Long-Term Photographic Observation of Schlieren
A research project of the Zurich University of the Arts / Institute for Contemporary Art Research in cooperation with Metron AG, the town of Schlieren and the Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich
Project team: Ulrich Görlich, Meret Wandeler
Supported by: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds/DORE, Documenta Natura, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Halter Unternehmungen, Gewerbe- und Handelszentrum Schlieren AG, Wirtschaftskammer Schlieren, Reformierte Kirchengemeinde Schlieren, Vereinigung für Heimatkunde Schlieren, Hauseigentümerverband Schlieren.
Project Goal
The Department of Photography of the Zurich University of the Arts will conduct a long-term (15 years) photographic documentation on the town development of Schlieren. The basis of the project is the town-development concept for Schlieren by Metron AG from 2005. The long-term photographic survey should show what effect the proposed measures of the town-development concept for sustainable development, an improvement of the quality of life, and the identity will have on the public space. The project has been drawn up as a case study. Using Schlieren as an example, it develops exemplary photographic methods for the visualization of spatial development processes in the suburban area.
During the first phase of the project (2005/06), a photographic observation approach was developed and the first photographic inventory was created by Ulrich Görlich and Meret Wandeler. In 2007 the inventory was re-photographed by Elmar Mauch, 2009 and 2011 by Christian Schwager. 2010 and 2011 Meret Wandeler photographed new series of details.
The complete image archive is available on this website. New photographic material will continuously be added to the image archive and presented online. Town residents, experts and the interested public can so-to-say follow the process of town development 'live' during the whole duration of the survey.
Concept
The town of Schlieren is composed of a variety of heterogeneous districts. The town-development concept initiates and steers different types of spatial change processes. The photographic surveying concept formulates photographic strategies to make the process of building and environment development visible. Photography's specific reference to reality is central to this. The long-term photographic survey is a new form of monitoring town development. With the aid of photography it will be examined how the goals and measures, abstractly formulated in the town-development concept affect the town area as a whole. In the ongoing review the planning tool town-development concept will be examined not only as to its effectiveness at the planning stage. Photography will show the effects of the concept on an actual location. The photographs should show how the town area changes as a result of the various interventions by the different protagonists who use and shape the space. The photographic survey makes the observation of those aspects of town development possible, which are decisive for the aesthetic and emotional qualities of spaces. These qualities, which are central to the everyday perception of a space, cannot be conveyed by means of the abstract forms of representation, such as data, plans and statistics with which planners generally examine a space.
The development of the surveying concept has its starting point with the question, which spatial change processes are consciously perceived and which processes occur just beyond the borders of perception. The long-term photographic survey compares significant structural interventions (such as large-scale structures) with the discreet changes which occur slowly and continuously. The project will make the different speeds of parallel-running change processes visible and show how much even a small intervention can change the character, the atmosphere and the quality of an environment.
A visual representation of temporal development processes suburban areas has as yet never been carried out in Switzerland. In this respect, the project is to be seen as a pure research project. It promotes perception of change processes in the suburbs and contributes to sensitizing the public to the concerns of the suburban politics in Switzerland.
Timeframe
Phase 1: DORE - Research project of the Zurich University of the Arts , June 2005 - May 2006
Developing the photographic surveying concept and the first photographic inventory, developing the image databank and the Internet presentation.
Phase 2: Continuous research project of the Zurich University of the Arts 2006 - 2020
Continuous documentation and archiving, interim review with reference to the planning and photographic goals in 2012/13, evaluation and publication of the complete project after the long-term survey has been concluded.
Archiving
The Zurich cantonal archive is to include the text and image files for the Long-term photographic observation of Schlieren project in a new type of long-term archive for digital data. This will be done as part of a pilot project run in collaboration with the Imaging & Media Lab of the University of Basel and specialist laboratory Gubler AG. The aim is to create a hybrid solution where both analogised, human-readable versions of the documents (TIFF images and PDF printouts) and the bitstream are stored on age-resistant microfilm. This will allow the data to be archived both in purely digital and in analogue form on the same storage medium for several hundred years.
Copyright (c) 2006 Meret Wandeler / Ulrich Görlich /ZHdK
website by jürg fausch - 372dpi gmbh
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