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Current Projects:
1. Static
Complex (Including Redevelopment)
2. Type1
3. The State of Architecture (Publication)
4. The State of Liverpool (Publication and Film)
1. Static Complex (Including Redevelopment)
The 'Static Complex' is a title given to the current project that will continually challenge the Static Gallery space which has been progressively developed from 1998 to the present.
The first element of
the Static Complex is the actual space that contains four studios, one
large gallery, one smaller gallery, one model makers workshop and design
studio, one office, two toilets, one lift, one shower, 'one book-wall'
, three storage/exhibition units and two staircases. This series of spaces
will play host to a programme of exhibitions, lectures, forums, debates,
projections, performances, and confrontations.
The inhabitants of the 'Complex': the Graduate Resident; the International
Resident; the Two Fee Paying Artists; The Gallery Staff; The Architects;
The Model Makers; The Visitor, are subject to the dual conditions of spatial
commonality and division. The text that organises this complex system
of elements - the framework document which allows flexibility and prescriptive
collision - is an overlapping of studio contracts (1 year maximum), curatorial
programme and non-specific rapid response manifestos and deliberations.
The second element of the 'Complex' is a publication which will document how the space works in light of how the interlocking elements of the 'Complex' have been designed and programmed, by employing tactics that will ensure the following issues are addressed: Public/Private, Dark Space/Light Space, Defensible Space, Hierarchy, Conflict, Voyeurism/Surveillance, 'Den Culture', Security, Threshold, Community, Citadel and Ownership.
Note: Static studios/production
units are not exclusively for fine artists. Depending on the programme,
the units will invite a range of cultural producers from fine artists,
graphic artists, architects, writers, film makers and scientists.
An experimental housing
block, containing a mixture of affordable housing units, roof culture,
live/work incubator units, 'the concierge's flat', allotments, a courtyard,
an outside cinema/stage, a 18M x 26M hedge and a chapel.
3. The State of Architecture
A publication investigating alternative models for architectural production.
Extract:
In 1995, Static Architecture
began an investigation into the similarities between the occupation of
a country by force by a colonial military power and the defence of that
nation by what we may call - depending upon your view point - either the
terrorist or the freedom fighter.
The basis for this investigation was the concept that an art form, in
this case architecture, could also be colonised, not necessarily by force,
but by a creeping system of educational and professional mediocrity, self
regulated and fed by a collusive construction industry. A body which struggles
to consider architecture as an art form.
The obvious net result of investigating this concept was to look at a)
Who colonised architecture and b) Who fights back.
The notion that there
is a lot more to architecture than what we are actually presented with
works well as a vehicle to test the very nature of 'why' and 'how' architects
go about their business.
One outcome of this research was the potential in a form of architectural
production that assumed it was fighting against something and, by having
identified its enemy, would therefore employ the tactic of the hypothetical
architectural terrorist.
The notion of being 'out of control' is therefore an equivalent point
of reaction and retaliation.
It is important to note that the process of investigating the structure
of the terrorist organisation is also the process of understanding the
ideology of its enemy (or vice-versa). It is the extraction as a creative
act of what we find in these structures - the transfer of a combatant,
destructive and arguably required reality into a dislocated art genre
- which is of course the most troublesome and complex element of the study.
Can we appropriate the positive aspects of a structure and at the same
time ignore the inevitable consequences which it brings to bear on society.
The synopsis above
and the results of the main body of work are to be released in a publication
entitled 'The State of Architecture', to
be
released through Static Publications, August 2006.
The contents are: The Definition of Architecture; Ideological Framework;
The Enemy; Translation; Cell Units; Funding; Subterfuge; Code; Means To
An End Ideology; Implementation; Historical Precedent; Proximity; Construction;
Deconstruction.
4 The State of Liverpool (Publication and Film)
Publication
The State of Liverpool
will examine how planning decisions have affected the Bootle, Dingle,
Huyton and Toxteth areas of Liverpool.
The study will investigate the proposition that planning policy effectively
'cut off' large areas of inner city and suburban Liverpool.
The three sections of the study are as follows:
a) Militarisation
A study of how military
strategists and planners operate in the context of Belfast and Derry in
Northern Ireland, in order to compare the actions of the military to that
of the civil authorities in Liverpool.
b) The Disenfranchised
The effects on a society subject to a series of hostile and restrictive planning decisions.
c) The Way Out
A series of proposals to re-open and regenerate the ghetto.
Film
A film that will visually
question the notion that the city of Liverpool is non-sectarian.
