. I used pink coloured thread to maintain a pretty, feminine aesthetic. This hand embroidery is evidence of my direct involvement with the piece and encodes sentimentality; it is a sympathetic gesture to hand-make something for someone. Furthermore, there are strong feminine connotations surrounding sewing as a medium. The process of making these wings was emotionally motivated. It reflects the human notion of gift-giving and communicates compassion. Being a female myself, this artwork can be interpreted as a heartfelt expression of my solidarity with female worker ants. In a parallel to human society, the females of this species do not enjoy the same privileges as their male counterparts. If they could have their own wings, females would be liberated and empowered.
Image: Leyla Allerton. Wings for female worker ants. 2020. Wire, cotton fabric and thread. Approx. 41cm (wingspan) x 10cm x 6cm. 29
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TAL LEVIN
Advert of life, 2020 and 2040 In my piece ‘Advert of life, 2020 and 2040’ I have worked with the living system of fruit, as well as mixed media to create a commentary on the capitalist motives and lack of transparency behind the corporations that profit off of the life and death of animals. The first series ‘2020’, is a reflection of the way animal products are advertised in today’s age, and the second series ‘2040’ is a speculative piece, imagining how advertising will employ the same tactics to advertise lab grown meat. In this project, I am questioning the way humanity treats animals as beings, there purely to benefit us economically and gastronomically. We have no shame in manipulating and cruelly twisting the reality of an animal’s well being, in life or death. The consumer cannot trust what they are being told, and thus must always think for themselves about what they deem right or wrong, true or untrue, living or dead. Going vegan is the BEST and ONLY alternative, to end animal suffering.
Image: Tal Levin. Advert of life 2020 and 2040. 2020. Fruits, Mixed media. 31
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JASON MAXLOW
Glass – Bread – Face
Adapting to the changes we have faced in 2020, my project - initially intended to express my personal connection to all life - has evolved from: a face shaped, slumped glass terrarium, to house mycelium: to, utilising a gifted Herman cake (sourdough yeast) and sourdough baking experiments, the last of which I had left sandwiched between the glass face and a pane of glass. The recent manifestation has involved: manipulated interaction with and consumption of my work by a host of local lifeforms. This project in art and life manipulation has taken many forms, with the content and context adapting and evolving to the environmental and social pressures facing us all in the year 2020. I feel the final outcome has been successful in playfully engaging several of the lifeforms whom I share and experience this world with.
Images: Jason Maxlow. Glass - Bread - Face. 2020. Glass, sourdough yeast, film equipment, chickens, quendas and more. 33
ARTF2040 EARTH, WATER, AIR & FIRE: MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL ART Unit Coordinator: Mike Bianco
ARTF2040 places an emphasis on engaging the environment through materials. Students build on the conceptual knowledge and technical skills acquired in Level 1 and extend their specialisation by engaging a wide array of sculptural materials and methods. Students are exposed to a number of contemporary art practices which engage materials in relation to the environment, including the work of Megan Cope, Ana Mendieta, Gabriel Orozco, and Richard Serra among others. Students learn to build their own custom tools, create objects for beverage ceremonies, and explore process in relation to a chosen material in a final self-directed project.
Image: Madeleine Stuckey: Video still from To Walk Clay. 2020. 34
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MIA PAGE
Untitled (Objects of beverage ceremony) Breast milk - the very first life-giving nutrient produced by a mother after giving birth to a newborn. I chose this beverage, as it is the primary substance consumed by each and every one of us human beings in the initial, vital development stages of life. Without this life-giving, nurturing milk we would not have developed into the individuals we are today. The ability of the female body to not only nurture and develop another life, but to produce a life-giving food, mother’s milk, without which a child would not be able to develop immunities and grow, is something I am heavily drawn to.
Image: Mia Page. Terracotta vessels and stand for beverage ceremony. 2020. 37
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MADELEINE STUCKEY To Walk Clay
The piece “To Walk Clay� was created by attaching a rope to a 20 kilograms of clay block and dragging it through the various surfaces and materials at an industrial site. This act was extremely taxing on the body, especially considering the weight of the clay is 1/3 of my own body weight. I chose clay as my material because of its impressionable yet stubborn nature. This material requires your entire body to manipulate form, creating a deep connection between the body and the material. A common theme in my work is the connection between the body and materials. With this piece I wanted to continue this, however, extend it further by introducing a site. The specific site selected is located in Malaga, the location of my studio where I train as a performance artist. I wanted a site which offered a variety of smaller sites within it, to expose the clay to multiple materials and surfaces. The site selected combined industrial, urban and natural elements, allowing the clay to explore found objects and surfaces. Many artists strive to erase any clue of interaction with a material. Using the clay, I wanted to oppose that notion, allowing the clay to record its own journey, gathering found objects from the site and accepting the imprints which came from my body. youtube.com/watch?v=H3kA2VO0Wyk&feature=youtu.be
Image: Madeleine Stuckey: Video still from To Walk Clay. 2020. 39
ARTF3050 ADVANCED MAJOR PROJECT Unit Coordinator: Mike Bianco
In this core capstone studio unit, students continue to strengthen their artistic, conceptual, technical and research skills as they work towards the development of a fully resolved and substantial portfolio of work. With support and guidance from their lecturers, students are expected to independently initiate and develop a self-directed project and/or body of work in their chosen field of practice. Additionally, students are expected to consolidate the methodological approaches and practices developed over their previous units of study as well as undertake self-reflexive, critical analysis of their own work.
VALENTINA SARTORI
Move With Me, I’ll Move With You Move With Me, I’ll Move With You is an instructional and participatory artwork, which draws on the practice of mindful movement. The work was conducted over the course of a month with 15 participants. Each participant was given instructions and one-on-one ZOOM calls were scheduled, in which guided and free movement were used as a way for participants to connect with their bodies. The work focuses on gendered social conditioning and its relationto women’s bodies.
Image: Valentina Sartori. Video still from Move With Me, I’ll Move With You. 2020. 40
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SKY EDWARDS U-193-x
U-193-x: is an archive of eclectic objects, bizarrely teratological drawings, and disjointed journals. Its contents belong to a fictional character, and allude, despite redactions, to an inexplicably horrible parallel or future ecology of Perth, documented by an isolated, questionably reliable, and semi-autobiographical artist. Part immersive fiction, part archive, U-193-x also exists as a collection in the Archive.org database.
Image: Sky Edwards. Installation of U-193-X in the Cullity Gallery. 2020 43
ARTF1054 DRAWING FOUNDATIONS Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty Teaching Associate: Jo Darvall
Drawing Foundations explores drawing as a fundamental process in the development and communication of ideas. Undertaking structured studio workshops supported by online learning content, students acquire the foundational skills necessary to begin developing a competent and engaging visual language. The unit introduces a range of practical methodologies for observation and recording as well as experimental, conceptual, processbased and non-representational approaches to mark making. The unit culminates in a major drawing project and exhibition responding to the notion of an expanded ‘self-portrait’.
Image: Moses Kington-Walberg. Vibrations - sound art installation. Sonic manipulations of crushed charcoal using a sound wave-based drawing machine. 2020. 44
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ANNA BABRIECKI Strange destinations
Remember here when you are there. An experimental exploration of a series of bizarre dreams that I’ve had over the last four years, presented in the form of short animated sequences. My dreams tend to be colourful and intense and sometimes disturbing, with the occasional recurring plotline or character, and although I’ve been keeping a journal of the most notable of these dreams for the last four years, I’ve never really put much effort into trying to translate them into a visual form. The idea of dreams as an expression of someone’s subconscious/truest self is a concept that I find very interesting – which is how my project’s theme of producing a self-portrait by means of visualizing my dreams (some of which have very personal meanings and context) became the central part of this work. youtube.com/watch?v=mbNExEALDYM
Image: Anna Babriecki. Strange destinations. Digital animation. 2020 47
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JIE RU LIM Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope (2020) is a series of works based on my perspective of my home country, Singapore. Each work represents fragments of different memories I made while growing up in different places. These places are meaningful to me, because I have made many fond memories there. Memories are often fragmented and tend to be tangled. This relates to the notion of an expanded self-portrait, because our experiences in our environments build our character.
Image: Jie Ru Lim. Lorong Ah soo (detail). 2020. Fine liner on tracing paper. 21 x 29.7cm. 2020. 49
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MOSES KINGTON-WALBERG
Vibrations – sound art installation. Sonic manipulations of crushed charcoal using a sound wave-based drawing machine. Vibrations is a collection of evolving sound-art installations that employ the modal vibrational phenomena known as Cymatics. The drawings are made using a D.I.Y version of a Cymatics wave resonator, converting sounds into physical vibrations that cause crushed up, free-moving charcoal to dance effortlessly over a page, the result is a mesmerizing display of moving patterns and reflected light. The installation explores the use of audio recordings, sine-wave generators, electrical instruments and microphones to create a diverse series of moving and still works. As a music student studying contemporary-classical composition, I’m always looking for new avenues to take my writing. I’m interested in the relationship music can have with other art forms, and I wanted my installation to challenge the division between music and the fine arts.
Image: Moses Kington-Walberg. Daily Playlist - Made using all the sounds throughout my day (music, movies, video-lectures etc) from my phone/laptop, 4 drawing, one for each day of the experiment. Loose charcoal on A4.2020. 51
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KAHLIE LOCKYER
You’ll Be Your Own Homecoming Queen
I named my artwork after Thelma Plum’s song ‘Homecoming Queen’ because I can relate to the song and it has been helping me with my low self-esteem. My artwork depicts my interpretation of myself with intergenerational trauma and racism affecting me; I have struggled with a lost identity for years. All my life I have suffered from perfectionism. In recent years, I have learnt how to let go and be a little freer in my work and not expect such high standards of myself. I am a Saltwater Aboriginal woman and mother. My birthright is four nations - Nyulnyul and Yawuru from my grandmothers’ Country; it is also Ngarluma and Karriyarra from my great grandfather Firstly, the contrast of charcoal and red dirt interprets my fight to not assimilate and try to be perfect whilst learning to let go and be free, particularly with the free brush strokes of red dirt on paper. Secondly, Aboriginal people have an interconnectedness with Country, kinship, culture and spirituality; therefore, I portrayed my connection to Country with the red dirt that was collected from Port Hedland and a sky view of Port Hedland in dot work. I am a saltwater person; adding the turtle and fish indicates this; the fish was also drawn from a photograph of the first fish my youngest son caught. My kinship with my family is represented in the reflection of my glasses, as they are a reflection of me. Furthermore, I included the lyrics from the song ‘My Skin’ by Lizzo, representing the colour of my skin and the racism I have faced. Lastly, part of my neck shows muscles, which portrays the physical pain I also face every day but also because I am an anatomy and human biology student, so it also pertains to my career choice.
Image: Kahlie Lockyer. You’ll Be Your Own Homecoming Queen (detail). Red dirt with water, charcoal, white pencil and posca pen on cartridge paper. 18cm x 84cm. 2020. 53
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HUNTER SMITH Dreamscape in Red
This work, depicting scenes from the Murchison River Gorge, Porongurup National Park in Albany and the Boranup Forrest in the South West, was an exploration of the idea of place and its effect on sense of self. These subjects were chosen as places that hold integral experiences in my life, and because of that, this work plays on the notion of an expanded self-portrait. Because this piece was produced just as selfisolation began in Perth, I wanted to create a landscape with a sense of imaginative escape. Thus, it became a ‘dreamscape’ of places I love and wanted to be. Those circumstances also influenced my choice to use collaged paper. Forced to use existing smaller pieces of paper, I enjoy the fact that this work is a pure reflection of its context.
Image: Hunter Smith. Dreamscape in Red (detail). Fine-liner, coloured pencil, chalk and acrylic on collaged paper. 83 x 101cm. 2020. 55
ARTF1052 RECORD, VISUALISE AND IMAGINE Unit Coordinator Sarah Douglas
This level one unit introduces students to diverse recording methods and visualizing techniques, ranging from drawing, collage and print, to photography and digital media. Students develop their capacity to interpret visual and sensory information and apply their interpretation through the dynamics of colour, print media and composition. Site to Insight is the final project where students evolve works in relationship to a site in which they are physically located. The works evolve through research systems of sensing, visualising and physically engaging in place.
Image: Tara Wilson. Flutter. Prints, drawing, photography and solvent transfer on rice paper, series of 27 images. 2020. 56
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ZARAH D’COSTA
Looking Through the Flats Study of Ashfield Flats that are part of the Swan River coastal plane, country of the Yued, Whadjuk, Binjareb and Warandi Noongar peoples. The work references layers of histories and complex ecologies, highlighting the fragmentation and staining of place through a politicised landscape.
Image: Zarah D’Costa. Looking Through the Flats. Photography/print/painting. 2020 59
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LIAM REID Inside Out
This series of eight photographs is an exploration of the lived experiences in an urban apartment block. The works explore feelings of entrapment, isolation and yearning for liberation during strict social distancing rules emplaced during COVID-19.
Liam Reid. Inside Out (detail). Photography, performance. 2020. 61
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RAFAEL LONTOC Working
This series of six are a study of the artist’s bedroom. Due to COVID-19 Rafael returned to the Northern Territory and spent the entire period of the project in his room in Darwin. This study of his room explores the empty, lonely, mundane elements that are infiltrated with references to world building virtual games. The works mediate the fine lines between physical confinement and the liberation of the mind into the virtual and imaginative.
Image: Rafael Lontoc. Working. Photography/Digital drawing/painting. 2020. 63
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TARA WILSONÂ Flutter
A study of the movement, sounds, habits and personalities of birds in a backyard aviary. The artist spent many days with the birds evolving newfound knowledge, relationships and appreciation of her budgie co-habitants.
Image: Tara Wilson. Flutter. Prints, drawing, photography and solvent transfer on rice paper, series of 27 images. 2020. 65
history of art.
Image: Folio 6. Codex Zouche-Nuttall. The British Museum, London. 66
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HART3301 MANET AND THE FRENCH AVANT-GARDE Unit Coordinator: Dr. Emily Eastgate Brink
This unit explores the artistic career and influence of Édouard Manet. An upper-class Parisian who became a rebellious Bohemian, Manet revolutionised painting in late nineteenth-century France. Through a close examination of Manet’s painting practice and artistic community, the unit examines how Manet challenged political authority and artistic convention. Often considered an important bridge between the concerns of Realism and the emergence of Impressionism in France, Manet’s oeuvre engages crucial debates concerning the role of observation and reality in painted representation. Manet cultivated a style that invoked leftist politics, popular culture, art history and Japanese aesthetics, and the unit considers how Manet’s work responds to shifts in the political and cultural landscape of Paris. As part of the unit, students are asked to consider both the limits and virtues of biographical analysis in the study of works of art. Manet was an ardent sketcher, and students use the techniques of sketching to look closely at Manet’s canonical works each week. This practice allows them to inhabit the process of the artist and examine the finer details of Manet’s composition, content, and style.
Images: Manet Sketchbook excerpts from weekly sketching assignments based on Manet paintings. Sketches by Melissa Clements (above), Maya Quinn (top right).and Jeremy Passmore (bottom right). 68
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GILLIAN GALLAGHER
ÉDOUARD MANET AND HIS SELFPORTRAITS Towards the end of his life Édouard Manet painted two single figure self-portraits, Self-Portrait with Palette, 1878/79, and Self-Portrait with Skull Cap, 1878/79. The works are noteworthy not least because they are the only single figure self-portraits he painted, but also because they encapsulate a lifetime’s journey as an artist at the heart of a group of radical writers, artists and thinkers in Paris, the city which defined modernity in mid-to-late 19th century Europe. Earlier in his career Manet had inserted himself, recognisably but unobtrusively, into his painting Music in the Tuileries Gardens, 1862, which recorded the new phenomenon of the bourgeoisie at leisure. This work and the later self-portraits act like a set of bookends to his oeuvre, setting out on the one hand, aspects of his artistic influences and social and intellectual milieu, and on the other, the culmination of a form of representation that would come to be seen as having enabled “…all the painting from which… contemporary art developed”.1 More than that though, the self-portraits give us an insight into Manet the man — an individual who defied convention in so many ways, and at some cost, and who all the while maintained an outward appearance of bourgeoise conformity, albeit within his artistic and avant-garde social circle. Manet’s inclusion of himself in Music in the Tuileries Gardens (Figure 1), works as a signifier of the underlying themes and techniques that he would engage with throughout his lifetime. He has placed himself at the extreme left of the painting, hard up against the edge, and he looks directly out at us, as if inviting us to stroll with him through the work to make what we will of the many references to his family, his social circle, his artistic and intellectual influences and 70
his preoccupation with the seen and the unseen. His position at the left, amongst a group of fellow flaneurs and friends, references a cluster of figures in a work thought to have been by Velázquez,2 whose work was to have an enduring influence on Manet, and who is strongly referenced in his later self-portraits. Many of the figures in the work are identifiable, but perhaps one of the most significant inclusions is that of Charles Baudelaire, a close friend of Manet’s and an intellectual whose writings on the transience of all things, the fleeting nature of reality, were ideas that Manet strove to represent throughout his career, including in his self-portraits. In Music in the Tuileries Gardens, Manet renders ideas of the unseeable/ unknowable through his scumbling technique in different parts of the work, but emphatically, in the centre of the work, where he has foregone detailed figures for indeterminate patches of colour. The context of these patches gives us a clue as to what we think they might represent, but we cannot be certain. This uncertainty through facture is magnified in his self-portraits. Manet would frequently be portrayed by artist and photographer friends, yet it wasn’t until he was near the end of his life that he painted his only two self-portraits, if we exclude his appearance in multi-figure works. Art historians have speculated about the timing of these portraits and whether or not they would have been painted when Manet first experienced signs of the illness which he would have known to be fatal, syphilis.3 Were they meant to be taken as a way of summing up a life’s work? Manet never exhibited these works, and his family referred to them as sketches, though while alive, Manet had shown Self-Portrait with Palette to friends, which, according to Maryanne Stevens, was likely to have meant that he considered it to be a finished work.4 What is clear is that both Self-Portrait with Palette and Self-Portrait with Skull Cap can be seen as part of a continuum in Manet’s oeuvre, in which we see the
ideas and influences that were present in Music in the Tuileries Gardens turned on himself. In Self-Portrait with Palette (Figure 2), Manet references one of his earliest and most enduring influences: Diego Velázquez. The reference works on two levels: firstly, Manet has placed himself against a tonal, blank background similar to the backgrounds Velázquez used in his portraits and which Manet not only admired, but also used in so many of his own portraits.5 Secondly, Manet has based his pose on one that Velázquez had used to portray himself as court painter in Las Meninas. Manet’s pose is the reverse of Velázquez’s, possibly because the portrait was painted with the use of a mirror.6 It seems likely that Manet used a mirror to construct the work, given that he holds his paintbrush in his left hand. In Self-Portrait with Palette, Manet looks out at us, the light falls on one side of his face, highlighting one brightly lit eye which holds our attention, while the other eye is not only in the shadow, but is strangely larger than the clearly lit eye, and appears to be opaque. The gaze may be direct, but the seemingly blank eye in the shadow adds a frisson for the viewer which acts to unsettle our engagement with the subject. Manet’s gaze sets up a conundrum whereby he appears to be inviting engagement and at the same time retreating from it: he is commenting on ideas around the limitations of seeing and of knowing — by both the beholder and the subject — and introducing the idea of uncertainty about what we think we can see, and the ambiguity of our perception. This is a trope that Manet has developed and used throughout his work, with particular effect in his portraits of his friend Berthe Morisot where he portrays not just a complex woman, but a complex relationship, hidden from public view.7 Elsewhere in the work, he has deliberately obfuscated the very means by which he has created his body of work — his hands. If it were not for the brush which is held in front of him, we would hardly
recognise the blur of tones which stand in for the hand. The palette of the title, though more legible, is relegated to a suggestion of form, cut off by the bottom edge of the work. The brushes emerging from the palette are sketched in, making them appear incomplete and without substance. Yet while his hand merges through tone and brushstrokes with the sleeve of his jacket, the paintbrush which he holds in his left hand is described with clarity — like a magic wand, loaded with red paint on the end of the brush, and highlighted at its upper end. Manet’s blurred hand, incomplete palette and brushes, and highlighted brush, ask us to consider the process of representation and the role of each element in creating an image capable of expressing an inner life. Manet ensures that everything in the work is interconnected: he maps out an internal circularity from the highlighted side of his face down to the end of the single brush, carrying on through the sketched brushes and the highlights on the palette, then on up through the sleeve of his jacket and back to his face. But while all elements are connected, Manet nevertheless prioritises his piercing eye over his scumbled artist’s hand: everything comes back to that one vividly lit all-seeing eye which looks out at us with a range of emotions that are personal and private to him. Manet makes it clear that his intellect and eye are the means of his art, but at the same time, he is showing us through the clouded eye, that vision is an imperfect means of understanding another human being. It is as though he is at once asserting Zola’s positivism and the primacy of seeing with Baudelaire’s duality of being. Manet’s dress in the portrait poses more questions about the uncertain nature of identity. We have a great deal of evidence of Manet’s commitment to style through the many portraits of him by his fellow artists, and especially, the photographic portraits by Felix Nadar. Nadar’s portraits capture a very different aspect of Manet’s character — his public self, a 71
modern man in command of a particular self-image. Each attests to a well dressed man in beautifully tailored clothes and Manet looks back at the camera with what could be described as self-confident intelligence mixed with humorous charm (Figure 3). In Self-Portrait with Palette, his clothing alludes to his well known fondness for stylish dress, with his white shirt collar, cravat and tie pin, but he has topped the outfit with a soft-structured jacket — perhaps his version of an artist’s smock, denoting his profession. The hat, however, throws the idea of ‘painter at work’ into confusion. This is a hat for the outdoors, it is part of the ‘dandy’ attire. Is Manet referencing his public self, the self of the successful artist and the welldressed charmer of his café society circle of artists and writers? A similar hat appears in his portraits of two members of his circle, both artists - Marcellin Desboutin (Figure 4), and Alphonse Maureau (Figure 5) — perhaps it denotes an awareness of a group identity. Whatever its significance, the hat also provides Manet with the rationale for the shadow down one side of his face, that is, a means of partial retreat from view, creating a tension between his seen and unseen self. At first glance, Manet’s other self-portrait, SelfPortrait with Skull Cap (Figure 6), does look as though it could fit the family’s description of the work as a sketch. The brush strokes and facture are quite different from Self-Portrait with Palette. But once again, this is a work which is heavily weighted with references to Manet’s formative influences and his ongoing reworking of those influences. We see the whole figure of Manet in this work, in a frontal stance which suggests a defiant announcement of self. Yet the directness of the stance is less certain when we consider the antecedents of the pose, which go back to Manet’s encounter with Velázquez’s Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid, c.1635, a court jester portrayed in a declamatory pose. As mentioned before, Manet 72
was particularly moved by the effect of Velázquez’s featureless, tonal background in this portrait, and he also referenced the jester’s stance at different times in his works, including in two portraits of an opera singer and collector of his work, Jean-Baptiste Faure. Both portraits depict Faure in the role of Hamlet. The earlier work (Figure 7), is a study in instability and uncertainty of vision, with its rapid, sketch-like brushstrokes and use of highlights, producing an unreal, shimmering effect, perfectly reflecting Hamlet’s great existential dilemma on the nature of being. The short brushstrokes and the play on light are similar in technique to the work of the Impressionist artists in his circle of friends such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, and Manet has used the same short, sketchy brushstrokes and thinly applied paint in Self-Portrait with Skull Cap, particularly in the lower part of the background, suggesting a ground in flux. Unlike the Impressionist painters though, whose technique conveyed atmosphere, Manet’s short, multi-directional brushstrokes add to the complexity of his persona: his stance pushes him forward in the composition, yet his restricted palette, with his use of the same tones for both the background and his clothing, act to merge his figure with the murky, indecipherable background. The shadows behind his feet go some way to anchoring the figure, and to provide substance, but altogether, the effect is strangely unsettling and similar to the effect Manet achieved in his portrayal of Faure as Hamlet, in that we see a man planted in one spot, but whose mind is in motion. It is as if Manet is unmasking the public persona of so many of his friends’ portraits of him and revealing himself as having withstood “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.8 The shadows also provide a link to Manet’s history of work through their allusion to the shadows in Velázquez’s Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid and to Manet’s use of the trope in his own work,
most notably in The Fifer, 1866. Manet’s stance also references one of his earlier works: it is the same contrapposto stance that he has used in A Philosopher, 1865, also known as Le Philosophe au Béret (Figure 8), which further links the two works through both the reference to headwear, and to the notion of the internal world of ideas.9 Manet’s clothing in this work is very similar to that in Self-Portrait with Palette: the difference lies in the headwear. Here, the outdoors hat of the previous work has been replaced with the skull cap of the title, possibly indicating that Manet is in a private space, either at home or in his studio.10 It could also be seen as an homage to the Italian masters who influenced him early in his career. During his visit to Florence in 1853 Manet copied a work of Filippino Lippi’s, Tête de Jeune Homme, 1853 - a portrait of a young man with a skull cap (Figure 8). In addition, Titian, who provided the inspiration for one of Manet’s most controversial works, Olympia, often portrayed himself wearing a skull cap — it would seem likely that Manet would have seen such a self-portrait of Titian’s when he visited Venice on his Italian tour, or even the portrait below, in the Prado Museum (Figure 9). Manet’s face is less prominent in this composition than in Self-Portrait with Palette, and is painted with less detail and clarity, but even so, his highlighted forehead, slightly furrowed brow and direct gaze tell us that the mind is all. His hands are even more blurred than in the previous work, and he has gone so far as to partially place them in his pockets, minimising their role in his construction of self. Here there is no direct reference to the accoutrements of his art, yet in his stance, composition and facture he is referencing his life’s work, from the beginning of his first influences to his changing style in the 1870’s. At the same time, the unstable ground on which he stands, and his intense, direct gaze denoting a mix of defiance and vulnerability tell us of a sense of pride in his achievement, but also that it has come at some
cost to himself. Self-Portrait with Skull Cap feels like an end of life statement — a reckoning with historical antecedents and a lifetime’s body of work. It is all here. We may never know what Manet intended for his portraits — whether they might ultimately have been exhibited publicly had he lived longer, or whether they were intended as a private record of his relation to his art and life. What is clear, is that together they stand as a testament to a life of creative and intellectual endeavour and engagement with seminal philosophical and political movements, and a lifetime of courageous defiance against the art establishment of his time. The simplicity of the subject matter belies the complexity of the historical allusions within each work, but Manet’s greatest achievement in these selfportraits is his portrayal of himself as someone who has had the courage to take great risks, and whose inner world was as central to his life as his was his place within his extraordinary milieu. Endnotes 1. Michel Foucault, Matthew Barr and Nicolas Bourriaud. Manet and the Object of Painting (London: Tate Publishing, 2009), 28. 2. Juliet Wilson-Bareau, ‘Manet and Spain’ in Manet/ Velázquez : the French Taste for Spanish Painting, edited by Gary Tinterow, Geneviève Lacambre and Deborah L. Roldán (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), 220. 3. Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Manet by Himself (London: Macdonald Illustrated, 1991), 159. 4. Maryanne Stevens in Manet : Portraying Life (Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 2012), 176. 5. Carol Armstrong, Manet Manette (New Haven ; Yale University Press, 2002), 96. 6. Michael Fried, Manet’s Modernism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 396. 7. Marni R. Kessler, “Unmasking Manet’s Morisot.” The Art Bulletin 81, no. 3 (September 1, 1999), 473–489. 8. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1. 9. Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein, and Edouard Manet. Edouard Manet : catalogue raisonne (Lausanne: Bibliotheque des arts, 1975), 100. 10. Michael Fried, Manet’s Modernism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 610.
