Update -

So far one comment on youtube saying "nababoao". What that means in plain english i have no idea.

Asked yesterday about the TV screen in E&C shopping centre. The manager is on holiday until next week but found out that Southwark Council own the screen. So today i phoned them and was lost in a telephonic abyss which in plain english is called 'being put on hold and forgot about'.

However i did ask about hiring a computer in an internet cafe. Costs £12 for the whole day. The plan is to put a DVD of my movie on loop for 7 hours. I may even include questionaires. So i might proceed with that idea seeing as my original idea of just keeping it on the internet had turned out to be a bit of a disaster in terms of feedback.

On another note I've been thinking about how I would do this whle process again and i think i would have kept it more simple. Take photographs and hold a free exhibition. Simple, easy. I know photographs. I'm just not so good with movie editing programs! Plus it would be cheaper... It's christmas and i'm broke!

Final Product!

Tried to put sound on but todays technology defeated me and i lost face....besides, if i end up showing it on a screen in the shopping centre i won't need it. They don't have sound anyway.

Reaction

Just thinking about what kind of reaction i expect to get from it and my own personal opinions on E&C...then i realised i had never discussed it on here (not in detail anyway).

Basically people will be for or against. A kind of Black or white way of thinking, no middle ground, no grey areas. Me? I'm for the regeneration. The place is a cold, grey dump. As much as i love this area due to how i am connected to it through my paternal family, you'd have to be blind to not see that things need a lot of improvment around here. Why do i think it's a cold, grey dump? The only colour is to be found around the shopping centre. I find most people... not horrible but there is an automatic wariness and distrust when walking around. There is a lot of poverty. I personally hate walking in the subway. Nearly everyday i walk in one and every single time i'm hassled for money by beggers. I don't blame them but i have a sneaky feeling that they probably have more money than i do! I used to give spare change and cig's to one tramp who i always said hello to. Then found him working in a place not far away. The change and cig's soon stopped then. maybe i should be asking him for the same next time i see him.....

I think the people who have spent the majority of their lives around these parts will find the regeneration the hardest to bear. It is always sad seeing things that remind you of cherished memories, demolished or changed in some way. I moved around a lot as a kid (no reason...i just moved a lot), so i've always had a semi-nomadic existence. It's hard for me to truly understand the nostalgia that some people hold around places/buildings. But people who have lived like me, who have moved quite often, will be more positive i think. Why? We hold an unsentimental view. Our judgement is not clouded by memories. Looking at the shopping cente for instance, jogs no memories. The state of the building can clearly be seen and what it brings to the area. The benefits are more clear.

I do like E&C. I like how close it is to central London. I love the diversity of the population. I like the history (general and family), it's relatively cheap for its location, it has excellent transport links...and many more. It just needs a hell of a lot of work done to it! It deserves a better future.

The movie is almost finished. The titles and pictures have been put together on imovie. Though there is one small problem - just why does a perfectly infocus picture suddenly become out of focus when using that program?
Decided to scrap the idea of music. I took a minidisc around E&C recording sounds. I captured a bus stop, on the main roundabout, the market, a cafe and a long walk around generally. Music would take away from the seriousness of what i am asking of people who view it. Plus songs might also 'date' the film. Although i am Ms. musically tolerant i am aware that not everyone else is. I want people to view the film, thinking about their own reaction instead of loving or hating the soundtrack.

The movie is split into 3 parts. the past, present and future with intermitted titles. It's roughly just under 5mins long. any longer and people's concentration levels might wane.

I'm still toying with the idea of handing out flyers. Its the cost and time that is really putting me off. Finding the time to design and print the flyers and create a strategy of where and when to hand them out will be difficult. I still have time to procrastinate about it tho :D

Making sense of it all

A link for a website of street art -

http://streetart.antville.org

I will put a few examples up of this genre once my internet connection starts to work properly.

I thought it would be a a good idea to discuss the topic a bit more. Spatial photography and street art are closely linked in my opinion. Both use a space, whether it be created or natural, filled (maybe?) with an artists work. How my idea fits into this.... The flyers/posters will. As I am using public space to create awareness to a piece of art that is about the space of E&C. Even the piece of art itself (the movie) is using the space of E&C itself. It can be said that I am using space that once was, space that is present now around us and the idea of space that is to come. Who says that to use space means to be in it? I am capturing the space that is available, was available and will be available and putting it on a virtual space. It all boils down to the idea of space or spatial practice. What is it? Can it ever be defined? Is space something we see with our eyes? Is it something we see with our imagination? Is it real? There are no definite answers, unless you consult a dictionary, but even that is open to interpretation - which is an excellent word to use in this context.

'Interpretation' - is personal, is opinion but above all - open. Nothing defined, not without debate anyway.

Recently on the news there was an article on a gallery exhibit which has just opened in Wales. Nothing hangs in this gallery. Nothing is shown. There is only white bare walls, a roof and a floor. Is this a good use of space? Depends on what the artist wanted to achieve. But it is a prime example of using space to create a reaction (good or bad) within those who view it.

