Coming into this semester, I had never studied space and place in any sort of conceptual way. I had taken geography all through high school, but that was a subject mainly made up of stats and figures regarding drought and population sizes. Ghosts of RMIT and its focus on place were new to me.

Early on in the semester, we looked at the introduction to Tim Cresswell’s Place: An Introduction. This introduced me to different ways of thinking about place. I considered whether place was physical, or mostly just imagined boundaries. I thought about place and memory, and human connection to place.

Reading chapter five of Place: An Introduction, I was able to see how my projects in Ghosts of RMIT have related back to Cresswell’s theoretical concepts about place. Two sections of this chapter have encapsulated how my work relates to place; Place and Memory and Place and Architecture are particularly relevant to my work.

‘Place and memory are, it seems, inevitably intertwined’ (Cresswell, 2014, pg. 119). My work throughout this semester has been focused particularly on one event; the Russell Street Bombing. Taking place in 1986, my dad was just 22 when a bomb exploded outside the courtroom he was working in. My work has been focused on how this event has formed his perception of Building 20, the Old Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

As is evident in my final piece, the Russell Street Bombing still weighs heavily on my fathers’ mind. I have spoken to him on multiple occasions about the bombing, but it was not until we sat down in the courtroom that the memories really returned to him. Being able to see the windows that smashed, the corridors he had run down and the street where the car bomb was acted as a catalyst for remembering.

However, as Cresswell states, ‘memory appears to be a personal thing, but memory is also a social thing’ (pg. 119). While my father’s memories are catalysed by place, so too are the memories of the wider society.

Building 20 has remained reasonably unchanged since its transformation from a working courthouse to an administration building. The courtrooms still look like courtrooms, and many of the original architectural features, such as windows and doors, are still present. The building is heritage listed, which prevents many changes being made, but there is a reason for this. As Professor Martyn Hook explained to us, buildings are given heritage status either because they are architecturally significant, or because something significant occurred in them. In the case of Building 20, it is a bit of both, and both relate to memory.

Maybe Building 20 has been kept the way it is because we want to remember events that happened there. The Ned Kelly trial, Squizzy Taylor, and the Russell Street Bombing are significant historical events that have been written into the national dialogue as important to remember. Building 20 is also considered architecturally important. But this is only because we want to remember building of the past, how the city, the world, was ‘before’.

This leads in to ‘Place and Architecture’, the next section of the chapter that resonated with my work. Cresswell talks of genius loci, which, in modern times, is taken to mean ‘sense of place’. In terms of Building 20, the architect responsible for its move from a courthouse to an RMIT building has done well to create and preserve the genius loci of the building. The building looks and feels like it has had an interesting history. From the preservation of the courtrooms and the caretaker sign, to the minimal additions of modern fixings, the Building has changed little since its precious life. I have tried to convey this genius locus in my piece through shots of the building and by keeping the courtroom setting in every frame.

Throughout this semester I have learned that place is a multitude of things and cannot be easily defined. I have learned that conveying a sense of place is difficult, but can be done. I have learned how to use a Z 7 camera.

For me, the most challenging aspect of this course has been getting my ideas from paper to physicality. From just getting my dad to say the right words, making the camera steady and then editing hours of footage into a five-minute film, I have been challenged. However, the studio format has meant that I have been able to troubleshoot any problems without difficulty. The class has become close-knit and we can trust each other to give good feedback. Being able to be in class twice a week has meant that there has been more than enough time to get things done.

Ghosts of RMIT has made me see that I can work well in a group. I have always said that I am too much of a control freak to work well with others, which I have been trying to work on. However, in Ghosts I have been able to work in a team with no issues. Maybe it is because we have had so much time together in class. Without the pressure of trying to find a time to meet, everybody seems a lot calmer. Whatever the reason, I am glad that I have had a chance to work in a stress-free group. It has led to better work all round.

Through Ghosts of RMIT I have also learned that I like interviewing. I like listening to someone talk, especially when that person is talking about something that they are passionate about, or that effects them deeply.

Ghosts of RMIT has opened me up to thinking about place in a more complex way than ever before. It has helped me to learn my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to making video content, as well as working in a group. I have been able to explore ways of working that I wouldn’t have in a different setting.

Website

Presentation slides and notes can be found on google drive in the ‘Website/Presentation Group’ folder.

Ghosts of RMIT has been my most collaborative university class yet. With just 12 class members, the studio format allowed us to work together without the process feeling forced and full of friction.

I have worked with in particular with Bec, Jess, and Imogen to out together a website and presentation for the studio.

In the early stages of this work, while groups were still being finalised, Bec and I began a presentation, while Imogen, Linh and Jess worked on the website. Probably all the work done before about week 10 has since been discarded, but it gave provided a good starting point.