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HART3331 VISUAL CULTURE AND ART IN AMERICA: 1900 - 2000 Unit Coordinator: Gary Dufour
Explore art in the ‘American century’ from Henry Tanner, Mary Cassatt and Manierre Dawson in Europe at the end of the 19th century, to artists who embrace the role of ‘witness’ like Gordon Parks and Alice Neel in the 1940s, and then discover how New York ‘Stole the idea of Modern Art’ and made it American. Your passion for art, and curiosity will be encouraged through the engagement with a broad range of critical skills on a journey that may take you outside your comfort zone, and will introduce the less familiar in American art. The unit will use a range of art exhibitions as a resource explore the social context of art both when it was made and exhibited to its reinterpretation in subsequent decades. Discover how Art in America has received at home and abroad through in depth lectures on artists who have had a significant impact on the history of art such as Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Robert Frank, Agnes Martin, Kerry James Marshall, Leon Golub, and Jeff Wall. The unit examines the role of art and visual culture in America during the twentieth century. A range of visual forms, painting, sculpture, photography, film & video, new media, museums and exhibitions are discussed within the societal contexts and historiography of a century of political, economic and technological change.
Image: Ecosexual Bathhouse 2017 (detail). Pony Express [Loren Kronemeyer, 1988 & Ian Sinclair, 1987] presented at PICA, Perth, 24-28 January 2017. 74
75
KIARA PLAYER
Ana Mendieta, Bruce Nauman and the Body (Abridged) Somatic psychology the study of the body from an internal, rather than external standpoint, is the core of somatics, a term coined by Thomas Hanna to describe his belief in the inherent wisdom of the body to heal itself.1 A similar somatic experience of art can be seen as early as the 1950s, with the Fluxus movement, which proliferated as Conceptual art took hold. The goal expressed early on by Mark Rothko “…to eliminate all obstacles between the painter and the idea, between the idea and the observer.”2 A statement resonant with the interconnectedness of our corporeal body with our mind, our energy, and our spirit. Conceptual art of the 1960s questioned traditional notions of art, particularly the materiality of sculpture and painting.3 Bruce Nauman developed a multifaceted artistic practice that emphasised the process of making art, focusing not on the artwork but the point it could get across regardless of its materiality.4 The oeuvre of Ana Mendieta similarly is evocative of this somatic experience. Mendieta’s body art, through a “typology of abstracted feminine forms,” explores the deep-rooted and spiritual “omnipresent female force” something Mendieta believed to be contained within the earth/nature.5 The body is an essential part of Mendieta’s and Nauman’s practice, creating a link between viewers and each artist. Drawing on notions of somatic psychology, specifically the writings of Thomas Hanna, the body becomes key to understanding artworks that ultimately exist as meditations on the physical and psychological nature of human experience. The 1960s brought a tidal wave of rising discontentment with traditional methodologies; 76
painting and sculpture were no longer seen as sufficient in their ability to represent. Conceptual art encapsulates a wide range of artists, each seeking to “ensure that visual art preserves its role as a cognitive conduit between graspable representation and amorphous reality.” Art then, came to be recognised as “… not simply a literal transcription of the observed world but equally channels of perception and thought.” However, “Conceptual artworks do not reject the notion of the object even when they entertain performative elements.”6 Nauman can be said to have “almost singlehandily redefined what it meant to be an artist.” His fascination with the tactility of various mediums, from the lush fluidity of painting to the sharp, stark, hard lines of steel and fiberglass7 is Post-minimal and by now the stuff of legend,8 particularly his later fascination with the auditory, specifically its ability to heighten the “processes of perception— visual, physiological, and physical” forcing the “distinction between seeing with the eyes and experiencing with the body to collapse.”9 Herein lies the crux of Nauman’s somatic exploration when he began to incorporate linguistics and speech into his sculptural works. In Get Out of My Mind, Get Out of This Room, 1968 the viewer becomes an ‘unwelcome’ participant entering the gallery space to be met by a vortex of Nauman’s hauntingly disembodied voice, that simultaneously invites in and rejects the viewers, demanding that they leave, immediately. In this domain language assumes authority, omniscient and immaterial, Nauman’s recorded voice references his body and that of each viewer. Get Out of My Mind, Get Out of This Room, incorporates a single lightbulb into the installation, thus seemingly imitating an auditory hallucination.10 Get Out of My Mind, Get Out of This Room draws on Nauman’s commonly used thematic motif of entrapment, the breathlessness
“Bruce Nauman developed a multifaceted artistic practice that emphasised the process of making art, focusing not on the artwork but the point it could get across regardless of its materiality.”
and snarled tone of Nauman’s voice transports the viewer into his mind, for which the room becomes a metaphor; transforming the somatic experience of art, the viewer now interacts ‘directly’ with the mental state of the artist, forcing it to become a body-mind exchange. Nauman’s revolutionary practice alters preconceived notions of the viewerartwork-artist dynamic; in which the artwork transcends the temporal and physical limitations of the artist’s presence. 11 Ana Mendieta came from vastly different background, immersed in a world of trauma, migration and an ever absent Cuban homeland. Mendieta was also inspired by the works of Fluxus group and the performances of Carolee Schneeman. Mendieta develop her practice around a “dialogue between landscape and the female body.” For Mendieta, her body becomes an umbilical cord not only for herself but for the viewer; both mesmerised by the divinity of the earth/nature. This collective consciousness, is inherently integrated with the world that surrounds it; a world of animals, plants, people, minerals, air, and water. All natural elements that resonate with our souls and stimulate our senses like nothing else. Mendieta’s art draws on ‘the body’ as a multifaceted entity, both biological and psychical, it is an inscribed surface (traced by language and dissolved by ideas).” Both abstract and concrete, individual and collective; the body gives access to both universal and unique experiences, regardless of language barriers, the body allows for common experience—a transitory vessel. Bryan Turner described it as “the most proximate and immediate feature of my social self, a necessary feature of my social location and of my personal ‘enselfment’ and at the same time an aspect of my personal alienation in the natural environment”; the body is the medium of both our oppression and our transcendence.12 Body art places emphasis on the self “with all its apparent racial, sexual, gender, class 77
and unconscious identifications.” Body art “… does not strive toward a utopian redemption but, rather, places the body/the self within the realm of the aesthetic as a political domain. Mendieta’s art aligns itself with these methodologies; an “obsessive act of reasserting my ties with the earth, primeval beliefs…[in] an omnipresent female force, the after-image of being my thirst for being.” This takes on a double meaning, both Mendieta’s casting out of her ‘motherland’ and a feminine disconnect; her body becomes, through her art, subject, “fetish object for a pleasure-seeking male gaze, and abstract form, altering its physicality—it has been transformed from life-bearing vessel to vessel for the divine.13 Mendieta’s Silueta series, reflects her “prolific practice in which body, earth, and organic material like blood and fire,” connect Mendieta to an “omnipresent female force”. Each Silueta is a temporary carved abstract version of her form in the landscape. The ambiguity of this form, no longer inherently feminine nor recognisable as Mendieta, invites viewers to imagine this shape as their own. Is humanities relationship with the earth a symbiotic exchange or inherently exploitive? Silueta is paradoxical, a passive reflection on our relationship with the earth, while remaining highly confrontational.14 In this manner Silueta is not wholly different from Ecosexual Bathhouse; an installation that recently visited The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in its third reiteration. Ecosexual Bathhouse, invites viewers to allow themselves to be transformed into art, through “an immersive interactive performance labyrinth where the earth itself is your lover.” Whist Ecosexual Bathhouse personifies the earth in a sexual manner, and Mendieta places maternal characteristics on the natural environment, both assume an intimate, ‘human’ relationship with the landscape. Ecosexual Bathhouse is based on Dr. 78
Elizabeth Stephen’s and Annie Sprinkle’s ‘Ecosex Manifesto’, an exploration of ecosexuality, a “burgeoning queer identity that positions the environment as an erotic partner,” and bringing to the forefront notions of “existing artistic conventions around sustainability and conservation” via the “ecosex ethos,” in turn “fostering a new level of intimacy and mutual pleasure with the earth itself.” Mendieta’s work has a similar effect, fostering a spiritual ‘Mother Earth’ relationship.15 Both Nauman and Mendieta posit the possibility of human contact and exchange without physical form. A thematic point of commonality between the two artists may lie in Nauman’s use of text in Flayed Earth/Flayed Self (Skin/Sink)1973. Peeling skin peeling earth – peeled earth raw earth, peeled skin The problem is to divide your skin into six equal parts lines starting at your feet and ending at your head (five lines to make six equal surface areas) to twist and spiral into the ground, your skin peeling off stretching and expanding to cover the surface of the earth indicated by the spiralling waves generated by the spiralling twisting screwing descent and investiture (investment or investing) of the earth by your swelling body. 16 Nauman’s text evokes Mendieta’s modus operandi. Their art occupies the realm of the aesthetic asking art to operate on a somatic and psychological level. Each influenced new art in America, shifting an expectation of what art is to what it can embody. The methodologies of the artists reflect the burgeoning need in the 70s for new art in America to transcend the constraints of “medium specificity,” and enter into the rhetoric of ‘post-medium conceptions of art’; articulating
a new purpose for art and its potential to convey meaning, experience and sensation, beyond the preoccupation with the formal qualities of traditional/conventional artistic methodologies.17 Endnotes 1. Linda Hartley, Somatic Psychology: Body, Mind and Meaning (London: Whurr Publishers, 2004). Accessed May 13, 2020: http://union-street-health-associates.com/articles/ somatic-psychology-linda-hartley-review.pdf 2. MoMA. “Press release and exhibition labels for The Art of the Real: USA 1948-1968,” eds. E.C. Goossen, and Elizabeth Shaw.” (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, no. 62, 1968) 3. Anne Rorimer, New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality (London: Thames & Hudson, 2001), 7 4. Coosje van Bruggen, Bruce Nauman. (New York: Rizzoli,1988), 7-13 5. Guggenheim. “Ana Mendieta: Untiled: Silueta Series.” Accessed May 12, 2020: https://www.guggenheim.org/ artwork/5221 6. Rorimer, New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality, 7-25 7. van Bruggen, Bruce Nauman, 7-25 8. Constance M Lewallen, A Rose Has No Teeth (Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2007), 2 9. Bruce Nauman, Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman’s Words: Writings and Interviews (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005) 10. Ben Davis, “Bittersweet Cacophony.” Artnet Magazine. Accessed May 12, 2020: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/ reviews/davis/bruce-nauman-venice-biennale6-18-09.asp 11. Nauman, Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman’s Words: Writings and Interviews. 12. Amelia Jones, Body Art: Performing the subject (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), 12-26 13. Jones, Body Art: Performing the subject, 27 14. Pony Express. “Ecosexual Bathhouse.” Sense & Sensuality, no. 17 (2017): 12-21. Accessed May 13, 2020: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/ stable/90012821?sid=primo&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_ contents 15. Guggenheim. “Ana Mendieta: Untitled: Silueta Series.” https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5221 16. van Bruggen, Bruce Nauman, 204 17. Alex Potts, “Tactility: The Interrogation of Medium in Art of the 1960s.” Art History 27, no. 2 (2004). Accessed May 13, 2020: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.uwa. edu.au/doi/full/10.1111/j.0141-6790.2004.02702004.
“Their art occupies the realm of the aesthetic asking art to operate on a somatic and psychological level. Each influenced new art in America, shifting an expectation of what art is to what it can embody.”
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HART2223 MODERNISM AND THE VISUAL ARTS Unit Coordinator: Dr Darren Jorgensen
HART2223 covers the art historical debates over global modernism, including the way that artists responded to colonialism and industrialism. It focuses on the disciplinary shift from European modernism to global, multiple modernisms that emerged out of situations of cultural contact and exchange. Today, modernism also art that engages with globalisation, with the big picture issues of economic and cultural convergence and collision. The unit develops the student’s ability to recognise debates over the nature of modernism and discern their central contentions. It gives students a crucial grounding in a body of art historical knowledge that is necessary for understanding specialist units that follow in Level 3, in fields such as contemporary and new media arts where discourses often engage with and react to modernism.
Image: Hans Bellmer. Les Jeux de la PoupĂŠe. Photograph, 1935. 80
JOYCE MA
Not A Child’s Play: an essay excerpt on Hans Bellmer’s rule-breaking yet perverted art Hans Bellmer’s indispensable place in Surrealism lies in his ability to abandon all ties with the existing social order. In the 1920s, André Breton’s Surrealist movement called for an elimination of the bourgeoisie. Furthering the cause, Bellmer displaced social norms through acting on the unconscious desires of his mind, and not in accordance with the cultural standards. Despite the unmistakable sexually violent and paedophilic nature of Bellmer’s artworks, they facilitated André Breton’s revolution through their erotic and simulacral qualities. Aligning with Breton’s aversion to rules and traditionalism, Bellmer’s erotic simulacrum symbolises a rebellion as it disputes the order of idea and representation which Plato proposed, thereby tearing down the age-old aesthetic tradition which has long imprisoned simulation. In his second project, Les Jeux de la Poupée, Bellmer investigated the ‘idea of the “double”’. Instead of depicting a conventional doll, Bellmer underwent a process which Hal Foster called ‘the troubling of reality’. As an amalgam of many detachable body parts, Bellmer captured his own ‘doll’ in many mutilated and grotesque rearrangements. Within this series, the most striking photos are the ones in which the doll is represented by the doubling or a reflection of the lower body. While contorted anatomical forms can be extracted from reality, the doubling of the legs cannot. The latter is a distortion of reality which subverts the platonic ideals. In This is Not a Pipe, Michel Foucault articulated that classical paintings, (by extension art in general), follow the formula of ‘resemblance’ and
‘affirmation.’ Bellmer’s art eroded this paradigm because it does not affirm the reality even though it takes on the resemblance of a doll. Thus, in platonic terms, Bellmer’s doll is a simulacrum as it is a ‘degraded’ copy of a doll. Other than mechanically duplicating the parts of the doll, the medium of Bellmer’s choice, photography, exist in multiples by the nature of their technical operations. What the camera frames will become a ‘ceaseless automatic writing’ once multiplied. Photography also encapsulates the ‘seamlessness of reality itself’. Whenever Bellmer inserted a simulacrum within the camera frame, he infiltrated and corrupted the real. The limitlessness in the reproduction of Bellmer’s photographs further offends Platonism as the photographs amplify the daemonic perversion, that is the simulacrum. Nonetheless, entitling a figure that is made up of two pairs of legs a ‘doll’ confounds our expected representation of dolls at large. Bellmer calling his simulacrum ‘a doll’ is a deliberate demonstration of how words or ideas are not bound to, and can be pulled apart from their pictorial or symbolic forms, ultimately breaking the linguistic and artistic rules imposed by the social order which Breton detested and attempted to abolish. Eroticism, as Georges Bataille stated, ‘always entails a breaking down of established patterns, the patterns... of regulated social order’.10 This is because to liberate sexual expression is to offset the Bourgeois morals that first incarcerated it;11 and to dismantle sexual taboos is to repudiate the social customs that first formed them. Throughout his career, Bellmer actively created overt displays of sexual fetishes and morbid obsessions. While Die Puppe finds Bellmer as an acrotomophile with a compulsion to mutilate, Les Jeux de la Poupée evokes child pornography. Reminiscent of a schoolgirl, the mannequin in 81
the latter series sometimes takes on the form of a young girl outfitted in Mary Jane patent shoes and short socks. The innocence of Bellmer’s dolls is often debased by either their tantalising poses or by their exposed genitalia. In creating these dolls with the bodies of fully developed females, Bellmer complicated their purity with adult sexuality. Further defying against the social institutions, Bellmer’s Tenir au Frais draws from the sexual practice of bondage. Presenting to us a lump of flesh that was tied up in a banal domestic setting, post-production manipulation was employed to weld multiple sections of a naked body together. Echoing his sexual fantasy to butchery since Die Puppe, from the crafting of this collage to the title of this project, Bellmer plays on the idea that women’s flesh, like meat, can be mutilated and kept fresh or refrigerated after its death. Having his love interest Unica Zürn modelled as the lump of flesh, this project cannot be taken merely as a simulation. Tenir au Frais is in fact documenting a real event of sexual violence on a real body in real time. On the whole, what Bellmer has shamelessly and unapologetically presented to us – in Tenir au Frais and his earlier work – is his relentless dedication to poking and prodding his own and our sexual parameters. The complete transparency of Bellmer’s perversions in his artworks signifies a rebellion against many Western societies that indoctrinate sexual repression as a means of social control. To conclude, borrowing Simone de Beauvoir’s insight from her essay – ‘Must We Burn Sade?’, pornographic literature and art, such as Bellmer’s, are a kind of necessary evil. In the context of the Surrealist movement, the erotic simulacrum served as Bellmer’s primary weapon against the status quo: Bellmer’s explicit exhibition of sexual desires offsets the sexual 82
repression enforced by the Bourgeois morals, whilst his simulacrum challenges the traditional platonic ideals imposed on aesthetics. Endnotes 1. Pierre Taminiaux, “Breton and Trotsky: The Revolutionary Memory of Surrealism,” Yale French Studies 109, no. 109 (2006): 52-66, 55, 59. Katherine Bottinelli and Susan Laxton, “Psychoanalytic Feminism and the Depiction of Women in Surrealist Photography,” UC Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal 12, no. 1 (2018): 21-7, 23. 2. Bottinelli, 23. 3. Gilles Deleuze and Rosalind Krauss, “Plato and the Simulacrum,” October 27, (1983): 45-56, 48. 4. Hal Foster, Rosalind E. Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, and David Joselit. Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. (London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson,) 2004, 194-5. 5. Hal Foster, Preface in Compulsive Beauty (United States of America: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1997), xiii. 6. Foster, Compulsive Beauty, 97. 7. Foucault, Michel. “Nonaffirmative Painting,” in This is Not a Pipe, tran. and ed. James A. Harkness (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, and London, England: University of California Press, 1983), 53-4, 53. 8. Deleuze, 48. 9. Rosalind E. Krauss, Jane Livingston, and Dawn Ades, “Photography in the service of surrealism,” In L’amour Fou: Photography & Surrealism, 13-42 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), 35. 10. Krauss, Photography in the service of surrealism, 28. 11. Deleuze, 47. 12. The English translation of Tenir au Frais is ‘to keep cool’. 13. See Christie Davies, “Sexual Taboos and Social Boundaries,” American Journal of Sociology 87, no. 5 (1982): 1032-63, 1032. 14. Simone de Beauvoir “Must We Burn Sade?” In Political Writings, 44-101, trans. Kim Allen Gleed, Marilyn Gaddis Rose and Virginia Preston, eds. Margaret A. Simons and Marybeth Timmermann (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, United States of America: University of Illinois Press, 2012), 45, 74.
