AOP Landscapes Competition : Boundaries

The southern-most limit of Swindon's development, marked by the garden-style wooden fence at Wichelstowe. Click on the image for a closer look.

On a map, plan, or diagram, the border of properties, jurisdictions, and contracts are defined with confident lines, filled with certainty.

Capturing these lines, the exact point where one thing ends and another begins, through photographs, creates a tension and uncertainty.

Blackhorse Way runs out of road and dissolves into the fields of Wichelstowe. Click on the image for a closer look.

Taken at the current northern and southern limits of development in Swindon, these images show the purgatory where boundaries exist within the landscape, contrasting with our expectations and plans.

More images from this project can be seen on Flickr, click here.

Advertising Applications : Artsite Campaign

The dramatic lighting from the National Trust building does most of the work for us! Click on the image for a closer look. 

Art and access to art are not 'added extras' in life and should have the same importance placed upon them as essential services for a society.

So how do you change the perception of art as an 'added extra' and for a niche of people?

In a localised advertising campaign that uses the locations as much as the artwork themselves to challenge preconceptions and ask questions, that's how!

As part of the Advertising Applications unit fellow student Ed Howell and I took an advertising campaign for the Artsite Post Modern Gallery from conception through to execution, and all points in between.

The mixture of light and textures at Wharf Green suits The Green Man sculpture. Click on the image for a closer look.

Initial ideas highlighted the theme of hidden art in Swindon, that locally much goes on, but above the surface some people may struggle to realise the scale and depth of activities.

In short, we wanted to show how art in Swindon is on your doorstep - by putting it there.

For the full set of images from the campaign, click on the link to the right, or here..

Links

Artsite Post Modern Gallery : http://artsite.ltd.uk/

Ed Howell : http://edwardhowellphotography.wordpress.com/

Heathrow's Hidden High-Flying Artwork

I took the time last week to find the carefully hidden public artwork at London Heathrow's Terminal 5.

Between the multi-storey carpark and terminal building are a set of interconnected courtyards. Peaceful public spaces, planted with Plane Trees and up lighters, they make a nice contrast to the mass of passengers in the terminal building. At either end of the courtyards there are complimenting pieces of artwork, two walls, each with a semicircle of three letter airport codes of places served by flights from Terminal 5.

The North end wall was the most impressive (though it does not light up like it's southern neighbour), the black marble gave a great reflection in the afternoon light of the terminal building.

Richard Rogers-designed terminal has many design elements from an earlier building of his, the Millennium Dome. I took some film pictures of these and of the vast public space inside. More of that to come when they're developed!

If you've a little time at Terminal 5, take a walk outside to the quiet courtyards, you'll be impressed by this public airport art.

Curves, Vertigo & Wind Chill (And Wembley)

The shape of the paving, starting to resemble the drawings in the site office, as seen from 12-storeys up (click on the images for a closer look).

Looking over a wall isn't normally encouraged, especially so when the wall has a 12-storey drop over the other side of it!

Today saw a second visit to the roof of Swindon Railway Station's Signal Point building, continuing the Swindon Rail Station project.

Graham and Dan from Britannia (the contractor for the work) also came up for a look. Just before, in the site office, they showed the highly-detailed plan for the paving on the forecourt. Areas of different paving are separated by intersecting, curved lines (inspired by the gradual curved map lines of the Great Western Railway).

At ground level, the paving, curves and yet-to-be-filled plots of ground looks like a headache-inducing jigsaw puzzle, but through a handheld device (it was yellow and looked like one of those electronic signing devices when a parcel's delivered), the exact places are plotted and followed to the designer's letter.

Zooming in, the smooth curves and shapes of the design can be seen and understood, giving a flavour of what the finished forecourt will look like (click on the image for a closer look).

From the roof, seeing the initial area of paving being worked on gave a great sense of what the finished work will look like and the style of the whole works.

We're planning to do weekly roof-top visits to give a better step-by-step sense of the work from this great bird's eye view.

And finally...

The County Ground, recovering after last night's pitch invasion and win, next stop Wembley, now, wouldn't that be something to photograph...! (Click on the image for a closer look)

Let's Take The Stairs

Ed Howell taking in the view.

Getting a perspective on things often means stepping back from them.

Or in some cases, stepping higher, a lot higher!

As part of the project with Forward Swindon on documenting the Swindon Rail Station Forecourt work, Ed Howell and I were able to photograph from the roof of Swindon railway station today.

Looking South towards the town centre, with the silver David Murray John building dominating the scene. The blue glass building is the Western Regional offices of Network Rail and the lower white buildings in the foreground are the UK offices of Zurich Financial Services.

The 12-storey building, called Signal Point is the second highest building in Swindon after the David Murray John building at the heart of the Brunel Shopping Centre.

And the view, even on a blustery, cloudy day, was fascinating!

Looking down to the station forecourt, with Britannia Construction contractors at work on the new pedestrian plaza.

Over to the North side, with a First Great Western Westbound train arriving.

Eggs, Boats & Mashers, Oh My!

Today I've been working on product photography, pack-shots of 'a to m' in the form of kitchen utensils, here's a couple of examples :

Lights, Camera, Artwork!

The view from the corner of College Street and Regent Street.

The newest pieces of public sculpture in Swindon town centre since the fountain have been installed over the last few months and both are now illuminated.

Here's a quick impromptu picture of the College Street Gateway sculpture in all it's glory this evening, along with the pavement lighting which has recently been switched on.

Art often has to be bold and big to make an impact. Most people see the pieces during the day, but they come into their own during the evening when darkness falls.