WRITTEN RESPONSE

When talking about investigating, it usually means carefully seeing or examining something or some places deeply. In this brief, as a designer, we aim to look closely and critically and take a creative, open-ended approach to create a new understanding of the site we chose to investigate. To elaborate on that, my visual outcome from this investigation finds similarities and connections to the work of Agnès Varda, The Gleaners and I, 2000 and Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 1974, which I will describe further in this written response.

In Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I, 2000, Varda sets out to make a documentary about the lives of gleaners and questions about the act of gleaning, which it simply could mean collecting leftover food or crops after a harvest. However, as Varda analyzes her own gleaning and takes us to a self-reflection of what it means to glean, the word glean then shifts its meaning from collecting leftovers to collecting information which is what Vanda did with her film. The concept or idea of questioning the act of gleaning shares a resemblance with my investigation, where instead of “gleaning”, I question the act of “observing” by using a peephole as an investigation tool. My work took the form of a short documentary that provides an interactive experience to form the question around the idea of not just observing but also giving the audience a sense of being observed simultaneously.

With Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 1974, Perec introduces new perspectives on familiar spaces like the street or the neighbourhood. He steps away from looking at the space from the usual point of view, which has similarities to my investigation in the case of the approach and process. During my investigation, I also observe the site and what is happening around the site from a different point of view by looking through a peephole which produces a new way of seeing a typical residential area that does not have much of activities around. Another connection I notice between Perec’s book and my work is how he pays close attention to details. It resembles how I look at my chosen site, which has a macroscopic scale through a microscope lens.

In conclusion, both references share connections with my investigation in a way in which produces a new way of seeing the spaces critically and creatively.

Reference list

Perec, G. (1974) Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. London: Penguin.

The Gleaners and I (2000) Directed by Agnès Varda [Film]. New York, Zeitgeist Films.