Scrap Yard

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Documented by Ian Taylor

Video of the class trip to the scrap yard and my trip to Hardwicks General Store
I invite you to comment on your experience of the scrap yard. Click the comments
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Echo Sonar Receiver: Mike Klassen

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The work of Mike Klassen
The senses that mike is focusing on are sound, vision and touch. The echo is related to sound and the birch bark imprints are related to pressure and touch. Mike has found numerous hallowed-out birch trunks at his site in Hillside Beach and has spent some time playing with those – putting the video camera in them – putting mic’s in them etc..

This last week mike has been looking at developing an echosonar receiver that you would wear over your head, it would be used to ‘probe’ the environment and the different openings would transmit and receive sound, light and allow you to view out into the landscape. This receiver would be made of birch bark. He is also looking at developing a series of spectrograms from the birch bark imprints- which will form a joint time-frequency display of signals. These spectrograms will form an input for a portion of the digital installation to follow.

concept 3: Ian Taylor

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Posted by Ian Taylor

The work of Ian Taylor
Trying to get the technical aspects of the studio working to produce an analog installation that represents my thinking has been challenging for myself and other students I have talked to thus far. Many of my ideas have remained conceptual. I have been using simple technologies such as: small solar units, watch batteries, LED's and duct tape to trigger my installation work.

There are several natural processes that I have wanted to represent in the Seattle landscape. It has been my intention to find a natural process that is fluid, one that could be applied to the Hillside Beach site as well.

My latest concept uses the metaphor of the vine competing to reach sunlight within the Capitol Hill Ravine. Competition for sunlight is a ubiquitous natural process, despite different vegetations and rates of succession.

In Seattle, vines aggressively searches for sunlight. The process goes unseen to the viewer. By using solar power to transfer the suns energy, white helium balloons will be slowly released into the atmosphere on white strings to represent the vine's competition for sunlight. I am still in the process of realizing the analog and digital representations. I hope to have a mock up of the installation by late week 3.

Nano-Second Microscopic Phenomenon: Sun

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Documented by Ian Taylor

The Work of Sun Wei Ching
Inspired by the flotsam and jetsam of the Hillside Beach lake front, Sun is working with the foamy traces of the lakes' movement as a metaphor for her installation. The ephemeral qualities of the phenomenon are abstracted to generate form. She is presently working through several prototypes to try to learn more about the movement on site.

Capitol Hill Ravine: Ian Taylor

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Posted by Ian Taylor

The Capitol Hill Ravine is a Seattle city park located on the eastern edge of the Interstate-5 freeway. It serves as a green buffer against noise and air pollution from the freeway. It is an isolated environment in the urban landscape, a refuge for wildlife and a home for the homeless. The above is a short video of the site.

Revealing application: Mike Klassen

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Posted by Ian Taylor
The work of Mike Klassen

Mike has been interested in using the metaphore of the echo as a natural process that exists in the Hillside Beach aspen forest landscape. Documentation of his site explorations through the thick under brush has revealed his interest in forests flux, the expantion and recession of the natural landscape. What I have found interesting in Mike's process is his comments on navigating the thick forest by tactile way finding. Using vegetation type and the feel of the leaves, branches and bark to orient oneself in a disorienting landscape.

concept2: Ian Taylor

The sound of erosion

The work of Ian Taylor: Studio_6

Erosion is the wearing away of the earth’s surface. It can happen quickly, in the case of a landslide, or it can happen slowly over time.

The point of this studio is to reveal hidden potentials and natural processes that are all too often hidden from our phenomenological understanding of landscape. The intervention should reveal that which is otherwise concealed.

This installation cross-pollinates the perception of time and place with the sense of sound. The installation is intended to reveal what erosion could sound like. The site, a 150 foot deep ravine in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle, Washington, is an isolated environment within the urban landscape. The ravine is a city park that hosts any number of homeless campers. The traces of their existence are found throughout the 5 acre greenbelt. Blankets, jackets, shoes and beer cans are littered around the site and seem to be as naturalised as the vegetation, birds and earth. In the distance, the sound of the I-5 freeway and the industrial lakefront interrupts the otherwise peaceful ambience of the isolated ecosystem.

The restrained sound of the earth’s movement cannot be revealed in real time, but like holding a sea-shell to your ear your perception of time and place can be altered to expose something that is not normally heard.

I am presently working through the process of refining the analog installation into something that will work. Time is the most challenging element in the equation thus far. I am also trying to tie the installation to the vernacular of the site. The beer can speaker is a humorous way of drawing attention to the users of the space; however, the thought of someone listening to a beer can to hear the earth may be a little perverse.

concept1: Ian Taylor

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In a dense North American city like Seattle, where the urban landscape has been divided by a massive freeway system, there are many residual spaces. These are the abandoned, forgotten or overlooked areas of the metropolitan landscape. Only a few residual spaces are effectively used, most are simply left to grow over.

This analog installation uses the intensity of freeway vibration to generate energy that triggers a row of flood lights that illuminate the space below. The lights swing according to the intensity of the vibrations, visually representing the intensity of vibration that normally go unseen.

week1

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The above video is a brief
recap of week1 using work
submitted by members of the studio.

Site Visit May 10, 2007

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First site visit at Hillside Beach.
Documented by: Ian Taylor