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Accidental Monuments

Part 2 Project 2011
Alex Hinds
Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK
Definition:
1. A prophetic layered dream of ruins past, present and future.
2. The hidden layers behind the mask of physicality and reality.
3. A non-space, non-place, accidental happening, accommodating the circumstantial contradictions of an entropic reality.

Abstraction:
An ancient ruin stands decayed and proud; its unending duration reveals the beauty of time through wounds of the past and present. Rarely seen in its entirety, each remaining fragment offers a distorted image of history, a setting for romanticism and fantasy. Often derelict through choice, a modern ruin remains untouched and weathered, replete with nostalgia, awaiting restoration or demolition.

Architecture when newly built is polished and faultless, yet even with its construction complete it is far from finished. With age brings a new dignity; the continual accumulation of dirt enriches and embraces the qualities of its location. This ever-changing enhancement and eventual deterioration is known from the beginning.

Amongst familiar and predictable places, accidental glimpses of once concealed spaces expose hidden unknown elements. These ruinous explorations peel back the layers of time, revealing the story of its duration.

Program:
Accidental Monuments is an investigation into the deterioration and eventual destruction of a once predetermined system, which is as a result of an unexpected event: entropy. It focuses on these happenings with predominance of man-made causes and illustrates the possible effects.

It progresses to explore our current interest in the past through capturing unexpected moments of deconstruction amongst familiar spaces. This exposes the construction layers usually concealed beneath the façade, and outlines the buildings beginning, duration and end that provoke our imagination and attribute to its life ‘story’.

Alex Hinds

Tutor(s)
Prof David Greene
Mr Toby Shew
2011
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