BYRON ELLIS
The Canadian Story of Emily Carr: Indigenous Representation and Appropriation Intrinsic to Canada’s art history is the nature of its settler-colonisation and the European appropriation of indigenous lands and legitimacy. This is expressed in the work of west coast artist Emily Carr (1871-1945) whose subject matter depended on her experience as a settler in British Columbia. Her early paintings, while commercially unsuccessful, display an inquisitive naiveté which developed in her practice into important documentation and emotive representation of indigenous villages and monumental sculpture. The turning point in her career, which saw her late adoption into the Group of Seven (the most influential collective of Canadian modernist painters) was in her “discovery” by curator-ethnographer Marius Barbeau in 1927. Barbeau selected her works for the Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art: Native and Modern at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The way her paintings were contextualised then, and now, provide precious insight into the ideological underpinnings of the settler regime’s appropriation of indigenous cultural legitimacy. The majority of Carr’s paintings exhibited in 1927 were created in the years 1912 and 1913 and reflect her desire to “document” the First Nations peoples of the Pacific northwest. This reflects her encounter with the primitivist discourse consuming Parisian artistic circles on her journey there in 1910. These works depict native landscapes in oil and water colours, providing visual evidence of indigenous culture that was increasingly under threat from the assimilationist ambitions of the Canadian Government.
Assimilationist ambitions shared by Barbeau whose fascination with indigenous culture was matched by his belief in the transcendental nature of art. His exhibition expressed the premise that the European artists, were able to access a wealth of feeling and connection to the land akin to traditional ownership by skilfully representing the Canadian landscape. He saw this as vital to the creation of an independent Canadian culture with legitimacy in its possession of the land and direct lineage from the First Nations peoples whose culture he described as “passed out” due to their adoption of Christianity and the policies of the Canadian Government. The exhibition’s structure represents this as artefacts created by First Nations peoples such as totems, textiles, and woodwork were displayed in conversation with and amongst settler paintings and imitations of traditional designs. Emily Carr contributed a number of her hooked rugs adorned with traditional designs of killer whales and birds which were represented as native yet modern art in their own right, effectively breaking down the distinction between settler and indigenous art that existed at least in representational form. Barbeau wrote that Carr’s “close proximity” with indigenous culture reflected an inspiration that was “truly Canadian” expressing a settler-colonial ideology that assumes the legitimacy of indigenous peoples while simultaneously denying them a voice and a place within that society. The Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art itself failed to gain much public traction due to a series of flaws in its promotion attracting only 7700 visitors. Emily Carr wrote of the opening night: It was horrid. Up to the very night of the affair, Mr. Barbeau was so full of enthusiasm and hope, so gay… It was a dead dismal failure. Despite its lack of public success it did attract some influential Canadian artists who 83
recognised Carr’s potential as an innovative painter, and hailed her as a newfound member of the Group of Seven finding in her work a similar nation-building goal through landscape painting. Ironically, Carr’s long-awaited moment of success coincides with brutal initiatives of the Canadian Government to suppress and assimilate indigenous culture. In the same year, legislation was introduced to outlaw fundraising for legal action to defend native sovereignty. Allthe-while the government expanded the Indian Residential School system which separated indigenous children from their families and cultures. Many of Carr’s later paintings express emotive sympathy for the progressive destruction of the traditional indigenous way of life resonating in works such as Zunoqua of the Cat Village. In this sombre painting, Carr depicts remnants of traditional ways of life. The foreground of the scene depicts wooden totem resembling a masculine figure, wearing a snake headdress. Its back is turned on two dilapidated buildings enveloped by a swirling green undergrowth and overshadowed by the dark forest canopy. Peering out from the bushes are numerous feral cats, their eyes staring directly at the viewer. This painting can be read as an analogy for the effect of state policies on the Indigenous way of life that Carr came to admire so much. The imported, unwanted, and destructive cats can be read as a predatory allusion to the colonists bringing about the abandonment of the village and its culture. Emily Carr’s career is characterised by the production of sensitive works of art in a market and environment that paid them little attention. Punctuated here and there, are genuine successes which built her reputation posthumously into one of the most important Canadian modern artists. Her career derives its inspiration and purpose in awe of the indigenous 84
artistic production in her native British Columbia. Carr is the epitome of the settler colonial artist, occupying a varying position between preservation through representation and stylistic appropriation. Her early exhibition history reflects the way (modern) Canadian landscape painting was used to support the settler colonial project through the dual appropriation of the landscape and representational styles. Emily Carr’s legacy is complex, and her story is as inseparable from Canadian colonialism as it is to the Canadian expression of modernism. Endnotes 1. Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, 95. 2. Johanne Lamoureux, “The Other French Modernity of Emily Carr,” in Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, 52. 3. Frances M. Slaney, “Vitalism in Canada’s Anthropology and Art: Barbeau’s Early Twentieth Century Connection to Modernist Painters, Especially Emily Carr,” Journal of Canadian Art History 31, no. 1 (2010): 75. 4. Ibid, 77. 5. Ibid. 6. Hill, “Backgrounds in Canadian Art,” 121.
Image: Emily Carr. Zunoqua of the Cat Village (detail), 1931. Oil on canvas. 112.2 x 70.1 cm. 85
HART2370 GLOBAL ART HISTORIES Unit Coordinator: Arvi Wattel
This unit traces global developments in art and material culture through a series of case studies focusing on the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. The unit is not a survey of global art but instead concentrates on the increasing globalisation and its impact on the production and reception of art across different cultures in Latin America, South and East Asia, Africa and Europe. Exploring issues such as national vs transnational, cultural encounter, ethnography, cross-cultural exchange and cultural transfer (acculturation, transculturation, hybridization, etc.), this unit critically investigates what constitutes ‘globalisation’ and the ‘global’ in art and culture. Simultaneously, we will survey current theoretical and historiographical discourses regarding Global art history or World art history and critically revaluate art history as a (Western) discipline. The unit is designed to stimulate critical thinking and writing, shape research skills and develop the capacity to speak to multiple audiences.
Daoist Robe (detail). 1650-1700. 127cm by 214cm. Satin embroidered with silk and gold. Victoria and Albert Museum. 86
REBECCA DUNSDON
Daoist Robe and the Canon of Art History Globalisation has caused an intersection of Western and non-Western Art and spread the Canon of Art History around the world. With this more non-Western Art is being researched, and arguments have been made to include them in the Canon. Politics, power, social and cultural factors impact the Canon, and in return, the Canon dictates what art is reviewed, researched, and displayed in museums for public consumption. The global perspective of Art History in the 21st century has introduced new ways of seeing and analysing art to the Canon. The Canon of Art History is currently a highly debated topic as it shapes our understanding and analysis of art. Art History has been a traditionally Western subject at universities, with the majority of articles published on European artists and art. The Canon or the “story of art” shows a clear progression of art through time from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, to the Renaissance and then to Modernism in Europe and North America. A Canon serves to highlight specific parts of a culture that are considered critical; it establishes a reference point in society that is adopted as the standard, in this case, what society considers “Great Art”. Art does not exist in a vacuum and Art History engages with economic, aesthetic, political and social ideologies at the time to place a value on art—for example, the rise of expressionism as a symbol of democracy against the Nazi Regimen. Or the inclusion of African figurative carvings in the Canon as they became a popular commodity in Europe. What is valued by society then impacts what is published in catalogues, reviewed by critics, and displayed in museums. This affects how the public engages in
art, which in turn shapes what they value. So, as society’s values change and the field of Art History starts to value art that does not fit the historical Canon, the Canon will change to become more inclusive of this art. The rise of art from other cultures, minorities and feminist movements has widened the perspectives included in the Canon. Another important aspect of the Canon is that Western ways of analysing art are embedded in the practice of Art History and that work that is not considered Canon is still viewed through a Western framework. The aesthetic qualities of the art are the most valued part of the artwork, which can cause the other functions of the art to become insignificant. Other cultures can have different ways of valuing artwork. Removing objects from their cultural contexts and displaying them in a museum for aesthetic appreciation and contemplation can also strip them of their purpose. Steiner argues that the Canon can only exist if there is non-Canonical art to compare it to. Recent arguments about other artists that should be included in the Canon only serve to further perpetuate the idea of a divide between what is included and what is not. James Elkins discusses how the increased scholarship on canons in art has clouded the importance of the existing Canon, as the cornerstone of Art History. Art History as a discipline has institutional structures and narratives based around the Canon, with the power to judge what is included or excluded. The need for a wider field of research to be included has revealed the shortcomings of the current Canon in an increasingly diverse world of art. As early as the 9th Century, written histories of Chinese paintings and calligraphy appear. These focussed more on calligraphy than decorative art. Fine art is a modern concept in China that was adopted from Western Art History. Chinese authors use parallels to Western Art to demonstrate the 87
significance of Chinese Art, and to structure their Canon, focussing less on textiles and wearable art as it had little significance to the West. This Chinese Daoist Robe from the early Qing Dynasty is made of satin silk and embroidered with gold and silk thread. Many figures adorn the Robe in two distinct sections. The central section is a terracotta colour and is covered in figures of Daoist Deities with gold surrounding their heads. This section is framed by yellow silk where more figures float amongst embroidered clouds, it could represent the idea of the spiritual nature of the Deities as something intangible, illustrating an abstract concept through concrete images. Along the bottom hem of the Robe, more figures stand in the sea surrounded by waves. Some of the geometric patterning has worn away on the righthand side of the Robe. The composition of the design on the robe is very flat and lacks depth; this vertical flat composition was conventional in Chinese Art at the time. The higher in the composition the further “back” the figure was in the image. Some sense of space is achieved through the overlap of the Deity figures in the central panel. The composition of the Deities is similar to the arrangement in the Emperor’s court on Earth. The central figure on the throne is likely the Jade Emperor, the Great One who became a physical representation of the concept of ‘Dao’, a spiritual force of creation. Surrounding the Emperor, to the “east” and “west” of him in a symmetrical fashion, are other Deities in Robes worn by Kings and generals in the physical world; some wear caps worn by bureaucrats. Above the Emperor or to the “north” are the three shining purities in circles of light. This visual representation of the Heavenly Court would be used in Daoist ritual visualisation to better connect with the cosmic beings. While Daoist iconography such as paintings, scriptures 88
or robes were not considered essential to rituals, they provided a physical representation that could also serve to educate people about the Daoist religion. The figures also appear to be grouped according to their robes, potentially reflecting their role in the Daoist pantheon. The Robe is a decorative interpretation of the Daoist universe and philosophy that centres around the cosmos and the spirit of Dao. However, this decorative interpretation also serves a function beyond aesthetic. Dao was the centre of the universe and responsible for the creation and continued existence of the world. Robes of the heavenly bodies and cosmos were used as a visual representation to convey these concepts to the viewer. Daoist Rituals evolved to include more iconography to represent the universe. Paintings of the Heavenly Court were more common than robes for Daoist Priests. This Robe is vastly different to anything currently in the Canon of Art History. There has been very little non-Western art highlighted in the Canon unless it was popular or a commodity in Europe or North America. This Daoist Robe has many qualities that mean it is not traditionally a part of the Canon. It originates from the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque periods, vastly differing in style to both. It is very flat and decorative, compared to the realism favoured in the Renaissance, and lacks the drama and movement typical of Baroque art. To Europeans, at the time, the Daoist Robe would have looked medieval with its flat composition and heavy religious iconography. Chinese artists were not so concerned with the objective ‘copying’ of reality. Their art was not a form of reproduction but creation, so depictions, shapes and forms were often not literal, and the perceptions were left to the viewer.
Though the Daoist Robe did not conform to the Western fashion of art at the time, it has strong religious iconography and medieval style, such as the gold disks surrounding the Deities’ heads as crowns resembling depictions of angels from Christian Art. This iconography can be used to understand the religious significance of the Robe when it is viewed through a Western lens of Art History. Daoism is not a widely known religion outside of China. Including the Robe in the Canon would widen the perspective on Daoist ritual practices and philosophy; the new iconography on the robe would introduce Western Art History to the practices of Daoism. As the Robe was used in rituals to provide a visual guide to easier represent the Deities and the spirit of Dao, the Robe can provide a physical representation of Daoism to the viewer. It can convey the traditional practices of Daoism as a religious document, as well as be admired for its beauty and craftsmanship. As the Canon expands to include a more diverse art, the inclusion of religious artefacts, paintings and traditional robes from the Daoist teachings would provide Art History with a new set of religious iconography and way of seeing. This would only enrich the story of Art History from a global perspective. Including new, non-Western perspectives and interpretations does not detract from the significance of the historical Canon, but instead provides the discipline of Art History with new ways of viewing the world.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
Christopher B Steiner, “Can the Canon Burst?,” Art Bulletin, no. 798 (1996): 217. Langfeld, “The Canon in Art History. Concepts and Approaches,” 1 & 3. Elkins, “Canon and Globalization in Art History,” 57. Langfeld, “The Canon in Art History. Concepts and Approaches,” 4. Steiner, “Can the Canon Burst?,” 213. Elkins, “Canon and Globalization in Art History,” 55. Nelson, “The Map of Art History,” 28. Gao Hui, “Canonisation in early twentieth-century Chinese art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no.10 (2014): 1. Hui, “Canonisation in early twentieth-century Chinese art history,” 2. “Daoist Robe,” Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed March 30, 2020, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16100/ robe-unknown/ Lennert Gesterkamp, The Heavenly Court, (Leiden: BRILL, 2011) 1. Sharon Y Small, “Creativity and Diversity: Generating a Universe in Early Daoist Texts,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, no. 46(3-4) (2019): 238. Gesterkamp, The Heavenly Court, 1. Shih-shan Susan Haung, Picturing the true form: Daoist visual culture in traditional China. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Asia Centre, 2012), 33. Gesterkamp, The Heavenly Court, 2 & 4. Haung, Picturing the true form: Daoist visual culture in traditional China, 25. Haung, Picturing the true form: Daoist visual culture in traditional China. 242. Steiner, “Can the Canon Burst?,” 217. Baihua Zong, “The Birth of Artistic Conception in China,” trans. by Jan De Meyer, Art in Translation: Italian Renaissance and China, no. 9(3) (2017): 367.
Endnotes 1. James Elkins, “Canon and Globalization in Art History,” in Partisan Canons, ed. by Anna Brzyski (Durham and London: Durham University Press, 2007), 55. 2. Gregor Langfeld, “The Canon in Art History. Concepts and Approaches,” Journal of Art Historiography no. 19 (2018): 1. 3. Steve Nelson, “The Map of Art History,” Art Bulletin, no. 79 (1997): 39. 4. Langfeld, “The Canon in Art History. Concepts and Approaches,” 7.
89
EVA DE GAND
The Codex Zouche-Nuttall and the Limitations of the Canon of Art History The canon of art history is a set of principles that underlie traditional western ideas in relation to the visual arts. The canon’s criteria for artistic merit is founded in Western thought, resulting in the exclusion of noteworthy pieces of non-European, pre-colonial artworks such as the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. The Codex is a screenfold manuscript book, consisting of forty-seven leaves of painted deer skin, and depicting historical, genealogical and religious events of the Mixtec tribe of south west Mexico. The history of the Codex is relatively unknown, as it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that it was found in Europe. The exclusion of the Codex from the art history canon reflects not on the importance of the Codex as a work of art, but rather speaks to the limitations of a western canon. For an artwork to be included in the canon, it must originate in western Europe; the artist must be known; it must be naturalistic; created for aesthetic purposes; and display Christian or western mythological significance. The Codex Zouche-Nuttall has two sides, each depicting aspects of Mesoamerican civilisation. Deeply religious, spirituality was an inherent aspect of Mixtec culture, with symbols found in all areas of art and life. The older side portrays the political biography of Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw of Tilantongo, identified by eight dark red circles connected to a deer head. The newer side of the Codex consists of three narrative sagas connected by various events. It features a second biography, that of Lord Eight Winds Eagle Flints of Suchixtlan, and the story of his descendants, the royal lineage of Tilantongo, who were pivotal figures in Mixtec history. The front and back folios of the manuscript remain the natural brown colour of untreated deer skin, while the 90
rest of the folios have been painted using a variety of rich, intense hues. The main colours comprise of red, golden-brown, white, light green and yellow and there is minimal use of shade and light. The manuscript features linear, stylized human and animal figures and repeated pictographic symbols and geometric patterns. The human figures have been painted in a variety of colours and are outlined with a thin black line. The figures are all a similar size, depicted in side profile at the foreground of the picture plane. There is a purposeful creation of negative space in the work, as the negative space has been painted a bright white. This use of white highlights the figures, providing a sense of space and a strong contrast to the bright colours. None of the pages have a single focal point, and there is no sense of Western perspective or horizon in the work. The work is easily read, being broken up into sections and guided by red lines and coloured segments that determine the movement of the narrative. A difference in styles between sections suggests the work was created by multiple scribes. Traditionally, the canon of art history has been dominated by European artworks and artists, excluding an extensive range of non-Western art. However, over the last decades a growing critique of the linear European narrative of art history has emerged. The globalisation of art history challenges conventional interpretations of art, complicating the canon’s parameters. Until this point, the art history canon has been successful as long as there have been “non- canonical” arts to exclude, and “foreign” arts have predominantly filled this role. This Eurocentric approach is a fundamental aspect of the canon and art history in general. The discipline of art history originated in early modern Europe, and was authored and authorised by a European continent in the midst of exploring and colonising the rest of the world. Therefore, artworks such as the Codex Zouche-Nuttall have been excluded from the
Image: Folio 50 (featuring Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw). Codex Zouche-Nuttall. The British Museum, London.
canon due to their non-European aesthetics. Such exclusions continue to perpetuate colonial ideologies and, if the canon is to serve a truly global purpose in art history discourse, looking beyond the origin of an artwork is crucial. Acceptance of an art history canon reflective of global art needs to include works with a plurality in approaches, styles and perspectives. Since the foundation of the art history canon, the idea of the artist has been as important as the artwork itself. Nevertheless, while the artists of Codex ZoucheNuttall are unknown, it can be argued that this does not lessen the importance of the artwork. Specifically, the fact that the Codex is a rare global object, having been transported to Europe as a valuable piece, gives the artwork an autonomy regardless of the artists. The canon’s emphasis on the idea of the artist and a ‘life-work’ model originated in sixteenthcentury Italy, following the publication of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives, a biography of Italian Renaissance artists. Vasari’s ‘life-work’ model proposes the idea of a great artist, whose artwork is the product of a talented individual human hand and mind. To be able to understand an artist’s work, it is also necessary to
understand their life. Lacking evidence that similar social conditions existed in pre-colonial countries meant that artists of artworks shipped to Europe during this period were perceived as less skilled than those who followed the ‘life-work’ model. This viewpoint negates any value or autonomy to artworks with unknown artists, such as Mixtec codices. However, the global history of the Codex ZoucheNuttall gives it a significant historical and cultural autonomy separate from the artist or artwork itself. Further, even in the absence of a known artist, the Codex was determined to be a historical document in the nineteen-twenties, authorising it not only as a historical piece of art, but also as a document in its own right. A significant criterion of the art history canon is that art is for largely aesthetic purposes. While the Codex Zouche-Nuttall does not fit this western artistic criterion, as it was created with a purpose other than that of pure aestheticism, it does not follow that it is not an exemplary work of art. The Codex is one of eight surviving Mixtec manuscripts from pre- European contact with the Americas, and 91
therefore is a valuable non-hybrid example of Mixtec art and culture. History often implies that there are no written records of indigenous Mesoamerican people pre-Hispanic conquest, however the Codex shows otherwise, providing insight into pre-colonisation society. The intended purpose of the Codex was for use as a mnemonic device for oral recitation by scribes and bards. Composed by royal princes, codices were used as scripts during ceremonial rituals, where they were hung fresco-like on walls. The canon’s approach to aestheticism and realism in art, created through use of linear perspective, light and shadow and the imitation of nature, is heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant’s writings on aesthetics. In reality, the discipline of art history has no critical, coherent and global definition of what makes an artwork art. Art as a “category of things and practices composed of subcategories defined variously by medium, function, geographic provenance, value, and so on, is not recognized worldwide.” Therefore, notwithstanding the fact that there is no globally acceptable definition of what makes an object art, the canon has chosen to prescribe what ‘art’ is through the works it accepts. This results in a canon which serves a specific time and location in the history of art, and does not serve art on a global basis, failing to do justice to works such as the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. While mythological and religious subject matter is not specified as a criterion of the art history canon, the Western nature of the canon itself is deeply religious and biased against the inclusion of artworks depicting non-Christian rituals or symbols. Therefore, the depiction of Mixtec religious ceremonies in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall would be viewed, perhaps even subconsciously, as unworthy of artistic canonisation. In Mixtec codices, religion often played a similar role to one found in western art. There is evidence that the codices were commissioned by nobility not only for use during ceremonies, but as a means of legitimising political authority as divine right. Not only are Christian 92
religious connotations found in the subject matter of the art history canon, but in its basic formation. The idea of ‘canonical law’ and ‘canonization’ are inherently connected to the Christian Church. Therefore, for an art history canon to exclude artworks on the basis of a specific religious world view results in a canon that fails to reflect the art of a majority of the world’s population. The art history canon is, at its core, a vehicle for Eurocentric western art, and thus fails to recognise important non-European artworks such the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. While attempts at globalising the canon have, to some extent, resulted in an inclusion of non- western artworks, this has been done on an ad hoc basis. The principles of the art canon remain western constructs and, if there is to be genuine revision of the canon to include historically and culturally significant artworks such as the Codex, it would require creating a canon that encompasses world views well beyond Western, European thought. Endnotes 1. The Mixtec civilisation spanned from 1200 CE to the 1521 CE arrival of the Spanish fleet, and consisted of small village-states, connected to each other through political, marital and economic alliances. Mixtec peoples were known for their artistic skill in the creation of pictorial manuscripts (codices), and their work in turquoise, mosaics and gold. The society covered the modern-day state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Ronald Spores, “Settlement, Farming Technology, and Environment in the Nochixtlan Valley,” Science 1 (October 1974): 298, in Robert Lloyd Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca: Reading History in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2009), 45. 2. The Codex was discovered in the 1850s in a monastery in Florence. Some years later, Sir Robert Curzon, the 14th Baron Zouche, loaned it to The British Museum until his death, whereupon the Baron’s sister donated it in 1917. The Codex was first published in 1902 by Zelia Nuttall, after whom it was also named. “The Codex Zouche-Nuttall,” The British Museum, accessed April 8, 2020, https:// research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/ collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=20707001 &objectId=662517&partId=1.
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11. 12. 13.
14. 15.
