Verisimilitude; Week One “Real Site Interventions”

Today’s task took us from an inside ‘space’ intervention to an outside ‘site’ intervention. We were tasked to create 3-5 interventions that wouldn’t have the same impact without the site context. Under Alert Level 3, the site needed to be within the property. I utilised as many outdoor areas I could.

Intervention One

Working with Emily in my bubble, we created a series called “No Playing”. We used chalk on the play area in Em’s backyard to enforce rules that wouldn’t usually be in place in a private play space.

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With this series we chose to impose an adult authority on a kids space. The intervention interrupts the space as it contradicts what is supposed to happen in these spaces. Without the context of this being a private tree house play area, this may not have had the same impact. Public places wouldn’t be able or want to enforce these frivolous rules.

Playgrounds currently cannot be accessed due to Covid-19 so a private play space would be the only option for many kids, making these interventions unnecessary and almost cruel.

Intervention Two

We were really enjoying the experiments with chalk and we decided to make the next intervention using chalk as well. The trampoline inspired us to create a clock. By drawing the numbers on and placing sticks at our current time, the trampoline had the final appearance of a clock face.

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This intervention was very site specific, but furthermore time specific. This clock is non functioning and with the sticks in place will forever tell the time of 12:08, making it correct only twice a day. We decided not to move the ladder that was lying on it or clean up the leaves. This further specifies the work to this site. The ‘5’ is interrupted by the ladder and if this clock face were made on another surface, the ‘5’ would look broken up without the context of what is interrupting the number.

Intervention Three

Moving to the front of the house, my next intervention was on the driveway. Using chalk, I laid down a ‘parking space’. I then gave the rest of the driveway broken yellow lines, indicating that the rest of the driveway was a no parking zone.

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This intervention is nonsensical in the context of the site. A driveway is private property and therefore the residents can park wherever on that driveway they’d like. By imposing a public parking management system, I am forcing the site to exist as private property under public rules.

Observations

I found this brief easier to create for. With the extra time and the expanded area to work in, I was able to execute my ideas. I really liked working with chalk, especially when walking out the next day to discover everything had washed away with the rain overnight. It really reinforced the idea of site specificity as it only existed temporarily in a certain spot.

I would have loved to intervene with some public spaces if we were out of Level 3, as I would have been curious to see how the public interacts with strange site installations.