E V E R Y   D A Y   O L Y M P I C S

This project consisted on the main idea of how the Olympics celebrated in London affected physically the Stratford are and the emotionally the people who lived in the neighbourhood.

We visited Stratford and were instructed to take pictures of all curiosities we found around the area.

The first thing I noticed when walking around was the contrast between what was built for the Olympics, and the old existing buildings. Stratford was divided into two. A clear example was the enormous and new shopping centre, Westfield, and the old shopping centre that was covered and hidden from the new shopping centre by a sculpture built for the Olympics.

When investigating the area I decided to centre myself on abandoned buildings as well as the old council houses that invaded the area.

Before the Olympics started many people where taken out of their houses as some of the council buildings were planned to be demolished. However, these building were never knocked down, but they covered them with big poster advertisements. The government was trying to hide from the world the not so nice parts of Stratford area.

What shook me most of Stratford and the buildings built for the Olympics, specially the accommodations, was that they were all unoccupied. There had been made a lot of improvements in the neighbourhood, but when the Olympics finished, part of it was destroyed or left unfinished.

I decided to base my project on the idea of this big contrast between the Olympics stratford, and the Stratford before the Olympics.

After researching further on the this problem, I came across an article of the Daily Mail which talked about the sorry side of Stratford that the Olympic chiefs didn't want the world to see. The article criticised the fact that although 9.3 billion pounds were spent on the games, with 75 earmarked for regeneration projects, the residents of the area claimed that there had been forgotten a lot of parts in Stratford, and that they couldn't see where the money had gone.

The following images are pictures from the article:

The visit to Stratford and the recompilation of secondary research obtained helped me to reflect on the situation and lead me to the decision of creating an installation that would reflect this complex contrast between the new stratford and the old stratford that still lived together.

My initial idea was based on the technical drawings created in class:

The installation was composed by two wooden boxes suspended by a wire in an open cube which invited the people to interact with. The top box was closed and images of the "nice Stratford" were places so that it was easy and comfortable to look at. However, the bottom box was closed with only a narrow open frame that created an interest on the viewers to bend down (uncomfortable and strange position, which made viewers experience what had happened to people living in stratford) and look inside, to discover the images of the "ugly and old stratford" that was hidden from everyone during the Olympics.

After discussing the idea with my tutor, he encouraged me to create something physic, something I could expose to people and get feedback on the reactions. I found it very challenging, as I had to change the whole design of my project.

Before starting on the new design, I research some artist that centred their works on installations.

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I took Tom Burr's work as an example, as his work is concerned with the erosion of public spaces, specially the kind that remain in a state of disuse.

The project up to here was very challenging for me, I had to change my whole design and be able to create a physical installation that I could expose to the public, meaning that it had to be something simple to create, but very effective too.

The final installation was created by two simple pieces, a piece of glass, and a piece of plywood. The piece of glass was reclined on a wall where all the images of the "nice Olympic stratford" where displayed. I choose glass, as it is an expensive material that references all the new buildings built in the area (for example, Westfield). Moreover, the piece of plywood was placed on the floor creating a sort of a dyptique with the glass piece. The plywood was chosen because it is a cheap material, and older than glass. The images of the "old/ugly stratford" where placed in this piece making it more uncomfortable for people to look at, playing also with the idea of reflection of the glass piece on the plywood piece.

I placed the work in abandoned areas of streets to intensify the message I tried to expose to the public. The final outcome was not as gratifying as I would had wanted it to be. Reflecting on the initial idea, I though it was a much stronger project than the final piece, although, I obtained what I was looking for which was to document and reflect upon the reactions created by a physical work in the viewers. Having placed the pieces of the installation in the streets, I attracted the curiosity of some people, who looked at the work, and approached me to inquire what it was. I then explained roughy what the main idea was, and finally obtained my main goal which was to expose the problem, and create curiosity on this topic by creating a documentary narration with documents and photographs drawn from mass media, as well as, photographs taken by me.