In week two, I decided to explore colours and messaging at the site, but I decided to also redo my observations from week one, to help me progress onwards.
I noticed in week 1 that I was trying to interpret the site as a layman, and I decided to explore that further.
At this point I struggled to go forward with this method of investigation, because I wasn’t learning anything new from it, rather making horrible assumptions. Though this deviated vastly from what the brief was asking me to do, I decided to still include them because it was important for me to understand what wasn’t working as I navigating methods of investigation.
I pivoted my research to look at colours, because the ones present at the site were so unnatural and loud, and they stood out to me. I wanted to explore this further and decipher what they meant to me, as a layman, as these colours and their messaging would be inherently different to me, a layman, versus someone who worked at the site or who has knowledge of construction sites.
I wanted to explore what perceiving the site solely through these colours would say to me about the site, and created a pixel/ grid artwork (inspired by one of the exercises we did in class), and see if it changed my perception of it. I found it communicated nothing new to me, but exploring the colours was interesting, and I wanted to explore that further.
Colour is used as a communication system at construction sites, and alongside short bold words, and small graphics, they quickly communicate important or urgent messages to people speaking a diverse array of languages from different backgrounds.
I wanted to see if changing the colours of the signs changed our interpretation of the meaning, and I felt that yes, it in fact do that because none of these signs felt urgent, cautionary or warning anymore.
One things I didn’t do last week was look at the text in this area, so I went around collecting words I saw at and around the site.
I developed this into an abstract poem, and naturally it took a more ominous tone, because of the nature of the words.
I wasn’t sure where to take this experiment further, so I pivoted once more.
My investigation this week concluded with a series of posters that connected the site with its historical area and its dwellers, with the words overheard at the site.
Because I have so much context into what I was investigating, this was a particularly rich experiment for me, but when I presented it to my feedback group, what I understood was that I wasn’t investigating anything, and deriving new knowledge from it.
For week 3 I think I’m going to focus on a Micro level, and look at the marks of the community, moving away from the site and focusing on stickers and graffiti left in the area.