Linear Shift
2012
A collaboration between Taryn Edmonds & Lauren Healey
Urban locations are highly complex spaces, existing at multiple levels formed by historical, geographical, economical, political and social actions. These do not exist as static constructs, but rather each level is continuously in flux, whilst overlapping, conflicting and adjoining with those other layers which together comprise the urban environment.*
Using the site of the former Wallsend Maritime Research Centre as a paradigm where multiple layers of time co-exist in the same space, Linear Shift brings together observations from this site and the surrounding riverside landscape in an immersive audio-visual experience.
A focal point of the heavy industry that characterised the North East for much of the last century, the riverside is in a state of transition. Caught in an economic limbo, some spaces sit inert and waiting while others hover uncertainly between deconstruction and reconstruction. A story that resonates with many post-industrial cities across Europe, Linear Shift is a snapshot in the history of this place – a precarious moment that is both significant yet unremarkable.
The work combines techniques drawn from the artists’ backgrounds in documentary film and still photography. Whilst this approach to the visuals keeps the eye detached and observational, a highly choreographed soundscape playfully animates the film beyond the screen and introduces alternative narratives to the audience.
* Robert Brown, Mapping the Unmappable, Knowing the Unknowable, 2012
Film Festivals:
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Palais de Tokyo + Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin