To me this project was about finding an in-between location, a non-place and exploring it in order to derive depth and meaning and perhaps see it as it usually wouldn’t be seen. We’ve been spending our Thursday classes visiting different sites. With The Percy Granger Museum we looked at how people can put themselves into a space without specifically inhabiting it. With Testing Grounds we analysed the space and looked for things that may not have been obvious at first. In doing this task, I took what I had learned in class and from these excursions and tried to recreate them in Project Brief 2.

For this task I was lucky enough to be paired with Claudia who has a very similar mindset to me and so we were able to brainstorm ideas quite well. We quickly decided that film would be our main medium used in creating the 3 minute product. We also decided that photographs would also be a good idea, but would only use a few intercepted throughout the video. On top of this would obviously be our soundscape, which I was quite interested in having a play around with.

In our first brainstorming session, we chose the South Yarra Drains/Tunnels as our location. Both of us had been there before and thought it would be a great place to explore as it has quite a bit of history in the form of graffiti, old belongings left behind and even parties and events that have taken place there. We thought it might be a cool idea to bring along some small dolls and lego and perhaps shoot our footage down there in a way that made the leggo look life-size. But after a while we decided that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea as it might take away from the space itself. After all the space was to be the main focus of the project. So when it came to filming day, we just brought some tea lights and a lighter along with us. We weren’t really sure what we’d use them for but knew that they would come in handy. However when we got to the South Yarra Drains, we found that the entire thing was flooded and there was literally no way of getting inside, so we had to change our plans last minute. It worked out super well as we went to the St. Kilda drains instead, which were just up the road. The drains here ran directly through the middle of housing and roads, which mde the drains really resonate as a non-place to me. The footage that I took focuses on how a space can be altered with each person that sets foot inside it. This was where the candles came in handy and ended up being an integral part of my concept. A lot of my footage showcases the graffiti done by others that have entered the place and even webs made from spiders that have lived there, or the miniature creek with debris/belongings trickling through it. I think that the lit candles inside the tunnels captured my presence inside the space and added a sense of life to an otherwise desolate place.