Inquiries and Interpretations Concerning the Observations and Findings from Atmosphere-Investigating, Landscape-Exploring, Universe-Tracking Instruments, their Experiments, Studies, etc.[1] (2012)
Mixed Media
Originally constructed in 1905, the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa was Canada’s primary reference for time measurement. By tracking the movements of the Sun relative to the Earth, a construction of time was determined and dictated to the country. The observatory closed in 1974 when its duties were succeeded by the more precise atomic clock. The shift from astronomical observations to the atomic clock meant a shift from an ontologically continuous experience to an analogical one. The observatory was abandoned because its technological functions were no longer needed. However, as Siegfried Gideon and Lewis Mumford have both noted, with the demands of pure functionality comes the risk of only operating technology, rather than also experiencing it. The distinction between pure functionality and the pleasure of experience recalls architecture’s enduring goal of balancing utilitarian and hedonistic human tendencies. Meanwhile, the distinction between a model of nature and nature itself brings to mind the discipline’s ongoing attempt to build reality from representation. The proposal for the observatory is a reformulation of the relationship between experience and abstraction; its instruments operate by registering the physicality of nature and demonstrating this process as a scientific abstraction. Through their operations, these instruments permit different interpretations of the architecture of the observatory and its consequences.
Wind Rose De-Abstractuator
The observatory is notorious for being in one of the windiest areas in Ottawa. Monthly wind rose diagrams for the area are translated into a 12-storey staircase, each step aligned with a cardinal direction in plan. Fine leather lashings are hung from the metal grating of the steps and translate the wind directly onto the skin of the user.
Magnetic Meridian Fluctuator
The Canadian Prime Meridian is made tangible with a row of magnetic benches that can be pivoted to momentarily break the longitudinal line. The benches oscillate between true north and magnetic north.
Inverted Telescopic Solar Magnifier & Tracker
The disused observatory telescope is inverted to magnify the solar rays back into the building to melt the installed wax surfaces. The result is an accumulation of effects that render solar movements sensuous and inhabitable.
Zone of Intermittent Saturation Registrator
The copper dome of the former photo-equatorial building is inverted to funnel rain into a cellulose sponge that stretches down into the water table. Users circulate through the sponge’s cavities, which shrink and expand in response to the surrounding saturation levels.
Notes
-
This title pays homage, through appropriation, to the artist Leah Beeferman.