The Codex dates from sometime during the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and features an older reverse and newer obverse side. The reverse side features folios 42 – 84 and the obverse side features folios 1 – 41. British Museum pagination, “The Codex Zouche-Nuttall,” registration number Am1902,0308.1. Robert Lloyd Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca: Reading History in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2009), 30. Monica Bellas, “The Body in the Mixtec Codices: Birth, Purification, Transformation and Death” (PhD diss., University of California, 1997), 19, ProQuest (UMI 9732612). In reading the Codex, the problem of interpretation and incomplete content must be noted. Modern understanding of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall comes largely from comparison with other codices, and the Mixtec Mesoamerican calendar, as much of the narrative oral history of the Mixtecs and similar pre-colonial indigenous Mesoamerican societies are lost forever. Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, 34. The British Museum, “The Codex Zouche-Nuttall.” - The impression of shading in certain areas appears to be due to an unevenness in colour pigment. For example, as seen on folio 6 of the Codex. “Codex Nuttall: Facsimile of an Ancient Mexican Codex” with an introduction by Zelia Nuttall, 1902, folio 16, gri_33125011146541, Getty Americana, Getty Research Institute, Internet Archive. Roshini Kempadoo, “Timings, Canon, and Art History,” Small Axe 19, no. 2 (2015): 167-170, Project Muse; Zeynep Çelik, “Colonialism, Orientalism and the canon,” in Intersections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories, ed. Iain Borden and Jane Rendell (New York: Routledge, 2000), 161; Carolyn Dean, “The Trouble with (The Term) Art,” Art Journal 65, no. 2 (2006): 29, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20068464. Christopher B. Steiner, “Can the Canon Burst?,” Art Bulletin 78, no. 2 (1996): 213, ProQuest. Dean, “The Trouble with (The Term) Art,” 30. This Eurocentrism has continued to the modern era and can be seen in the clear majority of art history schools, publications and museums in the West. The majority of their topics focus on periods, artists and works from Classical, Renaissance and modern Europe, with minimal attention given to “native” artworks of the indigenous peoples of Africa, America and Asia. The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Considered the founder of art history, he formed the conceptual basis for art scholarship, and continues to influence modern perceptions of art. Encyclopedia
16.
17.
18. 19. 20.
21. 22.
23. 24.
25. 26.
27.
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Britannica Online, s.v. “Giorgio Vasari,” accessed April 8, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giorgio-Vasari. It is important to note that Giorgio Vasari was a Caucasian, European male, writing at a time of European colonial domination. The fact that his approach to art history continues to today highlights the still- present Eurocentrism in the canon of art history. Barbara E. Mundy and Aaron M. Hyman, “Out of the Shadow of Vasari: Towards a New Model of the ‘Artist’ in Colonial Latin America,” Colonial Latin American Review 24, no. 3 (2015): 286, https://doi.org/10.1080/10609164.2015.10865 94. Bellas, “The Body in the Mixtec Codices,” 14. Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, 30. The Codex contains native chronology and dates especially significant to historians, as these dates record foundational events of the Epiclassic Mixtec culture, establishing 165 years of pre-Hispanic Mixtec history. Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, 36. Williams, Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, 42. Gregor Langfeld, “The Canon in Art History: Concepts and Approaches,” Journal of Art Historiography 19 (2018): 3, https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/ langfeld.pdf. Dean, “The Trouble with (The Term) Art,” 25. Hubert Locher, “The Idea of the Canon and Canon Formation in Art History,” in Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks, ed. Matthew Rampley et al., (Leiden, NL: Brill, 2012), 28, ProQuest Ebook Central. There are a number of Mixtec ceremonial rites depicted in the Codex, such as the animal sacrifices found on folios 3 and 5. This was done through displaying the genealogy of rulers as descended from gods. Examples of this in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall are found in the biographies of Lord Eight Winds and Lord Eight Deer. Bellas, “The Body in the Mixtec Codices,”16-17. Christian and mythological symbols have been prevalent in Western art since before the Renaissance, and the messages behind these symbols are still seen and understood by contemporary audiences. James Hall and Kenneth Clark, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 12. Locher, “The Idea of the Canon and Canon Formation in Art History,” 30.
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HART1000 GREAT MOMENTS IN ART Unit Coordinator: Dr Susanne Meurer Teaching Associates: Linda Cheok, Michelle Rankine
Art history and current affairs converged in this year’s Great Moments in Art. We considered plans for the rebuilding of Notre Dame de Paris, whose neardestruction in 2019 had caused shockwaves around the globe. As Darren Jorgensen introduced students to Aboriginal Art, news emerged that a local mining giant had blown up a site of major cultural importance at Juukan George. And as Black Lives Matters protests in the US gained an ever greater sense of urgency, we studied how Fred Wilson’s curatorial interventions retell history, and how Cameron Rowland’s has addressed inequities in the American justice system. As COVID-19 confined us to our home offices in Perth (and across the US in the case of our American exchange students), art allowed us to travel across time and space, from Renaissance Italy via nineteenth-century Japan to twentieth-century America. HART1000 students, many of them in their first semester at uni, have shown remarkable resilience, producing brilliant visual analysis and demonstrating great research potential in their writing and contributing to lively, constructive discussion in tutorials. We hope to welcome many of you back for more art history!
Image: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. David with the Head of Goliath (detail). 1610. Oil on canvas. 200 x 100 cm. Galleria Borghese, Rome. 94
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ANICA MANCINONE
A Visual Analysis of Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, 1610 Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (1610) is an artistically dynamic and historically implicated piece which I will analyse with specific reference to its subversion of the naturalism genre. Painted with oil on canvas, the 49 in x 40 in Baroque masterpiece contains many elements for examination, both typical of Northern Italian art at the time and unique to Caravaggio’s personal style. I will focus on the piece’s use of light and shadow, its composition and proportions, and subject matter. Caravaggio’s use of light and shadow is an essential hallmark of his work, and as demonstrated specifically in David with the Head of Goliath, its imitation of almost theatrically staged lighting conditions asserts the influence of naturalism upon his work. This manipulation of light and shadow can be referred to as ‘chiaroscuro’, which defines the strong contrast of brightly lit elements against very dark areas, often achieving a sense of volume and physicality on the canvas. In David with the Head of Goliath, this is clearly demonstrated in the overwhelmingly black surroundings of David which encase his form, and the golden light falling upon his flesh and that of the freshly beheaded Goliath, whose blood is still dripping from his neck. Aside from bathing this biblical moment in significance, the chiaroscuro can be practically interpreted as a mimicking of the conditions in which Caravaggio produced the painting. He would control light sources, often in large palaces, and as a naturalist painter would convey the exact still life scene before him. This is undoubtedly where the theatricality and staged feeling of the painting derives. The chiaroscuro therefore contributes to the establishment of David with the Head of 96
“After murdering someone in Rome and hinting towards the act in Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) by including his signature in the colour of blood, Caravaggio portrayed himself as the sinful figure who is being vanquished...”
Goliath in the naturalism genre, yet further elements subvert and complicate this. The proportion and composition of the models on the canvas, and in relation to the viewer, demonstrate the precise copying of modelled scenes which Caravaggio relied upon and which drew the ire of critics. First of all, the immediacy of David to the front of the canvas, very close to the viewer and portrayed at half-length, is in fact typical of northern-Italian art. Using this traditional device is effective in this painting as it draws the viewer into the intensity of the moment, to violently encounter a disturbing yet victorious scene. The intricate detail of fabrics and the human body as a result of this, however, uniquely reflects Caravaggio’s virtuosity as a still life painter. Upon moving to Rome, he created works for the open market which generally consisted of small, easily produced still lifes. An example of his skill in this genre is in his 1593-94 piece Boy holding a basket of fruit, whereby fruits are lusciously depicted with distinct elements of naturalism; Caravaggio has clearly worked from a still life and transmitted it onto a canvas. Furthermore, the insertion of Caravaggio’s own face into the painting, acting as a beheaded Goliath figure, was likely achieved by using a mirror. It is for these reasons that Caravaggio received criticism, for not being able to depart from his models, props and use of mirrors. There was the perception that true, imaginative artists painted from their minds. Instead, Caravaggio demonstrated the effective use of naturalist elements by having largely proportioned subjects in the foreground, imitated from real life models. In terms of subject matter, David with the Head of Goliath demonstrates the subversion of the naturalist genre by including Caravaggio himself in a famous biblical moment and attaching personal historical context to the piece forever in
doing so. After gaining the attention of patrons, Caravaggio was commissioned for religious works, most notably including The Calling of St Matthew (1599-1600). He would have become familiar with painting sought-after religious themes and scenes, and in David with the Head of Goliath, he manipulates the biblical story of David and Goliath to serve in his own life narrative and become the ultimate statement of naturalism. After murdering someone in Rome and hinting towards the act in Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) by including his signature in the colour of blood, Caravaggio portrayed himself as the sinful figure who is being vanquished by David in David with the Head of Goliath. The piece was painted for the Minister who pardoned Caravaggio as an offering of humility. He hence fused a biblical narrative with which Baroque viewers were entirely familiar with, with a playful and simultaneously damning portrayal of his own acts, hyperbolising and subverting the idea of ‘naturalism’ in painting. The stunning effect of Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath is realised upon examining its myriad of elements including light and shadow, composition and proportion, subject matter, and further historical context and significance. He was undoubtedly a unique and playful artist of the Baroque era, who tinkered with traditions of Northern Italian art whilst combining his own tendencies toward still life and chiaroscuro, making for a hyper-naturalist painting which won’t be forgotten in the oeuvre of Baroque art.
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HART2044/HART3044 CHINESE ART: CONTEMPORARY AND TRADITIONAL Unit Coordinator: Dr Darren Jorgensen Teaching Associate: Tami Xiang
This unit took place in China, where students toured artists studios, art schools and galleries in Beijing, Chongqing and Kaili. Students interviewed artists and produced essays out of these conversations that are now published online in the Guan Kan journal. Through the unit students were able to build skills in negotiating across cultures and languages, and behind the wall of difference that China represents to the West. Through the course we explored calligraphy, landscape painting and stamp making as well as work by more contemporary artists in performance and photography. There was a lot of drinking and smoking cigarettes in China’s less healthy cities, banquets and late night barbeques on the street. We also explored issues of tradition, censorship and the problem of exhibiting contemporary art in Beijing, where the destruction of artist studios and areas is an ongoing problem. The advent of travel bans means that this unit may or may not take place in 2021, but may be possible again in 2022. In 2019 students were supported by a UWA travel grant that greatly helped toward the cost.
Image: Muchen and Shao Yinong, from the Assembly Halls series, 2002. 98
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JESSICA COTTAM
The Roof may have caved in but the Building still stands: The Motif of the Assembly Hall in Chinese Contemporary Art The term assembly hall conjures memories of sitting cross-legged on the cold floor in rows by my peers, while the principal addressed the school. I imagine many people can relate with their own version of the long monotonous speeches and numb limbs, that constituted school assemblies. For people living in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) the assembly hall does not evoke the same innocent, mundane experience. The Assembly Halls of the Cultural Revolution were built for the purpose of governmental control and were more often than not a negative affair for attendees. Assembly Halls were located throughout China to maximise the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) outreach. The objective was to ensure the Party’s presence and influence was felt throughout the country. These Assembly Halls endorsed mass criticism, with people from all social classes exposed to ridicule and ostracisation. A period of forty-three years has passed since the end of Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), leaving many who experienced it still alive today. Generations are still trying to navigate their childhood experiences and understand the long lasting effect the Cultural Revolution has had on their consciousness. The Assembly Hall is not simply architecture but symbolises the struggle and humiliation that people faced at these sites during the Cultural Revolution. With the rise of technology, media has become the device to deliver messages and establish common thought amongst a population. Media allows the Chinese government to effectively 100
infiltrate the homes and workplaces of citizens, with little effort on their part. By censoring the media available and controlling what access the Chinese people have to international sources, the CCP manipulates the population through forced ignorance. The extent of suppressed knowledge became apparent when travelling in China. While extensive political demonstrations were taking place in Hong Kong, there was no coverage of the events in mainland China. It was only those residents with access to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that were aware of the protests taking place in their own country. The CCP are well versed in the art of knowledge manipulation and it is a powerful tool they continue to brandish. Parallels can be easily drawn between this current filtering of information through the internet by the CCP and the propaganda that was spoken at the Assembly Halls during the Cultural Revolution. Contemporary Chinese artists use the Assembly Hall, as iconography of the Cultural Revolution and as an allegory for Contemporary China. Painter Zhang Linhai and photographer pair Muchen and Shao Yinong, are three artists who have enlisted the Assembly Hall as a motif in their oeuvre. This essay draws on talks they gave in Beijing in June, 2019. As children themselves during the Cultural Revolution, these artists reflect on the lived experience of the Cultural Revolution and the Chinese government’s grasp since. While the subject matter between the artists correlate, their approach to the subject is dissimilar. Muchen and Shao assess the subject through a documentary practice, taking pictures of Assembly Halls around the country, as they stand in their current state. In comparison, Zhang’s approach is very personal, opting to reflect on his own childhood experiences of growing up in the Cultural Revolution. Zhang was born in Shanghai but was adopted from a young age and moved to the Taihang
Mountains in the north of China. During the Cultural Revolution Zhang’s foster parents were deemed landlords and counter-revolutionaries. They were tormented to such a degree and lived in such fear that when Zhang succumbed to illness, his parents feared to seek for assistance. The lack of treatment left Zhang with necrosis in his right hip joint and severe physical disability in his legs. The lack of social acceptance and government support in China for physical disabilities, hascaused barricades and struggles for Zhang his whole life, particularly in the avenues of employment and education. Zhang’s Theater Series (2015) focuses on the subject of the Assembly Hall. This series stands apart from much of his earlier work as the composition is comparably minimal. Theater Series is characterised by the presence of an Assembly Hall situated on the horizon of an otherwise barren rural landscape. The third element is that of a single figure or crowd of people, shown as they walk to or from the hall or at attention in front of it. The figures are clothed in black uniforms at varying stages of undress. In every instance the head of the figure is bowed and the Assembly Hall protrudes above them. The halls are all individual but their common architecture of a stage with red curtains flagged by wings on either side and a domed or triangulated roof where in the tympanum a gold star sits, denotes them as Assembly Halls. The Assembly Hall may stand in the prominent position of status in these works but the audience’s focus and appraisal is largely consumed by the people. While Zhang paints as a method of processing his own past, he acknowledges his experience was a reality for many, understanding as literary critic Ban Wang remarks ‘individual experience could not be set apart from collective experience’. For Zhang art serves as a link between the individual and the
sense of ‘being-in-common’. The imagery Zhang uses would be familiar to people of his generation. The large crowds of people with shaven heads, the speaker in a public space, the Mao constituted ‘fashion’ and the Assembly Hall were common experiences of the Cultural Revolution. Zhang brings forth these archetypes of the collective unconsciousness from the Cultural Revolution to be assessed under a contemporary consciousness. Muchen and Shao approach the collective memory of the Assembly Hall via a more documentative approach. While Zhang creates his work by reliving his past experiences, Muchen and Shao have alternatively elected to research the variant experiences of others who lived through the Cultural Revolution. The couple began the series, Assembly Hall, after Shao went in search of his grandfather’s shop, only to find that an Assembly Hall stood in its place. For the following year the scene plagued Shao’s mind, which prompted Muchen and himself to continue the series to uncover more information on the state of the Assembly Halls and their place in contemporary China. When Muchen and Shao commit to one of their projects they dedicate a large part of their life for considerable length of time. It is evident that their practice is their life. The way in which they speak of their photographs is as if recounting personal memories. Their documentative approach is not so they distance themselves but an attempt to carry the realities of those in the past as they cannot do so for themselves. Rather than starting from their own memories they look at their immersive practice as a way for the subjects they take pictures of become part of their personal story. Each photograph makes an impression on the heart of Muchen and Shao, which they carry forward. The pair travel the expanse of China in search for new understanding on the situations of people past and present. 101
In their series, Assembly Hall, Muchen and Shao acknowledge that people hold different attitudes towards Assembly Halls dependent on whether they were dealing or receiving the criticism. The artists’ largely unimposing approach to their practice of documenting images, allows for people to approach the subject from varying backgrounds and perceptions. The couple do not alter the scenes from how they find them, electing instead to capture the Assembly Hall in an unaltered state of existence. Muchen and Shao refer to the photographs not as images of architecture but as portraits of each individual Assembly Hall. The treatment of the Assembly Hall under the genre of portraiture is to consider the character of the subject and the emotions it transposes. Muchen and Shao have attempted to capture the varying characters of these buildings that once stood for commonality. Within the series, ‘Assembly Hall’, each work is titled by the town in which the picture was taken, in reference to its unique identity. Unlike Zhang, Muchen and Shao show the inside of the Assembly Hall, placing people back within the walls of the Hall. The common camera angle, positioned in the centre of the room taken with a wide angle lens directed towards the stage, establishes seriality in tandem while highlighting the differences between the halls. A number of the Halls are in a terminal state. Shingle (2003), for instance is only the framework of the building that once existed, with the roof having fallen apart and the ground infested with weeds. Some, such as Hongdu (2002), have been repurposed as theatres, while others have found alternate purposes as barns, factories or restaurants. All the Halls hold signifiers of their previous use. Even those buildings in the most desolate state have faded red writing on the wall or deteriorated propaganda posters visible. These references to the Halls past lives, accentuate the 102
lingering presence of the Cultural Revolution. The Assembly Hall was a place of hegemony and despite them no longer being used for their original function or left to decay, the mission of widespread control by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not ceased. Art critic, Li Xianting, draws this parallel between the Assembly Hall, referencing Muchen and Shao’s series, and how it has been replaced by the internet. The form of delivery may have transitioned from spoken word and posters to internet and media but the outcome is similar. Artists use the Assembly Hall as a symbol for Chinese government control irrelevant of context. The Assembly Hall while born from the Cultural Revolution is equally representative of the circumstances in contemporary China. When speaking on their work Zhang, Muchen and Shao all stated that their work is both a reflection on the past and a comment on contemporary times. The artists have folded the fabric of time, allowing history to act as an allegory for contemporary China. Endnotes 1. G. Zheng (2014), ‘Activating Memories, for the Sake of Self Salvation: A Review in the Photographic Works of Shao Yinong and Muchen’, in Shao Yinong and Muchen, Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, p. 10. 2. W. Hong (2018), ‘Time and Historical Metaphors in Zhang Linhai’s Work’, The Temperature of Dust, Linda Gallery, Beijing, p. 23. 3. T.J. Berghuis, (2014), ‘History and Community in contemporary Chinese art’, Journal of Chinese Contemporary Art, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 20.
ELOISE VINEY
The revival of calligraphy in Zhang Qiang and Tong Yang-Tze Chinese calligraphy has been a prestigious and significant aspect of Chinese art and culture for much of China’s vast history. Historically, calligraphy demonstrated a level of learning, and often power, to its beholders. Calligraphy was an embodiment of power and the elite, with imperial leaders since the 900s requesting personal calligraphers and practicing calligraphy themselves. In recent years, avant-garde artists have been playing with the traditional conventions and connotations of calligraphy. In this essay I will pay particular attention to artist and scribe Zhang Qiang, including material from his lectures in Chongqing and Kaili (June 2019), and Taiwanese calligrapher and artist Tong Yang-Tze, to look at how modern calligraphers have changed the face of contemporary calligraphy, and how artists such as these compare with each other. Calligraphy has historically been a very strict and controlled experience, as artists take great care in every stroke, often with physical disciplinary action to prompt learning. Many significant figures in China’s history have great involvement in the practice of calligraphy. For centuries, emperors had personal calligraphers, and practiced calligraphy themselves. Writings of this form were very important. Before the formation of The People’s Republic of China, it was a requirement that any civil servants were to sit an examination to assess their poetry skills. Calligraphy was traditionally very practical, for cultural and religious expression, including rock calligraphy with writing on mountain faces and stone tablets. One notable leader with a keen interest in calligraphy was Chairman Mao Zedong, who was an avid calligrapher and poet.
Naturally, his works are held in high regard in China (Mao). Yan Zhenqing, a governor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was also one of the leading calligraphers of his day. Following the death of his nephew, he drafted A Requiem to My Nephew, a piece notable by academics for its contradiction to the usual calligraphic techniques. In a state of strong emotion, Yan lets go of any patience or control seen in his other works, frantically writing from pure distress (Yan). Zhang Qiang pays attention to this example in his lectures as this is the style of work that allows for a more accurate expression of the soul. Zhang has come to work on a range of styles of calligraphy, applying his techniques to varying mediums, contexts and meanings. He has worked for decades attempting to reach results in his art that he was happy with. It seems the medium and use of space in his work is critical to his satisfaction, finally finding fulfilment in creating calligraphy via abstract performance pieces he calls ‘Traceology’. This allowed him to place his work in different spaces and materials to ‘create different relationships’ between the ‘architecture’ and the ‘object’ and ultimately upgrading calligraphy into a three dimensional form. Thus far, he has worked with many women, wherein they may be assisting in the movement of the painting material, but many where works are made directly onto the female body. In Zhang’s writings and talks, it is clear he is not unfamiliar with the criticism facing his persistent use of the female body to create and display his artwork. In one lecture, he discusses, with clarity, that the focus is not on the body, and that the women have great contribution through various movements and poses that shape the work. He rightfully expresses that art ‘allows for a freedom to express, and can escape any cultural concept, opinion, theories, including political correctness’. Despite the controversy, Zhang 103
certainly produces dynamic and captivating works with engaging technique that is unlike anything the great calligraphers of the past would have seen. Similarly, Tong Yang-Tze creates what is widely considered to be contemporary calligraphy, however many question its place in calligraphy, placing it simply in the category ‘art’. She too produces abstract pieces, inspired by her family history of calligraphy, and incorporates different mediums into the presentation, including dancers, jazz musicians and creating fashion items. She especially seeks to inspire and re-introduce calligraphy to the modern day audience with her large scale and dynamic pieces. Zhang’s work is clearly very spontaneous and experimental, with the performance art nature of his process. Rather than using the traditional two dimensional paper, or even rock and wood, his major works are in this performative style. He incorporates music and dance, even using three dimensional shapes as his canvas to create dynamic works. The end product is nothing like the greats of Chinese history; the characters are not legible, but highly abstract, he has manipulated the words to create, instead, a realisation of his unconscious. It is evident that his artworks are performed with reckless abandon, with very little legibility and much less precision of line compared to that of the traditional works. He believes that, in this form, the meaning of the words will be more ambiguous, and thus more adaptable and universal. In the process of discovering a method he was happy with, he tried experimenting with producing work in ‘altered states’, such as inebriation, hoping for the most natural form of expression. However, he found ‘his personality seemed stubbornly to persist in controlling his brush’. Tong’s approach is similar in the sense that she works to create an expressive work of art 104
“It is evident that his artworks are performed with reckless abandon, with very little legibility and much less precision of line compared to that of the traditional works.”
rather than a carefully mastered piece of writing. She has, however, more of a sense of creating a multisensory experience that will appeal to the youth. In her exhibition Silent Symphony, Musical Calligraphy (2011), pop singers performed, attracting the attention of a much younger audience than a calligraphic exhibition may have previously (Su). One exhibition entitled From Ink to Apparel: A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design (2016) even worked with young designers to create works inspired by Tong’s work, which allowed the influence of modern aesthetics on calligraphy to create diverse items of clothing. This idea is also in parallel with Zhang Qiang’s notion of unifying the object and material by placing calligraphy on a three dimensional space. Whilst some argue that these avant-varge approaches are not close enough to calligraphy to be labelled so, the concept of experimental and abstract calligraphy is not unusual and appreciation for abstraction has been evident since the first century AD. A major difference between this modern avantgarde take on calligraphy and that of ancient, or prior to the People’s Republic of China is that of its use and purpose. Key uses of calligraphy seemed to be religious, holding some kind of purpose for everyday life, such as worship. Other major uses were for written arts, that of poetry and writings, which were used almost exclusively by those of a higher class, for a long time, due to illiteracy. Artists like Zhang are shifting this notion and blurring the lines between art and calligraphy. His art is purely for self expression, evident by his interest in Yan Zhenqing’s undisciplined work, and aesthetic exploration, rather than confining to the long established calligraphic conventions. His focus on the arts meaning in relation to its context (on certain materials, in galleries, etc.) brings a much greater depth to the meaning behind calligraphy and, in some cases, the words behind the abstraction.
