ADS6: The Deindustrial Revolution – Garden of Making
Georgie McEwan
Before studying at RCA, Georgie completed her undergraduate degree in Architecture at Newcastle University. Following this, she worked as an Architectural Assistant at Charlie Luxton Design in Oxford and Interior Design Assistant at BDP in Bristol. She then lived in Amsterdam, where she interned at Studio Prototype followed by PolyLester, a multidisciplinary studio established by visual artist Gabriel Lester. In this time, Georgie worked on a variety of projects focusing on architectural interventions, public sculptures, residential architecture, interior design and landscape. Notable projects include Trek- an installation in Peckham as a collaboration between PolyLester and the South London Gallery, and Nucleus- a pavilion for Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, also with PolyLester.
Awards include RIBA West Student nomination for her first year MA project (June 2019) and finalist for the Non Architecture ‘Thinking’ Competition (August 2018).
Georgie’s work at the RCA has been exhibited as part of ADS11/Rotor’s ‘Greater London Transformation’ Exhibition at the Silver Building in London (March 2019), as well as part of ADS6’s Exhibition at Seminario 12 in Mexico City (February 2020).
A Poetry of Fragments reconsiders the archive as an interactive and spatial practice. The varied and poetic work of the late filmmaker Derek Jarman, currently found in various special collection libraries is used for this study. His legacy is reorganised into three spatial iterations: The Book Of Poetic Acts, A Gaze Through The Window, and the Dungeness School Of Fragments.
Iteration 1 : The Book Of Poetic Acts, is a manual that uses poetry and translation to re-interpret archival material spatially. This might materialise equally as instruction, object or performance.
Iteration 2 : A Gaze Through The Window: Is an interactive model, that allows the participant to understand and reimagine Jarman’s stage designs, both digitally and physically.
Iteration 3 : The Dungeness School Of Fragments, performed as a community-wide residency, investigates the legacy of Jarman's Prospect Cottage, though an educational programme. It speculates the archive at the scale of the landscape and community through collaborative creativity.
Through each of these iterations, the project celebrates the fragmented nature of the archive and uses poetry to translate this spatially into an alternative architectural methodology.
A Poetry of Fragments bids us to trust in the adventure of not knowing, to engage in the freedom of the imagination.
Encounters in Derek Jarman's archival world
Sketches of Sketches
The Dadaist Bag of Archival Fragments
![Super 8 moments [1]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594299022/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdaad6b9875c4cffd1669a-550277-resize-1920-2560)
Super 8 moments [1]
![Super 8 moments [2]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594299022/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdaad6b9875c4cffd1669a-630315-resize-1920-2560)
Super 8 moments [2]
![Super 8 Moments [3]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594299022/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdaad6b9875c4cffd1669a-798418-resize-1920-2560)
Super 8 Moments [3]
A Poetry of Objects: The Collection
Found Objects
The Book of Poetic Acts: The Collection
Instruction
Response
Make a tapestry of Moods
You never quite know
Where you are going next
Draw an Indigo Sky and
A bright yellow half moon set amongst
The stars, over the shimmering lights
Of the nuclear plant
[Instructions are conceived through Dada poetic methods, where fragments from Derek Jarman’s archive are combined into new assemblages of meaning, and then take form as object, painting or performance.]
Instruction
![Response [1]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb0e2b9875c4cffd200a8-258306-resize-1920-2560)
Response [1]
![Response [2]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb0e2b9875c4cffd200a8-367374-resize-1920-2560)
Response [2]
![Response [3]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb0e2b9875c4cffd200a8-392470-resize-1920-2560)
Response [3]
Draw this maze around you.
[Instructions are conceived through Dada poetic methods, where fragments from Derek Jarman’s archive are combined into new assemblages of meaning, and then take form as object, painting or performance.]
Instruction
![Response [1]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594243102/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb6d1b9875c4cffd2ba87-762833-resize-1920-2560)
Response [1]
![Response [2]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594243102/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb6d1b9875c4cffd2ba87-811608-resize-1920-2560)
Response [2]
![Response [3]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594243102/gatsby-cloudinary/5efdb6d1b9875c4cffd2ba87-905482-resize-1920-2560)
Response [3]
Painting series for a ballet
Three paintings titled:
Time is scattered,
The past and the future,
The future and the present.
