THE UNDERPASS
What is it about a place, that makes it a place? Does it need to be owned — like a home, a workplace, or a recreational area? If a place is defined by how it is or was used, does that not mean we can always reinvent it?
The Underpass was a speculative study that posed all these questions. Its locus was a rather grim passage under the motorway in East Glasgow, which saw the empty space as an opportunity to create an original locale while preserving its genuine spirit, and called to reuse the rough urban area as a performative playground. The audience was invited to an augmented outdoor exhibition: the walls and floors of the underpass were captioned and transformed into an imaginary gallery space. Each caption was QR-coded and linked to eight visual “provocations” that suggested possible interactions with the place. These ranged from surface examinations to myth creation and explored aspects such as social usability, history, liminality, philosophy, art, and environmental impact.
The exhibition is partially accessible by scanning the captions hidden within the underpass (some of which have disappeared) at coordinates 55.867116, -4.234409, or it can be fully explored here.
The Underpass was a speculative study that posed all these questions. Its locus was a rather grim passage under the motorway in East Glasgow, which saw the empty space as an opportunity to create an original locale while preserving its genuine spirit, and called to reuse the rough urban area as a performative playground. The audience was invited to an augmented outdoor exhibition: the walls and floors of the underpass were captioned and transformed into an imaginary gallery space. Each caption was QR-coded and linked to eight visual “provocations” that suggested possible interactions with the place. These ranged from surface examinations to myth creation and explored aspects such as social usability, history, liminality, philosophy, art, and environmental impact.
The exhibition is partially accessible by scanning the captions hidden within the underpass (some of which have disappeared) at coordinates 55.867116, -4.234409, or it can be fully explored here.