"The empty tower block stands as a symbol of a paradigm failure in UK social policy: the Dystopia and ultimate waste of castle-in-the-air housing projects which were scrapped and abandoned.
They are all the more poignant a choice for imaging, given that tower blocks were originally meant to be a dream (Utopian) solution to the issue of 'decent' housing.Concurrently, and in contemporary art terms, this series evinces something of 'the uncanny': that Freud-coined sensation whereby one feels, oddly enough, as if somebody had just left the room.
In other words, that universal experience of recognising things as having been touched by the human hand in some way (in this case designed, built, 'lived-in') ... yet, paradoxically, sensing the distinct lack of any human presence (or the failure of human effort)."
paradigm - "a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme."
Dystopia - "a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding."
poignant - "Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret: "a poignant reminder". / Keenly felt: "the sensation was most poignant in winter".
Utopian - "an imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516) as enjoying perfection in law, politics, etc.
any visionary system of political or social perfection. An ideal place or state."
the uncanny - "having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble."
paradoxically - "A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking."
Again i have included some of my favourite images from the series which i will potentially include in my presentation.
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