RMITLA10-TF3&H3: Rewrite/Reconfigure/Reintroduce

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Rewrite/Reconfigure/Reintroduce

Designed space within the public realm is developed for functionality and social interaction of the users. This paper explores the possibility of restructuring and reengineering these spaces in which we are all drawn to. It looks at attempting to do this through rescripting the intricate social fabric of the wider community, which will engage people within the space, providing a sense of place and of purpose. This will allow for interactive space, both for the people within it and the landscape in which they are present.

What implications will this have on the wider community? How does one begin to rewrite/reconfigure/reintroduce ideologies into the mind of an individual/group, who already have/has their own ideas about what is considered a “good landscape” with a distinctive genius loci?

A sense of pride and of pride of place is something which is indicative of the Australia and the Australian culture. I will investigate preconceived ideas regarding the typical Anglo-Australian middle class family, through the study of Rob Sitch’s The Castle. Looking at some of the embedded themes within the film, I will focus on the issues regarding the Kerrigan family’s contentment versus the upper class’ constant necessity for wealth and spending; contrasting the family’s ideologies with that of the Utopian and Modernist critics and writers, I will investigate works from Trieb and Heynen in an attempt to highlight the key differences.

Using BiG as an exemplar for these ideologies, through 2 different precedents I wish to further investigate the use of fun and interaction to ascertain these constructs of reorganization, firstly: driven by fun and enjoyment of the place one is in; and secondly: via the iconic water-centred Australian summer lifestyle, interceding to recognize if this idea of rapid social reorganization could possibly be fulfilled?

key words: contemporary, social fabric, community, utopian.