Public Assembly » Object http://www.publicassembly.com.au Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:31:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Gowanbrae Survey http://www.publicassembly.com.au/object/gowanbrae-survey/ http://www.publicassembly.com.au/object/gowanbrae-survey/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:00:55 +0000 Lynda http://www.publicassembly.com.au/?p=214

GOWANBRAE SURVEY | INSTALLATION  FOR COMMUNITY CONSULTATION | MORELAND CITY COUNCIL | 2010


Long Survey


A project about sharing views, vision and local perspectives, Gowanbrae Survey was a site specific and participatory art installation developed for Moreland City Council. As part of the community consultation process for a permanent public artwork for the Gowanbrae Community Centre and park, the key objective was to encourage local connection to the project and to provide opportunities to gather stories that might influence the development of the brief which could be carried forward through the life of the project.


As a relatively recent housing subdivision within Moreland, Gowanbrae is a physically and socially secluded suburb, yet visually connected to a broader context due to its steep typography providing views to Moonee Ponds Creek, local railway bridge and Melbourne CBD.


survey walk


Gowanbrae Survey proposed to draw on these existing conditions and develop a series of telescopes or viewing devices that could act as creative platforms to prompt discussion with and about the Gowanbrae community: seeing in / out / within…


Placed in strategic locations during the one day community event and used as part of a walking procession through the site, these viewing devices ranged from professional surveying equipment (working with the language of subdivision / construction prevalent in the local area) to custom viewing devices assembled from a range of found objects – from mirrors, lenses and tripods to familiar domestic items.

device 2


While some viewing devices were designed for the individual to view through, others were developed for groups. Sight-lines ranged from the reflection of viewer’s eye to magnified views of other participants to views to neighbors and the surrounding suburban landscape beyond.


interaction 2


Feedback and ideas were captured via a paper ‘survey’ facilitated by Public Assembly and Cultural Value who had commissioned the project on behalf of Moreland City Council.

]]> http://www.publicassembly.com.au/object/gowanbrae-survey/feed/ 0 Camberwell Markets http://www.publicassembly.com.au/object/camberwell-markets/ http://www.publicassembly.com.au/object/camberwell-markets/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:20:38 +0000 Lynda http://www.publicassembly.com.au/?p=25 CAMBERWELL MARKETS | Maker + Conversation facilitator | Melbourne | 2008 – 2010

Camberwell

Making as play: Lynda Roberts and Ceri Hann in action.


Found objects from the Camberwell Markets are re-assembled in-situ to become wearable ‘subjects’ of conversation. Participants are welcome to create their own pieces, or wear a ‘ready made’ which can be purchased by donation.


This is an ongoing self-initiated project, inspired by weekly visits to the Rotary Sunday Market – a flea market located within a car park in suburban Camberwell. Running for over thirty years, the market has become an institution for anyone selling and/or looking for the strange, the bargain or the collectors item. It has also become a social hub for a diverse cross section of the community.


The market has provided a regular venue and context to collaborate with friend and colleague Ceri Hann – a Melbourne based sound and public arts practitioner. It also provided a constant in terms of location and conditions (with the exception of the weather), to source materials, make and draw on complimentary social processes already underway within the market, engaging with this community beyond being a fossicker.


While drawing on the notion of play / make in public spaces from other projects, this project has both reinforced my methodology in terms of sourcing and collating of raw materials, but also assisted in developing new methods in the creation of temporal environments where people could feel inspired to source and/ or make their own pieces. I found that the use of humour also goes a long way here – as does working with and subverting the familiar (like our shopping trolley studio).


Slide 1


The most influential aspect of this project was exploring the dynamic between the temporal and the constant. By working outside my area of making expertise and assembling wearables that would only last a few weeks, the project initially pushed against my architectural sensibilities of making an exquisite object and instead shifted the focus to simply exploring the way an object could embody an idea and mediate a conversation. This opened up a new understanding – devaluing the physical object and valuing instead the ephemeral event shared by maker / observer; seller / buyer.


The project provided an opportunity to work on a range of scales – from the assembly of small objects as if they were small 1:1 models to be worn on or near the body, to utilising the object as a mediator for conversation, to the establishment of a broader social network – pieces providing a mode of interconnection between wearers – moving far beyond the physical space of the marketplace. In this way, the ‘Public Assembly’ project became part of the community of temporal market stall holders while creating a new community of people wearing our jewellery pieces.


summary images


“My favourite stall is run by two artists called Public Assembly. They scour the market for objects that spark their imagination, then transform what they’ve found into the contents of their stall. There are no price tags: purchases are by donation. What happens here encapsulates the spirit of the market. There’s improvisation and trust, and the conjuring of marvels from other people’s junk.”


Michelle de Kretser. Odds and endings. The Age. Saturday August 29, 2009



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