M2 Term1 Web

SITUATING: Montreal & The Topological Media Lab

The opportunity arose to continue our work from last year with the Topological Media Lab (TML) at Concordia in Montreal. Sha Xin Wei, director of the TML, and Patrick Harrop invited myself along with Gregory Rubin and Candace Fempel to help foster a studio culture within the Design and Computation Arts Department at Concordia as well as to continue to develop our own work while taking advantage of the many technical resources available. As part of the move to Concordia we enrolled in a Theory Seminar with Chris Salter which covered the theory of interactivity.

INITIATING: PNEUS Champ Libre & E-Arts Shanghai

As part of the term startup we continued our research work with PNEUMA (Patrick Harrop & Peter Hasdell) and the TML. We participated in constructing and developing polyurethane cells as well as the electronic systems that would control the event. We were also introduced to the methods of circuit board making. The two installations we were helping to produce for were Champ Libre in Montreal and the E-Arts Festival in Shanghai.

INITIATING: PNEUS Champ Libre & E-Arts Shanghai

“PNEUS is a suspended forest made of a multitude of sensors and electronic generators surrounding translucent PVC tubes. The latter reproduce the fibers that lend trees their flexibility and regenerative capacity in a structure many meters high. This magic space of sound and light is the outcome of a progressive real-time recording and its transformation that condenses and expresses in one space - a structure and spatial occupation - an immediate experience of all the perceptible phenomena of movement in the context of the occupied neighborhood, including passersby, passing clouds, and the wind.”

GRIFFINTOWN, Montreal Upon arrival to Montreal we were introduced to an area within the city known as “Griffintown”. It is an industrial area in the Southwest portion of Montreal. It was established in the early 19th Century along with the development of the Lachine Canal. Griffintown along with the Lachine Canal can be considered at the heart of the Canadian Industrial revolution. The neighbourhood was primarily an Irish community - which provided a strong and steady work force - and along with its location along the canal and railroads it was able to flourish as a major manufacturing sector in North America and the world. Griffintown remained active industrially until just after the middle of the 20th Century when the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway rendered the Lachine Canal obsolete and was forced to close. This drastically reduced the amount of shipping and manufacturing along the canal and as a result industry moved out leaving Griffintown nearly vacant. It largely remains in this state today with roughly only 50 residents left in the area.

GRIFFINTOWN: Development & Protest Griffintown is currently rife with political controversy. A major developer - Devimco has proposed a complete reappropriation for Griffintown in the form of a residential and commercial takeover. They intend to completely gentrify the area which has been largely void of any city interest since the 1960’s. The commercial aspect of the project completely conflicts with the city’s long established shopping district (St. Catherine Ave.) which is only a few blocks away. Devimco’s plan is also completely out of scale with both the area that is Griffintown as well as Montreal as a whole; they have proposed to erect buildings between 12 and 14 storeys high along with a couple of towers while the building code limits local structures to heights of no more than 4 - 6 storeys. The other side of Griffintown that we became familiar with was that of political activism. Despite the extremely low number of residents in the neighbourhood - there is a strong source of protest against the Devimco proposal. Alternative proposals are continually being developed and presented to the city in the attempt to generate new ideas for what could potentially take place in Griffintown rather than completely gentrifying the area. We have had the opportunity to meet with a number of individuals who are at the forefront of defending Griffintown’s heritage and have made arrangements to share our work with them throughout the next term.

GRIFFINTOWN AS SITE: Premise - Public Institution The position for the term became not one of either major development nor the kind of historical preservation. Rather, by injecting a smaller intervention that might be able to nudge or poke at the dormency which exists in Griffintown we may be able to agitate the neighbourhood in a way that a shopping mall or heritage building might not be able to. The goal then became to the context for some kind of public institution. Not institution in an authoritative sense - but in a socially generative manner.

SITE SELECTION CN Wellington After taking a few walk through’s around Griffintown, I found myself continually coming back to the CN Wellington Building. My initial draw to the building came from its very interesting position along both the Lachine Canal as well as the CN Via Rail line. It is situated at an intersection of transportation and industry and I thought that it would be a rich muse from which to develop a project.

