Assignment 2 BOW

Background

In assignment 1, I worked with 3 ideas, which I narrowed down to one during my tutorial. I didn’t have a defined position on waste. I had planned to take this forward working with fly-tipped waste, although I wasn't sure at what point to report the waste to the council. In hindsight, most of Assignment 1’s ideas needed to be discontinued.

Key learning points for this assignment following feedback after Assignment 1 Body of Work

• Narrow down ideas for BOW
• Develop ideas in CS (Contextual Studies) - I am research waste starting with “Dirt as matter out of place” (Douglas, 1966) and using an industrial site, considering how the site is used and looking at rubbish in the landscape.
• Concentrate on developing one strand and link ideas and photographs
• Be careful not to look at the work of other photographers at this stage so that my work is my own and I am not influenced by anyone
• Develop a position on waste. Do I want to become an activist and raise awareness? Is there a new kind of landscape there? Is it micro or macro level? What am I going to look at in more detail? 

I have worked on BOW assignment 2 in conjunction with the CS literature review so I start to examine some of the issues surrounding dirt and waste which will begin to inform my position. I took the quote “dirt as matter out of place” Mary Douglas (1966:36) as a starting point for my exploration and found that within the context of dirt and waste fall several interesting ideas such as social order, the responsibility of waste, the spectacle of waste and compassion fatigue with images of waste.

A couple of memorable occasions this year opened my thoughts on waste in the landscape. Walking the last few miles of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks I was astounded by the amount of litter left in the landscape by participants. At the other end of the extreme when "lost" in a true Scottish wilderness I found orange peel followed by a burger box. By following the rubbish in the style of Hansel and Gretel, I found a path to follow. I saw similar issues in the local landscape; just on a smaller scale.

The first shoot was concerned with looking at how nature starts to take over waste, items which have found themselves left in the environment for a while. This idea came from reading the introduction to ‘The Ethics of Waste: How we relate to rubbish’ Gay Hawkins (2006) and how nature takes over objects. I continued to think about how to photograph fly-tipped rubbish.

Shoot 1

Figure 1 Is it possible to find things in nature that looked like discarded items?

This might be possible but would take a long time; a project that could take years, so I decided to leave this idea at the beginning.

                                           Figure 2 Nature starting to take over

These images are dark and difficult to see. But is that the point? Are they starting to blend with the earth? I wasn’t convinced so I shared them with the OCA hangout group I belong to and received a mixed reaction from a definite no, to square photographs making the object static and look like the objects had been in the earth for some time. This confirmed my decision not to pursue this and move onto litter. The weather played a part in moving my work forwards because this area became inaccessible due to all the rain.

Shoot 2

A local walk to assess the amount of litter on the old mine site. I planned to leave litter in place in the environment for when I had decided how to photograph it. I counted pieces of litter to categorise it e.g. coffee cup, sweet wrapper, crisp packet, plastic bottles, cans etc. Wearing wellies, I slipped over a wet root and fell hard, and managed to break my camera inside the camera bag. As the walk progressed, the route became inaccessible due to very wet sand and slag. I confirmed there was enough litter to work with, but I need harder surfaces so the multi-user trail (ex-colliery line) would be a good start.

Shoot 3

Figure 3 Distance walked to find 30 pieces of rubbish 1.75miles

Figure 4 List of rubbish found in 1 mile out and back walk

The plan was to start walking around the perimeter of the disused colliery over a few days tracking my route on an app. I would eventually join these maps up and categorise the types of litter found. I planned to collect 15 pieces of rubbish, photograph insitu, then photograph them all together in the environment. I recorded what I saw, starting to formulate questions such as whether I would see the same rubbish or similar number if I walked in a linear direction and collected the rubbish on the return journey. Would I always need to walk the same distance to find 15 pieces or as I leave the populated area would I need to walk further? How many photographs would this entail? How much was now accessible? decided not to include dog-poo bags.

Figure 5 Typology of items found in 1 mile of walking

Figure 6 Typology of the next 3/4 mile of walking

I wondered whether it would work if I photographed insitu and made a typology. I now think it lacks creativity. As the torrential rain started, I collected the rubbish into a bag and brought it back to photograph on a drier day.

I re-walked my Shoot 3 journey with the rubbish, stopping to photograph it at the point where I totalled 15 pieces. At first, I laid out the rubbish in a circle. It didn't show up, but the lighting is quite flat. I was trying to show the environment too. I experimented with a wide-angle lens, in landscape and portrait orientation because the circle appeared lost.

Figure 7 Circle of rubbish 

Figure 8 Circle of rubbish reshoot

By re-positioning the rubbish in the landscape and shooting on a sunnier day, I ended up with a different image. This (fig.8) improved because the landscape is more interesting with better lighting. Maybe the rubbish needs sunlight to give to a new lease of light - a metaphor for re-contextualisation and delivering renewed energy perhaps? I'm wondering if finding interesting shapes in the land and following the shape of the rubbish might work.

