"Assignment five Look back at the themes we’ve examined relating to place and our presence within it. What areas inspired you most? The culmination of this course is a self-directed assignment where you have free rein to choose a subject that relates to any of the material discussed in the course. You may have gathered skills and insights through the projects that you want to revisit or you may have been inspired by other ideas. The only stipulation is that the final outcome must represent a notion of identity and place that you are personally inspired by. Make sure that your work is visually consistent, relevant to the subject matter you choose and holds together well as a set, both visually and conceptually"
One Day I Will Be Old
New Sinfin was built in the 70’s, it was brand new, it had a great sense of community full of new families and the streets teemed with kids. With so many places to play and explore free from adults we grew and so did Sinfin, places disappeared and has time past we grew old. Now Sinfin isn’t brand new it is tired and old.
Revisiting old child and youthhood places looking through the eyes of an adult, one day I will be old is about place, space and remembrance of a psychological Edgelands. Where childhood places use to coexist within adult spaces, the otherness of childhood and clear differences between the two. Has child and youth merge into adulthood we can only look back at these spaces at times with a sense of nostalgia and sometimes with a sense of disappointment and psychological pain.
Thoughts
My counselling had been progressing in a positive direction and my antidepressant although I need the maximum dose it does seem have helped and put me on a more even keel. I was thinking about returning to work and after the past several months of darkness and low motivation, I felt that I needed to go outside with my camera, go for a walk. Much of my time had been spent at home, cleaning, pottering about the garden and laying in bed.
I was thinking about my childhood education and it seemed natural considering my experiences and previous assignments to explore the places from my childhood. I have lived in the same square mile all my life in fact my dad still lives in the house I grew up in. I have seen so much change, the childhood places glancing back with a nostalgia, the old of days soured by the educational system and the others. Their words made of sticks and stones that shaped my early identity which in part has followed me all my life. Self-confidence, believe and esteem, echoes of the past parroted in the present. A defence mechanism of beat them to the punch by pointing out its wrong, shit, not very good, that I am thick and stupid or just to avoid it altogether.Yet has a child in the 70’s and 80’s freedom, imagination, exploration and pushing boundaries was king in the outdoor world free from adults for a short period of time.
So I went for a walk with camera in hand, to childhood places just the once to view them in a considered way has a place rather than just passing through the space. I didn’t not know how they would turn out I use an old Nikon D70 which has a tiny display screen so I have pretty much given up trying to view them. I didn’t know how I would feel, but walking around my childhood places I felt a sense of neutrality.
When I reviewed the images my initial response was, shit I have managed to make Sinfin look like a shit hole and yet I was looking at my childhood places after all this time this new council estate was always going to get old and tired. I was going to get old. Maybe this was why I didn’t feel the same, it was a liminal edgeland not just an environmental but a psychological one. I was looking at childhood places through the eyes of a man.
There was a clear sense of difference although I remember my experiences and recognized the contrast between the child and adult view of this environment. I was aware of the idea of edgeland and the gist of space and place. But I had not considered individual or groups. Has an adult my childhood places were in fact adult spaces there importance, meaning and utilization differed.
I had always thought of space and time has a binary but there is an overlap and in certain conditions coexist and merge in the other. Adults using street names for the location and children using more simple language for locations.
These childhood places full of experience, play, exploration and social interaction without adult supervision, places to push boundaries. With adults viwing these places has mere spaces that are passed through or by, childhood otherness and geography transforms the banal into other worlds. Has wars are fought in the woods or expeditions in the wilderness of far away fields the adult world pass by unaware of these conflicts and new frontiers.
Now has an adult I see a different world, places have retreated into memories and have returned to into spaces. There is an absence of children and people, the new 70’s estate full of new families, a place full of kids, waist height fencing no doubt to actively encourage community and interaction between adult and children alike. Open green spaces, housing facing each other, pubs, shops, GP surgery and schools. It was a new kind of council estate a radburn model initially successful but over time it began to fail. Cars parked away from houses, networks of connecting pathways inside the state, elements that criminal and anti-social behaviour a little bit easier. I noted that I had felt that Sinfin was a bit of a shit hole, old and tired, even though it is my home. The images seem to magnify this sense.
