I had a Dream

Just doodling, a large victorian guard house, maybe….. 

The Brandon Estate at Camberwell maybe some peoples idea of a Modernist Dystopia, for me it’s a case of poor social engineering (you know who you are) and construction techniques. Celebrated with a Henry Moore.

Or that at least how it feels


Normally I don’t comment on class crits, but this is an exception to the rule.
Why? Well sometimes one is overawed with wise and insightful advice and this was one of those occasions, for me at least.


As someone who loves Modernist/Constructionist art (though no expert, just get it) I have always been a bit suspicious of Post-modern art even though generally I like it. The point that I always struggle with is the allegory bit.
Connecting art with place, context, history etc. Surely must be better than the isolated modernist piece that relies on just being, were ever its placed.
I suppose ignorance always leads to suspicion (on my part ) so listening and taking extensive notes was a huge help to get somewhere to understanding this side of the art world.
I am very aware of the Emperors New clothes syndrome and like anybody else i don’t want to sucked in and mugged. I don’t want to be separate and exclusive from people, and the people we serve as designers/artists, otherwise its pointless and at worst vain.


Though the whole ‘space’ and ‘place’ difference is where its at for me, as jogging peoples memory or getting them to see a space as a place and thus valuing it, is the reason for our occupation….‘its about people…..stupid’. How we do it depends on all the other factors of context (but there are occasions were we create the context for others to follow, like the modernists) and in my opinion the God of context should be a small g.


On a personal note (like the above was somebody else’s opinion) the crit on my work was spot on and really didn’t think about the message being too simple and thus once solved (like a crossword puzzle in a daily paper) the piece would be ignored. So a bit more depth from my side of the gene pool, unlike the rest of my classmates who generally had thought through their work to a more in depth state with questions still to ask.


My conclusion its about the end user and their interaction on daily basis for my Car Park in the dullest of Suburbia.


As a sign off point the lecturers have a depth of knowledge that comes from actually creating such works with all the wrestling of justification and doubt that goes with the territory, as well as being well read. To be able to bounce back such wise words can only come from the deep pool of experience.