Wednesday 10 November 2010

Unfrastructure, the exhibition summary

Unfrastructure is a photography arts project initiated and curated by Julia Horbaschk. It developed into a participatory event for the Brighton Photo Fringe 2010 and was supported by the ArtsFORUM.

The project aims to raise questions about the decline of Britain's infrastructure, the neglect of the environment and the value of places shared by the public.

Having developed my own body of work, which responds to the city's infrastructural and environmental issues, I invited 14 participants to contribute to a group show. The work was shown as at the Fringe Focus Space, Old Co-op, London Road, Brighton, 5th Nov.- 14th Nov 2010.

Infrastructural issues are seen in Paul Cummings' "Road side" (shortlisted for the Thread Needle Prize), Phillip Bedford's "block 2010", John Santa Cruz' obsolete military structures as well as industrial neglect seen in Paul Mc Carthy's and Rick Waterson's work.

Simon Peterson's "Unseen", Lucy Albone's "Dismissed" and Beatrice Haverich's images from the book "The whisper of a million leaves" all respond to the environmental aspect of the show.

My own work is a rather abstract approach, documenting emotionally charged spaces, shared by many Brighton city dwellers. E.g. burns of a disposable BBQ on Hove lawns, disability access in form of a narrow t-shaped ramp, cycling facilities and road surfaces feature in my photos.

We held a pop up event: "Brighton rants" (Speakers corner type event) on Saturday, 13th November 2010, 2-4pm
where residents could voice their opinions. A video recoding can be found on my flickr page: freshandwild. Or read what Claire Banks had to say on the Argus Community pages. The "rants" were voice recorded and are available on request.

The participants for the exhibition were:

Julia Horbaschk

Paul Cummings

Philip Bedford

Amelia Wakeford

James Reid

Rick Waterson

Paul Mc Carthy

Lucy Albone

Grace Flynn

Simon Peterson

Roy Mehta

Beatrice Haverich

Jon Santa Cruz

Tom Gates

You can still take part by adding your images or rants onto the Flickr group: www.flickr.com/groups/unfrastructures



Sunday 17 October 2010

Talk

After reflecting on my public talk about Unfrastructure at the Media Centre last Tuesday, I have concluded a few note worthy points.

By asking questions to the audience such as which images stood out or if any of the images convey a certain feel or meaning we came back to the t-shaped disability ramp on Hove seafront and the "brick".

The disability ramp sparked debate about the suitability for users as well as the consultation process with users. I had shown the pro and con arguments as discussed by users on the "getinvolvedinthecity" website. That is the reason why the image appears twice: once in colour and once in b/w.









Photography © Julia Horbaschk

The "brick" was discussed in terms of the many bodge jobs around the city and the viability of time, replacing just one brick. There seems to be a lack of looking at infrastructural planning from a wider perspective. The constant need to patch up affected surfaces results in inconsistencies visible on the streets. This seemed to shift peoples thoughts onto the negative impact caused by outsourcing public building works to a spread of private companies.

We also discussed the title: Unfrastructure. This term is of course made up and I derived at it when playing with the word infrastructure for a while. "infra" comes from Latin and stands for "below" referring to what's underneath structures. I have also noticed that the word infrastructure is no longer purely confined to the built environment. When researching infrastructure you will come across "social infrastructure" or "information infrastructure". I have also observed a trend in the making of new terms i.e. in regards to nature and sustainability I came across "Infranature".

The support of "large infrastructure projects" seems to be one of the goals of the new UK government and I wonder of course where this will take us. A lot of what I have seen around me is neglected infrastructure and the remains of UN-done projects that once set out as Capital Projects e.g. schools and leisure redevelopments. Hence I have come up with the term UNfrastructure.

After my talk I felt reassured that it is not just me who feels strongly about the neglected infrastructure, and I have started to make contact with other artist who are commenting on similar issues. I have also instated a Flickr group and noticed that beyond the photographer's love to depict derelict sites the meaning of their images sometimes lies deeper then expected.

