As part of the centenary celebrations of the UCD School of Architecture, Toronto-based architect Louise Clavin collaborated with GAAD to realise her installation Spectral Space. The installation offers a vision of HOW and WHERE we will work in the future. The future is imagined as a spectral space where time and place exist independently of each other and work is carried out collaboratively over clouds.
Spectral Space_ [an installation]
The Idea_
The installation speaks to the solitude act of drawing yet is devoid of physical space. It is spectral, exists in clouds, can take place in a location of personal choice. We are no longer tied to the may-line as of years gone by. No longer confined to the office, the studio. Those renderings and collages we all saw years ago, of people sitting in parks with laptops, have materialised and are a common sight these days. So what next? An even more abstracted and ephemeral place to design. This installation intends to explore and capture this.
The Process_
The act of design and drawing beautiful lines is still a solitude act in its essence. The sound of work being completed with intense concentration. A form of tonic is achieved through this persistent click of the mouse. In isolation, removed from an environment of disturbance and distraction filled with phones, emails, clients, colleagues, meetings – a sense of serenity is attained. This peaceful time enables a piece of mind that allows one to draw, imagine and embody an intent, succinctly, in a composition of lines and vectors.
The Artifact_
Embodied energy of process is captured in a soundscape. Sound recordings of people drawing on Adobe suite, Revit, Autocad, V-Ray. Without voice. Edited to form a looped soundscape and played through speakers in the space. The walls are dressed to achieve a quiet space, a nothing space. The clicking sound is so removed from context it plays with the idea of a bee colony frantically working to survive the seasons, which speaks to the idea of the evolution of the work environment.
Imagine a room full of bees_
(Louise Clavin)