Modern day artists have taken a new approach to calligraphy, manipulating and reinventing the traditional characteristics of the practice. Zhang Qiang and Tong Yang-Tze have demonstrated a manipulation of their methods and mediums by using other materials such as the female body or by musical or performative accompaniment. The quality of abstraction has also been embraced by these avant-garde calligraphers, forming complex shapes and characters, and producing what can look like abstract paintings. The intention of these artists compared to that of their traditional calligrapher predecessors is also drastically different, with much of the earlier calligraphy work being intended for the elite and often for poetry and religious iconography or scripture. Both artists have, thus, displayed levels of understanding of, and appreciation for, conventions, styles and values of the classical Chinese calligraphy, but have manipulated it to better suit the artistic and aesthetic needs of both themselves and their modern-day audience. Endnotes 1. Richard Curt Kraus (1991), Brushes with power: The Modern Politics and the Chinese Art of Calligraphy, University of California Press, Los Angeles. 2. Han Pao-The (1994), Painting within Calligraphy on Tong Yang-Tze’s Contemporary Calligraphy.. Tong Yang-Tze en.tongyangtze.com 3. Adriana Iezzi (2015), ‘What is “Chinese Modern Calligraphy”? An Exploration of the Critical Debate on Modern Calligraphy in Contemporary China’, Journal of Literature and Art Studies5 (3): 164.`
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architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.
Image: Genevieve Matthews. Ryujin. 2020. 106
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THE LAST SEMESTER This semester just completed has been like no other. COVID-19 made sure of that – but, on a personal level, after 36 years, it has been my final semester at The University of Western Australia, and it has seemed like a long quiet exit… Apart from the first couple of weeks, all my teaching during the semester has been via Zoom, the cloud platform that had to be learned very fast, that gave us a new verb in ‘zooming’, and that allowed a useful level of connection with small groups of students. The students adapted quickly and were heroically tenacious in their responses. We all learned quickly how to set up meetings and share screens, how to mute when needed, and how to negotiate a multi-pronged conversation. And we all learned about one another’s zooming rooms, some with surfboard or bike leaning in the corner, bedrooms with a background of wardrobes, bookshelves neatly or erratically stacked, trophies and ornaments on display shelves, and some with preferred virtual backgrounds selected, perhaps nostalgically, from pre-COVID times. In the virtual design studio that I conducted with Emiliano Roia, students were spread all over Perth, with one zooming in from Malaysia. Physical locations became irrelevant as we united onscreen. And then, late in the semester, Emiliano returned to Rome and 14 days of quarantine, but was still zooming. Being in what was deemed the vulnerable age group, I had no face to face contact with UWA colleagues, but a number of us did have Zoom meetings and the occasional virtual social function, with new protocols learned about muting and signalling the desire to speak. We occupied what seemed to me a strange dreamscape existence, disconnected physically, but more connected than ever to the internet highway of information from around the world. I sat at my desk with a view through a small window to the street, normally bustling with cars and pedestrians, now eerily quiet and empty. I went for sunset bike rides, often past the COVID-affected ships quarantined in the Fremantle harbour. Zooming removed the need and time taken for those stressful drives down Stirling Highway, hoping to get to UWA early enough to secure a parking bay, but inevitably stuck in the traffic congestions caused by private school drop-offs. The Stirling Highway drive between Fremantle and Nedlands, and then the return journey, has been a significant part of my UWA life. Despite the frustrations of the drive, I recognise Stirling Highway as having urban potential beyond its current primary role as a carrier of traffic. It therefore became the subject of our zoomed design studio, testing through design, how it may become transformed into something other than what may be inevitable, with extra traffic lanes and no useful edges for active urban use. As I write this, we have moved into phase four in relaxing the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. My street is bustling again, my regular morning coffee café around the corner has all its tables and chairs out, and the bar over the road can return to full functioning. `And, we all hope that this is not a false dawn as I go off into the sunset… Geoffrey London Senior Honorary Research Fellow, Professor of Architecture (recently retired) Image:Sohana Gordon-Menon. Quiet Places. 2020. 108
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architecture.
Image: Anthony Murphy. New Perspective. 2020. 110
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ARCT1000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 1 Unit Coordinator: Craig McCormack Studio Coordinator: Craig McCormack
CARINA VAN DEN BERG The Bookshop
I was given a book, within that book was my client. My client was a veiled woman who disguised her powers through the covering of her black veil. She deceived men by grabbing their attention, luring them closer and persuading them to do her will. Intrigued by her deceiving and manipulative nature I designed a bookshop that embodies her means of seduction. My bookshop replaces and uses the building outline of a pre-existing Chinese restaurant on 19 Broadway, Nedlands. The bookshop itself strives through its form and design to embody a woman’s way of seduction and used characteristics of her body to form the atmosphere and movement through the shop. Upon entering the bookstore, there is a veil like that of my client’s that surrounds the roof and the facade of the building, acting as a protective layer and shield for the intricate design within. Within, the walls form the shape of a woman, each space representing a part of her body. The curvature of the walls leading into the main domes, guides customers with no alternative direction to the heart of the shop. Further seduction into the store is created through a change in heights of the ceilings and floors. Through this, as a person moves from one end to the another and cannot help but be intrigued to go further. Each space, although seeming separate, have no boundaries and flow into one another. This seduces a person as it does not break their flow of movement. The walls turn into domes seamlessly, which are high above and illuminate the store. These domes will also create a sense of heaven and a cloud-like atmosphere as they are high above and glow a soft and calm light. The private spaces for the staff are created with a similar purpose, it is more seduction through the means of ease. All doors, except the toilet cubical door, are sliding which close for privacy but does not block anyone from entering as it will open up with ease. The office and kitchenette are joined as one room to create an open area that will not feel cramped and over complicated.
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Image: Pyramid of the Moon from the Avenue of the Dead with Cerro Gordo in the background, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Source: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/artamericas/early-cultures/teotihuacan/a/teotihuacan. 114
ARCT1011 ART, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY Unit Coordinator: Joely-Kym Sobott
ELLEN MILLER
Teotihuacan and the Empire State Building: Mesoamerican influence on the Art Deco Skyscraper The densely built aspect of Teotihuacan emerges from a precisely gridded, ground-plan, centralised around the five kilometre long Avenue of the Dead, which “articulates the most important public buildings” (Vit-Suzan 2014, 75); the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent. The monuments appear to project the topography of the landscape in their form, suggestive of the intimacy between the human condition and the natural one. Reflecting this dynamic, the Pyramid of the Moon is defined by the Cerro Gordo mountain, which serves as a visual endpoint to the Street of the Dead and the foundation of the 15° 25’ orientation of the urban plan (Rob and Sarro 2015, 23). Similarly, the Pyramid of the Sun is composed in the space between two significant mountains, in the first instance being shadowed by the Cerro Patlachique mountain and in the second an imitation of the adjacent Cerro Malinalco. The mountain’s association with notions of territory and state autonomy essentialised their significance; communities either “worshipped at hills or built their own emulating form” (Fash 2009, 134). Coupled with the manner in which the temples act as a passage between the underworld and the cosmological realm, as in the case of the Pyramid
of the Sun, built upon the cave from which humans were believed to have emerged, in an east-west axial direction that traces that of the sun, mountains act as a symbolic reconstruction of the world alluding to the animate quality of the architecture of the city (Lucero 2007, 410). The Empire State building rises from a similar grid network however its form is an interior reflection. Large setbacks access greater light and air in the floorplan, so that the offices are experienced as expansive. While the pyramids at Teotihuacan also have setbacks, they are inextricably tied to the talud-tablero mode of construction and form part of the external spatial impression of the site. The sparse reach of light to the interior of the pyramids casts an atmosphere of intimacy indicative of their ritualistic functions as places of sacrifice and burial. Similar to Teotihuacan, though, the Empire State seems to transcend the human condition. Personified in the cover to Rem Koolhaas’ manifesto Delirious in New York, the skyscraper is put forth as the cause of the city’s culture of congestion--“Manhattanism” (Koolhaas 1978). The skyscraper beams light from its tip, implying an almost divine omniscience. Koolhaas’ argument prompts reflection on how the built form of a place orientates our conception of the natural one. The great height of the pyramids at Teotihuacan compel one to look up, and thus to communicate with an influential but unknowable world above. The Empire State inhabits that world, however once amongst it, the intended view is one reflected downwards. Thus, the object of height compels the “culture of congestion” in two conflicting ways, pronouncing the vulnerabilities of representation. However, it also speaks to the ubiquity of architecture, designing the natural world through its placement of the built one.
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ARCT2000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 2
Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho ADAPTION - Exploring solutions for the loss of land to rising waters
BEAU ROBINSON Modular Agility
The negative social aspects in communities due to both income inequality and general lack of economic prosperity cannot be ignored. Urgency and immediacy are required to provide an effective solution to the housing problem in Beira, Mozambique. Modular Agility provides informal settlers with modular housing solutions which are implemented quickly, enhancing the lives of residents immediately whilst progressively and incrementally restructuring the settlement to adhere to a more coherent system. The community restructure also encourages neighbors to form relationships and develops passive surveillance within the community, ultimately improving safety. Implementing construction techniques, principles and materials already familiar to the local labor force accelerates introducing such a framework whilst mitigating long-term dependence on external influences to service the growth that will inevitably come as new settlers arrive and families expand. Extreme weather events such as Cyclone Idai are predicted to occur far more frequent and the solutions developed should carry into the foreseeable future. To diversify the risk inherent with natural disasters, two familiar yet different building methods are proposed, with each method adaptable to the same floor plans. This mitigates the risk that all structures could be significantly damaged in a catastrophic weather event, develops local construction techniques and provides freedom of choice to residents when building their home. Modular Agility provides immediate solutions that elevate an informal settlement out of poverty and reconnect it with the greater city of Beira through urban redevelopment that fosters positive economic and social reform. It is rooted in pragmatism and grounded in how any decision may be seen through the eyes of either current or future occupants. The focus of pace ensures that for any settler, rapid improvement in quality of life is a tangible reality in the near future. Most importantly, no member of the community will be left behind.
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D. Salt water fishing would also occur in areas close to sea level. Goods can then be sold to people further down the shopping street or within a close vicinity.
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Izakaya Bar.
ARCT2000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 2
Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Studio Coordinator: Sophie Giles ADAPTION - Exploring solutions for the loss of land to rising waters
FYNN TURLEY Mono No Aware
An awareness of our impermanence is needed now more than ever. By 2070, Osaka’s inhabitants and infrastructure will come under threat by a projected one metre rise in sea level that will leave millions displaced and local businesses destroyed, forcing us to re-evaluate the strength of our preventative measures and built environment. My project, Mono No Aware, presents a prototypical housing module that aims to shift Osaka’s urban fabric to a ‘groundless’ city above preexisting buildings to combat the rise in sea level. The site, Tsurumibashi Shopping Street, is a 1km long shopping arcade In Kamagasaki, Osaka, and is considered a “Doya-Gai” (skid-row). While it is infamous for its relatively large population of Japanese homeless, it is also home to lower-income families with small businesses. The homeless of Kamagasaki, as of 2020, predominantly consists of older male day labourers who are out of work. They live on the precipice of society; out of the way from the daily commuter, favouring places such as near rivers, underneath bridges, as well as public parks. Using this underserved population as a base point, the design would use cheap materials, follow a relatively simple structure, and contain essential amenities for comfortable living. This vertical housing typology is intentionally designed with as small a footprint as possible to allow for any soil below to be used for vegetation and trees. By planting trees as early as 2020, by 2070 Tsurumibashi shopping street could become an urban forest. The housing would lie amongst foliage, aiming to reconnect Tsurumibashi with the Japanese reverence for nature in a bold and literal sense.
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E. Interlocking timber joint. F. Tarp wall, can be rolled up to open to outside. Secured down using rope or nails. G. Timber plywood wall. Inside is a timber frame and dried seaweed insulation. H. Cardboard layed out like tatami mats. I. Plywood flooring. J. Genkan. K. Tarp door. 0
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ARCT2000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 2
Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Studio Coordinator: Sophie Giles ADAPTION - Exploring solutions for the loss of land to rising waters
BOWEN NG
Gijutsu Wo Nusumu
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
The Project is told through the story of the joint, a both metaphorical and literal object that connects the people together as well as a means of teaching traditional artisanal skills for potential future personal career development. In effect they will become apprentices. Gijutsu Wo Nusumu translates to “Stolen Knowledge”, a phrase uttered by apprentices as the learn the stages of craft by always keeping one eye on the master and analysing their work without their master’s consent, for traditional Japanese approach to learning is a value based one built around deep observation and intuition. Instead of trying to solve homelessness with a fully functional building, which for many would be a challenge to save up money to buy, rent or because they are simply not in the right state of mind to do so; a proposal has been created for a basic dwelling in the form of half tatami sized scavenger trays that fit within a boat. These can be built up and joined together over time as opposed to the current “tento ishi” (tent cities) that many live in at the moment. As boats these can be dismantled or wholesale connected together on a timber lattice or on separate stilts around the ruins of Tsurumbashi to form new and larger configurations, over time building a series of interconnected dwellings who’s designs are much more responsive to future natural events than the concrete homes of today. Materials are to be local, sustainably sourced materials or recycled from the existing ruins of Osaka’s coastal regions, always paying respect to traditional Japanese approaches to living.
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ARCT2000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 2
Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Studio Coordinator: Tasmin Vivian-Williams ADAPTION - Exploring solutions for the loss of land to rising waters
MILLIE GILLESPIE
SLUM LIVING REJUVENATION Slum Living Rejuvenation investigates the daily lifestyle and needs of the residents of Xuyen Tam Canal to create better structurally sound homes keeping in mind their current floor plan and increase social interaction in safe outdoor environments to make the most of the tropical and temperate climate of Vietnam and to take preventative measures against flooding due to sea level rising. These homes will be adapted from their current dwellings to decrease the cost, the need for new materials i.e. timber leading to deforestation, and the upheaval of families during the process and allow for adaptive building through over time as the family grows or decides to upgrade their home, due to removable components and structural modularity of a bamboo framework and 2.5 x 1.4m corrugated steel panels. Basically, moving to a more modular framework simplifies upkeep and expansion. Currently the homes along the Xuyen Tam Canal are tightly packed together, so in future it is important to create spaces with more access to natural light and increased communal space, the project proposes a courtyard space inspired by the traditional Vietnamese courtyard house. Residents share this space with one other family and use it for clothes washing, washing and going to the toilet and socialising. Families won’t have to pay any more for their house frontage as the homes have been designed narrower on the inside to allow for facilities to be placed outside and become communal. The drawing out of the individual decking out the front of most of the houses will create space for mangroves which support the shoreline, act as a preventative measure against flooding and facilitate in the filtering of the water to create a more pleasant area for socialising, businesses and living. The current individual deckings are adjoined to create a community boardwalk to encourage socializing, businesses and importing of goods to and from the area.
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ARCT2010 PARALLEL MODERNITIES IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE Unit Coordinator: Nigel Westbrook Teaching associate: Sally Farah
NATHANIEL DOLBEL
The Collaborative Making of Meaning with Architect and Occupant: the Shifting Function and Interpretation of Architectural Things and Objects Preceding every architectural project exists a set of values, predetermined qualities, and characteristics by which success can be measured. Outside of these specific parameters, however, can be observed certain outliers, elements of contradiction or confusion, which either do not fit within the canon of the understood intent of their creator, or are open to interpretation: those instances without universal purpose and understanding. By analysing these particularities of design through the methodological lens of Bill Brown’s ‘thing theory’, they can be designated as ‘objects’: characteristics that serve a function and have an immediately understandable relation to humans and the way in which they are interacted with, or ‘things’: objects whose intended function has been subverted, a shift in the way in which one may interact with the thing in question.1 Architecture acts as a facilitator of human experience and a collaborative discourse of encounter invariably results. Key factors influencing experience include the interaction between architecture and the practical application of ideas, contextual awareness, personal preference and taste, previous experience, the 132
level of interaction required by a scheme, and the ability of a project to adapt to its context as it passes through time. Every project holds a particular ideal understanding or reality for the creator as object, while personal experience of a participant can subvert said object. This object– thing paradox between creator and participant constructs new meaning based on personal experience, background and desires, and allows for the application of Nicolas Bourriaud’s ‘relational aesthetics’2 to the collaborative construction of meaning. The success of a building to transcend its original context depends on its ability to interact and create a dialogue with the occupant, regardless of the period. Among the most heavily analysed and influential of the modernist architects, Le Corbusier’s Doppelhaus of the Weissenhof estate, Stuttgart, offers a prime example through which one may study his conventions and theories. Informed by practicality and need for social equality and access to affordable and ‘beautiful’ housing, his ‘Five Points Toward a New Architecture’ (1926) comprise plinth or column, free plan, free façade, strip window, and roof terrace.3 They combine to create a space within the duplex that is easily understood through functional means; each element is informed by necessity4 and reflective of the Zeitgeist (the ‘spirit of the age’), by which even now, one can easily understand, relate to, and make meaning out of its particulars. The physical form operates as a shared ‘object’ between architect and occupant. Conversely, his theory on colour was an attempt at a universal language for the modification of spatial quality; major constructive, unifying colours, dynamic colours of change with no set plane, and colours of transition.5 For example, the main living space is composed of a yellow wall to frame the window and light cobalt blue internal walls which, according to the theory,
create an undefined plane of perpetual change; they are not understood as constant and obliterate the boundaries of the space.6 While these colours do introduce a successful element of warmth which can be interpreted by the inhabitant, when understood through their intended purpose, they are not necessarily so prescriptively read; there exists a duality of thingness/objectness between the intention of the creator and the experience of the occupant through subjective understanding. The postmodern buildings of Robert Venturi create a self-aware dialogue between architecture and the reality of residing in a world of interconnected histories, stories, precedents, and fancies, and they also create a dialogue between the opposing aspects within one project – his “double-functioning” element and “both-and” theory.7 The 1962 Vanna Venturi House of Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, is considered one of the earliest examples of postmodern architecture and a manifesto against modernist principles,8 containing a multitude of references and anomalies. The oversized chimney dominates the front elevation, yet it also houses the stairs; the upstairs bedroom houses a stair which leads nowhere, incorporating whimsy; the gable roof is subverted through a central axis incision and rotation to the short axis; a traditional arch signifier positioned above a structural flat lintel takes on a pure aesthetic, referential function—it is the abstracted, absurd house that a child might create.9 The duality of meaning and the presentation of appropriated elements in the Vanna House invite the occupant to react, and to apply an understanding based on their own personal contextual perspective and background, referencing the complexity and contradiction of modern life.10 The house operates independently of a particular time or style, and relatable through its play on architectural elements and typologies, which – surely – users have had an
experience of at least one. It deliberately operates as a collaborative generator of meaning, or in Bourriaud’s terms through ‘relational aesthetics’,11 and encourages crossover between society, history, and culture, positioning it as an ‘object’ through the lens of ‘thing theory’12 – that which successfully functions and serves a purpose. The Berlin Free University by Candilis Josic Woods in collaboration with Manfred Schiedhelm intended to emulate the idea of ‘building as city’,13 including all the elements it might need to function as an independent entity, and strived to embody the ideals of flexibility and exchange between disciplines via a polycentric layout.14 It was a response to the post-war climate of Germany—a booming economy and the revolt of students against the old academic institutions rooted in tradition, unable to adapt to modern societal needs.15 As a result, the architects proposed a radical system of modular elements which could be demounted and reused as necessary, creating a collaborative project between architect, building, and occupant16. Unfortunately, the grand idea was not realised, and the adaptable structure proved more difficult to alter than expected. The responsibility of the success of the scheme was passed to the users of the campus17 which proved unrealistic and left clumsy spaces that were difficult to use, and an ebb in enthusiasm and a slow degradation of the buildings ultimately led to the necessity of a major overhaul in 1997.18 The campus is functional and has many redeeming features, but intent was not realised to its desired extent—occupants adapted to spaces, rather than vice versa. Such a collaborative project relies on the desire and drive of the users to execute it, reflect, and even continue the evolution of the building. The intended function of the project was both an interaction with, and evolution of, space, but this was not ultimately realised, and as such, 133
“The role of a building becomes to provoke a way of knowing and a way of being, both on the private level of personal experience, and on the collective, communal level.� 134
the building lost its purpose. Therefore, it became a theoretical ‘thing’:19 the intended purpose was disrupted and it lost its ability to generate interaction and the making of shared meaning. While specific ideals, aesthetics, and understandings inform the author’s design process, it is important to understand the way in which viewers experience and generate meaning. This is especially true of architecture as it is a direct facilitator of human interaction and experience. Purist ideologies and theories may be pivotal in the design of a building, but the actual ‘meaning’ derived from it in action is based on practical application of ideas, contextual awareness, personal preference, previous experience, the level of interaction required by a scheme, and the ability of a project to adapt to its context as it passes through time. To be successful in bridging generational and time differences, a building must respond to the above criteria, and be able to navigate the new climate in which it finds itself, or risk becoming obsolete. The intention of a creator is only half of the equation in understanding and making meaning: the collaboration between creator ideas and viewer reality is the locus at which meaning is made through encounter, interpretation, and generation. The role of a building becomes to provoke a way of knowing and a way of being, both on the private level of personal experience, and on the collective, communal level. •
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Thomas Wolf, Weissenhof Siedlung Le Corbusier, 2016, digital image, accessed May 11, 2020, https://www.dezeen. com/2016/07/30/le-corbusier-weissenhof-estate-stuttgartmodernist-housing-unesco-world-heritage-list/. Lena Giovanazzi, The main building of the Free University in West Berlin was designed by Alexis Josic, Georgis Candilis, Shadrach Woods and their German collaborator Manfred Schiedhelm in 1962, 2015, digital image, accessed May 8, 2020, http://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/15799747.
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Zack Pontz, Vanna Venturi House, 2019, digital image, accessed May 11, 2020, https://www.curbed. com/2019/8/21/20813675/vanna-venturi-house-philadelphiaowner.
