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A simple post of another developing idea.

Barriers to Play

I think that I mentioned in an earlier post that I was intending to abandon my original third project Modern Society, which used the process of blackening things out to focus attention, in a slightly threatening way, objects which are keeping us from engaging with Land.  One reason for abandoning this extra project was that it wasn’t quite going in the direction of my other two projects and so I was struggling to keep it connected to them.  However, what I am considering is whether I can utilise this process within Project 1: Lost.  When I was walking around my old estate I came across several examples whereby society had placed barriers in the way of areas where I once used to play and engage with Land.  It was only from my memory of these places that I was able to identify them as barriers, as they often come across today as natural features within an urban landscape.  I therefore realised that it would be difficult to identify such objects within a modern society if I didn’t have my memory to recall, hence the need to use my old estate as the focus of such observations.

Here are a few images that I am playing with which might be featured within the project Lost, if I can find a suitable way of incorporating them into the wider project:

  

  

Lost: thoughts on presentation

I have started to give some thought to how I might want to present the project Lost when I eventually get to that stage.  With this in mind I present the following six photos taken on a walk around the estate I grew up in.  On the surface they may not seem particularly special or interesting but as a metaphor for who I am today based on where I came from then they are pretty accurate.  As the audience you may want something more for them to entice you to look and think further, but I only want to share what you see on the surface, so for now that is all you get!

 

 

 

 

Lost and Found

As I am getting back into things I have been looking through photos I made for my projects before I took a break and have been looking for interesting connections between them.  These two images below then came to mind which I think help to summarise an important distinction between my two main project: Lost and Found.

Lost Land

This image below signifies the type of concern I had for Land when I was a child, which is now lost – a land of hidden dens and play.

Found Land

This following image signifies the type of concern I now have for Land – a found sensibility for the conservation of Land.

1st draft Book Layout for Lost

At the moment I am intending that Project 1: Lost will be in the form of a book.  It seems the natural format for the sequential nature of a journey – the one around my old estate.  I am also thinking that this would be accompanied by 6-8 large prints which would allow the viewer to get a sense of the place but then they would need to review the book to get a deeper insight to my intentions from the project.  More of that later, but for now I am playing with the images I made the other week to see what the project is starting to feel like, and the impact of juxtaposing some of the images.

I prepared a first draft layout for the book last week but have left it a week or so before coming back to it with fresh eyes.  The following images show the proposed layout of the first draft with comments added today to reflect my thoughts on how I might change it for the next draft:

A long way to still go but this at least shows the beginning of my journey.  I am also hoping that this becomes a much thicker book that just those included above but we will see how things grow.

Lost Areas of Play

At the end of last week I managed to travel down to the old estate where I grew up to take some photographs for Project 1 Lost.  When I begin to pull this project together I know that I will be challenged to not be too illustrative about what each photo means to me (leaving the viewer space to interpret them as they wish), and so, I have decided to reflect on some of them here in my blog to help me internalize their relevance and significance.  Two things struck me when I began this journey around the estate.  The first was how much shorter the journey was than I had expected – everything seemed much closer together than when I was a child.  The second thing, which is what I want to explain further in this post, was how the controlling influence of adult society seems to have banished most of the areas I knew as play areas – they are now either built upon, fenced off, or left to overgrow.

Here are some of the images I took which may, or may not, find their way into the main Project 1.

My memory is the unquestionable truth, whether factually correct or not.

(note: image first and then description)

At the bottom of this hill there used to be a playground style roundabout, all evidence of which has now disappeared – admittedly the wooden structure used to be set on fire every year or two.  The small banking was great for sledging in the winter but trees are now planted all along it to obstruct this fun.  Only this single muddy track survives as evidence of childhood play – who else would come down here?

The building on the left used to house the management of the pitch and putt course, which now seems to have been relegated to the shed on the right.  This was the only thing of play that we had to pay for, everything else we did was free.

At weekends and holidays we used to go onto these school playing fields to play football in winter and cricket in summer.  Entry is now strictly forbidden.

This used to be my journey to school.  For me, these fences symbolize adult control over children, both keeping them in and keeping them out.  For those who are interested, the school has recently been made famous in the TV documentary ‘Educating Yorkshire’.

I gave an ironic smile when I took this photo.  It is a space surrounded by bungalows for over 60’s residents and yet this sign was deemed necessary just in case they thought about playing ball games, or even cycling, on this very small patch of grass – really!

Now, this image really annoyed me.  The house with the gable end facing was where my best friend lived, and the house extension to its left is built on land where we spent many a hour kicking a football around.  It was an important space for us as we grew up but is now lost for future generations of kids.  And then there is the sign across the road.  This patch was never suitable for playing ball games on so why the need for the sign.  The dry patch of ground is probably where some one deems it acceptable to park a vehicle on which is, of course, more important than play.

This used to be the entrance to a small block of garages, which has now been gated off.  We used to play chase around the sides of these garages not realising that their asbestos construction might be a problem.

I liked the construct of this image, with the solitary and manicured bush.  From my memory, this patch of land was full of bushes and a great place to make dens.

And finally, for now, this is an area some might call ‘edgelands’, but is more locally called the ‘Tops’.  It is where the land falls away sharply from the built up housing estate above.  It was a great place as a child to explore and play, whilst still within shouting distance of home.  We might come home all muddied up, sometimes with cuts and bruises, but we never felt threatened, even though we did once have to report a flasher for exposing himself to us.