Shardology
What does a 360-degree view of western Europe’s tallest building tell us?
UCL Urban Laboratory’s Leverhulme Trust Artist-in-Residence, Tom Wolseley, launched his film Vertical Horizons about the Shard in January 2017. As the main output of Wolseley’s residency, the film juxtaposes views of the Shard from different vantage points around south London, with contrasting narratives about the building and his own response to living in its shadow.
Wolseley worked closely with Dr Andrew Harris, Senior Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies and co-director of the UCL Urban Lab, and also involved Dr Martine Drozdz, based at the Research Centre on Urban Infrastructure and Regional Planning in Paris. The residency began with interviews with a range of experts in planning, real estate, energy and urban theory at UCL, to understand the context of the Shard’s construction.
Wolseley’s format for the film consists of a series of 360-degree panning shots from locations across London that encircle the Shard. While each location provides a unique visual perspective of the Shard, the commentary in turn provides a new angle to how the Shard can and is perceived.
The Shard – and buildings in general – represent many things to different people. Ideas about what the building symbolises are often imposed upon it, Wolseley explains. For example, people frequently perceive the Shard as a modern icon of globalisation and capitalism, funded by Qatari oil profits. But the story behind the financing and construction are complex involving at one point support from Transport for London and direct state financing, suggesting that it represents a force of political will as much as anything else.
“Among other things, the film explores the power of subjectivity in the city. Our desire to be identified in a certain way produces totems to a certain ideology in the city,” Wolseley explains.
The residency has opened up alternative ways of bringing together and presenting research material around urban verticality, especially through the use of filmmaking and storyboarding to examine different elements of urban life. The use of the Shard to develop insight around contemporary London has also inspired new academic engagement with the building at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Contact Tom Wolseley: tom@architrope.com
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