Some of the team

The view from above

More photos - work in progress

Photos

Summary

A facilitated, collaborative workshop for Oxford Brookes University Fine Art and Architecture students to explore the question ‘Where is Culture located in a Sports facility?’


‘Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts’ – Naum Gabo

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Context

Artists & architects are increasingly being asked to make creative responses to the public realm, to make imaginative responses to old locations or new areas of developments. The language, discourse and work that results from both disciplines challenges not only creators but audiences and participants alike as it increasingly shifts between more traditional notions of the territory each discipline occupies. However, attend any design meeting with artists, architects, planners, landscape designers etc and the different nuances of professional remit or understanding soon become apparent and often challenging. Awareness of the pitfalls and creative pleasures to be gained through collaborative practice, through dialogue and skill sharing, are increasingly necessary to survive as a professional practitioner – whether artist or architect.
The public, as we walk through our daily lives are now not only part of communities, but we are also audiences and activators of site (willing or unwilling). Play areas and parks become open arenas for artists residencies and the latest in design solutions; offices become shared space with atriums, white walls and corporate art, Councils commission public art for libraries and town squares; hospitals turn into well-being galleries. Yet somehow, when we go for a swim at the local pool our closest connection to this being a location for or reference to something cultural shifts and usually only made evident in the ubiquitous tile work (whether traditional or contemporary) the painted mural (usually landscape/seascape) or frosted glass work adorning the entrance. Is this, the fountains, the piped music, the murals and the occasional temporary art
intervention, where our idea of Culture is located? These sites often try to mediate between cleanliness and function, pleasure and relaxation, and here physical and mental stamina and endurance occupy the same place as play and relaxation. In contrast, few of us participate in rowing, yet arguably proximity to water is not the main reason. Instead, the choices about our aquatic inclinations are informed by the cultural and class prejudices and perceptions inherent within our society and position therefore position certain sports activities exclusive rather than inclusive. As Architects and Artists we cannot operate in ignorance of these issues. How then might we re-imagine these sites?

Activity

In a team of ten students (five from each discipline) you form a new collaborative relationship to develop playful, spatial tool to engage the public in envisioning alternative swimming and rowing environments, as a direct response to the way the Olympics is being defined and delivered. Taking your cue from the ‘World Game’ pioneered by Buckminster Fuller, that allowed people to engaged physically and spatially to solve problems over the world’s finite resources, you are to co-design and co-construct your tool for installation in the Gipsy Lane quod.

Tiffany Black (BA Hons, MA) is an artist, lecturer in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University and public art consultant. She has commissioned art work for public buildings and a sports centre. She exhibits as part of the creative arts partnership brook & black; undertaking research, making and exhibiting in museums, galleries and public ‘open’ sites. She also teaches on the National Society for Education in Art and Design, Artist Teacher Scheme, Oxford Brookes University in conjunction with Modern Art Oxford.



Leora Brook, (BA, MA) is an associate lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts and at the American Intercontinental University, London. She has led educational workshops across London within several different institutions and community groups. The brook & black partnership brings together a combination of skills rooted in contemporary fine art practice; through the use of installation, sound, video, printmaking, photography and sculpture. brook & black explore the intervening and reconfiguring of interior and exterior spaces. Several core themes continue to be addressed in their work: the layering of human experience within structured or built space; memory and the passing of time; the fluidity and transformational aspects of water; the expressive and still surprising force of light and shadow.


Harriet Harriss (BA(Hons) MA(RCA) AA(Dip) RIBA) is a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University following an international career as an award-winning architect & designer specialising in innovation and public participation in the built environment, with additional expertise in sensitive and historical sites. In 2007, Harriet became an associate in a consortium consultancy that specialises in creating diverse teams that combine architectural thinking with strategy and process intelligence to deliver ‘design solutions’ to a variety of public, academic and commercial clients. Harriet is currently researching how architectural tropes and modus operandi can be transposed into other related disciplines and industries to develop innovative new commercial and social values.