SITE SELECTION CN Wellington The CN Wellington at one point during the 1930’s was a control station for the rail lines which pass right by it. With the advancement of more centralized control systems - the need to control the lines locally became less important and this it is now left abandoned along side the still active track. The track services numerous small communities surrounding Montreal and making up the greater Montreal area. The users are a mix of daily commuters into downtown Montreal, as well as commuters from more National locations.

SITE SELECTION CN Wellington As part of the redevelopment & gentrification of the Lachine Canal during the mid 1990’s - a bike path / walking / running path runs through the site and along side the canal.

SITE SELECTION CN Wellington Interior views of the abandoned CN Wellington Control Tower.

SITE CONTEXT: Fire Map Research

Unable to find very much actual literature about the CN Wellington Building I began to study a series of fire insurance maps which helped to provide some historical context for the development of the site.

1879

1890

1907

1909

1914

SITE CONTEXT: Pre-Existing Public Bath

I determined from the Fire Insurance Maps that somewhere between 1890 and 1907 a public bath was constructed adjacent to the existing site of the CN Wellington. As a very intensely industrial, and therefore dirty neighbourhood, the health of the public was of great importance in the late 19th to early 20th century. Public baths were necessary to stave off disease and to preserve a healthy work force in the absence of infrastructure necessary for homes to have their own private baths.

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1907

1909

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The notion of the public bath generated a lot of interest for me. To me it seemed like a perfect example of what a public institution could be. To think of public baths brings certain implications of publicity and privacy. These notions would lead me to further investigations into observation as phenomena in the context of the site.

WEL LIN GTO N

SITE CONTEXT: Pre-Existing Public Bath

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SITE CONTEXT: Industry to Abandonment Griffintown remained successful industrially until the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway caused the Lachine Canal to basically become obsolete and eventually close in 1970. With the collapse of industry in the area it basically fell to the wayside of the city’s priorities. Businesses moved out and the once very active industrial neighbourhood became dorment. This created the perfect setting for those who wished to be unseen and the area became notorious for being a “cruising” zone. People would meet in this unwanted and forsaken part of the city to engage in sexual activities.

SITE CONTEXT: Industry to Abandonment

SITE CONTEXT: Industry to Abandonment These actions would go largely unseen in the area. However, the passenger train line through Griffintown into the downtown of Montreal remained active. The acts that would be considered very private now became - if the passenger was looking at the right moment - very public.

CN WELLINGTON & THE RAIL-LINE

I began to draw out some very peculiar correlations between existing conditions of the site as well as some of the site’s history. There seemed to be a very apparent overlying notion of observation within the context of the site. When thinking about the Public Bath it becomes very clear that there are viewership implications - fundamental architectural questions of privacy and publicity. Given the sites history, as well, as a pick up zone during the time that it was largely abandoned - the relationship between the observer in the train and the CN Wellington (if it were to be reappropriated for the function of a public bath) becomes very loaded. There are certain things that should and can be seen - and other things that should not. It was this notion that led me to further investigate the relationship between the CN Wellington and the Rail-line in terms of observation.

Example of a very specific framed view passing through the building which is determined by the alignment of two existing open apertures.

CN WELLINGTON & THE RAIL-LINE Upon numerous visits to the site - one thing started to become clear to me; that the building was acting as both a surface but also as a device mediating the relationship between the observer on the train and the extents beyond the structure (the city). The abandoned CN Wellington is covered in potential apertures which lead beyond the building - but also which delineate a certain space within the building. I then began to study a number of situations in which windows would align to offer pathways through the building. I decided to treat the building as an open shell - which it largely exists as aside from a number of boarded windows.

DRAWING CN Wellington & The Rail-Line

I began by investigating a series of situations and attempting to draw, in plan, the example of a single observer on the train’s sight line through the structure as windows aligned depending on their position on the track.

DRAWING CN Wellington & The Rail-Line

DRAWING CN Wellington & The Rail-Line

DRAWING CN Wellington & The Rail-Line

I then produced a series of drawings that extracted the building a observer from the site to identify how the relationship between the two shifts and changes as the train moves down the track. You begin to see that through parallax the building continually turns in relation to the observer’s position. In elevation you begin to see the subtle shifts which take place between track locations.

