Nicholas Building from Nicolette Nikoloudis on Vimeo.

Marrisa and I decided to focus on the Nicholas Building on Swanston Street. There was nothing too interesting about its history; its intended purpose was to act as office space for local businesses. Today it’s mainly used as art studios.

What intrigued me about the space was its emptiness. All the floors above the second floor seemed completely unoccupied and had a hospital like feel. The walls, stairs and windows had all aged ungracefully and the hospital like, sterile feeling was broken. Along with this age came history. From the studios that occupied the rooms came a feeling of creativity that shaped the space. Splashes of paint on windows, cracked and broken tiles along with the creaking sounds of the elevator made this building seem like a well thought out art piece.

Its broken, empty looking hallways gave a feeling of neglect and this is what I chose to focus on. In particular, I chose explore the journey of aging and reflection. It is this age and experience that makes this space a place, which is an ideal put forward in Marc Auge’s text ‘Introductory to an Anthropology of Supermodernity’. The first sentence of the reading sums up my approach to this project

‘The presence of the past in a present that supersedes it but still lays claim to it’.

The empty hallways were filled with little signs of use and with that, age. The fallen and damaged tiles, the cracks in the stairs mixed with the lack of movement urged this notion of a past.

I chose to juxtapose this lack of movement in the building with movement in the camera. I felt by doing so it created a feeling of a journey through the hallways and up to the top floor. While doing so the film explores the aged and neglected aspects within.

I chose to record the sound of the old elevator and put an echo and enhance the reverb to represent the past experiences. I wanted it to provide the film with an eerie vibe of suspense. I added the dinging of the pipes to create a sense of repetition and ritual (such as the people who ritualistically use the building daily).

Usually I would look at a space such as the Nicholas building and not think much of it besides an old, run down, empty space that is no longer being used. After reading ‘The discipline of Noticing’ by John Mason it forced me to look deeper into to the space and beyond my fist impressions.

 In this film I payed particular focus to how the tiles had fallen and how some of them were still standing. I noticed the damaged tiles and the tiles that were still in perfect condition. I explored all my surroundings, including the walls, the doors, the roof, the stairs and went beyond it. I focused on the way the tiles reflected the light and windows and how these reflections seemed unclear and broken. My intention was to explore the past through these reflections. I noticed how the stairs were damaged and how each of the doors differed. I chose to look at the buildings age from various angles and framed them in various ways.

 I intentionally chose to put the film in black and white as it emphasised the ageing aspects and removed the distraction of colour. Although colour could add to the concept of the broken and forgotten through the dirty browns and the faded tiles I chose to remove it as I wanted the focus to be on the physicality of the broken and unbroken, rather than its colour. I felt that it forces the audience to look beyond the colour and look further into its history, maybe even question how it got there?

By exploring the journey of ageing and reflection I attempted to challenge the notion of place through its history. I wanted this film to act as an artwork and a statement of place and history.