Later, I hung the rubbish in the tree. The packets kept blowing away in the wind. Fig 9 didn't show enough environment and I thought the leaves were a distraction, although as the season progresses, the tree will become bare. I wondered if the rubbish would change with time. The colouring is reminiscent of flags.

Figure 9 Rubbish in tree

I walked around the image photographing, and this showed more of the environment.

Figure 10 Rubbish in tree 2

I shared these images with the hangout group, who preferred seeing rubbish in the environment. After reviewing the images and thinking about the difficulty with packets blowing back into the landscape, I decided to hang a washing line and peg rubbish onto it with wooden pegs.

Shoot 4

I repeated the linear ex-colliery railway line walk carrying 30 pieces of rubbish. I set up a washing line between two trees on the old colliery site. I pegged a random 15 pieces of collected rubbish onto the line as they came out of the bag, spacing evenly, not worrying too much about type or colour. 

    Figure 11 The setup

Figure12 Closeup showing the dirt and leaves still attached to the rubbish

Figure 13 Last burst of afternoon sun

Shoot 5

For the final shoot, I took 30 pieces of rubbish back to the ex-colliery and arranged them in different areas of the landscape. A channel had opened showing small pieces of coal fines and a deep puddle due to all the rain. I arranged the rubbish as if it was flowing down to the ocean, thinking about possible compassion fatigue with the number of images of ocean plastics.

Figure 14 River of litter

Figure 15 Waterfall of litter

Figure 16 Waterfall of litter 2

Using the same fissure, I simulated the rubbish as a waterfall, with the same concept. I am not convinced this works though due to the scale of the image.

Figure 17 Piles of natural waste versus man-made waste

Figure 18 Pit top rubbish set up

Fig 17 was an idea about dropping the found rubbish in the landscape, just as workers pile up natural rubbish such as trees. To me, it just looks messy so I wouldn’t pursue it. The wider view (fig 18) shows the colliery, a view that was once dominated by coalmines which now littered with wind turbines in every direction. I experimented with closeup's looking through the litter to the remaining winding towers of the furthest colliery in the distance. I also looked at wind turbines through the litter. The structures are too far away to make this work well. The concept of change sprang to mind – 20 years ago the government were concerned with cleaner air and started closing coal mines. Now they are concerned with litter in the environment and devolving the responsibility down to the public in various forms.

Figure 19 Alternative power

Conceptualisation

I discussed my typology images with the OCA hangout group. I felt they weren’t working so I decided not to carry on with them. It was more important to me that litter became a performance, giving it a new lease of life that if exhibited, people could see that it wasn’t just more litter. I had been following Chloe Juno (photographer) on Instagram who takes photographs of rubbish people leave on the pavement in Brighton. Hers is a long project spanning several years which she exhibits from time to time and occasionally something interesting crops up. Mine is the same old rubbish so it needs to be more creative. Whilst carrying litter backwards and forwards I was reminded of the work of Liz Nicholls’ Rubber Band Project. This has inspired assignment 3 preparation.

Plan

My next idea is to do some alternative photography. I have booked on to a day in Nottingham. I plan to collect litter, clean it and produce cyanotypes. I’m thinking I might be able to make a frame from a palette and carry it into the landscape to photograph in the environment. I saw Alun Kirby’s cyanotypes in Halifax at the OCA North meeting which gave me a couple of ideas to look at.  

Bibliography

Brooks, L and Davoudi, S. (2017) ‘Litter and social practices’ In: Journal of litter and environmental quality 1 (1) pp.16-25. At: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/sites/default/files/resource/KBT_Journal_of_Litter_and_Environmental_Quality_June2017.PDF (Accessed 24/11/19).

Campkin, B. (2013) ‘Placing “Matter Out of Place”: Purity and Danger

as Evidence for Architecture and Urbanism’ In: Architectural Theory Review 18 (1) pp.46-61. At: https://doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2013.785579 (Accessed 10/10/19).

DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2019) Code of Practice on litter and refuse. London. DEFRA. pp3-56. At:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/834331/pb11577b-cop-litter1.pdf (Accessed 20/11/19).

DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2019) Litter Strategy for England. Second annual report. pp1-26. At:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/836953/litter-strategy-annual-report-2018-2019a.pdf (Accessed 24/11/19).

Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. New York: Routledge At: https://monoskop.org/images/7/7d/Douglas_Mary_Purity_and_Danger_An_Analysis_of_Concepts_of_Pollution_and_Taboo_2001.pdf (Accessed 10/10/19).

Hawkins, G. (2006) The Ethics of Waste: How we relate to rubbish. Rowman and Littlefield, Maryland.

MacNaughten, P and Urry, J. (1998) Contested Natures. Sage Publications, London.