5th May 2020 – Our scheduled MA symposium went ahead as planned, thankfully, but due to the continued lockdown it was held online with ZOOM. This altered the format somewhat but went off with relative ease. The 20 minute presentation was followed by 5 minutes of questions gathered by the host (tutor). The presentation was an edited transcript of the essay which accompanies this unit together with a PowerPoint of 20 slides.
The presentation expressed my personal thoughts and understanding of spaces, both public and private and how public building interiors are viewed, especially when affected by the lockdown, empty theatres and churches for example. Looking through the theoretical lens of the Heterotopia combined with working methodologies of photography and the importance of painting as a medium of expression.
Artists featured were: Titian, Walter Sickert, Dexter Dalwood and myself. Theorists and authors included: Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Joel Anderson, Wendy Baron, Patricia Ellis, Michael McLuhan and Walter Russell Mead.
The reaction to the presentation was very good with the audience seeming to approve and the subsequent questioning was relevant and varied. The virtual experience was also better than anticipated and probably made the talking a little easier, however, I did miss the human interaction with the audience in the traditional auditorium symposium setting. The paradox of the situation was lost on some of the attendees however, the topic of the talk was a bout our perceived utopian society and use of public buildings, their design and architecture to be occupied by the privileged few with levels of admittance being discretionary, those of faith or the ability to purchase a ticket, yet during lockdown these theatres including the lecture theatre we were all due to be in was closed, with admittance denied, not by wealth or secular issues but by a disease.
Michael Palmer 