As part of this website and presentation, it was suggested we design a logo for this class. Somehow I became the ‘graphic designer’ for this task, which I was quite pleased about. As ideas about the logo were thrown around, I tried to make them come to life in photoshop. A good few hours were spent perfected our logo, which I am now quite proud of.

The website for Ghosts has come together really well. Imogen was able to find a great theme, and with a good colour palette, the prominence of the logo, and smart menu planning we have created a wordpress site that doesn’t look like a wordpress site.

The website has been very collaborative. My own role within the website has been small bits and pieces of editing and tweaking. During this week I have looked over the site most days, and fixed any problems I’ve encountered. I’ve added hyperlinks, fixed broken links and changed uneven font sized. I’ve fixed my own spelling and grammar mistakes. I wrote some copy for the site, such as the page for Building 20, as well as the ‘creator’s’ page and the ‘places’ page.

I’ve had a little more to do with the presentation. In class in week 11, Jess, Bec, Imogen and I began putting together slides for the presentation; I later finished these at home. After feedback from the studio, I changed the slides to be mostly photos, rather than the text we had done in the first draft. Although I worked on the slides mostly alone, this was not a very time consuming task. I will also be speaking during the presentation with Imogen.

Working on the website and presentation has been really very enjoyable; I feel like I’ve gotten off lightly compared to the virtual tour group. Working with the other girls was fun, and we worked well as a team. I found that designing the logo was my favourite aspect of this brief, as I was able to be creative and utilise my photoshop skills. I’m very happy with how every part of this brief flows. By sticking to the same colour palette and using similar fonts and images, every aspect works well as a whole.

We haven’t really had any difficulties completing this brief. Facebook and Google Drive have been vitally important for communication and sharing, and have helped solve any problems we would have had in those areas.

If I were to undertake this brief again, I wouldn’t change much. I would probably do the work a earlier and not in a rush in the final week, but I can say the same about pretty much every uni assignment I’ve done. I would ask for more feedback in the earlier stages of work, rather than completing things, asking for feedback and having to make major changes. I would have worked closer with Imogen on the website design, purely so that I could learn from her; I think she did a really great job.

This brief has helped me explore how to best represent space and place online and in a presentation. All of us in Ghosts have been focused on our two buildings all semester, so it was great trying to figure out how to make them interesting to outsiders.

I will be continuing to add things (highlight reels, time commands, etc.) to the presentation over the next week as class members send through their work. The website will also be updated as more content comes in.

On Sunday all of us working on Building 20 (and Linh) came in to shoot our projects.

I began the day by interviewing my dad. It took us a while to get started, first making sure the sound and vision were fine, and then getting comfortable enough to start talking.

I have heard all my dad’s stories before, but with a camera in front of him, his tone changed. I could see that the Russell Street Bombing was something that was still a frightening and heavy topic for him, even 30 years on. Whether it was being in the space where the bombing occurred, or because of the camera, this time when my dad talked about the bombing, it seemed like something that affected him for a long time.

I found that the most difficult part of my shoot was just trying to get my dad to stop saying umm, without upsetting the flow of his story.

After wrapping up the interview, my dad and I walked around the building. I filmed him coming in an out of doors, peering into old courtrooms, and walking around the courtyard. I’m not sure if this will be useable footage, as it did seem to be a bit forced.

Dad left to have lunch, and I continued to film around the building. This was the easiest part. I simply had set down the tripod, make sure it was level, and pan around a little bit. Hopefully I have some nice shots that do the beautiful old building justice (pun intended).

My documentary for brief 3, described in detail here, was pitched to a panel last week. The feedback I received was largely positive. However, I did receive some good advice regarding technical aspects of the actually filming I will be doing.

Paul Ritchard mentioned that I should potentially avoid a talking heads style interview with my dad, mostly because it is hard to achieve decent audio with this method. He instead suggested that I should record audio separately, with an audio recorder, and add it over the top of non-interview type footage. In order to both follow his advice and also stick to my original idea, I will probably do both; a talking heads interview and a voice-only interview.

The panel also suggested that I should add an emphasis to the moment after my dad describes the explosion. This can be done through a long, stark black shot as well a silence. The weather conditions could also be brought into the film, with my dad describing what the weather was like on the day, complimented by shots of the building in similar weather conditions.

Another suggestion was finding another interviewee. However, due to limited access, and the busyness of myself and any other interviewee, this will probably not be able to happen.

Abigail Belfrage, an historian, suggested I search trove for images from newspapers at the time. This has proved to be a great resource for me, as I have been able to see how people were reacting the event at the time.

Listening to my classmates describe their ideas for their final projects was one of the best classes this semester. Whenever people are passionate about their work, it seems to set off a chain reaction. One person’s ideas lead to a brain wave for another person, which may inspire someone else’s work.