Danny Wilson once expressed this as ”Traversing the contemporary landscape searching for clues to inner states”. Danny also noted something else about his work that I relate to: “I have begun to be interested how human society co-exists with the natural world, how it asserts its own order onto the surrounding environment, and investigating how in some cases the natural world has become a constructed reality.“ This is visible in my images of tree stems.

The aesthetics of documentary photography in contemporary practice has become of interest to me in 2007 during my MA when I started writing about the overlap of photo journalism and contemporary photographic art.


My own practice has recently changed with a higher emphasis on the conceptual approach. Yet I still feel that the work is deeply rooted in documentary practice as the images stem from observations and walks across the city.

However, many of the images have a deeper meaning to me then being purely observational.

All images in my Unfrastructure project are unaltered except for level adjustments and one image being changed into black and white.

All Photography © Julia Horbaschk

Please visit the exhibition page to stay up to date with the development of the Unfrastructure project.

References:
www.re-title.com/artists/Danny-Wilson.asp
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue6/aestheticsofdocumentary.htm
http://www.bpb.org.uk/exhibitions/9148/bpb-curated-strange-familiar-three-views-of-brighton/

Friday 8 October 2010

Road 3

My practice continued to be a somewhat intuitive and personal one without the basis of any facts. The scenes jumped at me whilst I was out with my camera absorbing the general feel of my new neighbourhood. I had been reading Alain de Botton and was inspired by Baudrillard's philosophies e.g. technological progress affecting social change.























Looking at the 200+ images I had taken by now, themes started to reoccur: transport, surfaces, roads and the environment all played a vital role. I became interested in the planning process of the city and started to wonder if and how citizens shape
our environment. Rather then just being observant I wanted to find out how people are getting involved.

When following up the local newspaper, the councils website and the new book releases of: "A guide to new ruins of Great Britain", I came across a few web entries that had commented on issues visible in my photographs (although on a much smaller scale).

Some of those comments are an outlet for anger, some discuss sensible solutions to local issues and others are amusing. There is "The Case for Banning BBQs on the Beaches and in the Parks" or housing issues in the South East as well as the "Concrete way of access" a critique of disabled facilities along the beach.

A few of these online discussions have in fact resulted in small changes such as special BBQ bin/containers along the Brighton and Hove beach front,
however, little evaluation can be found on how useful these changes are. Overall, there seems to be a feeling of discontent.

My photographs seem to
capture this feeling of discontent although in some there is a glance of hope. The work aims to raise discussions about civic engagement: it's pleasures as well as it problems.

All Photography © Julia Horbaschk

References:
www.alaindebotton.com
www.getinvolvedinthecity.org.uk

Sunday 3 October 2010

Road 2

Road two is a little more diverse in it's approach.
A note of a missed delivery on Kings Road arches?
Hexagons drawn in an empty space on Hove seafront.
Discarded bag and cracked new asphalt hugging an old tree.

A more poetic approach, looking at my everyday environment rather intuitively.























All Photography © Julia Horbaschk

Monday 27 September 2010

Road 1

An update on my latest project 'Unfrastructure', which is showing at the Brighton Photo Fringe 5th Nov. - 16th Nov. 2010 at the Old Co-op, London Road, Brighton. The project is open for submission until 20th October: www.photofringe.org/?p=1339

Here firstly a summary of the project with some background references:

'Unfrastructure' developed somewhat innocently as an aesthetic and positive image making drive after being photographically inactive for some time.










All photos © Julia Horbaschk

After several journeys through the city I decided to delve deeper into an idea that has been in my mind for some time. In my everyday commute to work I have been observing the deteriorating infrastructure on road and roadsides. But also the current political climate and the cuts the country is awaiting suggest that some of these issues may increase unless something changes.

E.g. large potholes, broken trees, cracked walls and missing pipes. In my Photography MA I had already started thinking about how we can affect change without realising that I had just done it (although on a very small scale): It was due to a picture I took of a large pothole by Churchill Square in Brighton that the Highway Maintenance team repaired it within 24 hours.














I started thinking about cycling and town planning more critically, looking at cycle lanes in Brighton&Hove and their effects. The result was a small study along Marine Parade and occasional other snapshots around town.


