Exploring the structural urban landscape and exploring how people interact with these everyday habitual monuments. Built for purpose the aesthetic qualities are not necessarily a major factor when designing a block of flats. Interaction or lack of draws me to these monuments. The spaces have been created for people but I aimed to produce a series that hints at the lives behind each window.
The building is a 1966 high- rise residential building that was created to solve the housing crisis in Newcastle upon Tyne. There are social and psychological implications of living in a high- rise, there are many negative factors that can affect the residents. High-rise apartment building are often associated with dystopian futuristic cinema. The floors above the inhabitants can create a overwhelming sense of crushing from the concrete & lives above them. Depending on which floor you live, you have unknowingly been entered into a hierarchy model. No matter your social standings there will be people/ families above or below.
The decision to use video over photography was based around narrative structure. In a photograph the narrative is an interpretation of what the photographer has created in a single frame. Using video in place of photography the subject can be captured at a rate of 24f/s. This ever-changing landscape is captured in real time. The building itself ages, the glow from the lamps and televisions flickering is the only inclination that the image is moving and proof there is life behind the brutal facade.