live project: fish island, hackney wick

As part of a live project to regenerate a terraced house in the cultural area of Hackney Wick, London,  thirty students from Oxford Brookes University spent four weeks designing, fabricating and building installations to accommodate a group of artists into the space.

My group focussed on designing the roof terrace, seating and transforming the adjacent interior space into a cafe area. We based our concept on the tea-making process; the ritual of picking ingredients, brewing, conversation, and story-telling.

The step in the process, of feeding out information, or exhaling, responded to the conditions on our site. A number of air conditioning units surrounded the perimeter of the terrace, which fed out waste energy from the building. We wanted to use this link between inside and outside, to form a spacial relationship between the spaces.

The solution we came up with was 'bubble' inflated by the waste heat coming through the air conditioning units, which houses the storytelling part of the ritual. Working backwards, mint plants and a steaming urn are placed outside the bubble, timber seating and a shoe rack are provided around the perimeter and inside, we hung a sea of space blankets to direct and feed people outside, or seat people in the landscape below, where we fed back the stories that were voiced within the bubble. A mural painted on the exterior wall accentuated the 'exhaling' and 'feeding' nature of our intervention.

post-pop: saatchi

Pop-art's one of those things that divides people's opinions; it was either an Art Revolution or Not Art At All. I choose to take the opinion that it's art if it moves me to react, physically closer to examine it, or emotionally engage. 

This weekend I popped into the Post-Pop exhibition, East Meets West, that is currently housed in the Saatchi Gallery. There were pieces which responded to the movement in humorous, imitative and elaborative ways, often taking the well-known art pieces of the Pop Art movement as the subject, and making a point about them.

There were some however, which stood out for being less obviously neo-pop.

Above, is the beautiful sepia-toned installation located in the centre of the exhibition spaces. Flags from countries around the world hang, creating hovering columns and an undulating ceilingscape. The beauty of the installation is the delicate way in which it is lit and hung, and moving closer, how it is put together. When a piece of art changes your understanding of your surroundings and makes you question your reality, it has made its impact. The artist, Wenda Gu, has used hair - human hair - bound with glue and burlap to create the fabric of each flag. An unusual and relatively gross medium, has been used to create something quite grand! There are many examples in nature where gross turns into glorious; that is what this installation made me contemplate.

East Meets West aims to communicate how Pop-Art developed so similarly in polar regions of the globe; most of the art on display was produced between Russia, China and the US. However, the point of an exhibition has never really mattered to anyone, it is what point you take home at the end of the day that does. To broaden your scope, to contemplate ideas, and develop thoughts is what culture does, and it affects each individual differently.

It was refreshing to visit, go and let me know what you thought! 

digital revolution

Currently exhibiting at the Barbican Centre, Digital Revolution is a visual and interactive display of the history of the developments of technology spanning the last forty-five years, as well as the now of how tech is being integrated into the fabric of our lives.

The exhibition follows the role of technology and its impact across creative disciplines, allowing users to play and interact with artwork, installations and old-fashioned computer games.

It most notably demonstrates that smart technology is no longer limited to machines; virtual experiences now take much more physical dimensions. Systems functioning in our architecture, music experiences, film and fashion, are just the beginning of advancements in these fields.

Whilst the rise of technology from its initial forms has been revolutionary, the rate at which it is developing has become rather steady and predictable. Perhaps it is the designer in me, but very little is surprising anymore. Or it might simply be that what was life-changing forty years ago is merely expected by our express-mode generation?

All in all, Digital Revolution is worth a visit to catch up with design trends and for a thorough and interesting history lesson. Just don't expect to feel like a part of a revolution that isn't.

A version of this article is included in the first issue of OSA, a student-run magazine for the Oxford Brookes School of Architecture.

drawn from life

Have you ever wished to live inside a painting?

As part of an ongoing project, I am exploring our perceptions of space in a reverse process to the conventional, by painting onto real objects to create the illusion of a flat drawing. In placing them back into their original surroundings, the resulting dialogue questions our ideas of reality.

Or so I hope. I have attempted to implement the graphical style of tattoos, and was inspired by the creative process of Alexa Meade, whose work is fascinating!

So, I leave you with the thought… if you could live in any painting, which one would you choose? Why?

serpentine pavilion 2013

On any spare evening this summer, head down through Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens, where you will discover this year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. It's always exciting to see what the new pavilion is like, and this year is no exception! 

A few friends and I gathered there to pass the evening and I noticed a vibrant atmosphere surrounding the place. Designed by Sou Fujimoto, the pavilion appears like a cloud floating above the grass; its appearance achieved through a composition of steel grids. Fujimoto, who cites organic structures as an inspiration, demonstrates here the fundamental principles of nature's design, whose geometrical patterns make up all organic things. The structure itself invites people to sit, climb and interact with it as well as one another. Its transparency causes it to become part of the landscape of the park, encouraging exploration and enchantment. It's worth checking out - it'll be around until late October!