THE CITY QUARTERED

My film for the 'Beyond The Digital Surface' exhibition, is an attempt to explore the nature of cities, in particular London, by using the idea of captured digital surfaces. In this project I have decided to take two elements and try to stitch them together to hint at the nature of my urban surroundings in London. The two elements I have chosen are, architectural structure, and architectural surface.

The structure I have used is from an old map of Seoul. This map indicates the very formal nature of a walled city, and exemplifies the relationship between structures of habitation, and mankind's desire to formalise his surroundings. Walled Seoul, has a set of strong features that I could use as a structure for the film. The city had four main gates, North, South, East and West. Each gate has its own properties such as colour and a mythical animal. Traversing the city is the river Han. It was the North, South, East and West aspects of the city that I decided to use as a structure for my film.

So I have a structure, the four gates of Seoul's walled past, and I have imposed on that structure the surfaces to be found in London. It is these surfaces that need re-inventing, to be presented in a manner that reflect the nature and re-purposing of physical structures in the 21st Century. I have filmed areas of London, Canary Wharf, Regents Park, the West End and structures that sit on the south side of the river to represent the four points of the compass. The areas I have chosen all have their own unique qualities in both Architecture and atmosphere.

The treatment for each area attempts to play with the contemporary transient nature of the meaning of buildings in London. The reuse of building types in London for other purposes then the original intention is happening more and more. As digital technology makes redundant the need for the traditional building types, vast areas can be re-purposed utilised and the original nature of areas gets mixed up with the contemporary purpose. No longer do the facades display the purpose of the building and so the surfaces have just become patterns that perhaps can be deconstructed and rebuilt to relate to a new medium in a new era.

RESEARCH OUTPUT
Exhibition Beyond The Digital Surface. 13th-23rd Oct. 2004 http://www.design505.com/ds/index_ds.htm

Beyond The Digital Surface ISBN 89-7300-588-x

Lecture University of Sunderland for Post Graduate Fine Art. Sept. 2005

Lecture Le Cube, Paris. June 2005
Live presentation Le Cube, Paris. June 2005 http://www.lesiteducube.com/site/breve.php?id=116


In conjunction with:
Matthias Kispert - wksound

MOVIES

North


The city quartered part 1 from Andrew Stiff on Vimeo.

South


The city quartered part 2 from Andrew Stiff on Vimeo.

East


The city quartered part 3 from Andrew Stiff on Vimeo.

West


The city quartered part 4 from Andrew Stiff on Vimeo.