85701 Research Based Design WEEK 2 PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Last Friday, we all took a stroll down to Foley St, the intended venue for our event at the end of the semester. The idea was to take a flaneur's attitude toward the journey, letting oneself be absorbed in the city, looking for the overlooking and experiencing the feeling of wandering the city streets. Although it was great to try to view the streets in a new way, especially around Chinatown as I live in the area but rarely take notice of the surroundings, I can't say it was a true flaneur journey as we were guided on a particular route (at a good clip too!). However, it was still a good exercise in getting the feel of the city and for me, finding beauty in the mundane.

delicious?

A different lifestyle

Reflection, refraction

A street performer, setting up in the tunnel

A flaneur's interruption.

Once at Foley, we took some time to discuss what we had noticed, seen and been impacted on along the way. Many people mentioned construction work - describing it as invasive, noisy, intrusive. I really didn't notice it too much, I was mainly preoccupied with finding artwork in peeling paint and graffiti, and left speculating at the empty, dusty buildings we encountered along the way.

Boarded up windows, dusty chained doors

Like peering back in time

It's interesting to compare what people notice and absorb - I think it is reflective of temperament, personality and where you live.

So, Foley - first impressions: skanky, dirty, ugly... in other words not so appealing. It sure is going to be a task to make this street inviting and enlivened. Our last activity for the afternoon was to create a journey somewhere in Foley highlighting something of interest in the street with a simple piece of string, an exercise in creativity and perspective. My freshly minted group (some call us group 1) focussed on hoisting an orange traffic cone into the air, highlighting how people rarely look up and take notice of what is above them.

This was after we got our string in a massive tangle and had to tediously un-scramble it of course...

Art. I am a rad knot tyer.