Victoria Gardnes, e Headrow, LS2 AD 1/10/12-8/12/12
Mar 29, 2016
Victoria Gardnes, The Headrow,
LS2 AD
1/10/12-8/12/12
Visit 1
01/10/12
Site-specific project based at Victoria Gardens, directly situated out-side Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds City Centre. Having spent 3 months in total documenting the site through the use of video, photography, sound and note taking. The final series of images have been formulated through creating stills from the video footage and putting them into a contact sheets to give the im-ages a documentary feel.
The first visit was on the 01/10/12
Based in the tiled cafe inside the art gallery which over looks the site I gathered quotes from people inside:
“but i like to go back”“I moved from Chester 1995”
“I was born just outside Chester in a little Village”
Visit 2
03/10/12
During the second visit the aim was to interact more within the site, so sat on the benches just in front of the gallery. Noticed that the benches are designed so that home-less people cannot sleep there. There is a strong con-trast of nature vs man in the space, with the use of trees to create a garden enviroment and concrete slabs to distinguish the space as a ‘garden’. Later on in the afternoon the space became a lot more sociable. Groups of people were playing chess in the site and chatting.
Visit 3
09/10/12
Observing from benches
Visit 4
16/10/12
Observing from entrance of
Leeds Art Gallery
Visit 5
18/10/12
Observing from entrance of
Leeds Art Gallery
The main interesttoday was that off
a man sat in the exitof the Gallery shop
later on that dayI found a bottle of
cider whcih was hiden in a orange sainsburys
bag.
Visit 6
25/10/12
Observing from side of gardenswatching group
play chess.
Visit 7
05/11/12
Observing from benches of mandrinking coffee
with pigeon
Visit 8
08/11/12
Observing from insdie the tiled cafedue to the set up ofthe christmas lightsbeing switched on.
Visit 9
13/11/12
The site was beingused as free-runners
today.
Visit 10
03/12/12
viewing from the Cafe, on passers by
Some issues have aroused in my practice around how society controls individual’s actions, here I will look into site specifically how it can be applied. The site to focus on will be victoria Gardens, situated outside Leeds Art Gallery. The space is aimed at including all members of society in a sociable way such as the use of chess games available to play and the seating. The layout of the space is very open plan and has concrete slabs to distinguish the site clearly. There are a few sparse trees located close to benches and bedding grass patches around the site, these are the only associated objects around the tradition ‘green gardens image’. Having spent 3 months in total at the site the space is used in a variety of ways such as eating lunch, meeting friends, chatting on phones, sitting and free-‐jumping. Sometimes there are often people sleeping in the site in exits of doors ect. Having described the design of the site, looking more closely into how the layout controls how the space is used. One very important focus is the benches as they are designed specifically for sitting on alone. Therefore it forces people to sit and look composed rather than laying or sleeping which could give the impression of being lazy, useless ect which links in with the theories around panopticism. Panopticism is the layout of a space that controls individuals around that but in a philological way to produce more productive useful member’s of society. So if the benches based on the site are there to ensure people don’t sleep while visiting it encourages them to be productive, the individual’s that use the site are very often homeless so it’s the city’s way of keeping these people out of the space. The positioning of the gardens is also key as its over looked by the Gallery, a culture driven environment which is society vise ranked higher. The culture driven often-‐educated clientele that visits the gallery often over look the benches directly outside the building which reinforces this idea of higher power both physically higher and mentally. So that if people are encouraged to look productive in the site and not be seen to be wasting time the space is used as a representation of how the city may be seen to visiting tourists. The design of the space impacts how as a city we are perceived, through the use of well placed trees showing taste for design to the well designed benches encouraged for frequent movability. So if many people often come to the gardens and leave frequently it creates more exciting range of visitors again impacting on the image of the city as well as the Art gallery its self. To conclude looking at the quote it does suggest that the site controls the way that individuals act within the space to way that they think is expected of them due to ‘continuous supervision of others’
“Panopticismis one of the characteristic traits of our society. It is a type of power that is applied to individuals in the form of continuous individual supervision”