thinking about presentation

I am yet to gather my data, so this is very much subject to change, but I have some initial ideas of how my project might be presented in the final exhibition. I'm recording found objects to represent a series of places, at this stage in section, so that a journey might be formed along Oakley Creek. This should be done in very careful, probably hand-drawn media so as to contrast the digital-site-is-all-the-same-master-plan-approach. I like the idea of the sections being at eye level, in separate clear boxes along the wall so that one can walk beside them and imagine the journey, in reference to this would be a master plan/bird's eye view map, possibly disconnected, to enforce a top-down view. See my drawings below.

information mapped from evidence documents

After trawling through many pdf documents for the big court event concerning Oakley Creek, I have discovered some useful information which may help me further define and back up locations I choose to focus on. This includes significant and valued vegetation, realignments of the creek, significant tree locations, copper skink locations, and locations of landfills...


I'm making a date with Wendy, who is head of the Friends of Oakley Creek foundation to discuss my mapping and areas I might look at closely, as well as how to gather data (should I take photos of what I find and seek expertise afterwards to identify flora, insects, etc?).

key examples (furthering my ideas of visual presentation and processing)

Today I found a very exciting example by Muf architects on their blog: http://mufarchitectureart.blogspot.com/2008/04/date-tuesday-25.html. They have observed and documented a 19th century, condemned spoil pit called the Beckton Alp, in London. Firstly areas of interest were identified, then human activity in each area, signs of human activity (rubbish, etc), animal presence and human presence according to different weather conditions (see images below).


This puts into practice my idea about documenting found objects at certain locations along Oakley creek. I could tell how the creek is used in different places by what was found there (rubbish, insects, plant-life, animal-life, etc). I would have a 'master map' of the chosen locations, and detail each place in section. These sections juxtaposed would build an idea of what it would be like to selectively boat along the river, and would have implications to place. I would communicate the change of place through recording found unnatural objects (signaling human activity), plant and animal life, as I followed Oakley Creek.

mapping Oakley Creek

Mapping Oakley Creek turned out to be quite difficult! The Linz website didn't have accurate data, so I had to use a combination of the data I could find and google maps... (see map 1 below). I identified 8 zones which are points of change in the creek's 'story',  something I think is manageable. However...

Then I came across the Morphum website, a consultant employed by Metrowater to report on and map Oakley creek more accurately (they found a total of 37 assets were recorded as having incorrect data in the Metrowater GIS records and a further 91 not recorded in the GIS system). I altered my map accordingly (map 2), and discovered more areas of interest, places where the creek runs a different direction for some time, or appears and disappears under the land. I may have to re-examine my points of interest (they currently are at 18), a number I think is too large if I intend to go back at different times. Morphum also mapped 17 restoration opportunities (shown as green areas), and overland flow (dashed lines).