Websites
are comunication resources that inform, entertain,
and connect. Often several functions occur at once and without clear
explanation of the creator's intentions. This website fits
that description. I've designed it with several functions, some of which are more clearly explained than others,
some of which are more serious than others, and some which are
more current than others. But it will inform, perhaps entertain,
and could connect.
The
site is conceptually organised around the topics of work,
play and biography. These distinctions are generally stable,
but sometimes they collapse into one another. This is to be
expected.
Each
topic
has elements of information, entertainment and archival
functions. The work-related material is generally explained
more overtly than either of the other two topics, whereas the
biographical and play features are generally presented
without explanantion, primarily as Flash movies, but also as
text and graphics.
Some
areas of the site are of more recent origin than others.
Some of the older bits are timeless or precious little
artefacts, while others are simply out of date. I tend
to develop and update in piecemeal fashion rather than
rebuilding all at once. The site is a structure that's simultaneously
being built, extended, remodeled, neglected, abandoned and
knocked down. I make the stuff, I build the site, I update it.
As time allows.
The
Big Intention
One
of the more overt, ambitious and difficult intentions for
this site
is that it function as a guide to the kinds
of work I am trying to do. In particular, the site is meant
to introduce my work on landscape issues, including the study
of landscape as a manifestation of social relations, my research
on the role of dereliction as a social space, and the role of landscape design in fostering,
mediating or thwarting social relations, such as
the ways landscape design is used to promote social engagement,
community and inclusion in
some instances and disengagement, isolation and exclusion in others. Sometimes
I think I'm trying to uncover that which landscape design obscures.
Sometimes I think I'm just writing about what I see.
The big
intent is to write about these things in an overarching way,
and to practice what I preach by developing socio-spatial projects.
This is more easily said than done. I am assembling a profession through my
own research and by getting involved in other people's projects
when I have the chance. The thing starts and stops, is shunted
to one side
and finds new terrain to cover. It is not a linear process,
but something headed in several directions at once, and
always in danger of total collapse.
The
website is a vehicle for showing some of those directions,
albeit in a fragmented fashion. There is no overarching narrative
as yet. For the moment, it exists mainly in my mind, not here on the page.
The task of writing an overarching narrative will have to wait
until circumstances make it possible. In the meantime, visitors
have access to parts of the picture, and may find the site both
informative and entertaining.
Biography: The
Professional Is Personal Is Visual
Another
function of the website is to portray some of my background,
both professionally and personally. Showing where I've been makes
it easier to see where I'm going. You want to know a bit
about my background? This is the place to find it. There's a
PDF of my CV, a visual portfolio, a little movie about
where I've lived, and snapshots of family and friends.
Play:
Humor
In Distortion and Variation
In
addition to those functions, the site serves as a vehicle for
my sense of humor, which finds its way into every page, usually
in obscure ways. For example, the color scheme on this page
is derived from the psychedelic beacon on the home page, which
came into existence as a deliberate attempt to create distortion
and feedback in a Flash movie. (It worked!)
The
hexadecimal color of the beacon is 99-99-FF.
Transposing the hexadecimal pairs gave me 99-FF-99
and FF-99-99.
The combination works within the RGB
system, and is similar to the primary triad, but is also distinct from it. In other words, there is
a thematic coherence but it's not the usual one.
Why I would
choose to do something like that is anybody's guess.
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