Block

Block
Length of Work: 6:40 mins
Sound: Stereo


One line summary of the work:
Rhythmic patterns of individual existence integrated into the fabric of architectural habitat.


Synopsis:
Block is a video piece concerned with the relationship of individuals to contemporary urban environment through the modernist architectural living spaces of a tower block in Salford, UK.

An observational gaze on social habitus implicates the viewer in a dialogue with surveillance, monitoring and spatial dynamics. The narrative space of the tower block is revealed through the light movements as residents travels through its interior spaces, their habitats.

Notions of psychastenia, personality and space are explored through a phenomenological approach to lived experience. The grid like structure of social urban planning is investigated through the rhythmic patterns of lights signaling room occupation and human habitation. The light changes indicate movement paths and spatial usage that create an illusion of tower block as an entity, the flickering lights as pulses with the residents reduced to signals and data, as reflected through the sound design.

The relationship to politics and economic realities is displayed through evidence of material objects, televisions, curtains but with little trace of subject matter. The patterns and data referencing point towards consumer monitoring. The block itself containing a complex weaving of personal histories, identities, subjectivities and relations hinted at by physical movements that transform the block into a fictive arena.

Block Still2

Block Still