DRAWING CN Wellington & The Rail-Line

MODELING Framed Cones of Vision Realizing that the idea of these pathways through the building was not a 2 dimensional problem, I moved away from CAD and into Rhino3D where I began to model the framed cones of vision. What I began to model were the different combinations of sight lines through the building according to the CAD drawings. Moving into 3 dimensional space allowed me to realize that there are nearly infinite permutations through a set of two given windows / apertures. Thus I began to model the 1st extent in which the line of sight first begins to pass through the first window to the second opening. The average point directly through both windows. And the 2nd extent at which there is no direct path through that specific combination of openings.

MODELING Framed Cones of Vision

The advantage was that one can begin to actually see the spatial implications of the cones of framed vision within the building. They begin to delineate a very specific space which exists at the moment in which the observer makes the visual connection between the two apertures.

MODELING Framed Cones of Vision

Taking multiples cones through the building a density begins to build and sight lines start to merge and cross or miss each other - leaving voids between the converging pathways.

MODELING THE CONES IN SPACE

MODELING: Light as Vision - Physical Model

After fighting with the 3D modeling program - I realized that it could potentially be far more interesting and perhaps telling to move from the digital realm to a physical medium. I began to construct a simplified model of the CN Wellington building in order to further study its relationship with the observer of the train. I would begin to use projected light in place of vision. But in order to make the light visible I would need a controlled dark environment as well as the use of a particulate to reflect the light.

MODELING: The Site & Apparatus

Getting the light to become visible consistently with the use of a particulate proved to be very difficult. I booked a projection room so that I could isolate the model. I needed a closed room so as to not disturb anyone with the use of different particulates (chalk and different aerosols, etc.). The shoot also needed to be secure so that I could leave it in place without fear of it being shifted or moved as the goal was to recreate the cones of vision from the Rhino3D studies in real space. This would require still photography composites. I was also able to attain 2 digital SLRs, a second laptop, numerous tripods and a mini-projector.

MODELING: Light as Vision

Knowing that it would be a daunting task to attempt to photograph all of the different paths of vision through the building’s existing openings - I gave each window and floor a code / number so that I could build a matrix and schedule all of the photographs that I would be required to shoot. This proved to be extremely useful for keeping track of the photographs.

A8

A9

A10

A11

A12

A2

A1

B1 B9

B10

B11

B12

B13

B2

B3

C2

C3

C1

C4

A2

C5

A3

B2

B3

C6

A4

A5

B4

B5

C7

B6

A6

A7

B7

B8

MODELING: Light as Vision

After many failed experiments with both chalk and aerosol particulates my only option was to rent a fogging machine and fill the room with a haze in order to better capture the cone of light from the projector.

Photographs: Morgan Sutherland

MODELING: Light as Vision

I then began to physically model the cones of vision by setting the projector’s lens to the elevation of an observer on a train in relation to the elevation of the CN Wellington. To draw the cones I would align the projector with the predetermined combination of windows and projecting live out of Adobe Illustrator in full screen mode basically traced the extents of the first aperture.

Photographs: Morgan Sutherland

Photograph: Morgan Sutherland

WINDOW A06-A09

Using the codes I had determined for both floors and windows I very carefully ran through a large number of possible permutations of openings.

WINDOW B04-B10

WINDOW C02-C07

FLOOR A - COMPOSITE Gathering all of the images I then composited them to demonstrate the movement and behaviours of the cones as the train travels linearly past the structure.

FLOOR B - Composite

FLOOR A+B+C - Composite

FLOOR A+B+C Elevation Composite

MODEL AS WORKING DEVICE & ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED

There are a number of interesting potentials that I need to address in order to further develop the project. One issue is that of time and temporality. I have been dealing with fixed positions along the track, but the train is not static. Working with the electronic expertise and resources available to me at Concordia and the TML I will construct a device to help me study the trains movement along the track. Another potential is the reciprocal relationship of the potential user of the building back out to the rail line / observer on the train. By developing the programme of the building with the intention of creating a public bath I can then begin to play with the implications of viewership which are both inherent to the site as well as the bath. This is where I propose to continue to work with both the model as a working device as well as the light (as vision). I can take advantage of being able to physically manipulate the cones as they pass through the building by introducing built elements within and around the building.