The first week of semester two proved to be very busy and interesting. I’m definitely excited to see where the class Invisible Environments takes me and what I learn and apply.
For Assignment one I have chosen to focus my three experiments on the location of the Alexandra Gardens in KEW.
For the first experiment titled ‘ways of noticing’, I took my camera to the gardens and spent around half an hour walking around and trying to look at different aspects of the area I’d never noticed before. To do this I would walk to a location that I usually hang out in or spend time in and then stand and focus on aspects of the area I hadn’t noticed before.
I found that this activity was useful in helping connect to nature and take a break from my desk and study. I found I noticed lots of details I didn’t expect to find such as the pattern on a lamp post. In Keywords for environmental studies edited by Joni Adamson, William A. Gleason and David Pellow (2016) , Dorceta E. Taylor describes a landscape as “an expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view”. I found this an interesting thought to take with me when taking photos for experiment one. I focused on standing in one location and looking at what I could see in front of me, paying extra attention to the landscape and looking carefully at areas I hadn’t before. Something that also stood out to me from this particular reading was the idea that “the positionality in [a particular] landscape can be a reflection of the political and social hierarchies in a society” (D E, Taylor 2016) I made sure to pay extra attention to the layout of the gardens and the reason for each statue and water feature after reading this. The gardens had some very interesting old lamp posts and specific statues scattered throughout which I look forward to learning more about over the next coming weeks.
Reflection: During class I was able to listen to the feedback given by my peers. I was told that my photographs gave a peaceful and quiet feeling and a fresh after rain sort of vibe. It was interesting to hear different ideas about how I could improve/change my work such as focusing in a little closer on specific elements of the photos or changing colour gradings. Some ideas I was given on how my work could be further expanded on a larger scale was the idea of creating a large exhibition that could be walked through, possibly similar to The LUME Melbourne (but if my work were of better quality and importance).
REFERENCE:
Adamson, J, A Gleeson, W, Pellow, D (2016) Keywords for environmental studies, Vol 3, New York University press 2016,