During these presentations, I found myself both scribbling down notes about my peers’ work as well as ideas for my own work.

Cassie’s idea for a POV walk through of Building 20 gave me an idea about how I could follow my interviews subject around.

Jackie’s collage idea just seemed so cool and original that I wrote down that I would need to watch her work on the shooting day.

Bec’s idea for a photo essay was something we had discussed early, and it was great to see the idea become more formed and to see Bec talking so clearly and interestedly about it.

I think that the way we have bounced ideas off one and other, helped each other out with projects, and worked through problems together has been the best part of the studio format. Being in a small group, working on different things and being together for 5 hours a week has meant that we have been able to really work together and get to know each other, and this has inspired better ideas and better work from everyone.

Brief 3: Blog Post

Title: March 27^th, 1986

Run time: Approx. 5-6 minutes

Format: Short film/interview/doco

On March 27^th 1986, a car bomb exploded outside the justice complex on Russell Street in Melbourne. The blast killed one young police officer, Angela Taylor, and injured a handful of other law enforcement and justice workers. My dad, 23 at the time, was a court registrar and sitting in on court cases on that day. When the bomb exploded at 1pm, the windows of the courtroom he was in were blown out by the blast, and everyone in the room ducked for cover.

From my original ideas, I have decided I will produce a short film focusing on the effects of the Russell Street Bombing on both people (my father) and place (Building 20). I will interview my father, and his narrative of the events of that day will be used to tell the story. I will pair this narrative with shots of the building, as well as footage of my father exploring the building 30 years on from the bombings.

In order to best articulate that this is a story of place, my interview questions will be focused on the building and feelings that arise from the setting. I will further accentuate the setting by making sure it is never overlooked. For example, any interview footage will be shot in a courtroom within the building. The film will compile as many shots of the building as necessary.

As I discusses in this blog post, Building 20 is mostly silent. I believe this will work to my advantage, as I’d prefer that the building seems empty, almost eery, to convey the right mood in my film.

In my film I will include shots of the damage that still remains from the Russel Street Bombing. I will use these shots to show that such major events become a part of a place, even if this is unintentional. I have compiled a rough storyboard as an outline of how my film will progress.

I have chosen to focus on the Russell Street Bombing as it is a topic close to me. In a somewhat selfish way, I have chosen this topic as a way of finding out more about something that happened in my Dad’s life before I was born. I am sure that most people find their parents’ lives before children to be interesting. To be completely honest, a small part of my decision to choose this idea stems from my easy access to a great interviewee. Furthermore, I’m interested in how something that happened 30 years ago can still affect both people and place today.

In Losing Site (2011), Shelley Hornstein discusses place and remembrance (which I have discussed here), stating:

‘Our task of remembrance is a continuing project, always linked to others and to places that are never separate or distinct (p19)’ 

In my film I will try to highlight this join between remembrance and place. Can a place ever be separated from its past? Is it only through people that a place serves as one of remembrance? How important is the past to a place’s current and future use?

Through my directed interview questions, I hope to be able to bring the focus back to place as much as possible:

1. What happened that day?
   – Hopefully will get a detailed and long answer to this one. Will be used at the beginning of the film
2. This attack was particularly place orientated. In what did this place (the justice complex) mean different things to different people?
3. How did your reaction to the place change after the attacks? Both in the immediate time following the attacks, and then years later?
4. When you visit this place does it provoke specific memories?
5. Can you recognise any remnants of the attack still in the building?
6. How long/when did you work here?
7. Talk about what it was like before the bomb
8. How long did it take until the court began sitting again? Did sittings take place in unfinished/partially-destroyed courtrooms?

In the past week, I have visited Building 20 in order to collect some reference photos and videos to use for my film (note for Rachel: the videos failed to upload but they are in the powerpoint I have uploaded to google drive).

Sandstone damge

Setting shots

More sandstone damage

I have included here a timetable of work that I have already undertaken on this project (those checkpoints that have been bolded) and what I still have to do.

It is important that before I begin working on this project that I look into the following issues:

• Camera equipment: which camera should I use, how long can I hire it for, etc.
• Time-lapse video: is there a specific way of doing this other than setting up a tripod and waiting?
• Access: do we have access to building 20 after business hours?

References:

Hornstein, Shelley. (2011). Making Site: Walter Benjamin was Here. In: Losing Site: Architecture, Memory and Place. England, USA: Ashgate Publishing. p17-22.

I wasn’t able to get to Paul Gough’s presentation, but from Rachel notes I can see that remembrance and memory was a key topic, so I have written a bit about that here.