Endnotes 1. Bill Brown ed., Things (London, UK: The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., 2004), 4-5. 2. Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, trans. by Simon Pleasance and Fronza Woods (France: Les Presses Du Réel, 2002). 3. William J. R. Curtis, Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms (London, England: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1986), 69. 4. Curtis, Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms, 69-70. 5. Translation by DeepL - Aurelio Vallespín Muniesa, Luis Agustín Hernández, and Angelica Fernández-Morales, “From Purism to Le Corbusier’s Pure Space through Colour,” Arquiteturarevista 14, no. 1 (2018): 33, accessed May 5, 2020, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu. au/docview/2070766000?accountid=14681. 6. Muniesa, Hernández, and Fernández-Morales, “From Purism to Le Corbusier’s Pure Space through Colour,” 33. 7. Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York, USA: The Museum of Modern Art, 2008), 34. 8. Simon Unwin, Analysing Architecture: Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged (New York, USA: Routledge, 2009), 250. 9. Unwin, Analysing Architecture, 251-252. Dan Protess and Geoffrey Baer, 10 Buildings That Changed America (USA: Agate Publishing, 2013), 117. 10. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 16. 11. Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, 13. 12. Bill Brown ed., Things. 13. George Baird, “Free University, Berlin: AA Publication/ Exhibition in the Members’ Room, 21 May – 18 June 1999,” AA Files, no. 40 (1999): 66, accessed May 6, 2020, www. jstor.org/stable/29544174. 14. Gabriel Feld et al., Exemplary Projects 3: Berlin Free University (London, UK: Architectural Association, 1999), 25. 15. Feld et al., Exemplary Projects, 97. 16. Feld et al., Exemplary Projects, 98. 17. Feld et al., Exemplary Projects, 17. 18. Christian Brensing, “Foster/Free University Berlin,” The Architects’ Journal 222, no. 9 (2005): 34, accessed May 6, 2020, https://search.proquest.com/docview/200763795. 19. Bill Brown ed., Things
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez The Tower: Vertical Landscape
MIAO FANGYI The Tower of Ivory
After the COVID-19 outbreak, people were forced to stay home. Diet, energy, leisure and all other factors have become problems in life. The project aims to design a high-rise urban complex that can accommodate 1,000 residents and be isolated from the outside world for at least one year. Functionally, public spaces are set above the refuge storey of every 50 meters, providing places for residents and visitors to gather and serve. In form three types of functional sectors are attached to the vertical cylindrical body. The gap among the sectors provides natural sunlight to the inside public spaces. These functional sectors not only kindle a differentiation in form, but they also act as a reflection and novel take on how functions can be separated. Commonly and traditionally, function has been separated through horizonal functional zones. The Tower of Ivory, invigorates the possibility of vertical functional-division to stimulate new gestures towards lifestyle. Alongside the tower, a sports centre, cultural centre and outdoor green area are designed on the site. Site Design Elaboration: There is a large green space and farms in cast, small town in south and a river in west. The city is concentrated on the north side of the site. “The terrain in the site is high in the north and south and low in the middle. Therefore, the main concept is to build an east-west green axis following the terrain to connect the green spaces on both sides, and simultaneously, plant forest in north to form a buffer between the city and site. The cultural centre and sports centre are placed on the south side of the site, where is close to the existing church and health centre. The high-rise mix-used tower is set in the far east to keep residents at a safe distance from the outside in the case of any accident.
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez The Tower: Vertical Landscape `
ANDREW JONES
The Tower. Vertical Landscape. The design concept aims to approach the tower in three different ways, through the human experience, green energy agricultural practices and the capability of quarantine lockdown. The design looks at the past to inform the future, focusing on abstracting the Mediterranean apartment block and improving on its concepts through natural light with emphasis on community interaction. The hollow nature of the tower with the aid of a large light well emphasis’s the south light through-out the building and its internals. Strategic subtractions within the facade allow morning and afternoon light to stretch into the environment. During quarantine the human aspect focuses on the living conditions whilst in lockdown as there are no offices in the tower, residents will work from they’re apartments. Natural light, fresh air, two open balcony’s and space to work and study for every apartment was classified as essentials for every resident. The external circulation of each floor becomes and space where residents can sit outside and enjoy the views and environment around them. Internally, facing staggered balconies create a social, energetic, community environment while being completely isolated from one another. Similarly, to that to facing the streets in Ourense. The role of agriculture is vital to the design concept, the term new rural is used to describe the symbiotic relationship between technology and farming. Large areas of the site are covered by genetically resilient crops which are tended to all year round. Autonomous harvesters, sprayers and drones continue to function during lockdown. Creating a surplus of raw ingredients and supplies, which are dried and kept in storage silo’s on site. These supplies can be used within the tower or to be sold in Ourense and traded for other goods, creating an internal economy. The balcony system is designed to allow for drone supply parcels and supplies catering for every apartment and the medical facility. Solar and wind power generating devices are orientated on the site specifically to capture critical nature elements and concentrate to providing a low emission tower with sustainable agricultural practices. The building’s focus of natural light means reductions in energy usage than a regular building. Five wind turbines supply enough energy all year round the charge and maintain the autonomous vehicles. The project aims to marry the past by looking at the building environment of Ourense and the future with the innovative techniques of new rural concept.
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Jaime Mayger Connections: Wadjemup Museum
CONNOR SIMPSON EPHEMERALITY & MEMORY
Wadjemup Bidi (Rottnest Island) is an everchanging place retaining a unique relationship with time. It has constantly evolved as it has adopted various purposes and interpretations by the people who experience it. First being a sacred place for celebration and spirituality for the Wadjuk Noongar people, then a key place of maritime and military endeavours by European Settlers, and now taking a more recreational role - the island is in constant metamorphosis. These historical narratives have become tangible through the objects, build-ings, artefacts and stories scattered throughout the landscape. The island’s isolated and untouched condition produces a repository of objects forming a pure representation of the cultural interpretations attached to it. The island itself is a kind of museum. However, the layers of history are subtle and unno-ticeable to the naked eye, requiring an interface to expose and enhance them. With this in mind, the new museum is dispersed throughout the landscape, using architectural interventions to connect us to the place and its history. The objects, artefacts, buildings, pathways, roads, tracks and landscape become part of the museum. The building, then, becomes a transitory space which is both experienced over time and exposes the landscape’s relationship with time.
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Matt Delroy-Carr An Urban Ecology
MATTHEW GAGEN Secluded Interactions
On the micro, the project utilses its low and unobtrusive street profile, welcoming treatment of turfed landscaping contours, and distinctive ‘terrace-like’ composition as an attempt to lead and ‘entice’ the people of Ashfield to interact and socialize within its built environment. The cafe, nestled into the centre of the site, surrounded by foliage and courtyard, is not only the ‘goal’ of the site but rather a physical manifestation of the key aforementioned ideals. On the macro, the project looks beyond Ashfield. Rather, it seeks to attract in new residences to the suburb. The three key programs of unit are all designed to achieve their own purpose. Each unit type, aims to attract particular demographics, whilst promoting a life embedded, private, and in touch with the natural world.
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Matt Delroy-Carr An Urban Ecology
STUART CONFAIT Upper Knutsford/Montreal
The scheme looked to the terrace housing typology, one adopted throughout the surrounding context, and sought to explore the internal ‘mews’ space and what else it could become. The central space became more like an urban streetscape, an extension of the surrounding context. It was a terrain, a market place, performance spaces, that provided a threshold to the dwellings themselves; an interface that was flexible in its functionality though provided all the necessary domestic elements of privacy and ownership.
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ARCT3000 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 3 Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez Studio Coordinator: Rebecca von Perger Harry Butler Environmental Education Centre
MADELEINE QUINN
Harry Butler Environmental Education Centre The Competition Design Brief for the Harry Butler Environmental Education Centre (HBEEC) calls for the new state-of-the-art Centre to provide linkages to, amongst other things: (1) the University’s Academic Core (AC); and, (2) the site’s adjacent ecological and wetland areas. In regard to (1), this design has situated the HBEEC at the north-western most point of the proposed site with the intention of creating clear visibility between the Centre and the existing AC as well as the proposed New Academic Building (NAB). The design has also drawn from the geometric arrangement of the existing AC where the buildings, which are orientated north/south and east/west, frame green spaces such as Bush Court and Banksia Court. In this proposal, four spaces have been created, each of which serve a different function (1. Administration & Formal Learning, 2. Food & Beverage, 3. Informal Learning & Research, 4. Learning Laboratory). Like in the AC, however, these spaces are drawn together by, and frame, the landscaped internal courtyard. The design further aims to minimise the disturbance to the site. In relation to the existing AC, this means creating a design that respects the AC’s existing relatively simple, unpretentious buildings. In regard to (2), the design aims to create a ‘tension’ between the built form and the surrounding wetland environment. The ecological walkways have been designed to slice under, over and through the HBEEC. This elevates the overall hierarchy of the walkways, which provide the ‘doorway’ to the ecological zone. Resultantly, the site’s environmental significance is emphasised. The design of the walkways has drawn inspiration from the patterns formed on the unbloomed heads of the banksia grandis, which is prevalent at Murdoch.
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ARCT3010 HISTORY AND THEORIES OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Unit Coordinator: Professor William (Bill) Taylor
RIVA-JEAN LANDER
The Narratives of Heritage A critical analysis of the perspectives, practices and principles of heritage in Australia This essay is written in response to the following question: Analyse how heritage and conservation policies and practices illustrate the nexus between history and social and political formations and institutions. How is an appreciation of the past or notion of historical progress, for instance, reinforced through policy making and the design of heritage precincts? The purpose of this topic is to encourage students think about how ideas about the past are related, reinforced or challenged by practices of government and design. “It is so customary to think of the historical past in terms of narrative, sequences, dates and chronologies that we are apt to suppose these things attributes of the past itself. But they are not; we ourselves put them there.”1 Heritage is a “value-loaded concept.”2 The term defines a body of cultural traditions and artefacts that are deemed to be ‘significant’ to a society. Academics Brian Graham and Peter Howard summarise the significance and ramifications of heritage and its resulting policies in stating that “very selective past material artefacts, natural landscapes, mythologies, memories and traditions become cultural, political and economic resources for the present.” 3 While accumulated 162
heritage material affects what is valued in the present, contemporary sociopolitical values simultaneously impact what is deemed worthy of heritage status. Architectural heritage is selective, interpretive and cyclical to similar affect. The lens through with heritage buildings are viewed can shift and be shifted by the dominant society in a nation-state, where historical stories are retold and become national narratives that are imbued into a society and passed down to younger generations. Considering the historical, political and social context of Australia, this essay analyses how notions of national and community identity and ideas of the past influence heritage and conservation policies and practices. It will examine how interpretations of the past are chosen to be subsumed into Australian national memory. The origins of the modern concept of ‘heritage’ can be traced back to the European Enlightenment.4 The term originally described ruins and monuments that represented a single style and character exemplifying “historical, moral and social values.”5 In articulating these particular values, the constructions became national symbols and part of the national identity of the country. Over time, ‘heritage’ expanded to include urban centres and intangible culture, such as music and rituals, and ‘natural heritage,’ such as gardens and areas of the natural environment deemed significant.6 Today, heritage buildings still contain meaning and represent national ideologies. In debatably postcolonial nations such as Australia, its built heritage is constructed in a fashion that reveals patterns of social inclusion and exclusion based on who has the power to retell history. Heritage and conservation policies change to reflect the present perspective on historical buildings and dominant interpretation of national stories. The complex and unsettling history of Port Arthur in Tasmania has many lenses through which
its heritage may be viewed. Port Arthur Historic Site is situated on a harbour in the South-Eastern tip of Australia’s island state. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area was inhabited for nearly 40,000 years prior to European colonisation and was home to the Pydairrerme Palawa people.7 Colonised in 1803, the island was exploited for the British imperial agenda; settled as a site for criminal incarceration and valued for its profitable timber forests.8 While this history is heavily documented in historical archives, there is a notable absence of official records accounting for the indigenous inhabitants.9 Port Arthur’s built history began in 1830, with the establishment of a penal station for timber-felling. Permanent infrastructure was built in the ensuing decade in classical architectural styles which symbolised governing structures and institutional authority. The architecture of the military guard house incorporated a classical colonnade at the entrance and supported a medieval-styled tower, casting a monitoring eye over the convict accommodation, harbour, and military.10 A few years later, an early-gothic revival church was built on high ground, with its spire reaching into the sky. When Tasmania stopped receiving alleged criminals from England, the convict population began to decline, until the establishment was closed in 1877. Before long, the settlement was renamed Carnarvon. People took up residences in and around the old buildings, and the history of the place began to be rewritten. Sections of the land were divided up and auctioned off, and some of the allotments required new landowners to demolish and remove former convict buildings.11 Before long, the town of Carnarvon established a modest economy based on fishing, timber harvesting and orcharding – and the history of Port Arthur was slowly erased. Over the coming years, it was tourism that ended up saving many of the historic buildings
in Port Arthur. By the early twentieth century, the rise in cultural tourism and its economic benefits led the Tasmanian Government to buy back parts of the former penal settlement. In 1927, the town was reinstated as ‘Port Arthur.’ Now recognising its cultural significance, preservation works on the church and prison began.12 An influential retelling of the history and heritage of Port Arthur was put forward in J. Coultman Smith’s 1941 guidebook. Ironically, the book was titled Shadow over Tasmania: for the first time – the truth about the state’s convict history. His writing insisted on “onward progress,” portraying the convict history as “a concept about which fear had faded until it could be portrayed as positively a benign influence.”13 The foreword of the book was written by the Premier of Tasmania at the time, Robert Cosgrove (1884-1969). He endorsed this guiltless retelling of history, in stating the following: It is a welcome departure that this book treats the convict days in a bright common-sense manner with none of the morbidity and horror which have too often stamped such work. Students, the general public, and tourists alike will find here interest and entertainment, adventure, and revelation to absorb the most blasé and prejudiced reader.14 This is a pertinent example of how retellings of history can shape a national narrative, identity and the meaning of heritage buildings. Architect and academic Judith Brine suggests that records written at a similar time reveal the emergence of this narrative as a strategic manoeuvre. At that time, there were no longer any reliable historical records – many had been destroyed and no one lived who could fill in the missing details.15 The built heritage of Port Arthur is now seen as an important part of Australia’s national convict history, and for the past decade Port Arthur Historic Site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Today, it remains a popular tourist destination and 163
advertises this past as its selling point. History, and its retellings, distribute value among architecture that contributes to a society’s identity. Their significance is determined by contemporary ideas of the past that define what is worth conserving or protecting. The example of Port Arthur Historical Site shows two distinct opposing attitudes to heritage. The first, where the history of Port Arthur was to be removed and replaced by a town with an entirely new name, community and amenities. The second point of view celebrates the heritage buildings, the history of the land and the revenue generated by cultural tourism.
In Australia, architectural heritage is affected by its colonial background, globalisation and migration. This places conservation and heritage in a precarious nexus of conflicting ideas and motives in a postcolonial, multicultural nation. The architecture that is considered to be heritage, and the resulting management policies are affected by present social, economic, political and historical factors. Just as these structures are constantly in in flux, perspectives on historical buildings change at different points in time as well. These changes affect government practices and policies which decide whether to destroy or protect selected historical artefacts
Image: Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia. 8/01/2008. Photographer: Grizzy Kret. Courtesy of the author and Wikimedia Commons. 164
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Bibliography • Brine, Judith. “The nature of public appreciation of architecture: a theoretical exposition and three case studies.” Ph.D., University of Adelaide, 1987. • Casella, Eleanor Conlin, and Katherine Fennelly. “Ghosts of sorrow, sin and crime: Dark tourism and convict heritage in Van Diemen’s Land, Australia.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20, no. 3 (2016): 506-520. • Graham, Brian, and Peter Howard. “Heritage and Identity.” In Heritage and Identity, edited by Brian Graham and Peter Howard, 1-15. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008. • Hardy, Dennis. “Historical geography and heritage studies.” Area (1988): 333-338. • Harvey, David C. “Heritage Pasts and Heritage Presents: temporality, meaning and the scope of heritage studies.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 7, no. 4 (2001): 319-338. • Lowenthal, David. The Past Is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. • Martínez, Ascensión Hernández. “Conservation and Restoration in Built Heritage: A Western European
Perspective.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, edited by B.J. Graham, and Peter Howard, 245-265. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008. Smith, Coultman. Shadow over Tasmania: For the First Time - the Truth About the States Convict History. 12th ed. Tasmania: Coultman Smith, 1958. Steen, Andrew, and Stuart King. “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site.” In Place Meaning and Attachment: Authenticity, Heritage and Preservation, edited by Dak Kopec and Anna Marie Bliss, 56–70. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/ books/9780367232689/chapters/10.4324/9780367232689-5.
Endnotes 1. David Lowenthal, The Past Is a Foreign Country, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, 219. 2. Dennis Hardy, “Historical geography and heritage studies,” Area (1988): 333. 3. Brian Graham and Peter Howard, “Heritage and Identity,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, ed. Brian Graham and Peter Howard (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 2. 4. Ascensión Hernández Martínez, “Conservation and Restoration in Built Heritage: A Western European Perspective,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, ed. B.J. Graham, and Peter Howard (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008), 245. 5. Martínez, “Conservation and Restoration in Built Heritage,” 245. 6. Martínez, 245. 7. Andrew Steen and Stuart King, “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site,” in Place Meaning and Attachment: Authenticity, Heritage and Preservation, ed. Dak Kopec and Anna Marie Bliss (Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), 56. 8. Eleanor Conlin Casella and Katherine Fennelly, “Ghosts of sorrow, sin and crime: Dark tourism and convict heritage in Van Diemen’s Land, Australia,” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20, no. 3 (2016): 509. 9. Steen and King, “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site,” 56. 10. Steen and King, “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site,” 60. 11. Steen and King, “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site,” 62. 12. Steen and King, “The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site,” 62. 13. Judith Brine, “The nature of public appreciation of architecture: a theoretical exposition and three case studies,” (Ph.D., University of Adelaide, 1987), 230. 14. Coultman Smith. Shadow over Tasmania: For the First Time the Truth About the States Convict History, 12th ed, Tasmania: Coultman Smith, 1958. 15. Brine, “The nature of public appreciation of architecture,” 223. 165
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ARCT3050 ACTIVE MATTER
Unit Coordinator: Santiago Perez ASSEMBLAGE: Modular Material Assembly
PAULA DELLA GATTA
Puzzle Joints [Discrete Assembly] Puzzle Joints create intricate details and interesting designs due to their ability to take up different forms through a single connection. The shape-shifting ability from precise woodworking allows for the exploration of three-dimensional Discrete Assemblies. Parametric design tools are used to discover the limitations of each structural joint, forming a taxonomy that dictates the assembly’s design development and aggregation. The persistent modelling approach was utilised through basic 3D printed prototypes to test the assembly’s structural integrity. The assembly utilises stock timber joinery fabricated from 5-Axis CNC milling, using no intermediate fasteners, contributing to the simple material nature of the structure. The final form immerses each user in their own, unique interactions where only certain users can interact with voids as viewpoints or can walk under the structure.
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BY AN of AUTODESK STUDENT VERSIONbut also as fortuitous occurrences with longPRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION Exploring atypical interpretations of a shipwreck, not just asPRODUCED events misfortune, lasting impacts on their surrounding context - specifically on the natural landscape and settler communities. This derives an underlying logic through which the proposal can be constructed, building on themes of debris fields, archaeological resources, temporality, and interconnection between shipwreck and the built environment.
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ding, “A pane in the past: the Loch Ard disaster and a few bits of glass,” Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, no. 23 (2003): 1- 8.
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Landscape Integration
Insertion into Landscape
Overall planning of the project is driven by a number of key gestures; Firstly integrating the two key programmatic nodes into a larger landscaped context; the temporal dunes and mangrove ecosystems. Secondly Connecting the two ‘nodes,’ with a ‘debris field,’ consisting of landscaped pathways dispersed with extrapolated monuments, follies, sculptures and vista’s. Finally the two projects are integrated into the landscape, one sunken into a depression like a washed up piece of debris, and the other submerged in a dunal landscape.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Professor William (Bill) Taylor Centre of the Tasman World: Maritime Museum and Environmental Forensics Laboratory
NICHOLAS THUYS
Centre of the Tasman World: Maritime Museum and Environmental Forensics Laboratory The Centre of the Tasman World is proposed as a traditional gallery/museum precinct interspersed with contemporary concepts exploring curation and spatial composition. Operating under a broader re-framing of a shipwreck event, as fortuitous, rather than unfortunate occurrences with long lasting impacts on their surrounding context – both natural landscapes and settler communities. The precinct is organised around an underlying concept which explores ideas of the ‘debris field’, the archaeological artefact as resource, temporality, and an interconnection between shipwreck and built environment. The museum centre is outwardly viewed a series of discrete volumes projecting upwards out of the landscape, drawing on notions of the ‘encampment.’ Housed in the gallery volumes are mounds dune sand that rise out of the floor to present artifacts as contextually grounded. Visible storage units are used to allow larger portions of the collections to be displayed, which otherwise be hidden from the public eye. Program for the Environmental Forensics Laboratory is interspersed throughout the museum to encourage interaction between the museum, public and researchers. Captain Coffin’s Store House, located along the Koombana foreshore redevelopment, is re-imagined as a small bar and information centre, acting as a counterpoint to the main museum to the South. Consisting of an enveloping timber shell and internal rammed earth volume, the structure is positioned as if stranded in the landscape and having receded into a shallow depression over time. Snaking through the dunal landscape, the connecting pathway is interspersed with native vegetation and punctuated with a ‘debris field,’ of sculptural artefacts, dispersed like wreckage from over the landscape.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Professor William (Bill) Taylor Centre of the Tasman World: Maritime Museum and Environmental Forensics Laboratory
ADAM DUNNING
Centre of the Tasman World: Maritime Museum and Environmental Forensics Laboratory My design proposal for the Koombana Bay Maritime museum and information centre speaks to the water’s edge through proximity, while also expressing its natural forms and historic ties to the artifacts it shelters through materiality and spatial arrangement. The timber grid shell structures used to separate gallery space speak to traditional construction of whaling ships. Wrapped in canvas, they act to simulate the lighting experience of being below deck as well as tent structures found on archaeological digs. The building’s narrative begins with descending into the museum and the Samuel Wright’s wreck, moves up and is bridged with an environmental laboratory, allowing the public to circulate exterior pavilion spaces and viewing tunnels which look into the happenings of the labs. Experiencing a behind-the-scenes look into the previously viewed galleries, the shading device’s graceful curves and views into the neighboring mangroves create further interest to the laboratory and promote an understated art form. The shading device wrapping the perimeter of the building was designed as an abstract impression of wind gradients throughout southern Western Australia, the geometry was manipulated in a way that creates a feeling of motion from an external view and an underwater lighting experience from within. Lighting and form push and pull the viewer’s eye from artifact to architecture between each space whose journey ends with two viewing platforms, one experiencing the scale of the mangroves and the other looking out to sea, symbolic of the Samuel Wright’s journey and to the Captain Coffin information structure.
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Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Craig McCormack and Tristan Morgan Automata Architecture
CORBYN BISSCHOPS Hydrogen power station
The project focuses on creating hydrogen to power vehicles through the process of electrolysis. The basement level of the building contains a hydrogen power station that delivers hydrogen to an automated fuel delivery gantry along the street. It is intended that customers will flow in one direction along the site. If fuel is required, users can pull onto one of the six refueling pads in a similar mannar to a temporary drop off/ pick up zones commonly seen at airports. Next customers interact with self serve refueling modules beneath a canopy of trees that overhang the streetscape. A tracking gantry beneath the pad detects the vehicles fuel valve before adjusting itself and engaging. Using the self-serving payment module, users select fuel quality and amount. Hydrogen then flows into the vehicles fuel cell and disengages once complete. Becasue refueling takes place along the street the site remains undivided creating an oppourtunity for civic space that nearby university students and surrounding residences can capatalise on. To assist with this, the ground floor of the building contains four resturants, toilet facilities and seating areas both in and outside the building. Internally, customers can sit alongside the mezzanine and watch workers below produce the self sustainable hydrogen that powers their vehicles or alternately, users can also experience external views of the civic space from an level below street height, allowing one to find a moment of tranquility within their day.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Craig McCormack and Tristan Morgan Automata Architecture
MIKAYLA JAMES The Greenhouse
‘The Greenhouse’ is an Energy Recharging Station with a focus on a community hub, rather than a stand-alone place to charge your electric vehicle. While vehicles are charging underground, the Nedlands community and surrounds have the opportunity to pick and shop for their fresh produce for the week. The site also provides a Cargo Drone Hub, letting people order fresh produce right to their front door. The site is located in Nedlands. It is surrounded by UWA, businesses varying from restaurants to architects and residential houses. Further down Stirling Highway there is also a large number of car dealerships, this will attract an audience for people who are obtaining new cars in the area and will draw more people to the site to recharge their vehicles. There is a large population of close to 30,000 people located in the area (prediction based for 2030 and beyond). The central location of the site provides a great opportunity to create a community centre and provide a product that all people need to live. The site is designed to accommodate up to 500 people per day, whether it be to charge their car, shop for groceries or even explore and enjoy the nature of the site. The Greenhouse gives people the opportunity to reconnect with their food after spending years buying their groceries from supermarkets. It provides a great opportunity for learning about the production process of fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts. The robotics working in the background of the production space to relieve a lot of the stress that humans can feel when working in such a hands-on environment. As the population grows, people are slowly moving towards the city and farmland is running low. This provides a great opportunity for farm fresh produce to be grown in the centre of the city where people can freely access it. By being able to see the produce and where it is grown, people have the safety in knowing where their food is coming from and will feel more confident in what they are ‘fuelling’ their bodies with for energy.
