'the lake project' WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC - Dates

CHANGE OF DATE:  
presentation of 'the lake project' outcomes is deferred until July.

'the lake project'   Dates

'the lake project' will be in WINDOWSPACE on Mon 10 May 2015.

The 'collaborators' will give an indoors, illustrated presentation of their findings, thoughts and outcomes for four acres adjacent to Lake Beeac

on Sunday 7 June at 79 Main St Beeac

'Silence does not always exist to be filled. Sometimes it should be respected.'

'... someone showed some people the particular beautiful little plants, and told them a little bit about it. And then the plants were taken; probably to be grown somewhere else for profit. But the minute you take that plant, the rest of it all just dies. The ancient knowledge should stay there. When the ancients used it they only took part of a leaf to help with childbirth. Now it never grows back, won’t grow back. I know where there’s more, just a bit more. But now I can’t even show that to anyone.'

– Max Dulumunmun Harrison in My People's Dreaming: An Aboriginal Elder speaks on life, land, spirit and forgiveness, Finch Publishing, Sydney, 2009, p.26–27

http://www.wheelercentre.com/notes/we-need-diverse-books-because-an-indigenous-perspective-on-diversity-in-young-adult-and-children-s-literature-in-australia?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=What+are+words+worth&utm_content=What+are+words+worth+CID_08343c5c189128336ffe38454a5d50b5&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=an%20Indigenous%20perspective%20on%20diversity%20in%20literature%20for%20young%20readers

Enquiries - Claire   cs@clairescorpo.com 

               or 

               Anna    acsande@gmail.com

'the lake project' WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC 3

WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC                                                                  3

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO COLLABORATION RMIT

'the lake project'

May sees, not only the delights of autumn, but also the response to place by an RMIT cohort in architecture.

In March, led by Claire Scorpo and Nic Agius, 14 architecture students came to Beeac to prod and ponder the notion of (this) place – their brief was site specific, they were not wandering but specifically wondering – what happens in this place, what is it made of, who lives here and why, what kind of buildings do they inhabit and why, what do they do here, who was here before them and why, and when, and what did they do.

These budding architects are out of the their comfort zone, to compensate possibly, they strut, a la colonial, enter where they should not, unaware of local lores and manners, checking things out … then comes a very precious moment … by a lake, pond, freshwater source – a rare and essential location in a locale of salt lakes and craters, thorn bush, rock outcrops and little else … they wake …

This is their story – as the line goes – what do they find, what do they feel, how do they respond to invading this land, plotting some landmark, digging a hole …

dreaming, their owndreams, not owning dreams but light, visions, of what might lightly sit in a precious location, by a lake, a crazy lake, sometimes there, sometimes not, a chimera … like their impetus a vision …

this is their vision:   Lucinda Clark

                           Jia Wei, 

                           Noel Phua

                           Phong Pham

                           Joel Huzzey

                           Matthew Lochert

                           Nicola Cortese

                           Zoe Hughes

                           Stephanie Pahnis

                           Qianya Qin

                           Sacha Hickinbotham

                           Robert Hillman

                           Nicole Kirby

                           John Chandler

                           Geema Maddumage Don

Discover what they see, in their mind’s eye, in response to country, in response to local kindness, local lore, local culture …

SPECIFICALLY

“The (design) studio aims to foster arelationship with the local community and draw upon local context past and present to develop a brief + funding strategy for a short stay residential artist retreat/research post. 

Students will unpack and understand the history of the area through the lens of a specific material component (stone, concrete, brick, timber or steel.). This will then form an integral part of their small scale design response as they develop a tectonic agenda to their material, the site, its history and the project brief.”

The students spend a weekend in Beeac where they immerse themselves in the town, meet with localpeople, gather first hand research through measured drawings, personal reflection, and site observation.  

The (resultant) exhibition is a series of investigative studies of the town and a fragment of their design response to the site. 

This doesn’t often happen – that focused professions leave their safe place and venture out – this is an exciting insight into what young designers make of the country, specifically out west, specifically BEEAC.