Exercise 8: Recording Environments
This exercise asks you to expand on your work with place by generating alternative ways to record an environment. This can be an extension of the place you have been exploring or a new location. The aim is to trial and experiment with new methods to broaden the parameters of your discipline and the creative approaches available to you.
Use a method other than walking to move through an environment; you might take a bus or train journey, use a drone or explore virtually from your desk. You might consider moving in a more considered way, a more playful way, faster or slower, than your usual speed. How does this method make connections with the geography of the place you have chosen to investigate?
Record the changes in a landscape you encounter on the journey in any medium you choose. Collect ephemera as you go, it could provide future inspiration!
Post your journey to your learning log
I have been to Lincoln many times. It is a beautiful city, with a lot of history; built on a hill and its surroundings. The urban area splits out into two smaller ones: The upper city is marvellous, with a magnificent cathedral towering over the centre. The second part was a revelation to me. Away from the main touristic attraction, sits a system of canals and waterways, worth exploring.
To discover a bit more about it I bought a ticket and hopped on a small boat which is making a small tour into the central Lincoln Brayford canal.
LINCOLN WATERWAYS
ON THE BOAT
THE LINCOLN CATHEDRAL AS SEEN FROM THE BOAT
When on the boat, it feels like you are watching a play or a movie: becoming an observer of people passing by walking towards or opposite direction than you on the scenery around you. It is a magical experience worth living it.
Different ankle. The overcast it feels like is making the picture more dramatic.
Bridges have symbolic meaning to me. They are not only beautiful pieces of mechanics and architecture but they are used to unite and to connect.
A LANDSCAPE REVELATION: BOAT HOUSES
A SECRET TREASURE: GRAFFITI UNDER THE BRIDGE.
Lovely water reflections.
From one side the sounds of the city. The noise, the smells from the local pubs, a buzzing beehive.
On the other hand, the tranquillity of the water, feeling soothing and captivating.
Wandering around Lincoln waterways, I was exposed to a whole different world, discovering a community of boat houses that were totally different but also of a parallel universe. This discovery has taught me about the diversity of human experience. It is fascinating to think that when you are randomly walking around the cathedral or exploring the marvellous construction of this wonderful city that people are living their lives on a boat, only a stone’s throw away from the city centre; and to discover this alternative way of life you just need to get on a boat and leave to get it before you…
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