Without entering the discussion for or against cyclists in town, there seemes to be a planning issue on the ground.

Cycle lanes in surreal places, cycle lanes as short as 2 metres and NO cycle lanes makes it difficult for cyclists, pedestrians and cars alike to use the roads in harmony. In financially difficult times, bicycles are on the increase, demanding better facilities and better infrastructure.

Having interviewed a few cyclists, one could say the common sense of the public prevails that of the planning team. On the positive side efforts are made by the town to increase access for cyclists with more bike racks and added lanes, yet there seems to be no evaluation of the changes implemented?

The aging infrastructure of towns like Brighton also don't necessarily allow for the much needed improvements.


In his Metropoli project John Davies (2008) observes: "A theme that has became increasingly important is to question as well as celebrate our collective responsibility in shaping the environments in which we live."

I then started observing some environmental issues in the city. Having looked at Stuart Franklin's work for many years there seems to be a real opportunity for environmental photography in the city. The difference to nature photography Frankin notes lies in "attending to the human presence as a part of, and impacting upon, the natural world it sets out to present a more realistic view of Planet Earth dominated, as it is, by us."

Views of trees cemented into the ground, crippled trees and the neglect of public greens bring to mind the impact we, as citizens, have as well as testifying to an aging infrastructure.













All photos © Julia Horbaschk

Those two aspects, urban infrastructural issues and environmental neglect in the city seem to be the common denominator in my image making and it is those which shape 'Unfrastructure' at this stage. Road 2 to follow...

References:
www.johndavies.uk.com/metropoli.htm
http://blog.magnumphotos.com/stuart_franklin.html
www.stuartfranklin.com

Thursday 8 July 2010

Prep the Fringe 2010

In preparation for the Brighton Photo Fringe for the 4th time! This is an extremely busy year and despite most good venues apparently being taken up by the Brighton Photo Biennial, I am trying my luck once again...

I really look forward to seeing Alex Soth's work, however, in the meantime I have the difficult task of finding a space and deciding what work to put up. There is the option of showing work from my 2007 trip to China or to go with my more recent "Unfrastructure" project, which is still ongoing.

There is also a chance to curate some work of Chinese photographers through my good friend Wonder Wang, who is currently undertaking a PHD in Photography at Bolton University and who is involved in the curating of a Chinese photo festival this year. Choices choices choices...

Here a quick insight into the work from China followed by my "Unfrastructure" project:

China: During the study on the MA International Photojournalism course in Dalian I have attempted a few themes, ranging from "housing and estates" to "cityscapes", "seascapes" as well as "landscapes" plus a "Chinese wedding fair" and my favourite "bicycles", somewhat a minority on Chinese roads now!

















Photos © Julia Horbaschk

Unfrastructure: A more conceptual approach. Photographs of structures that I find amusing, silly, unusual or surprising. The work comments on the lack of value or appreciation for long term thinking and nature conservation.

It is based on observations and tries to hint on shared experiences and issues to do with the infrastructural problems on the ground. However, rather then just being critical it is meant to ask questions and engage the audience. Questions such as: why do we often feel paralysed when discovering faults or how can we create change rather then just complain? I hope that the photographs stimulate a discussion about civic engagement.

The themes currently include: nature within the city, property up keeping and the transport and traffic systems within Brighton and Hove/ nearby areas.
















Photos © Julia Horbaschk


I welcome any constructive comments. In particular about which project to carry forward to this year's Photo Fringe.

If you want to take part in the Brighton Photo Fringe contact: info@photofringe.org
Deadline for registration is Monday, 26th July. The next meeting for those who haven't found a space yet or need further advice is on Thursday, 29th July 6-8pm at the Phoenix Gallery red room in Brighton.

If you feel your work relates and you would like to work together please contact me: j.horbaschk@gmail.com


Monday 8 March 2010

Julia's BTEC National Award students complete photo assignment on "transport"


Please respect the © Copyright

© Connor Barnes


© Melissa Collins


© Kayleigh Blaker


© Katie Harding


©Harry Edwards


© Grace Flynn


© Chloe Ryan

© Sam Bayliss Ibram


© Julia Horbaschk