Joanna Crotch, Robert Mantho Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glaskow. UK 187
‘MTV’ generation, where all ‘essential’ information is perceived to be communicated
via the TV/computer.
The students were required to revisit their chosen activity and carefully study the
specific movements and spatial relationships created by the movement, and consid-
ering their previous work and the new understandings derived from it. The students
were then required to construct a filmic document based on their observations and
new insights. Any mode of recording was deemed acceptable, and editing and design
of the piece was required. As students became more familiar with the movie making
and editing programmes the filmic information became more controlled and edited,
with a number film produced of a very high level, with layering of information and
sound/music enhancing the record of the activity, thus contributing to and deepen-
ing the visual language.
As with the previous exercise, the students were required to construct a series of
plans and sections through the created ‘movie’. This component although relying on
their previous knowledge of the conventions of plan and section, required a lateral
approach as to how one constructs a perceived static construct to represent a mov-
ing image. Again consternation reigned. As with the cubist work, the students were
encouraged to establish a set of rules to aid the construction of these drawings.
With these rules in place, students became less anxious. As their confidence grew
and they became more comfortable with the task, curious and provocative spatial
relationships began to emerge.
The Film Space example represents one student’s movie and the plans and sections
that were generated from his Film Space. The student’s chosen activity was ‘Museum
Going’ and the film took the observer on a journey around Kelvingrove Art Gallery
in Glasgow. Continued observations of the activity were made, firmly grounded in
the cubist study. The route was carefully planed so as to move both horizontally and
vertically and to capture special moments during the visit.
An SLR camera on rapid shoot mode was used, and then timing was adapted
through power point to one shot/sec. The result was a rapid fly through this beautiful
late Victorian Glasgow Institution. The student then had the challenge of represent-
ing this moving image in a static form and also generating plan and section from
the film.
Figure 5 and 6 illustrate the final outcome. Static images from the movie were
selected. The particular shots were selected on the basis of significant moments in the
film i.e. change in direction, specific views etc., and spacing of these was dictated
by actual time within the movie.
The ‘journey line’ is an abstraction of the journey taken, and represents the route
in a linear format; recording vertical movement and change in direction. The physical
dimension on plan determined the scale of the line.
Fig. 5
Michael Fedak, 2007