Honours

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Tracking Detroit's Decay Through Google Street View

Though it's easy to crack jokes about Detroit's downfall from afar, it doesn't change the fact that there are very real people forced to look on as the place they call home slowly descends into decay. One of the most poignant depictions of this has come from none other than Google Maps.

This is very similar to what I was looking at within Aberdeen at the Burnside Centre.

Google street view's new 'Digital Timeline' feature allows you to look back through previous years and show a series of decay - where it happens.

I think this could make a really interesting series of gifs, or possibly be animated on top of in a rotoscoped style to show a slow burn of decay.]

For places more rural, which have been decayed for a long time, this probably isn't as relevant however I find it interesting all the same.

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The Raconteur

Finalising my print based on Rab and I have come across another piece of video involving him.

I really like this video as it shows a wee snippet of a farmers attitude to life. The hard work and working with methods that are almost a matter of habit. 

The audio isn't the clearest, however I love the snippets that you can pick up on. One doric word, or slur, is the reference to the sheep, the ewe, as a 'yow'. He also on a few occasions refers to the sheep as 'ma or 'mithir' which I thought was interesting. It reminds me of the sheep also called Ma from the film 'Babe', I wonder if there is a bigger story behind that?

At the end of the film Rab notes that he is the last person to shear manually in the area. Much like his mother was the last to speak the Deeside Gaelic, they both marked the life gone by of a different time. 

I think using this video as a little inspiration towards my textile can really hit home the historical reference of what Rab really stood for, even if he did not know it.

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Glen Gairn Folk

Turning my research to icons of the glens which now lay empty. This will hopefully form the basis of a pattern to be used as a textile print.

Rab Bain was born at Daldownie in Glen Gairn, which is now demolished. He then moved to Ardoch, in Crathie. He and his mother were known as 'The last of the Gairnsiders' with his mother being the last speaker of Deeside Gaelic.

This episode of Weirs Way catches a gimpse of how life on these hills was. It paints a sad picture of how bleak things became towards the end of life in Glen Gairn was.

It's people like these that I hope I can savour within my work.

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Landward: 2014/2015: Episode 3

This was a very interesting watch from last weeks episode of Landward.

After doing a lot of research into the people of the Cabrach last year I never came across any information about the loss of men to war in the area. However it makes perfect sense as to why there was such a huge decrease in the population. 

It would be interesting to see how much war has affected other areas locally, however as described in this episode - the Cabrach is a living war memorial and the biggest in Europe at that,

Really quite sad.

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Derek and His Shells

Derek and His Shells from pH Level Studio on Vimeo.

This is such a fabulous piece of video and animation which I first saw as a Channel 4 Random Acts piece last year.

I'm thinking as I have looked at so many video references I might as well try and experiment with it, even if it's just to say that I have done it. 

I really enjoyed rotoscoping on a project in third year and would love to give it a go again and combine it with footage of builidings and their surroundings.

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Glen Girnock Research

Re discovered a blog which I first looked at at the start of this year today. I also realised it is a much more valuable source than I originally thought it was, and I don't think I have realised how much information it holds yet!

Hole Ousia is a blog written by Peter Gordon which contains a mass of information about the north east, very much historical and is by no means light reading. This is currently my main source of information whilst I am currently researching the Glen Girnock area.

Linked to this blog is Peters Vimeo account which contains an array of different videos covering a range of subjects. I particularly like the use of mixed sources of audio, including narration by himself and the overlay of different maps, illustrations and personal photographs in them.

Discretions and absences from omphalos on Vimeo.

This video about St Peters Seminary really captures something interesting about it's abandoned state that is on a completely different thread to urban exploration.

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Same sort of conceptual imagery applied to a very different different idea symbolising links between imagery rather than framing and highlighting.

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Having some major issues with corrupting files.

As before but as it should be. A concept on re-framing how we value and experience the outdoors and the world around us.

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Get out of the box. 

Re-working some photographs from my hill walk the other weekend, I like this concept of framing the outdoors and redefining the importance of experiencing it.

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Youtube Explores

Something I have taken to watching a lot of recently are peoples videos of explores on youtube. It was brought to my attention when I discovered the videos which have been created by the Abandoned Scotland network, I really enjoyed their commentary reports. 

With such a vast amount of photo documentation of these buildings on the internet it is easy to become quickly saturated by lots of similar images of the same places. To listen to someone talk about their experience is much different and accompanied by video you become part of the explore.

Youtube member 'TikiTrex' is by far my favourite contributor to this realm of urban exploration. Based in Canada she provides commentary for almost all her videos as she visits some amazing places, she seems to do her homework and knows a lot about the history of many places she visits.

I particularly like how she choses to name the buildings which she explores, always being very particular not to disclose the location of the building. 

This type of documentation really allows people to experience places around the world which they wouldn't otherwise be able to. This could be something which I could experiment with, I'm not aware of anybody locally who shoots video. 

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Screen capture video of the Burnside Centre in Aberdeen, which went on fire last night. Interesting how on one part of the road it is derelict and on another part it isn't. I wonder how many other places like this there are on google maps.

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Messing about with linear bitmap halftone effect. Reminds me of newsprint.

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Detropia

Detropia was filmed in 2012 and documents the decline of the economy and car industry in Detroit. 

It really focusses on the sense of community and how it is affected by what is happening in the area. Dereliction is not really central to this film, however I  was interested by 'Crystal Starr' who plays a big role in the documentary. 

She has a lot of interesting points about some of the abandoned buildings which I can relate to. I have tried to search for her blog (she is introduced as a video blogger in the film) but haven't had much luck. Such as feeling something which is almost as if you lived a past life and experienced these buildings in a different time (sounds a bit corny)

There are many different and important issues brought up by this film, not all relevant to me but it did bring up how these buildings are so accessible, even in the derelict state they are in. I think this is something which I could address within part of my project.

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Urban Explorers: Into The Darkness

An interesting documentary about 'Urbex' as a hobby. This is relevant to both my main project and my smaller side project on exploring the activity of Urbex and the different types of people that are involved within it. 

I liked this film a lot and seems to be one of a kind, really going into detail about the people as well as what they do. I liked hearing about all sorts of their personal life and how important exploring was to them - particularly 'Slim Jim", he was a bit of an interesting character.

Felt I could relate to some of the people in the film, little things which interest them about places or fascinations about the past. Other things I did think were more classically stereotypical of people who explore, such as referring to taking nudes and referring to each other by their internet names even when they know each others real names.

It was interesting to see how there is a dynamic community which spans globally for this hobby, that also still seems quite close. I feel encouraged to try and become a part of a community which really interests me, I have been really put off up until now.

There are definitely many wee elements mentioned in this film which I would like to carry forward either to illustrate types of people or to visualise values and motivations that explorers have.

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Trying to do as many tutorials as possible to try and boost my knowledge. Nothing worse than an empty brain.

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Pentax, part of a personal film camera catalogue I'm working on. Work in progress.