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Video Shakkei

Video Shakkei

Overview

Video Shakkei is an exhibition documenting a series of performances conducted in the Kansai region of Japan. Drawing from the Japanese spatial practice of shakkei, or 'borrowed landscape', Kreider + O’Leary visited a number of carefully selected sites – from ancient Shinto spaces of ritual in Ise to the hyper-futuristic Umeda Sky building in Osaka – to perform a sequence of actions or 'live drawings' in response to the spatial and material qualities of each location. Theoretical and historical research into concepts and practices of Japanese landscape informed the work, as did interdisciplinary site research and performative work on specific sites.

These actions were recorded from multiple perspectives simultaneously using two hand-held and two miniature high-definition video cameras. The recordings were then edited together as a series of filmic composites modelled on the multi-scaled architectural drawing. Using video technology to 'capture' information that otherwise remains beyond the scope of the traditional measured survey drawing, Video Shakkei enriches and enhances the tools available to architects to understand site and place.

People

Kristen Kreider
Royal Holloway, University of London

James O'Leary
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Film