New Sinfin was built in the 70’s, it was brand new, it had a great sense of community full of new families and the streets teemed with kids. With so many places to play and explore free from adults we grew and so did Sinfin, places disappeared and has time past we grew old. Now Sinfin isn’t brand new it is tired and old.
Revisiting old child and youthhood places looking through the eyes of an adult, one day I will be old is about place, space and remembrance of a psychological Edgelands. Where childhood places use to coexist within adult spaces, the otherness of childhood and clear differences between the two. Has child and youth merge into adulthood we can only look back at these spaces at times with a sense of nostalgia and sometimes with a sense of disappointment and psychological pain.
Thoughts
My counselling had been progressing in a positive direction and my antidepressant although I need the maximum dose it does seem have helped and put me on a more even keel. I was thinking about returning to work and after the past several months of darkness and low motivation, I felt that I needed to go outside with my camera, go for a walk. Much of my time had been spent at home, cleaning, pottering about the garden and laying in bed.
I was thinking about my childhood education and it seemed natural considering my experiences and previous assignments to explore the places from my childhood. I have lived in the same square mile all my life in fact my dad still lives in the house I grew up in. I have seen so much change, the childhood places glancing back with a nostalgia, the old of days soured by the educational system and the others. Their words made of sticks and stones that shaped my early identity which in part has followed me all my life. Self-confidence, believe and esteem, echoes of the past parroted in the present. A defence mechanism of beat them to the punch by pointing out its wrong, shit, not very good, that I am thick and stupid or just to avoid it altogether.Yet has a child in the 70’s and 80’s freedom, imagination, exploration and pushing boundaries was king in the outdoor world free from adults for a short period of time.
So I went for a walk with camera in hand, to childhood places just the once to view them in a considered way has a place rather than just passing through the space. I didn’t not know how they would turn out I use an old Nikon D70 which has a tiny display screen so I have pretty much given up trying to view them. I didn’t know how I would feel, but walking around my childhood places I felt a sense of neutrality.
When I reviewed the images my initial response was, shit I have managed to make Sinfin look like a shit hole and yet I was looking at my childhood places after all this time this new council estate was always going to get old and tired. I was going to get old. Maybe this was why I didn’t feel the same, it was a liminal edgeland not just an environmental but a psychological one. I was looking at childhood places through the eyes of a man.
There was a clear sense of difference although I remember my experiences and recognized the contrast between the child and adult view of this environment. I was aware of the idea of edgeland and the gist of space and place. But I had not considered individual or groups. Has an adult my childhood places were in fact adult spaces there importance, meaning and utilization differed.
I had always thought of space and time has a binary but there is an overlap and in certain conditions coexist and merge in the other. Adults using street names for the location and children using more simple language for locations.
These childhood places full of experience, play, exploration and social interaction without adult supervision, places to push boundaries. With adults viwing these places has mere spaces that are passed through or by, childhood otherness and geography transforms the banal into other worlds. Has wars are fought in the woods or expeditions in the wilderness of far away fields the adult world pass by unaware of these conflicts and new frontiers.
Now has an adult I see a different world, places have retreated into memories and have returned to into spaces. There is an absence of children and people, the new 70’s estate full of new families, a place full of kids, waist height fencing no doubt to actively encourage community and interaction between adult and children alike. Open green spaces, housing facing each other, pubs, shops, GP surgery and schools. It was a new kind of council estate a radburn model initially successful but over time it began to fail. Cars parked away from houses, networks of connecting pathways inside the state, elements that criminal and anti-social behaviour a little bit easier. I noted that I had felt that Sinfin was a bit of a shit hole, old and tired, even though it is my home. The images seem to magnify this sense.