How does photographic use of space work? Photography is mostly about documenting. Much the same way that painters work...You have the portrait, still life and landscape. Whether it is a true likeness is beside the point. What is documented is the persons thoughts and views who produced it. Most photographs are produced to document...A child's birthday party, a glamour portrait, a still shot from a film etc. So are we documenting the space of E&C? it seems so from the above trail of thought. But like I said earlier, that is always open to interpretation.....

:D

A step closer

Standing in the Oxford street HMV store yesterday i began to think of putting together a soundtrack for my movie project. But first things first......about the movie....

For the past week i've been brainstorming idea's about my movie project. I have decided on the layout of it. It will be split into 3 sections, much like a feature film. Beginning, middle and end. In this case the beginning shall be of the past of E&C. I'm not sure how far back i will go...possibly to the 16th century when it was recorded that Katherine of Aragon landed in the area to be married to King Henry 8th's older brother. Her coat of arms carried an elephant and a castle....one possible reason for the name of the area today, the other that E&C was named after a pub - but where would a public house get that name? So i shall just take it for granted that the area is named after a spanish princess....which gives it a slight romantic, renaissance feel. After a visit to HMV i came out with among other things the soundtrack to the film 'Kill Bill Vol 2' which includes a lot of spanish/latin music so i may indeed use a track off there.
From the 16th century i shall move forward to the Georgian era. There is a lot of regency buildings in the back streets of E&C. I visited the place where my parents live 2 weekends ago and spent the day in Cheltenham. A town which had its heyday and major expansion during the regency era due to it's spa waters (which have now dried up!). Wandering around reminded me of some of the architecture that is hidden away in E&C. I have some old drawings of the area from this same time period so these may well be included.
Most of the Victorian architecture has gone but there may be a few gems hidden around. But i may dispence with the victorian architecture altogether if i'm going to keep with a romatic theme.
I will include photographs of the 20th century, especially the war era's.

The present will be photographs i've taken. Not sure whether i will keep a romantic feel for that due to having lived here i can't help but noticed that the area is run down and general opinion being that E&C needs a lot of money and work poured into it.

Future - will include plans/sketches for the regeneration. No idea what music will overlap that yet.

a different angle....

A nice new angle (for me anyway) of looking at E&C. Sunrise looking away and rest and stillness in E&C.

planning the intervention - a few idea's

After a short while browsing youtube.com, aimlessly searching for ... Well, anything really. It struck me that maybe a movie would be a good way to reach people en masse. Obviously promotion of the movie would be part of the intervention. Perhaps posters, postcards or simple flyers would do the trick. There are obvious pro's and con's to each of these...

posters - where would I stick them? Would they get ripped down? I'd also have to research whether or not I'd get a fine from some stroppy council worker for 'littering'. On the plus, it's an obvious way to promote the film. It's within easy reach. I like this idea generally because making a film and 'marketing' it is familiar to me having been involved with a couple of short films before.

Postcards/Flyers - Standing on the street shoving these things into people's hands probably won't be one of the most exciting afternoons I'll ever have in my life but again, it's a good way to reach people. However, if the recipients are anything like me they won't even look at it and will stick it in the nearest bin. So here's where the idea of postcards come in. We all like to receive postcards from foreign places, buy them to remember a visit or simply send them from exotic places to make people jealous. We tend to keep them for a while until we have a spring clean/feng shui attack/de-cluttering of various odd's and sod's that most people (if not all) are guilty of collecting. BUT, most of us do keep them. They are thicker/heavier than paper. I would psychanalyse why people tend to keep postcards than flyers but I'll leave that to the psychology students. I will admit that if this is the route I go down then there is a large chance that I will be proved wrong if indeed they end up in the bin after 5 paces.

I could even do a mixture of both, bribe some of those miserable looking people who hand out the free papers (I say 'hand' but really mean 'smack them in the face with it'), or even horror-of-horrors, stand for hours in the cold handing leaflets out or fly-posting myself.

But the movie idea is the most appealing to me. Putting it on youtube.com and promoting the address is a good way to (hopefully) get people talking or at the very least form an opinion on what is happening to the local area. My aim isn't to persuade anyone into an opinion (I'll leave that to Rupert Murdoch), but rather get them thinking. The viewers will hopefully start thinking and questioning, forming opinions themselves maybe even taking action. I'm not sure if I fufill the brief that way. To me it's more appealing to ignite a spark (so to speak) among people's minds. The dictionary definition of Intervention is to modify/hinder or settle, I'm not 100% sure I'm fufilling that particular term.

However, on youtube there is a way of leaving comments so hopefully I'll get at least one form of feedback. Obviously I can't make people comment but if I get at a minimum of one then at least I would have fufilled the brief in some shape or form.

example

a good example of an 'intervention'?

see for yourself....

http://www.geocities.com/londondestruction/elephant.html