Victoria Gardnes, The Headrow,

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1/10/12-8/12/12

Visit 1

01/10/12

Site-specific project based at Victoria Gardens, directly situated out-side Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds City Centre. Having spent 3 months in total documenting the site through the use of video, photography, sound and note taking. The final series of images have been formulated through creating stills from the video footage and putting them into a contact sheets to give the im-ages a documentary feel.

The first visit was on the 01/10/12

Based in the tiled cafe inside the art gallery which over looks the site I gathered quotes from people inside:

“but i like to go back”“I moved from Chester 1995”

“I was born just outside Chester in a little Village”

Visit 2

03/10/12

During the second visit the aim was to interact more within the site, so sat on the benches just in front of the gallery. Noticed that the benches are designed so that home-less people cannot sleep there. There is a strong con-trast of nature vs man in the space, with the use of trees to create a garden enviroment and concrete slabs to distinguish the space as a ‘garden’. Later on in the afternoon the space became a lot more sociable. Groups of people were playing chess in the site and chatting.

Visit 3

09/10/12

Observing from benches

Visit 4

16/10/12

Observing from entrance of

Leeds Art Gallery

Visit 5

18/10/12

Observing from entrance of

Leeds Art Gallery

The main interesttoday was that off

a man sat in the exitof the Gallery shop

later on that dayI found a bottle of

cider whcih was hiden in a orange sainsburys

bag.

Visit 6

25/10/12

Observing from side of gardenswatching group

play chess.

Visit 7

05/11/12

Observing from benches of mandrinking coffee

with pigeon

Visit 8

08/11/12

Observing from insdie the tiled cafedue to the set up ofthe christmas lightsbeing switched on.

Visit 9

13/11/12

The site was beingused as free-runners

today.

Visit 10

03/12/12

viewing from the Cafe, on passers by

             Some  issues  have  aroused  in  my  practice  around  how  society  controls  individual’s  actions,  here  I  will  look  into  site  specifically  how  it  can  be  applied.    The  site  to  focus  on  will  be  victoria  Gardens,  situated  outside  Leeds  Art  Gallery.  The  space  is  aimed  at  including  all  members  of  society  in  a  sociable  way  such  as  the  use  of  chess  games  available  to  play  and  the  seating.  The  layout  of  the  space  is  very  open  plan  and  has  concrete  slabs  to  distinguish  the  site  clearly.  There  are  a  few  sparse  trees  located  close  to  benches  and  bedding  grass  patches  around  the  site,  these  are  the  only  associated  objects  around  the  tradition  ‘green  gardens  image’.  Having  spent  3  months  in  total  at  the  site  the  space  is  used  in  a  variety  of  ways  such  as  eating  lunch,  meeting  friends,  chatting  on  phones,  sitting  and  free-­‐jumping.  Sometimes  there  are  often  people  sleeping  in  the  site  in  exits  of  doors  ect.                  Having  described  the  design  of  the  site,  looking  more  closely  into  how  the  layout  controls  how  the  space  is  used.  One  very  important  focus  is  the  benches  as  they  are  designed  specifically  for  sitting  on  alone.  Therefore  it  forces  people  to  sit  and  look  composed  rather  than  laying  or  sleeping  which  could  give  the  impression  of  being  lazy,  useless  ect  which  links  in  with  the  theories  around  panopticism.    Panopticism  is  the  layout  of  a  space  that  controls  individuals  around  that  but  in  a  philological  way  to  produce  more  productive  useful  member’s  of  society.  So  if  the  benches  based  on  the  site  are  there  to  ensure  people  don’t  sleep  while  visiting  it  encourages  them  to  be  productive,  the  individual’s  that  use  the  site  are  very  often  homeless  so  it’s  the  city’s  way  of  keeping  these  people  out  of  the  space.  The  positioning  of  the  gardens  is  also  key  as  its  over  looked  by  the  Gallery,  a  culture  driven  environment  which  is  society  vise  ranked  higher.  The  culture  driven  often-­‐educated  clientele  that  visits  the  gallery  often  over  look  the  benches  directly  outside  the  building  which  reinforces  this  idea  of  higher  power  both  physically  higher  and  mentally.                        So  that  if  people  are  encouraged  to  look  productive  in  the  site  and  not  be  seen  to  be  wasting  time  the  space  is  used  as  a  representation  of  how  the  city  may  be  seen  to  visiting  tourists.  The  design  of  the  space  impacts  how  as  a  city  we  are  perceived,  through  the  use  of  well  placed  trees  showing  taste  for  design  to  the  well  designed  benches  encouraged  for  frequent  movability.  So  if  many  people  often  come  to  the  gardens  and  leave  frequently  it  creates  more  exciting  range  of  visitors  again  impacting  on  the  image  of  the  city  as  well  as  the  Art  gallery  its  self.                  To  conclude  looking  at  the  quote  it  does  suggest  that  the  site  controls  the  way  that  individuals  act  within  the  space  to  way  that  they  think  is  expected  of  them  due  to  ‘continuous  supervision  of  others’  

“Panopticismis  one  of  the  characteristic  traits  of  our  society.  It  is  a  type  of  power  that  is  applied  to  individuals  in  the  form  of  continuous  individual  supervision”