Supervisor - Aaron Paterson
Squeezing an entire theses worth of content onto a webpage may be a bit overwhelming, so I'll refine down the content the best I can - a highlight reel, if you will. Best to start with the abstract, no?
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A space that does not recognize the community it serves is not a successful space. This thesis is built from the view of queer space as one of connection, exploration, and sexualization of the body. The nightclub is conceived here as a monument to queer liberation; a transitory escape from heteronormativity. Queer spaces can typically be found in the reclamation and exploitation of clefts within the urban fabric; bathrooms, stairwells, and alleyways, for example. These spaces promise life to emerge, whilst inviting a community to blossom.
Challenging the existing Mercury Theatre and the adjoining Norman Ng Building on Karangahape Road, I am presenting a critique of the queer night scene. Within their interiors, the queer experience, as an event, is activated. Proposed is deciphering how moments in queer architectural history could stimulate such a space. Historic queer precedents were impermanent, and therefore are viewed in this thesis as distinct cultural events, each motivating another. These contexts vary, however are linked by the influence of voyeur and cruising; this being the physical, or non-physical, public sexual encounter.
Throughout this thesis year our community has been troubled by a lack of safe spaces. The ongoing COVID-19 situation has, too, reduced our abilities to gather, explore, create, and celebrate. The common bedroom has acted as a haven for most, allowing the individual to experiment in solitude and compromise with the materials at their finger-tips. Exploring a drawing and digital practice, alongside a restricted scale of 1:1 modelling, I found comfort in the atmosphere that surrounded my work, doing my best to incorporate those moments into it. The significance of the observed events relating to queer space does acknowledge a lot to be questioned, and as this has been a closely researched oriented thesis, respect, among all else, allows the navigation of this queer nightclub space to be triumphant.
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If you're scared of a wee bit of semi-nudity, oops, sorry!
This thesis was structured as 3 acts; Understanding, Responding, and Queering. Within these are chapters wherein I discuss the origins of queer space, queerness in the public and private realm, the act of cruising, queerness within Tāmaki Makaurau, and the importance of safe spaces.
From this, a personal response is made via proposed research questions that lead into media and making processes, the notion of the event (see: Nympho 2.0 (2021) - Installation Work), and further exploration of the veil among other queer architectural moments inspired by the cruiser / voyeur dynamic.
Informed by my chosen theatre site and the archival research undertaken, the sequencing of a queer interior is then explored through the spectacle and the connection of queered spaces through gaze, resulting in a nightclub space within it's interior.
Significant spaces with the final design are then exploited through tongue-in-cheek imagery to create a series of hypothetical promotional club flyers to round out the project.
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Assorted imagery from 1:1 modelling practice, experimenting with light projection, plastic, mirrors, and the bed
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Assorted on site charcoal on newsprint frottage work - inspired by the work of Shaun Thomas McGill
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Selected site mapping imagery drawn from collation of archival plans sourced from the Auckland Library Archives
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Final imagery of the nightclub intervention within the Mercury Theatre and Norman Ng Building
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Promotional series for 'MEZZANINE' - inspired by the classic screen-printed flyers of nightclubs in the 1980's
Of course there is plenty more to see and read from this thesis. If it pleases, I'd love for you to have a flick through it via the link below!