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Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Geoffrey London and Emiliano Roia A Vision for the Future Stirling Highway
ETHAN ANTHONY Stirling Highway has historically been the major road link between Perth City and the coast at Fremantle. Despite its strategic role as a road link and urban corridor, the potential urban qualities of Stirling Highway have not been adequately considered, nor have the “thresholds” between the suburbs and the highway. This design proposal aims to define an urban design strategy capable of proposing a new vision for the Stirling Highway urban corridor. This design investigates a portion of the highway: the fifth sector, which stretches from Bay View Terrace to the Memorial Rose Garden. Stirling Highway and the surrounding built form have generated many features that fail to align with social, economic, and environmental sustainability principles. The highway does not facilitate fast vehicular transport nor encourage pedestrian use. The ability for drivers to visually explore the surrounding built form has generated a corridor of which is lined with commercial buildings as they capitalise on exposure. The threshold between suburb and highway is littered with paved short-stay parking, which has overwhelmed the natural landscape, ruined the pedestrian atmosphere, disrupted commuters, and crept uncomfortably close to homes. The Memorial Rose Garden and Claremont Park are much-needed breathing spaces that mark the beginning and end of the sector. The lack of natural landscape in between creates an opportunity to re-establish the importance of Perth’s landscape in the Stirling network. The design proposal intends to enable a habitable hub of activity along the sector, centred on pedestrian use. The reintroduction of the Australian landscape sets a precedent for liveability along a key access corridor, fostering a sense of identity which aligns with the sustainability of the greater network.
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Unit Coordinator:21723358 Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Geoffrey London and Emiliano Roia A Vision for the Future Stirling Highway
SOHANA GORDON-MENON Quiet Places
This project envisions a sustainable future, propelled by the security of circular economies and closed loop feedback systems. Most of the worlds’ natural resources are being depleted at a rate quicker than they can be restored, which indicates the first stages of environmental devastation. Quiet Places proposes a system to replace the car orientated typology of Stirling Highway, and encourage a more inherent and cultural connection to the history and stories of North Fremantle. Challenging our dependence on cars and fossil fuels for our daily activities, this project envisions an entirely electrical powered, public transport ‘loop’ system with the aim to reduce carbon emissions, as well as traffic and noise pollution. The electrical tram, which stops at both a connecting train and ferry line, carries the traveller on a journey through North Fremantle’s cultural precinct, telling stories of our history, and sharing insight on visions for our future. Pedestrian focused Mixed Use Commercial Residential
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Dr Nicoletta Pizzuti Princess Theatre and Chambers adaptive reuse
CHRISTOPHER JAMES Project name: Princess Brewery
Princess Theatre and Chambers, in Fremantle’s West End has found its uses and significance hidden since the last picture showed in 1969. What was once a thriving social hub for community interaction now lies abandoned, hidden behind a Federation Free Classical extension of the original Chambers building. Although Kakula Sisters grocery and the neighbouring historic barbershop have become a successful part of the buzzing pedestrian community, the warehouse behind and built up courtyard provide a further opportunity to provide an intervention for social interaction to take place. The selection of a brewery as the inserted typology works to further these ideas of returning the premises back to its original social stature in the neighbourhood, reactivating the dormant west end of Market street and providing economic and cultural stimuli by socially reactivating a well-loved and culturally significant construction. This adaptive reuse of a heritage building has been undertaken to support ongoing sustainable development through greenery and vegetative growth to ensure long life and safeguard the passing on of the significant Theatre and adjacent Chambers to future generations. The project has been undertaken through careful survey processes, restoration principles and charter recommendations with national and local policies like the Burra Charter and Fremantle West End heritage policy. The following displays careful study through survey drawings, research and documentation and explores the potential of adaptive reuse to protect heritage and historic structures while inserting a new use that will solidify and reinforce the Theatre’s cultural and social significance for generations to come.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Dr Nicoletta Pizzuti Princess Theatre and Chambers adaptive reuse
YANGYAN OU Circus WA
This project aims to enhance the life quality of West End, Fremantle and engage people to visit the site with artistic atmosphere via reusing the local heritage building - Princess Theatre and Princess Chambers. Adaptable, artistic expression and minimum intervention are three key principles to be used to develop the project. Circus school is the main proposal of the project via offering the location solution for ‘Circus WA’ in Fremantle; hotel, restaurant, coffee shop and barber shop are associated with circus school proposal and principles to make the building group as a whole. Other solutions which are alternative use for theatre are illustrated in the folio to maximum the value of the building.
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create opening for ventilation
add circus feature to new awning remove needless painting to show original brick texture
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use brick to fill needless opening reduce door size to show symmetrical aesthetics
-compress awning to be thinner -lift awning higher to show original openings -extend awning to whole building
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remove needless painting to show original brick texture
add circus feature to new awning -compress awning to be thinner -lift awning higher to show original openings -extend awning to whole building
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook UWA School of Design
SAM SHACKLES UWA School of Design
The approach towards the project was to identify the direction of a school of design. Reinterpreting the program from an institution to a public interface, producing a cross pollination between industry and research while responding to the site constraints and limitations. The design proposal aims to engage with the streetscape, connecting to the surrounding commercial establishments and providing a stronger link to the University’s main campus. The proposal generates a dialogue with the existing structure through a public platform to create a hybrid studio, social and workplace.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook UWA School of Design
HAYLEY PARTINGTON UWA School of Design
This project looks at developing a new building for the School of Design at UWA with an emphasis on sustainable and functional design strategies. The existing building was first constructed as the Nedlands Secondary Teachers’ College in 1969. The current facilities are not suited to the needs of the students and the staff, do not encourage social interactions within the school and lacks connection to the public realm. This project therefore aspires to create a desirable learning environment for the current and future needs of a school of design and bring design out to the community. The concept for this project was mainly driven by the desire to utilise engineered timber as the primary structural component. Specifically chosen in order to encourage the use of environmentally sustainable building materials in multi-storey structures. Combined with the use of a double skin facade, the new School of Design building aims to become the beacon of sustainability within the UWA community. The exposed timber structure and services reveal how the building itself can be instrument for learning and delves into how a building is constructed and function. The use of the timber structure also allows large spans and light-filled spaces that can be altered to the changing needs of the school. This was incorporated to allow a level of future-proofing and add flexibility to the teaching and learning environment. The current structure will be retained but the interior fitted out to better suit the needs of a design school. One being the encouragement of collaboration and exposure to each other’s work through flexible common study and social spaces. Landscaping and garden areas will be integrated into the extension through opening up the ground floor and encourage connection to the public realm. A sculpture garden will be used to display students’ and artists, work with the aspiration of artist residencies incorporated in the future. The new workshop will allow students and the public to see the construction process of designs and inspire greater involvement from the community.
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Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Philip Goldswain An Archive of Liquid Memory: Geology, Architecture and Data Storage
XIAOYU WANG With a clear strategy of how buildings and public spaces might differentially occupy the ground of the site, Xiaoyu’s schemes proposes a series of built elements and spaces that frame activity that takes place on the Tom Price Green. From the sunken courtyards of the private accommodation to the hovering box of the data centre to the linear sub-tropical gardens, Xiaoyu designed an architecture that carved space from the site or added thick walled volumes that encased their functions in a series of cavernous spaces. The rituals of accessing the archive were carefully considered in organised the data centre that also provide a backdrop to town and an analysis of the existing sub-suburban condition.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Philip Goldswain An Archive of Liquid Memory: Geology, Architecture and Data Storage
ROHAN GOLESTANI Drawing on the historical model of the paradise garden and the hortus conclusus, Rohan’s scheme proposes a series of courtyard spaces, buildings and walkways that structure the various elements of the program on the site. Using rammed ‘overburden’ generated by nearby mining activity as the predominate building material, the data centre is hoisted above the ground plane a series of over scaled columns to provide a shaded public undercroft and public realm. Adjacent, a series of courtyards, flanked by covered walkways, are planted with iconic Pilbara species while a separate compound houses the accommodation.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Santiago Perez New urban prototypes: Miami
JANE CHAN
Miami Art + Entertainment Building Proposal: To evolve a social amalgamation design within art, sport, and entertainment and creating a prominent viewing landmark in Miami waterfront. The ground plane of the entire building is purposely elevated upward as a result of Miami’s ongoing sea-level rise and flooding problem. It is one of the coastal cities in the world at risk due to the sea-level rise. To create an accessible connection with the metro mover in between the two sites (Site A and Site B), the new ground plane is set at the same level as the metro mover. Thus, it allows travellers on the train to experience the art atmosphere momentarily while passing through. It also acts indirectly as a marketing device to attract users for various entertainment and pop-up events. The building design has a major focus on the viewing experience, both internally and externally. With such an advantageous location on the Miami Beach, the presence of viewing platforms and terraces are integrated at different heights. It brings the visitor one step closer to having different viewing experiences of the sparkling ocean and cityscape at each plane. In addition to the art spaces and the aim of providing social activities inside the spectrum of entertainment, the building design catered to multiple dynamic activities, such as cinema, skate-park, rock climbing, etc. Users across all ages have something to look forward to. The introduction of pop up spaces and stores allows people to be more outgoing, especially in this generation where social interaction is often lacking. Hence, there is a prominent focus on the spatial connection between art spaces and entertainment. Moreover, to have a more understanding of the artist’s workflow, the visitors are able to have a glance at how the artist works in the workshop through the split-level from the exhibition side. The exhibition space is well connected with the pop up events and the social spaces. This aids in the user experience where the visitors have multiple choices to either chill out with each other in the social area or check out the latest pop-up store, or prefer to stroll along the windowed corridor to check out the artist’s latest work.
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ARCT5101 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Santiago Perez New urban prototypes: Miami
CALVIN THOO ‘Non-spaces’
Non-Spaces can be interpreted as elements within the urban context that according to Marc Augé never fully become established and are often misunderstood, ignored, underused; and in most cases not explored to their full potential. In Miami, the project ‘Non Spaces’ aims to evaluate and activate areas below and above the MacArthur Causeway, using both socio-economic and environmental cues in order to address homelessness in Miami. The emphasis on non-spaces within Miami is explored through the re-appropriation of the existing urban infrastructure, as inclusive community gardens. Concepts such as ‘Food for Thought’ and ‘Horticultural + Art Therapy’ will be analysed in the process of re-imagining the MacArthur causeway as an important, inclusionary link between the waterfront and Miami as a whole. Art + Community Centre: ‘Horticultural Therapy’ + ‘Art Therapy’ are expressed holistically as a community centre. These concepts are integrated within the building design through the means of collaboration and education on environmental cues in Miami, which aims to integrate the various communities in Miami at a physical, mental, social and environmental scale.
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FLOOR PLAN 1:200
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CRISIS STUDIO - HARRY BUTLER INSTITUTE Detailed Design Studio SEM-1 2020
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ARCT5201 DETAILED DESIGN STUDIO
Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Gemma Hohnen Crisis Studio - Harry Butler Institute Environmental Education Centre | Murdoch University
PETER TIBBITT
Crisis Studio - Harry Butler Institute The importance of the landscape in this project in terms of ecology, culture, education and the spirit of the Harry Butler Institute drives the thinking behind the design. To truly connect to the landscape the programme is thought of as a series of spaces within the landscape as opposed to a building with various functions that looks onto a landscape. It is important for this project not to create a barrier or obstruction but to assist in bringing the natural environment into the heart of the campus. Identified as the new main gateway into the centre of the university, it should be a ‘gateway landscape’ that functions as a living lab not a ‘gateway building’ retracted from the landscape. In the same way that one would sit under a tree for shade, in the sun for warmth or in a cave for protection some spaces would be more enclosed or more open depending on their function, the time spent there and their connection to other people and spaces. By working in this way, it sets up a language of solid and void spaces where the void not only serves as circulation but can serve a function of its own. The voids provide transparency and connections through to the surrounding landscape, important cross ventilation and reduce the visual impact of the built form within the landscape. In this case the voids went from being roofed spaces to being landscape spaces and the solid forms become simple roofed pavilions located to avoid existing trees, make use of passive solar heating and cooling and respond to the surrounding university and flow of people. The pavilions create a village like composition sensitively situated within the landscape. The Harry Butler Institute is no longer a building but a landscape in which the ‘village’ can expand, shrink or change depending on its use. Each pavilion is thought of in a similar way and is comprised of solid forms providing secure storage and services and a roofed space that can be opened to the landscape or enclosed but still connected to the landscape.
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AUDITORIUM + ABLUTIONS 1:100
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HEMPCRETE PARAPET
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AUDITORIUM SEATING
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AUDITORIUM PERSPECTIVE SECTION 1:50 CRISIS STUDIO - HARRY BUTLER INSTITUTE Detailed Design Studio SEM-1 2020
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NORTH ELEVATION
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LIVING LAB / TEACHING SPACE 1:100 CRISIS STUDIO - HARRY BUTLER INSTITUTE Detailed Design Studio SEM-1 2020
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ARCT5201 DETAILED DESIGN STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Adjunct Advisor: Dr Mark Sawyer Plastic Fantastic 3.0
RUAN VAN ROOYEN
Embracing the ‘Venice of Lagos’ The people of Makoko have embraced where they are and adapted to be dubbed the ‘Venice of Lagos’. However, this way of living has come with unique issues when compared to the surrounding areas. Through embracing this relationship with water, I propose a slum upgrading strategy that will tackle the issues directly whilst embracing the way of living. Comparing Makoko to the rest of Lagos it is evident that with a density almost five times more and families with up to 18 children there is a need for expansion now and more so in the future. With parts of Makoko already been demolished by the local government due to spreading too far into the lagoon, the expansion will have to go up. To ensure the safe expansion upwards, I propose a new stilt grid system. The grid will be built over and around the existing housing. Using this structure, the existing housing materials can be moved upwards into the new sturdier structure. This way it ensures that the existing families will remain in the same spot with the same belonging and building materials to re-use. After the existing stilts are removed it will free up space for safer walkways, utilities and common spaces throughout on the ground floor. To further complement the redevelopment of the region I propose optional community spaces. These spaces, spread throughout the area where needed, consisting of schools, clinics, urban gardens, markets and skill acquisition centres, are built with the same methods as the housing. The Makoko area being an outlook point for tourists driving into Lagos island there is potential to attract and profit. To further embrace the ‘Venice of Lagos’ theme I propose ‘Venice’ looking bridges throughout the neighbourhood where crossing the water is necessary. With the raised platforms, it makes it possible to create bridge walkways that are braced to mimic Venice.
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ARCT5201 DETAILED DESIGN STUDIO Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho Adjunct Advisor: Dr Mark Sawyer Plastic Fantastic 3.0
JIAYING FU
Khlong Toei Village Khlong Toei is a fast-developing district in the heart of the busy Bangkok city. The district is important for its port, Khlong Toei Port, the only major port for sea transportation of cargo. Due to the huge scale of Khlong Toei slum, the site of the project is limited at the intersection of the Hua Lamphong Canal and the interchange runs above. The canal and the interchange create the interesting in-between space for people in the slum. Informal settlements are built alongside the canal, slightly lifted from the water to avoid flooding during the rainy season. Inspired by the existing environment of the site, I promote the social house which provides better living conditions and more public space for people to gather. Housing is raised leaving the ground floor open to the public yet covered by the upper floor, mimicking the area under the interchange. Due to its openness, different activities can be incorporated on the ground floor. During the flood season, the ground floor can be emptied so that flooding doesn’t damage property. The main living area is elevated, preventing the flood’s impact on people’s life here. The house is strictly modular. Three single houses form one cluster, sharing one platform that allows people to move from house to house on the upper floor. The outdoor kitchen is built on the platform so that the smoke won’t be trapped in the house. Under the platform, a floating toilet and shower equipped with a ‘handypot’ toilet is built on the water. The used water from the kitchen flows into the toilet underneath to be reused. Built using local materials, the house is cheap and easy to build. The frame of the house is timber. The metal roof sheeting that is long used for informal settlements will continue to be used yet a layer of thermal insulation is added to keep the interior cool. The ground floor panel and the toilet are built with reused plastic tiles to resist water. The houses are designed to be modular so that two houses next to each other can be easily transform into one larger house if the household has more people.
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ARCT5502 INDEPENDENT DESIGN RESEARCH Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop
AVA MINJI KIM
Supervised by Lara Camilla Pinho Living in a Sharing City of Perth in 2045 The research proposal is a speculation into potential alternatives to co-living development and urban sprawl in a “Sharing City” of Perth 2045 powered by the Internet of Things. There exist myriad opportunities for social entrepreneurship in creating co-living communities in the “sharing city” to shape our future towards the efficient allocation of resources, lowering consumption and carbon emission for a sustainable future. Based on the idea by an economist Jeremy Rifkin, that lateral power is transforming energy, the economy, and the world. It is expected by 2045 juvenile TIR infrastructure should be in place on most continents. Perth, the capital city of Western Australia projects its population growth in 2045 to be almost 3.5 million. A city this size requires a transformation approach to how we plan for future growth. Businesses will be forced to move from traditional economic models of oneoff consumption of goods, and shift into providing services instead. Transitioning from buyers and users to providers and users, markets to networks, ownership to access, consumerism to sustainability. The Sharing City scheme is a guideline that assists and encourages participatory design of individuals and collectives in the creation of co-living communities. The project graphically attempts to illustrate a series of scenarios of varying scales from the largest scale of Greater Perth City, Urban, Suburban, Regional, and the User Interface. Starting at the largest scale, the first scenario looks at the overarching anatomy of the Internet of Things and introduces the Sharing City UI. Following illustrations focus on the potential organization of clusters of sharing micro (3-5 people) and network communities in a suburban scenario and hybrid modular kit of parts. The clusters are composed of customisable hybrid building modules. A single cluster is a combination of private, micro sharing and network sharing modules, providing a spectrum of private and shared spaces. The arrangements and building components are highly customisable on the User Interface. Furthermore, the project speculates on the possible patterns for adaptability and growth model and seeks to contribute both in the realm of scholarly debates on the impact of “sharing economy”. 235
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ARCT5502 INDEPENDENT DESIGN RESEARCH Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop
YING FAI IP
Supervised by Jennie Officer Housing for Community Over recent decades, a ‘rezone, subdivide and infill’ planning strategy has incrementally increased Perth’s housing density. Some would argue that the practice has been investment and profit-driven, emphasising financial return but ignoring the importance of broader social and community values. According to the survey conducted by the Department of Communities, 56% of respondents has felt vulnerable in their own home. They also agreed that more connection to community and neighbours would make them feel safe and secure.1 This may suggest that although people are living closer together physically, many experiences social isolation due, perhaps, to the loss of a sense of belonging. This leads to a key research question for this project: What are some of the qualities that constitute a sense of belonging in housing? The project positions housing as integral to the formation of community. It explores how housing might respond to place, to both the specific natural environment and built context and might anticipate some potential social needs of occupants in order to develop a sense of belonging. The project also responds to the current mismatch between Perth’s existing housing stock (a choice between either low density single detached houses or high density apartments) and its shifting demographics. It explores how design strategies can be incorporated in the ‘missing middle’ of medium density housing to produce a site-responsive residential architecture that is valuable not just to the inhabitants, but more broadly to the environment and the region. 1. Western Australian Department of Communities, WA Housing Strategy 2020-2030: Snap Poll #9 – Secure and safe housing (Perth, WA: Department of Communities, 2020).
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ARCT5502 INDEPENDENT DESIGN RESEARCH Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop
BRIAN GIBSON
Supervised by Nigel Westbrook Phenomenology and the Liminal: Welcoming the Ghost Ship of HMAS Sydney II The primary focus of the project was to explore how architecture can create a liminal space which allows for the experience of a temporal event. The event occurred in 1941, when the HMAS Sydney II was headed towards Fremantle Port and suddenly the crew of 645 encountered the German HSK Kormoran. The battle was lethal for both ships, and the Sydney lost all 645 crew on board. As a result, they never completed their voyage to Fremantle Port. This is where the project envisions the opportunity to experientially complete the Sydney’s voyage through an architectural intervention, and for a “ghost” Sydney to finally arrive at Fremantle after 79 years. The project consists of two parts that together form a holistic experience for the visitor. The first half is the Ghost Pavilion at Bathers Beach. It is designed in a way that dissects and experientially distils different aspects of the themes involved in the Sydney’s unfinished voyage. These themes are the Voyage, the Grave, the Departure, and the Tragedy to name a few. Traversing the different spatial experiences of the pavilion frames the mindset of the visitor to encounter the Ghost Ship and sympathise with the story it has to tell. The Ghost Ship itself consists of a floating platform which passively utilises the environment to produce the event of the ghost ship returning. When the right environmental conditions are met, the platform produces a stream of mist that acts as an aqueous phantom dancing above the water. Since this event is dependent on environmental conditions, no one can predict when the ghost ship will arrive, representing the original anticipation of waiting for the Sydney to arrive at Fremantle which it never did. Fundamentally, the experience the project explores is paradoxical. It’s about eternally recreating an event that never happened.
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ARCT5502 INDEPENDENT DESIGN RESEARCH Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop
NURUL AZMAN
Supervised by Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov Reimagining Perth Reimagining Perth looks into the issue of the urban sprawl in Western Australia and the current housing strategy in place. It includes a study of Singapore’s mass housing strategy, analysing and identifying the qualities behind its success (Booklet 01). Guidelines and lessons were picked out from the study and incorporated into the various proposals of higher density dwelling in WA (Booklet 02). ‘Beyond Infill’ explores the scenarios after 2050, past the stage of infill development. What were to happen if we ran out of land and the possibility of extending the urban sprawl was out of the question? Past 2050, this project explores the scenarios where some compromise has to be made by residents of existing plots. Driven by the derived guidelines, the proposals range from sub-dividing existing land to demolishing existing houses to make way for new typologies. The various proposals flow from incorporating the current needs and lifestyle of the people (P01) to providing for future goals such as reducing car dependency (P03). This project seeks to visually showcase various possibilities of increased density in a familiar context. The aim is to allow the people to visualise the possibilities of what their future living situation might look like when higher density living is to be implemented in the coming decades. The proposals show that while compromises are expected to be made, there will be benefits accompanying these new developments which they might not have access to in their current situation. For citizens to open up to the idea of shifting towards higher density lifestyle, we have to guide them to understand and visualise what we see, together, and overcome the stigma and fear of higher-density living by showing them the advantages that would come with it instead.
