Blog: New Ventures and General Thoughts

These last couple weeks have been a bit all over the place for good reasons.  After a year and a bit of doing primarily freelance work I got offered a job which I am enjoying a great deal.  It has allowed me continue my work within the heritage sector while continuing to grow my people skills; of which I’m interacting with from lots of different national backgrounds.  In essence, this work is very similar to my small local museum, just on a much larger scale. 

This job has required me to commute for a relatively large distance (~3 hours a day) but it has allowed me to have time to think about new topics and ways to discuss ideas through the duality of architecture and video games.  Well, I would say that but there has been a couple other things on my mind thou.  First of all, I have ~160 years of maritime history to learn alongside local history which has occupied a decent amount of time and secondly I’ve kind of been tripping over thoughts I’ve already brought up.  To give an example, commuting has got me thinking about the occupation of space in transit which I’ve pretty much talked about 3-4 times at this rate so it’d probably be best to leave that alone for a while.  So what I thought I would do is give a couple ideas I’m working on with some brief notes and we’ll go from there.  As the title suggests, think of this as a typical blog over regular stuff.

Facades

I’m currently working in the area of Greenwich which has some great pieces of architecture nestled within its borough.  One piece I have a particular interest in is the maritime museum which has a fantastic façade with its pronounced pillars and wings accenting the main building.  This got me thinking about two things: the grand buildings made in games full of design and intricacy that are primarily used to wow the audience and the everyday building that fills sandbox city games like grand theft auto.  I’m more inclined to talk about the everyday buildings but I need to play some recent titles like GTAV or Watch_dogs to build up a better assessment. 

Transitions

This one is a bit more abstract but pretty much I’m thinking about the process of moving from one space to another.  This was somewhat influenced by the recent play through of Dark Souls by Extra Credits as the game does doors pretty well with its overbearing doors requiring effort from the player to open.  I’ve got a selection of games I would like to talk about this so I will probably be looking to do this next. 

Layered design

In terms of video games, it would probably be better to say “verticality” but I felt that would associate the subject with tall structures.  What I was thinking about was the different between architecture being built on top of each other and the spaces in-between them, creating new experiences.  This was inspired from my travels on the Docklands Light Railway which tends to travel on a multi-layered track which is visible to the everyday traveller.  A game like Deus-ex: Human Revolution comes to mind when talking about this as its hub towns feature a great deal of these concepts, but as with these other subjects I would like to get some more knowledge of the subject. 

So that’s everything to do with me at the moment.  Things have been really busy recently and I wanted to write something to make sure I didn’t just stay mute for two weeks.  Hopefully this will give an insight into my thought process and see what’s to come.  

The Everyday Commute: Taking the Sights in

Over this past week and a bit, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in a number of projects and potential job interviews where I get to be a part of something I enjoy greatly.  The flip-side of this is that it has involved quite a bit of travelling so naturally things like this get pushed back.  Today I want to talk about my experiences of these journeys and the minor details that I found interesting through them. 

The idea of commuting is of course not an uncommon sight to behold, especially in the capital city of a nation, but being unable to drive I’ve always had the concept of commuting in my sight as a means to combat this issue.  For many people, the use of public transport for work is a mundane thing as it naturally becomes an everyday occurrence, but for me I’ve always had an enjoyment of travelling in an environment where I can continue to do other things while in transit.  This may be due to not experiencing said journeys in such high volume as the typical commuter, but time will tell whether this could become a thing. 

The journeys I had last week revolved around a need to commute into London via a combination of Bus and Tube within a timeframe of 1-3 hours, with minimal need to change lines between destinations.  Because of this, I was able to do last minute prep for interviews and consider some last minute ‘blue sky’ thinking for some ideas that may seem a bit odd.  While doing this, I started to consider the change in environment both internally (the train) and externally (local environment) and see how much was truly happening architecturally. 

As my closest tube station is Epping, my journey would always start on the Central line moving into London via Stratford bringing with it a mostly natural environment of trees and fields with a range of typical post-war terrace housing and older Victorian dwellings as I got within greater London.  Most of this didn’t really interest me, but what did was a rather large cemetery around Woodford / Buckhurst Hill (I think within that range maybe slightly further) which featured a range of colours from the donated flowers of loved ones contrasting the grey headstones dominating the landscape.  Internally, the carriage was an older model juddering along representing a line that could possibly do with some maintenance bringing an interesting dynamic to the passengers; with some carrying on their day and others showcasing a visual dislike for the situation.  The advertisements on show presented a fresh-foods monthly sub-box service (something that I personally don’t find much interest in) and vistas of the Las Vegas strip with that ever present ‘what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas’ which in my experience doesn’t really happen these days due to the advent of instant-access social media and my past two weeks of Facebook. 

The later parts of my journeys, in particular one to Harrow, felt rather different to this but in subtle ways (if that makes sense somehow?)  My experience of western London is somewhat limited to Hammersmith and upon talking to a number of friends / family they seemed to think that the area was rather upmarket (generally speaking not specifically the Borough).  What I was met with was a continued lowering of building density you would expect and a range of Victorian / post-war housing and the occasional parkland or stadium.  With that being said, going past Wembley Stadium it was interesting to see the range of corrugated iron sheds near to the track being dwarfed by this iconic structure; making me think about the Concept of high-art ‘Pillar of Fire’ in action around its revellers in their settlements that pale in comparison in the brief time I was able to see it while going past.  The train itself was a much more modern version with larger interior space and a smooth ride, aiding my ability to continue to write some plans and listen to an audiobook without physical or audio interruption. 

Overall, my past week of journeys have been an interesting experience for me and I hope to be able to have this potential means of working with people further beyond my usual local historic environment.  I don’t want to be held back with potential projects / jobs because the commute maybe a bit long and I do enjoy having the time to have some time to jot down thoughts and relax on the way to work.  Of course, time will tell if this viewpoint stays but here’s to joining the ranks of some million+ people who do it every day. 

One last thought, on the bus from Epping, there was an advert for Chlamydia by the NHS showcasing its potential hidden growth and ease of treatment with an aesthetic I would class as a cross between ‘visual novel’ and ‘graffiti’.  A minor point but I found it funny : )