This exhibition is the conclusion of my mapping project concerning Oakley Creek.
I feel as though I met a lot of personal goals I had for this project. The data collection was very thorough, and I enjoyed visiting the creek three times to understand differences that occur, even in short periods of time. Telling the story of Oakley Creek through sections, identifying permanent features and objects found, was successful in revealing activities and a sense of place. Each place along Oakley Creek different and dynamic. I felt that by doing a series of sections, hung and viewed in succession were effective for the exhibition and the telling of Oakley Creek. The cadbury tinfoil track that revealed a person quit happily ate and deposited an entire Cadbury chocolate bar on his walk along the creek. The identification of plants that showed the exotic species more commonly planted on the right side of the river (where buildings have been developed and trees have been planted as mitigation). The clear plastic bottle that remained, caught in perpetual motion, at the same part of the creek for the entire 6 days. The tidy up of rubbish that occurred between my 2nd and 3rd visit at the waterfall (place 5). These events and curiosities were revealer through analysis of my data.
I was especially challenged by naming different species of plants and animals, as well as infrastructure. I sought advise from several people in identifying what I wasn't sure of. This identification was important to understand what was exotic and native, and to be able to communicate that. An infrastructure engineer and a landscape student (also in the Friends of Oakley Creek) were consulted. Being specific about rubbish was important too, instead of 'can' I wrote more detail where possible, e.g. 'coke can, 250ml.' It was this that made my data collection interesting to me and create curiosity for the viewers. I carefully considered how to represent the series of times the creek was visited, choosing to separate the objects found from permanent features, at different heights on the page. Research I had done that was appropriate to the places I chose were also applied to the drawings to show what the found objects didn't. My representation of Oakley Creek has implications for time, distance, and a dynamic not understandable when looking at traditional mapping.
Upon reflection, there are several things I would have done differently, including allowing more length for the hanging of the drawings so they could be viewed in detail more easily. However the drawings were well interacted with during the exhibition opening, and people that I talked to understood what they were communicating a series of places along Oakley Creek, and the objects found there on different days. It was very special to have Wendy from the Friends of Oakley Creek attend the exhibition and to feel a part of wider research and work on the creek.
This fine grain analysis, in contrast to the top-down plan for the Waterview motorway Connection, represents the place of Oakley Creek through sections and the collection and representation of objects found across a series of days. I feel as though I have, through grounding in theory and related ideas, engaged in thorough research and data collection to address issues facing the art of mapping, issues of place, and issues confronting Oakley Creek itself.