Paintings as narrative
Azure,
Glitterbug.
[Instructions are conceived through Dada poetic methods, where fragments from Derek Jarman’s archive are combined into new assemblages of meaning, and then take form as object, painting or performance.]
A Beached Glitterbug Shadow
Delphinium Prospect Drapery
Azure Monuments To Past Time
The Shingle
The Kingdom of Outremer
Pearl Fishers
Upon discovering Jarman’s forgotten stage designs in the V & A theatre and performance archives, fragments are reinterpreted into a cast of poetic characters that celebrate this legacy in a model space.
Including:
A Beached Glitterbug Shadow combines emerald floor tiles from the book of poetic acts with Jarman’s archway design for the 1968 production of Don Giovanni.
Delphinium Prospect Drapery references a drawing for the ballet Jazz calendar combined with an embroidered cape from iteration one.
Azure Monuments To Past Time are forms extracted from Jarman’s backdrop of Don Giovanni painted to match the painting series for a ballet.
The Shingle combines an image from the performative puddle piece with traced organic forms from Jarman’s designs for Jazz Calender.
![A Gaze Through The Window [digital]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5eff8c22b9875c4cff0322e0-910483-resize-1920-2560)
A Gaze Through The Window [digital]
As you weave across the stage, The Kingdom of Outremer looms behind, The Shingle lies scattered on the floor, A Beached Glitterbug Shadow appears to float in the space, the Gold Etched Billowing Clouds drift by the window...
![A Gaze Through The Window [physical]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5eff8e29b9875c4cff033d17-785938-resize-1920-2560)
A Gaze Through The Window [physical]
![A Gaze Through The Window [introducing: the physical cast]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5eff8e29b9875c4cff033d17-636188-resize-1920-2560)
A Gaze Through The Window [introducing: the physical cast]
![A Gaze Through The Window [introducing: the physical cast]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/w_1920,f_auto,q_auto/v1594241488/gatsby-cloudinary/5eff8e29b9875c4cff033d17-734384-resize-1920-2560)
A Gaze Through The Window [introducing: the physical cast]
Digital characters are then translated to physical. This collection of components is curated in a physical model space, as a reimagined archival stage set. The model can be unpacked and re-arranged from a box of parts, to be assembled amongst a world of ready-mades, as an unfolding gaze through a window of mysticism.
The School facilitates the active participation of students, tutors and volunteers in an ongoing program of poetic acts in this unique and otherworldly setting. These acts evolve as fragments of Derek Jarman’s creative legacy, born through prioritising a poetic engagement with the imagination and the landscape.
The School begins with poetry. Teaching takes place on site and employs poetic methods to activate the design process, from which the school and its semi-permanent, artisanal architecture gradually evolves.
Its architecture isn’t about the building itself but the conception of it, as a collaboration of learning between students, tutors and landscape.
The first poetic act is conceived at Britannia inn. Initial gathering takes place inside the pub, and soon evolves into this trio of greenhouse extensions- named the cape classrooms. The ongoing program of workshops are housed here, following the assemblage of these spaces by members of the school. The fisherman’s hut-like frames are wrapped in translucent capes, their envelopes gradually becoming adorned with beach combed discoveries and the exhibition of Klein blue workshop creations. It unfolds into a space of learning, experimentation and curiosity.
The second poetic act is conceived at the shingle horizon between the garden of Prospect Cottage and the looming Nuclear Power Station beyond. The horizon stage is a space for performance, that frames the surrounding landscape as a rotational backdrop, with an additional dressing room space behind. Its translucent drapery may be adjusted to reveal the changing scenery beyond. Just like the luminous presence of the power station in the distance, the horizon stage evolves as another mysterious fragment amongst this vast horizon of oddments.
The third poetic act is conceived a the Boardwalk on Dungeness beach. The cloud pylon pier is a sculptural celebration of the school, and evolves with the passing of time. It is inspired by the stark vertical language of Dungeness’s scattering of lighthouses, navigation towers and electric pylons, combined with a traced form from Jarman’s Jazz Calendar stage designs. This becomes a space for gathering and contemplation, adding to this unfolding collection of fragments in this otherworldly landscape.