Alney Island - Genius Loci

 

As a way of exploring the genius loci of this site, I decided to create a tactile collage, produced using found materials collected directly from the site. This included: leaves, soil rubbings and fragments of sticks. This allows the character of Alney Island to be explored through texture, weight and material contrast, rather than purely visual representation.

Organic elements included in this collage, such as the leaves, reflect the living, seasonal and adaptive elements of the floodplain. While sticks represent the infrastructural elements of the site that cause site-wide fragmentation.

The way that these elements are layered over each other aims to portray how the varying layers of this site combine, contrast and co-exist.

Drawings of key site elements and on-site photography allow the collage to sit between direct observation, providing context and ensuring interpretation is based on real site conditions and materiality.





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