I attended a lecture that was given for our site-specific project, which gave us the names of some projects and artists that might be of interest to us and/or provide inspiration for our projects. Here are my notes from this lecture:
250MC – Site Specific Lecture
On This Site:
- Anchors history to a site/place
- Uses text to describe the event that took place
- Images very reliant on text
Terry Kurgan – Park
- Photographers have specific area they can photograph
- Takes image of photographer in their specific zone etc
Donovan Wyle – Maze 2009
- Northern Ireland prison fro freedom fighters/terrorists
- All prison rooms/exteriors photographed the same way
- Magnum Photographer
- nominated for city bank prize
Peter Fraser – City In The Mind 2008-2012
- Poetic response to the city
- (invisible Cities) book inspiration – Fictional conversation with Marco Polo by Italo Calvino
- Emotional response of a city
- ‘Porthole to another world’
Suky Best – The Return of the Native
- Native animals dying out
- Wanted to reintroduce native speciies to the environment digitally
- Info given about the species
- Most of the work done around Battersea Park
- Also shot in the fens
- Each species specific to the geometry
Maciej Dakowicz – Cardiff After Dark
- wanted to photograph destructive nature of British night scene
- Showing range of emotions
- A regular occurrence
- Shot digitally with available light
- ‘Intense Documentary’
- British Drinking Culter not at its best
Patrick Shanahan – Esperantis
- Private landscape work
- Photographed in an ‘uncanny’ way
- Move away from tourism
- Make the familiar unfamiliar
- All taken along the coast of portugal and spain
- Shows differences and similarities
- Post Topographical
- Makes the real look surreal
Melanie Manchot – Stories From Russia 2004
- Shot in famous historical sites in Russia
- Illegal to take images in public sites?
- Convinced locals to pose for her photographs
- performance Portraiture
- Interacting with the landscape rather than observing it
Corrine Silva – Imported Landscapes 2010
- Geography of North Africa and Southern Spain
- Documents the changes in the economics of the countries
- Photographed new developments in north Africa, photographed onto billboards in Southern Spain
- How do you relate to your space?
Susan Hiller – From the Freud Museum 1991-1996
- Intervenes in a site and makes you think about the contents of a site
- Rethinks how you think of the space
- Anthology of 50 objects
- Loosely related to believe systems
- Mixed cultural symbols with others
- Displayed as a museum piece
DUBLIN PHOTO FESIVAL
Tristan Hutchinson – It Took Strength to Tackle Those Hills 2010-2012
- Scrutinises the reality of being in a poor town at uncertain times
- shows a different image of Northern Ireland
- Focuses on the impact of the recession
- Damp/dark/bland images
- ‘End of the earth’ style images
Jeanette Lowe – The Flats Memories Perceptions Relities
- Shows council blocks
- Photographs the inhabitants of the sites
- Displays the images in the areas they live
Susanne Bosch – Ourselves Alone
- Photographs homogenous nature of cities
- Took out things that are specific to the city
- Iconic symbols removed etc
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller – Site Specific Walks video
- Revisits sites to examine routines of the public
- Learns the activities in certain areas
- Reproduced in video
- Viewers follow pre-recorded video in specific locations
- Examinies similarities in the locations
- cardiffmiller.com – Alter Bahnhot Video Walk
HOUSE – Ongoing collaboration between 3 artists and 6 artists in London
- housemcdonaldwatson
- Makes audience uncomfortable in a specific place
Sophie Calle –
- Wanted to create a piece of work to re-integrate with Paris after a long stay away
- Put herself in place of the members of the public
- Followed people around their lives
- ‘No artistic aim’
- Followed one man from Paris to Viennna
- Taking the same photos as he took
- Photographed ‘Their Mutual Journey’
- Observed people’s rituals
- Became obsessed with this man
Taryn Simon – An American Index of Hidden and Unfamiliar – 2007
- Visually represents people’s common problems
- Very academic
- Researches specific sites before/after photographing
Questions answers:
- Work must be fit for purpose of what you’re exploring
- Amount of images varying depending on how it’s presented
- Work will be presented in a group of 10 people
- What brought you to make the work?
- The journey taken?
- Medium is open
- Must be linked to one space
Steve Hird Photography 