My initial focus was going to be the street that I live on as I’ve found out so much history since moving in 6 months ago – however I’ve already done so much digging about this area and know all our neighbours quite well so I’d just be reusing existing knowledge and not actually finding out something new.
Being a York citizen, I never do the touristy things in this City. Even this week I’ve had regulars come into the shop doing one of the York trails that they’ve never done before. I think when you live in a place like this you only ever start to notice the bleak and negative aspects of the city. We constantly walk past beautiful landmarks but never notice them, we walk on thousands of years old streets and don’t consider what’s underneath us. So therefore we went on a nice touristy walk around York, the main tourist street is the Shambles which is SO full of history it’s mindblowing. The amount of different history behind each store front is so beautiful and well preserved.
However, every shop I went into to talk to the people who worked there, they had no idea what the shop was used for before – upon further digging, the oldest shop on that street closed down two years ago and since then, 4 Harry Potter shops, 2 Viking shops, 1 ghost shop and numerous cafes have opened up in the place of the old traditional stores.
The photographs above show the historice nature of the street, it was originally a butcher’s street selling meat out of the store fronts with pigs hanging from the butchers hooks which can still be seen to this day. Even the back of the stores were used as slaughter houses. As you can see from the photos below, the street has now become a complete tourist trap and sady no longer has the same charm it used to have. I videoed the street from all aspects; above, below, straight on and from both sides. I wanted the viewer to experience the street from all angles. Each video by itself is a really good representation of the street as it currently is.
The moment you walk off the Shambles, you are met with an empty store. For me, this sums up York as a city perfectly. We spend each and every day walking past these historical monuments and the empty shops and just ignore both. I then spent the rest of the day doing an alternative tour of York – the Empty Store Tour. As I was walking along, i drew out a map (which has turned out to be VERY inaccurate but that was the point). I wanted to replicate the idea of walking through a city with a map that doesn’t correlate at all. I then made a note as I drew of the empty shops I came across and took photographs of the fronts. It really shocked me just how many empty stores there were in one small area.
I initially wanted to use this and follow down my research path of Ley Lines but there were so many empty stores I just couldn’t work out how to easily represent these empty shops on one line. Despite my love of the Ley Lines I had to let that go and think about how best to represent the two sides of the city I had just captured.
Because I had recorded different parts of the street, I wanted these to be laid out so it’s an almost immersive experience. I also wanted the audio I had recorded to be quite clear over the music to add an extra depth of immersion.
In order for the juxtaposition of the historic Shambles to work with the empty stores, I decided to include “blink-and-you-miss-it” style clips of the pictures taken of the empty streets. I intended for this to be quite a jarring cut into the video which relaxes you into a false sense of security with the music and voices.
The music chosen is by Einaudi; music commonly chosen to chill out to and has been carefully composed with specific “relaxed” notes. He is a fantastic composer and one I enjoy listening to, therefore I used this music as a perfect contrast to the audio I recorded of the street.
I recorded this audio when taking one of my videos, I love the quiet hubub, the short snippets of conversations, the slamming of a door. I think it really helps understand how the street is used today.
I hope the final product produces a couple of completely different feelings and emotions, intended to make the viewer rethink their outlook on the world. My reaction to the video posted by Susanna (Jessica Bishops’ Platform 1), the combination of music and images really made me rethink the way I see and record the world.
I wanted to create a piece that highlighted what I personally don’t notice on a daily basis – It combines the fact that I very rarely notice the beauty in this city and I also actively ignore the ugly.
Changes made after feedback:
My feedback this week was related to the audio and how it’s not quite clear what this video could be used for. Also Sarah mentioned highlighting the “blink-and-you-miss-it” elements with the audio. I also wanted to create a bit of an impact with the statistics and figures I’d picked up whilst researching.
I therefore changed the video so it could be used as a marketing tool for York Council – it could be displayed down a “snicket” off the main touristy streets and used as an alternative tour of York. Highlighting how the empty shops aren’t being utilised in the correct way and making people stop and think about where they are buying from and encouraging them to support the local economy.
It’s a tool for both tourists and locals – it’s also important to note that the music and video needs to reflect York with it’s historical text and relaxing feel. But I added in some disruptive white noise audio whilst the empty shops are displayed. I then added extra statistics at the end.
I also mocked up the video to reflect how it could be shown throughout the City and used as a tool for the Council to promote local shops and boost the local economy.
Personally, I also recognise the need for me to experiment further with research methods and more hands on note taking – i.e. take rubbings of the stones etc. I am looking forward to using the new methods of research to use in my own designs and adding the extra “local” feel to the work I produce.
Hannah Elizabeth Design 