Site Selection

Shannon and I went to the site yesterday to try and find some appropriate sites in Point Douglas for our buildings to inhabit. We just about ended up freezing to death, but I think I might have actually found something that I can use. Plus, I got to test out my new camera, which was pretty sweet, I must say.

This is pretty much it right here. This is just a little way down Higgins ave. The building at the back is Syrotech industries, and the one on the right is the National Lamp building. I'm not sure what the building on the left actually is, but I do know that it was the site of "Mural Fest 2k7".

One of the things that drew me to this site was the fact that it was already a point of communication. I've been getting into graffiti for a while now, and I've always been fascinated by it because of its ability to convey a message of territoriality with just a little bit of paint. It's a method of communication that's completely different from how we normally do things, and I find that really interesting.Another interesting thing on the site is on the right hand side behind the National Lamp building. It appears to be some kind of electronics graveyard, and we found the remnants of a bunch of old photocopiers and overhead projectors. This is a good source of junk that could be used for some kind of makeshift shelter, which is where the direction of my project seems to be heading.

I ended up finding another potential site, as well, just a little further down Higgins. This is just behind the railroad, and just west of the railbridge, and has some similar qualities as the other site.
This site is quite a bit smaller, but is still pretty interesting. It also has a lot of graffiti on it, but this site's graffiti is more obviously illegal. It also shows signs of previous use as a shelter, which the other site didn't have at all. This one is a little bit better hidden, which could be helpful in terms of building parasitic architecture, because it would be harder to notice. The only big problem here is protection from wind, as the left side is completely open. That, and there are constantly trains going by, but it might just be something that has to be dealt with.

I don't know which site I'm going to go with just yet, but I was thinking of using both sites and somehow networking them together. The second site has less of a chance to be networked because there aren't other buildings around to be networked with, while the other site can be somewhat networked using physical connections.

The next thing I have to decide is what I want to actually do with my site. I was thinking about going all around the site and finding sources of junk and building materials and building a catalog of pieces that could be used for building or communications. There are a lot of places to find bits of junk, and even the first site has wooden palettes to be used for building. It's something to think about, for sure, and it'll definitely take some more research to figure it all out.