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ARCT5520 DRAWING RESILIENCE Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov Tokyo
MONROE MASA PANDEMONIUM
The proposal’s intent is to erect a structure that will become a place of transcendental reprieve for the Otaku sub-culture within Japan. WHY? The Otaku sub-culture detach themselves from reality, escaping to fictional realms of anime, manga, which they use as a mask to cover up their past traumas. Typically, the Otaku all share a commonality of having been exposed to a single or multiple adverse childhood traumas. LOCATION The proposal is located at the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo. This is a deeply symbolic location for many Otaku who use it as a point of reference for their fantasied world. These fantasy worlds can be linked to the 17th century style of Ukiyo-e floating worlds that were common against Japan’s the middle class. The chosen site for the structure is to showcase the dichotomy between the past and present, linking them together under the veil of the structure’s curtains. OTAKU SUB-CULTURE AND VOYEURISM Voyeurism is typically viewed in a derogative manner; however, we all do it! The Otkau’s exacerbate their voyeuristic tendencies, using it to achieve self-gratification and reaffirm their place in the world. The proposal aims to heighten people’s voyeuristic nature, blurring the distinction between voyeur and voyee. In conjunction, the structure’s form is used as a euphoric condition that can help the socially detached Otaku re-establish their connection to reality. THE MECHANISM The structure’s program creates a mental distinction between places of voyeurism and reality, helping the Otaku’s overcome their constant obsession of living within their fantasied world. The proposal uses a rigid rectilinear floor plan of pandemonic scale, rejecting worldly sensations in favour of fantasy. The layout is defined by a labyrinth of platforms, which are separated into different sizes and levels concealment: devoid of human scale. There is a subtle assortment of minimal chairs and low beds which provide comfort and familiarity within this alien structure. In essence, the structure’s random floor layout and curtain arrangement has established the ANNONYMITY GRADIENT that has produced the peephole effect where people are both observing and being observed; in either a conscious or sub-conscious state, which is intended to cleanse people of their perverse fantasies to allow them to resume living within reality. 249
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ARCT5520 DRAWING RESILIENCE Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov Tokyo
SOPHIA DO
Aiyoku Matsuri - The Festival of Passion What do you desire? Tokyo, Japan. A segregation between the people of Tokyo leaves its people lacking in human connection. The Otaku have left reality behind for a life of fantasy, the Hikikomori have left society behind as they lose their purpose in life and the Karoshi leave no room for life at all as they work themselves to literal death. How do you bring three very different subgroups together in order for them to forge meaningful relationships? Dedicated to the Wisdom King of Passion, Aizen Myōō, the people of Tokyo turn back to the old gods of Shinto for guidance. A new tradition that marks the middle of cherry blossom season draws people out to play. The Festival of Passion – a place where the people of Tokyo come to give thanks to the great Aizen by celebrating the very thing he represents. Passion, love and lust. Three unlikely subgroups cross paths at the largest intersection in Tokyo. Starting from the centre of Shibuya Crossing, a geometric structure emerges. Built by the people, for the people. The structure grows as the people demand and attaches itself to the city; An octopus with ever growing limbs twisting and turning through the streets of Tokyo. The three levels represent the three stages of traditional festivals. The ground floor – Celebration. Rooms of various sizes and levels of intimacy are erected by festival goers to fulfill their deepest darkest desires. The second floor – Purification. Paying homage to the purifying fountains in front of temples, festival goers purify themselves from their sins in preparation for the final step. The third floor – Giving thanks. A place for self-reflection, floor panels act as steppingstones to cherry blossoms in bloom where they can sit and appreciate the beauty of life. As the last cherry blossom falls from its branch the festival of passion comes to an end. A grid embedded into the centre of Shibuya crossing acts as a reminder of passion. A reminder that at least once a year the people of Tokyo leave their demons behind and come to heaven on earth. The Otaku give the Hikikomori a purpose. The Hikikomori inspire the over worked to find moments of rest. The Karoshi motivate the Otaku to make meaningful contributions to society. Aizen Myōō gives the people of Tokyo their greatest desire. A place to belong.
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ARCT5580 ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL ANIMATION Unit Coordinator: Craig McCormack
MATTHIAS WIDJAJA Columbarium Habitabile
The Columbarium Habitabile was imagined and birthed by the Russian duo Brodsky & Utkin during a time where Socialist Realist architecture was abolished, and cultural heritage was replaced by a doctrine of unadorned utilitarianism¹. Brodsky & Utkin take us on a voyage of imagination through their fantastical ‘paper architecture’ works despite such circumstances. The Columbarium Habitabile is a place of remembrance for houses that were removed to make way for increasing urban gentrification, commentary on what they themselves experienced during the 1950s-60s, a time of faceless functionalism where ‘Modern technology, especially prefabrication was exploited to produce the urgently needed mass housing, and aesthetic discourse of any kind was considered unnecessary and immoral.”² Families were given the option to live in the Columbarium or to see their house demolished- perhaps eluding to the choice Brodsky & Utkin were given as architects during that time. Although they were oppressed and could not realise the architecture they wanted, they continued to hold on to their imagination and express themselves through ‘paper architecture’. The Columbarium Habitabile is a message to everyone, of the reality that could come about if we continue to create spaces for mere functionality with disregards to the wellbeing of people. It warns us of the insensitivity that could manifest if one this route, while ironically speaking hope reminding architects and all humans of our responsibility to create, challenge, question and push the borders of our imagination in order to create a better world. The animation seeks to convey the readings I personally drew from Brodsdky & Utkin’s drawing. That is, the power of a drawing and its ability to translate one’s ambitions and dreams from paper to reality. Although Brodsky and Utkin may not have taken part in many built works, their drawings have sown seeds of imagination to many: these seeds are perhaps more powerful than built works themselves. ¹Lois Nesbitt, Aleksandr Mergold, Brodsky & Utkin, Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, (Princeton Architectural Press, New York),5. ²Lois Nesbitt, Aleksandr Mergold, Brodsky & Utkin,5 Matthias Widjaja link to animation: https://youtu.be/D9fiZtnWCQc
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ARCT5593 FURNITURE DESIGN PRODUCTION Unit Coordinator: Peter Kitely and Guy Eddington PACK /STACK or FOLD
NICHOLAS THUYS ArtNat
Responding to the disappearance of natural elements, namely plants from artistic exhibitions across the creative areas, ArtNat strives to display natural elements such as plants and flower arrangements on a raised dais as artistic objects worth of display, contemplation, and preservation. Constructed from high quality, simple, timeless materials that can be manufactured locally using Australian artisans to create individual elements establishing the object as Network - artisans such as glass makers at Jam Factory, and metal workers like Studio Henry Wilson demonstrate the potential for Australian artists to be involved in the network of manufacture.
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Image: Ian Arevalo. Manning Park Design Strategy. 2020. 260
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ARLA1000 DESIGN STUDIO GROUNDINGS Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk Studio Coordinator: Loren Holmes Studio Assistant: Maia Williams Edges and Actions, Fremantle’s Victoria Quay
AMY STEWART A Dunal Landscape
Focused on the public realm of Fremantle’s Victoria Quay, this studio invited students to design a field of multiple elements to improve the site’s comfort, legibility and connectivity. Students observed, analyse and mapped the layers of the site – information which formed the starting points for diagrammatically defining the ‘key move’ responses to the site’s conditions. These key move diagrams were then developed into conceptual masterplans for a connected string of new elements (a marker, gathering spaces, a focal point, a viewing platform, a pedestrian thoroughfare), all situated to engage with the site’s existing fabric and users in particular ways. This proposal reinterprets dunal landscape forms to bring topographic variation as well as opportunities for shelter and programmatic layering. The materiality of the new elements – limestone, coastal vegetation and uncovered tram track remnants to name a few – nod to different moments in the site’s past, while the spatial organisation of the new uses focuses on improving the connectivity of Victoria Quay to the rest of Fremantle.
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ARLA1000 DESIGN STUDIO GROUNDINGS Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk Studio Coordinator: Loren Holmes Studio Assistant: Maia Williams Edges and Actions, Fremantle’s Victoria Quay
ALEXANDRA BOLIG A Seasonal Landscape
Focused on the public realm of Fremantle’s Victoria Quay, this studio invited students to design a field of multiple elements to improve the site’s comfort, legibility and connectivity. Students observed, analyse and mapped the layers of the site – information which formed the starting points for diagrammatically defining the ‘key move’ responses to the site’s conditions. These key move diagrams were then developed into conceptual masterplans for a connected string of new elements (a marker, gathering spaces, a focal point, a viewing platform, a pedestrian thoroughfare), all situated to engage with the site’s existing fabric and users in particular ways. This proposal situates a series of cultural and community anchors across the site to enrich the public realm and draw people in. The pedestrian experience between these anchors is defined by elements that bring attention to varying natural forces – a rill returns water to the site in times of rain while vertical markers at the site’s entry measure future sea level rise.
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ARLA1000 DESIGN STUDIO GROUNDINGS
Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk Studio Coordinator: Loren Holmes, Jessica Mountain, Emily Van Eyk Edges and Actions
JULIANA LAUTON SOARES Victoria Quay Waterfront
The Victoria Quay site is in Walyalup/Fremantle. At a first glance, the quay seems an uninviting and disconnected part of town despite having significant potential for a lively and appealing site not only for tourists, considering it houses the Rottnest Island and cruise ship passenger terminals, but for locals alike. The scope of the project had the aim to reunite the port waterfront and the city’s edge in the most seamless way possible, attracting the community into the vicinity through the creation of spaces for leisure, entertainment and reflection as well as improving spatial elements in order to promote economic revitalisation in the area. The project concept reflects the geometric forms found within the heritage-listed Port Authority building at Victoria Quay and intends to connect the past working history of the port with its more contemporary leisure use of the public spaces. The building’s folded roof of concrete panels, the square timber flooring pattern in the building’s foyer and the square mosaic tile formations on the building’s interior and exterior composed the main conceptual elements reproduced in this project; through the exploration of the hexagon, trapezoid and square formations. The walkable design invites public engagement within the site where different routes can be explored by users and a multiplicity of experiences achieved in different possible visits to the site. A viewing platform is proposed between shed A & B that allows users to explore new views of the site including stadium-like sitting areas overlooking the new multi-level decked platforms in the waterfront, at the same time serving as shading structures for the gathering space situated beneath. An open green area with a covered stage has been proposed in the heart of the site that would allow for big or small events such as music festivals, seasonal markets and sporting activities. Furthermore, a variety of multi-use wooden platforms were introduced throughout site providing users with sitting and picnic areas along with supporting active spaces. A combination of wood, concrete and tiles were indicated as main materials together with the addition of limestone paving on pathways and paved areas connecting major areas and more intimate spaces. The limestone has the intention to represent its reconnection within the landscape which once it occupied. 267
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ARLA1000 DESIGN STUDIO GROUNDINGS
Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk Studio Coordinator: Loren Holmes, Jessica Mountain, Emily Van Eyk Edges and Actions
GREER MARNS The first thing that struck me about Victoria Quay was a feeling of disconnection or a lack of a thread to link together the many contrasting elements that create tension throughout the site: land and sea, old and new, brick and corrugated tin, pedestrian and roadway/car park, industrial activity and tourism, the cultural significance to the Noongar peoples and the colonial history and relevance, the divide between the city and the Quay. As the Port Authority plans to move the port in the future, my design explores a new, recreational, community-friendly use of the area. The design includes a boardwalk circling an ocean/river pool with surrounding net hammocks to lounge in, a pontoon to swim to and steps down to the water’s edge. A large circular raised platform with shade, wind protection along the south west edge and another lounge net in the middle intersects the roof line of A shed. The platform also links to a space inside the lofts of B shed and a deck area in between the two lofts. The second, eastern loft contains an intimate gathering space or ‘nook’ looking out over the river. The steps on the south side of the platform form a seating area for a sunken performance space. There is a community activity area that welcomes the flow of pedestrian traffic from the city centre through the site. A walkway referencing the old freight railway line follows the old path and provides shade and a further connection to the performance zone… The river boardwalk, raised platform, performance area and community zone are all circular referencing community meeting places, encouraging flow from one zone to the next and creating a coherent and linking thread. The potential of the chosen site and the opportunity to design a link to the city was particularly rewarding. It was also interesting to partake in a hands-on exploration into a site that is currently being considered for ‘real-life’ development.
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LACH2000 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO CONSIDERATIONS Unit Coordinator: Christina Nicholson Studio Coordinator: Christina Nicholson Urban Park to Urban Hub
BIANCA SORENSON Urban Billabong
The narrative of water. Urban Billabong. Water will weave to find its way down, to pool and permeate back into the earth. It will come and go, fostering the feast and famine of new growth and seasonal habitat. Inner city forest and ephemeral wetland combine providing a sanctuary, a meeting place and gathering of community. Celebrating a sense of place, of its people and its connection to the deep geology and hydrology of the Derbarl Yerrigan. Principles of Design CONNECT the community, to close the physical and communal gap between retail/nonretail zones along the highway. RESTORE a ‘sense of place’ that creates the cohesion of community for years to come. RENEW the existing landscape to reflect swings in seasonality, through local plant species and the narrative of water above and below.
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LACH2000 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO CONSIDERATIONS Unit Coordinator: Christina Nicholson Studio Coordinator: Christina Nicholson Urban Park to Urban Hub
STELLA GRAY BROUN
Connecting to country through water, plants & seasonality Principles of Design HYDROLOGY Exploring future and past of water (and Debarl Yerrigan) for the purpose of a deeper ecological connection. LAYERS Merging of natural landscape with vegetation on site through species types, seasonality and time to create a modern narrative. HISTORIC LANDSCAPE Showcase native plants and original character of the Australian landscape, connecting to country and culture of the Whadjuk people from the Noongar nation.
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LACH3000 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO EXPANSIONS Unit Coordinator: Sarah May Studio Coordinator: Sarah May Matilda Bay a Future Park for the 21 Century
PATRICK ONG
Stitching and Weaving The area currently known as Godroo/Goodamiorup/Gurndanulup/Matilda Bay is a locality within the context of a world biodiversity hot spot, in a unique setting of sheltered waters that is also within close proximity to areas of significance around the Perth Metropolitan area; and yet currently it can also be seen as layers of human culture with introduced and endemic ecologies, separated artificially by human infrastructure that is also under pressure from increasing human population and density, rising water levels and environmental degradation. This proposal aims to address these challenges by forming a new layer that reinforces its current unique qualities with opportunities for new connections and zones to form a cohesion that is both stronger and flexible together. This is achieved by regenerating endemic ecological complexes in areas that are being reclaimed by rising water levels over time, with the introduction of new human activity zones and linkages with adjacent communities as well as the university campus grounds. The reintroduction of living streams and wetlands allows existing fauna and flora additional resilience against environmental pressures, whist presenting new methods and perspectives of human interaction with the estuary. The design is a proposed solution for contemporary and future society to coexist in relative harmony with the natural environment, as well as a reminder that any elements that interact with the natural environment are mutually linked together.
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LACH3000 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO EXPANSIONS Unit Coordinator: Sarah May Studio Coordinator: Sarah May Matilda Bay: a Future Park for the 21st Century
HUGO FAULKNER
Decomposition of the Edges The proposal aims to merge the two ecological hot spots via spreading plants common to the two areas within the UWA campus. UWA’s connection to Mathilda Bay is seen via swale plantings at points of drainage found within the campus leading too Mathilda Bay. The Planting Scheme is an adapted version of John Oldhams 20th century botanical park proposal. The Scheme takes similar plantings but are broken up into smaller areas to make them more specific to site and have greater ecological function. The process of restoring the riparian edge takes 100 years. It begins with the establishing a limestone terrace that encases wetland and riverfront plantings on the flood line of the bay. The space transforms into three different styles of parkland firstly recreational, secondly interactive, and finally ecological. In the first situation Matilda Bay is seen as an Australian take on the picturesque park movement. Secondly as the terrace begins to crack from erosion the seeds are seen to be uncovered being distributed by the water, wind and movement of people. Finally, as the limestone cracks open within 100 years the park is transformed into a mosaic of plantings with an impenetrable edge to the water, leaving only flora and fauna to thrive. People’s movement becomes more populated in existing legacy spaces.
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LACH4422 THE MAKING STUDIO Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith Studio Assistant: Nick Rose Manning Park
LIANN SMITHSON The Heritage Journey
The Heritage Journey explores heritage interpretation at Manning Park through the rehabilitation of site ecology, focusing in on geomorphology and associated vegetation endemic to this part of the Swan Coastal Plain. Four trails are proposed to guide users through key areas of regenerated ecological heritage. The Tuart Trail, for example, is an ode to the remnant Eucalyptus gomphocephala (Tuart) woodland around Manning Lake. A new forest will be grown from local seed collected from the site’s exiting Tuart community, to be planted in an angled grid which directs the eye towards the site’s high point on the Spearwood Ridge. The placement of lookouts, walkways, resting places and trails throughout this scheme lead the user through sites of cultural and heritage value, allowing places for quiet contemplation as this shifts and changes over time.
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LACH4422 THE MAKING STUDIO Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith Studio Assistant: Nick Rose Manning Park
JOCELYN WU Safety and Risk
This scheme aims to enhance wellbeing and interaction with nature, especially in Manning Park’s bushland area. A series of trails are proposed to offer different user experiences, based around two opposing ideas. Exploring the idea of safety, community trails allowing access throughout the site comply with Australian Standards, allowing for all ability access and a comfortable experience throughout the Park. A series of adventure trails then explore the opposing idea of risk. These trails invite users to explore Manning Park in an adventurous manner, building on and strengthening existing community uses of the bushland area in the Park. Throughout, according to the use of the trail, barriers are folded up and down to reveal views, to create resting areas and seating, and to form wayfinding elements.
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LACH4422 THE MAKING STUDIO Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith Studio Assistant: Nick Rose Manning Park
IAN AREVALO
A Seasonal Landscape In this scheme, the visitor is led from the coast, to the site’s highpoint at the top of the Spearwood Ridge, down through coastal heathland, and then to Manning Lake, moving through the variety of landscape experiences at Manning Park. Building on and editing existing site uses to strengthening site ecology, a green link between the coast and inland remnant revegetation areas is created. Revegetation species have been selected to align with a landscape that experiences six seasons and to support endangered and at-risk species endemic to this area. The placement of lookout, rest and reflection spaces encourage education about and reflection on the unique and fragile landscape that is Manning Park and surrounds.
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LACH4422 THE MAKING STUDIO Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith Studio Assistant: Nick Rose Manning Park
HANZHI WANG Spreading Nature
Spreading Nature proposes a social and ecological corridor that links the wetlands of the Beeliar Regional Park. Expanding from Manning Park, a green link provides an access way between Manning Park and Bibra Lake. The corridor was carefully selected to contribute to the urban forest in the area. Endemic species are proposed to align with unique landscape character types experienced along the transect. This scheme encourages users to connect with the broader landscape systems of the Swan Coastal Plan, while also connecting in with the required and changing social uses on the Spearwood Ridge (in Manning Park), at Manning Lake (in Manning Park) and along the proposed green corridor.
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LACH5511 INDEPENDENT DISSERTATION BY DESIGN PART 2 Unit Coordinator: Dr Maria Ignatieva and Dr Christopher Vernon
SASHA SPASIC
Supervised by Dr Maria Ignatieva and Dr Christopher Vernon PORT X CITY: New Horizons on Fremantle Waterfront This thesis seeks to answer: How can waterfront redevelopment at Fremantle port connect the city with the waterfront and create an attractive public space that integrates with the working port? Waterfront redevelopment can take a city’s industrials wastelands and transform them into vibrant public spaces for public life. Due to changes in trading and technology, the industrial port has lost its original value and is often left neglected thus rendering large areas of space unused. Consequently, the city and the port become detached from each other and the relationship with the waterfront is lost. Such a case can be seen at Fremantle, where the prevalence of port activities and vehicular transport mean a disconnection from people and city. Special though is that unlike many port cities, Fremantle is still in active operation and will continue to be a successful working port for years to come. Here, the opportunity lies to integrate the industrial port with the public realm and create a unique story on the waterfront - one that celebrates a layered history whilst bringing the port back to public life. Fremantle is special to many people and any change is to be handled with great care; however, as Perth moves ahead with new developments, there must be capacity for Fremantle to do the same and reinforce its place as Perth’s port city. Upon developing a concept for this project, I encountered a number of planning and policy documents regarding Fremantle, the port and future directions of the city. This, in combination with my own observations and visits, was useful for informing criteria within the brief and working within a realistic planning context to support design decisions. In other words - how can I take what is there and make it better? As a result, a concrete basis has been formed for which to justify the design, one that stems from a thorough research and understanding of the chosen site. This book encompasses the entirety of conducting a thesis project from the design research base to application of the knowledge.
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urban design.
Image: Dr Robert Cameron. Greenspace-Oriented Development. 2019. 298
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URBD5804 URBAN DESIGN STUDIO 1
Unit Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron and Grace Oliver Studio Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron and Grace Oliver
JORGE GONCALVES PMH Eco-Village
In the age of growing cities and a growing global population, urban design planning is by no means becoming obsolete. The vision for the Princess Margaret Hospital site is to establish a sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing delivery system that will ensure easy access to homeownership and rental schemes in an environment where basic physical and social amenities are available. To accomplish this there are three main principles to follow. One is to establish a secure healthy and decent atmosphere for the development of a new community recreational centre, which is desired to enhance the programming opportunities. The second, is to include a commitment to a business-friendly environment, additional restaurants and coffee shops would be considered a plus; as well as creating a vibrant central area and protecting and enhancing heritage streetscape. The last, is to design the future development in a synergistic mix of uses, more pedestrian, transit-friendly, and sustainable in design and function. Thus, this is a vision about creating a place in which people are engaged in their surroundings and a place where people want to be. The proposal for the PMH site was resolved on an understanding of possessing both spatial and temporal elements that interplay in a complex system focusing on a relationship between the buildings and spaces between. I have looked at groups of buildings, streetscapes, landscapes with high-density dwellings, and the provision of municipal services aiming to create harmonious, cohesive space and helping the community to set an overall direction for particular places like this. Also, the design was concerned about contemporary challenges such as mass urbanisation and changing climate demands. The proposal is an idealistic view of the desired outcomes for a development on a specific condition and meaningful relation between the solid and void. So, the void becomes as meaningful in its shape as the solid.
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URBD5804 URBAN DESIGN STUDIO 1
Unit Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron and Grace Oliver Studio Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron and Grace Oliver
ALEKSANDAR RISTIC Demolition City
A re-imagining of the Princess Margaret Hospital ground. Demolition of the site is undertaken in stages, as matter is subtracted, and facades are stripped away. Temporary artist residential blocks are placed within the subtracted structures to form a new art collective that utilises the unique context to house and inform their creations. Eventually most of the pre-existing structures are demolished over several months and the mini city is built. The pedestrian-only city contains 900 dwellings, retail, food establishments, courtyards and a new art building which is nestled within the Harry Boan Building facade.
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A selection of projects from semester one, 2020 at the University of Western Australia School of Design.