CINEMATIC
LANDSCAPE
EXCHANGE
Title: Motion After Land
Institute: Architectural Association
Studio: Intermediate 7
Approaching the Isle of Mull in 1829, German composer Felix Mendelssohn immediately noted down the score of his piece The Hebrides, as he stood gazing at the shapes of the island from the deck of a ship. It is said that the swell of the water surrounding the Isle of Mull moves boats to the same rhythm of the opening notes and in this way, each time it is played, the essence of that particular moment is relived.
On first inspection, the steadfastness of the land on the Isle of Mull is striking. Layers of geologically young volcanic rock sit on top of a monolithic base of basalt, formed curiously into hexagonal columns. Here, the dichotomy of; sea/ fluid, and land/static, couldn’t be further from the truth. The basalt was itself once a fluid, and when it was formed into the distinctive geometry we see evidence of today, its position was somewhere near the South Pole.
The Isle of Mull is a monument to constant change. Mendelssohn must have known this when scoring his work as the piece is divided into two parts. One that deals with the water and another that relates to the land. Found in both is the same progression and cadence. A theme that draws out the connections between them, and in doing so, underscores the essence of this part of the world. Nothing is static.
Our study of British coastal landscapes involves examining complex relationships between human lives, natural environments, and the time scales in which both play out. We will learn to use film not as a system of representation, but as a tool to observe and process reality, suspend logic, resequence space, edit time and simultaneously formulate and unfold a landscape. Through the process of making tectonic and ephemeral models, and directly intervening in the land, we will develop highly individual methods to translate film into space. As we travel towards the abyss, we will extract poetic value from empirical observations to formulate a cinematic architecture of the landscape.
Institute: Architectural Association
Studio: Intermediate 7
Approaching the Isle of Mull in 1829, German composer Felix Mendelssohn immediately noted down the score of his piece The Hebrides, as he stood gazing at the shapes of the island from the deck of a ship. It is said that the swell of the water surrounding the Isle of Mull moves boats to the same rhythm of the opening notes and in this way, each time it is played, the essence of that particular moment is relived.
On first inspection, the steadfastness of the land on the Isle of Mull is striking. Layers of geologically young volcanic rock sit on top of a monolithic base of basalt, formed curiously into hexagonal columns. Here, the dichotomy of; sea/ fluid, and land/static, couldn’t be further from the truth. The basalt was itself once a fluid, and when it was formed into the distinctive geometry we see evidence of today, its position was somewhere near the South Pole.
The Isle of Mull is a monument to constant change. Mendelssohn must have known this when scoring his work as the piece is divided into two parts. One that deals with the water and another that relates to the land. Found in both is the same progression and cadence. A theme that draws out the connections between them, and in doing so, underscores the essence of this part of the world. Nothing is static.
Our study of British coastal landscapes involves examining complex relationships between human lives, natural environments, and the time scales in which both play out. We will learn to use film not as a system of representation, but as a tool to observe and process reality, suspend logic, resequence space, edit time and simultaneously formulate and unfold a landscape. Through the process of making tectonic and ephemeral models, and directly intervening in the land, we will develop highly individual methods to translate film into space. As we travel towards the abyss, we will extract poetic value from empirical observations to formulate a cinematic architecture of the landscape.
