With the Technology module out of the way and the DS3 draft hand-in coming up imminently, it has felt like a good time to really reconnect with the Pomona Island site again. A lot of my recent focus has been on investigations into the construction process, so having the DS3 draft hand-in is a good incentive to zoom out again and consider the project from its origins to the point that it has evolved to thus far. With this in mind, I decided to revisit the site again.
Dock at the southern end of the site viewed from the bridge at dusk
Preparation and objectives
Before going, I had a think about the specific objectives that I wanted to achieve from it. These were:
To refamiliarise myself with the site as a whole by walking through every part of it, including areas that I hadn't managed to reach on the previous visit.
To gain a greater understanding of its immediate context and surroundings by walking the length of the site from the opposite sides of both the Bridgewater Canal and Ship Canal.
To heavily document all of this photographically and videographically, both for my present and future reference, and to provide visual context in future visuals and sections.
To take series of photos that I can collage together to make long, photographic site sections and elevations, which can can convey a feeling of moving through the site.
The photographic equipment that I took with me on this site visit were my phone and a GoPro. On the previous visit, I had taken a DSLR in place of the GoPro but had found that on the whole the phone pictures turned out better. Having never used a GoPro before, I wanted to try it and see how pictures and videos turned out from that, anticipating that it could be particularly good for filming video sequences walking through and around the site.
Reflection
The results of this visit were mixed.
On a positive note, it definitely helped re-establish my focus on the material reality of the site, and allowed me to think about how the fabric formwork construction method could manifest itself on the site. I also managed to capture quite a lot of video footage using the GoPro which is interesting in and of itself to show the site in its present state, incorporating the sounds of nature and surrounding city-life which is not conveyed in photographs.
Wandering along some of the informal paths on Pomona
The negative side of this visit was that I discovered only upon returning to Leeds that my attempt at taking photographic sequences on the GoPro as a basis for site photographic sections were unsuccessful. Pushed for time with the fading light and my return train already booked, I had rushed this part of my data collection, which I had left until last, and I hadn't realised that the GoPro wasn't instantly capturing the photo when I pressed the shutter. As a result, many of the photos were blurred or showed the ground instead.
The upshot of this is that I have decided to return to site again, probably in a week's time. Whilst this is unfortunate in that it is another day used up, when I need to be producing work for DS3, it does mean that I get more time exploring the site. I usually find with site visits that every new visit yields something interesting and new which I hadn't observed before, so hopefully this will prove to be the case in this instance.
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