Site visit
– Broadmeadows Town hall
Audit of
site – Day one – 16th December
Arrived at
the hall at 1:30. Great to have a key and have the hall to myself. Started in
the Supper Room. Really love the use of the word supper. Such an old room for
dinner and tea. Positions the history well along side toilets with titles
‘Gentlemen’ and ‘Ladies’. Started with a sound recording of the floor to gauge
potential. The room has been set up with tables for the Christmas party on
Friday. Interesting to see it with a full sweep of tables rather than the vast
emptiness of the other site visit. In a way it is now closer to its intended
use and will be interesting to experience full of people on Friday.
I placed
the sound contact microphones under legs of two tables spread apart and
experimented with walking around and feeling the surface of the boards near a
microphone. Getting close to this material and seeing the layers of wax, joins
in boards and grain in wood was important. Its at this point that I begin to
realise the vastness of the site and how once you are down to the macro how
many variants there are even in one surface or material. The sound on listening
back had an incredible boom with walking and captured my movement into the
distance. There is potential here once the space is emptied again to set up a
film/sound recording, possibly with the camera mounted above to capture
movement across the floor. Also I did a walk around and noticed how many
different sounds of creaks and clicks the floor makes which would be great to
mark out, document and possibly find a way to describe in words what each sound
suggests. Note – it would be great to shut the fridges at back off to allow
some silence and certainly the January visit needs to have a nigh time visit.
Next space
I explored was the main hall. Such a hard one to consider as it is currently used
as storage and this seems to disrupt its grandness. I spent some time on the
stage which I have been told will be removed and captured some really lovely
movement of the purple curtains. It reminds me of the Belfield project here as
the curtains appear alive like the movement of a ribcage. This realises the
hall has a gentle breath like motion which leads to considering the hall as
being alive. In a way its not hard to consider this with this movement and
other aspects.
Of the
moment - I just noticed now a kind of subtle tone which pre-empted the starting
of the fridges. Looking around here in the dark of the supper room the curtains
really have individual gestures and certainly this has come up before in the
spaces I have worked with.
Back to the
main hall. So I shot some portrait aspect videos of the movement of the
curtains which could be a really wonderful series of projects or displays. I
also shot, length way, the bottom of the curtain which also showed this breath
like movement but brought in the texture of the stage surface. Behind the
curtain was equally a wonderful investigation with films and images of the
transition between the curtain and stage with light perking under the curtain.
It kind of reminded me of a coast line at night with the darkness of sea and
land and the light of cities hugging the transition point.
Went for a
walk along the balcony and captured the old seating. Very basic vinyl seats.
Certainly nothing comfortable. The back rows, the underneath is quite worn and
torn with a kind of hessian or cotton fabric torn away to reveal plywood. Blue
vinyl, cotton fabric and plywood. There could be some wonderful possibilities
of utilising these rows of chairs connected together to create a dynamic
suspended work. Particularly if I can set the seat positions to accentuate
movement, twisting and turning.
The Supper
Room floor cut has to be a certain and either has an outcome for the permeant
work or is at least undertaken for my own purposes. Equally I feel there is
room to consider a stage cut behind the curtain that would be a great
documentation moment. The seats I can see as a possibility of a large suspended
work and the videos a and stills also have possibilities.