I’ve been talking to my dad about the Russell Street Bombing over the last couple of days, sort of as a pre-interview for my project. He mentioned that for him, Building 20 will always be associated with the Russell Street Bombing. For me however, it’s a quiet, sort of -out-of-bounds RMIT building. This got me thinking about places that I will always associate with something dark, where many people wouldn’t.

The first place that came to mind was Warrandyte. Warrandyte is a lovely suburb, down by the Yarra with cute little cafes and shops, it’s the perfect place to visit on a warm weekend. But the cemetery in Warrandyte is the first cemetery where someone I know was buried. I’m lucky that I have experienced much death in my life so far, so when my great-grandma died when I was 12, it was a new situation for me. While it’s not the same as a bombing, I will always associate Warrandyte with a grave, the first grave that I ever had to visit.

While I may not associate Building 20 with the terror of March 27th 1986, this may because I am too young, not even born when the bomb went off. I wonder if, a few years down the track, there will be a generation of young people who will look at a photo of the Manhattan skyline without immediately knowing whether the photo was taken pre or post 2001. In 100 years, when no living person can recall 9/11, will downtown New York still feel eerily devoid of towers?  As Shelley Hornstein writes in Losing Site, remembrance is ‘always linked to others (people)’ (2011, pg19).

In the past few months I have been excitedly researching my exchange options for next year. When I first began looking into the multitude of places. around the world that I can visit, one particular country stood out to me; Scotland.

I have never been to Scotland. There’s nothing in Scotland that I’ve ever been particularly keen to visit, nor is there any one city that’s caught my eye. My desire to go to Scotland stems only from the fact that my mum grew up there.

My mum was born in Scotland, lived near Aberdeen for a decade, and then came to Australia with her mother and brother when she was 16. She speaks with an accent, though I don’t hear it, and she has been back to her birth country a dozen times in the last 35 years. Her sister still lives in Aberdeen, and visits us every couple of years.

My mother has no real yearning for her home country. She visits occasionally, but mostly would much rather visit countries she’s never seen. She enjoys seeing her sister, but since my aunt visits us, it’s not a huge selling point. She’s been with my dad for more than 30 years and has never taken him to Scotland. To my mum, Australia is home.

My gran on the other hand, cries when she hears Auld Lang Syne. She loves eating Haggis and celebrating Burns Night. New Year’s Eve is Hogmanay. Maybe it’s because she spent most of her life in Scotland, and maybe because one of her daughters remains there, but Scotland to her is her true home.

I wonder what it is about place that attracts some people and almost bores others. Some people hang on to their homelands until they die, others move on and never go back. And some people, like me, have a feeling of strong connection to a place they’ve never been. Maybe it’s because of my Gran’s enthusiasm for Scotland, maybe it’s because my Scottish relatives seem to be great, fun and happy people. Place is different for everyone it seems.

Documentary:

• Get dad to walk through the court talking about Russell street bombing
• Emotional music
• If I had the time/budget/editing skills – recreations
• Maybe another interview, policeman
• Overlay new and old images of the courthouse
• time lapse shot
• shots of the damage

Photo Essay

• Use editing software, filters, different cameras to take photos that could have been taken 100 years ago
• Newer photos as well
• Photos of the small changes that RMIT has made
• Or a photo essay about the bombing
• Photos of any left over damages
• Photos of people working in offices overlayed with photos of damage at the time

Recreation

• Recreate Ned Kelly’s trial
• Get as much information as possible about the trial and recreate it
• Invite schools?

Idea for class thing

• Website (or added to existing website)
• Explore RMIT
• You can click on the building you are in and get a historical overview of that building
• Purpose of that building, which classes are held there, what it was used for in the past, how it has developed over time
• Tie in to an app maybe

Martyn Hook, dean of the school of Communication at RMIT and architect, gave a fascinating talk on the buildings of RMIT and three architectural and urban planning principal governing how they were built.

Martyn opened his talk by exploring the difference between place and space. He talked about how space is defined by intent and program. A classroom is a teaching space because that is what it is designed for. Spaces are defined, have edges and boundaries, whereas place can be somewhat open and reaching. The use of a place is undefined, or many.

In order to explain how RMIT’s city campus has been incorporated into the Melbourne CBD, Martyn talked of what defines a city, and how they are planned. Martyn mentioned that cities are planned, while towns are not. I had never thought of defining cities and towns this way, but it makes sense. He talked of how grids, such as the Hoddle Grid, are designed for commercial purposes, something I had never thought of before.

Significant to me, was Martyn’s discussion of Building 20. First he talked about what makes a building significant, mentioning that it is either because the building itself is important, or something has happened there that is important. For the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court, it is a bit of both. Martyn talked about how Building 20 has been specifically upgraded to fit in with its heritage, a point I mentioned in my post on the building. He also added that the building is gaining a new chapter in its heritage through being used as an RMIT building.