Place, Placeness, and Placelessness

Continuing from the previous assignment, the criterion of selecting four key prompts was expanded to include more specified phrases that were to narrow the context that the prompts were to be explored. Working collaboratively with my partner, the phrases we chose to explore were determined by each selecting two of the concepts that we had individually explored in the previous assignment. The concepts that we decided upon lead us to consider a shopping centre as a relevant site to explore them. Each concept was deconstructed and reexamined in the context of the shopping centre in order to specify what we hoped to document in the site. Further discussion about our thoughts to use a shopping centre as a site provided us with the idea of incorporating photos and videos recorded across a variety of different shopping centres in different locations. By collating photos and videos taken from different shopping centres, it was theorised that there would be a greater emphasis on the artificiality of the shopping centre: a concept of a space that has been so meticulously planned and crafted to influence occupants that it is replicated in all shopping centres.

The mode of presentation that was to be used for this assignment detracted from the experience of proper engagement that the previous assignment’s exhibition format allowed. The presentation format made it necessary to showcase each photo one-at-a-time so that they were afforded the screen-size necessary for the audience to observe and explore the elements of the photo, and with the constrained time limit of the presentation format each shot could only appear for spectating for a limited amount of time. This meant that each photo was viewed independently of the other photos, and that the special in-between relationship and meaning that the exhibition format provided was lost. In order to replicate the exhibition format that had been used in the prior assignment, our presentation was curated so that before the pictures were shown in full-scale, there was a ‘slide’ that showcased all of the images together in a 3×4 grid. The pictures were arranged into groups of three based on the primary colours that the pictures shared and were then arranged in vertical columns. This was the most visually pleasing way to present the pictures and also provided ambiguous relationships between the photos and the concepts, which forced the audience to engage that extra bit more with the photos so that they could draw their own conclusions of the meaning and significance of each.

Future exploration of this site would benefit from focusing on one specific object or part of a shopping centre that can be seen replicated in all instances of these spaces, or as was suggested, documenting objects or spaces that are indicative of a shopping centre and create a false impression of the real thing.