Photographic cultures

2006-12-13T02:14:00.000-08:00

2006-12-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

Design of the E&C shopping centre from the 60's

2006-11-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

2006-11-28T04:53:00.000-08:00

Today,myself and Alana have both decided on doing a poster which is going to target the shopping centre.One of our aims is to inform the local shoppers/residents of how the regeneration scheme has been going through out the years.By displaying visually plans of the regenaration scheme from the 60's and images taken from todays time,combining it with the survey of the views on E&C shopping centre, it should present a clear meaning that E&C shopping centre has been stuck in time, as also has been only planed to be regenerated but nothing since the 60's has ever been done about the major transformation.

2006-11-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

Both myself and Alana have taken images of the outside shopping centre which didn't cause a problem,however,once we both were approaching the upper side of the mall,we were asked and stopped by security of the shopping centre if we had permission for taking photographs.We then had to speak to the manager of the centre for permission which was granted for both of us.

2006-11-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

My final idea lies in is displaying the Elephant&Castle shopping centre.It is one of the main 'attractions' or the most used building by local residents for shopping.I wanted to explore what opinions and thoughts the local residents have on the plans of the near future for the E&C shopping centre.I and my classmate Alana have both decided to do a survey on th shopping centre.One of our aims was to ask questions on how it made the shoppers/residents feel on the whole concept of the reinvention.We both tried to ask straight forward questions which would give us honest and straight forward answers.

Here are some of the surveys on how the shoppers/residents have answered on the E&C shopping centre.

These are some of the survey's which have very strong points on how the E&C shopping centre makes the local shoppers/residents feel.Reading through all of the information we have gained,it is clearly noticeable that residents/shoppers are not happy at all with the progress of the transformation taking place.Some of the people we have stopped have said that they lived in the area of E&C all their lives and it was said that the shopping centre used to look better 20years ago than now in the year 2006.It was good to know that the minority of the residents/shoppers did not know about the regeneration programme in the near future.I personally think that it's not shocking or surprising to hear that as not many posters or leaflets are being given out as one of the key issues here is the lack of information being published to the public which is a vital element,as it would help the residents/shoppers understand the whole regeneration programme more clearly.

continuation of research...

2006-10-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

One of the issues described in the above article 26/06/03 was that traders from the E&C shopping centre feared of loosing their jobs,businesses and money all because of the regeneration programme.On one side it seems that it would bring the area and mainly the shopping centre to a new start which would allow other businesses to grow and expand,however this would affect the businesses which are trading today in the E&C shopping centre.Because of this traders fear of the regeneration programme.
This article 08/1990, describes the area and shopping centre as a 'safe,clean,pleasant, and lively, the Elephant is a different animal these days'.It is filled with positive comments on how the shopping centre stands out,and provides local residents with 'high street stores and small retailers'.

As my main target of this assignment is the E&C shopping centre,i decided to do some research on how it all began and how it all came together over the years.One of the resources which was very useful was the Southwark local studies/history library in 211 Borough High st.It provided me with vital information such as old cut out's of newspapers dating from the 1950's which state all the plans for the construction of the shopping centre.

In today's class 17/10/06, i have decided to work wth one of my class mates Alana, as we both have noticed that we want to approach similar topics of this assignment.We have both discussed and brainstormed what kind of approach we will take in order to gain some kind of feedback from the people of elephant&castle in relation to the assignment of intervention.
One of the ideas is to produce posters which contain the images of parts of E&C area,and include bubble speech marks with questions issuing the improvement of the area.The areas we have thought of targeting are mainy the shopping mall,the market,E&C tube and also the litter problem.We then want to place the posters onto bus stops and shopping centre walls,which will hopefully grab the passers by attention and get the result of getting feedback on how the residents think and feel of the area.
We have also discussed of how we can get audio feedback from the residents,one of them is to interview people on the street,or in the shopping mall, which will provide us with audio information.

Space,borders,territories-conceptual tool kit for spatial photography

2006-10-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

[Continuation] researching:

Docklands Community Poster Project 1981-1991
http://www.cspace.org.uk/cspace/archive/docklands/dock_arch.htm

An insite into how planning has been made in order to change and improve Docklands area.

'This land, now known as the London Docklands, not only incorporated docks and warehouses, but was also home and workplace to 56,000 people. Historically, up to this time the communities of East London had been poor but politically active. They were not against development, they just wanted it to also meet their own needs. A struggle ensued...'

Photographic practice as public service and concrete intervention

2006-10-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Describing the situationist methods of derive (drifting) and distinguishing it from the classical notions of the journey and the stroll.

Situationism- the theory that human behaviour is determined by surrounding circumstances rather than by personal qualities.
dérive [literally: 'drifting'], a technique of transient passage through varied places.

"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. The element of chance is less determinant than one might think: from the dérive point of view cities have a psychogeographical relief, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes which strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones".Guy Debord,1958.

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/~pss1su/lecturenotes/documents/derive.html

Walking in the City examines the work of Valerie Tevere, Alex Villar, Simon Leung, and Kim Soo-ja and highlights the way they engage with the historic strategies of resisting and negotiating regulated space developed by Valie Export, Yayoi Kusama, Adrian Piper and David Wojnarowicz.

"Walking" is an ordinary but transformative way of using space, for which we might substitute any number of other spatial practices'.
http://www.apexart.org/exhibitions/dawseybrookhart.htm

Situationism:walking and the city as an urban drift

2006-10-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

One of the 1st assignments which i have produced for this unit, deals with the concept of drifting in the city.What does drifting mean?my own personal interpretation of drifting is that i see it as a way of exploring different and never before seen areas and places of a certain city or borough.

The idea for this unit is that to 'drift', in other words walk to places where you have never been to and don't try to plan ahead of where you want to go,was to drift in the area of Elephant&Castle. My main area of E&C which i have never seen before has struck me as it is visibly clear to see that there are areas which have to be placed into improvement.One of the images which i have taken is of the old blocks in E&C, on one side you can see that it has lots of residents living there, and on the other side of the blocks you can see that many of the residents have small black satellite dishes next to their windows,which i myself found quite humorous.As i walked around the area i saw that many of the blocks and houses are run down,which need big improvement.

Week one-Photogaphic cultures

2006-09-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

A very interesting unit which mainly explores how photography can be used as a bridge,between the public history of a place and the urban future of the city using utopian services and scenarios.what are the ways in which Elephant&Castle users can be rescued from the
urban troubles it is facing now?

2006-09-26T07:40:00.000-07:00