JAM: September 2009

The form of the pavilion remains instinctively site specific by allowing external control of the façade. The pedestrian movement is carefully watched by the pavilion, and is responded to. The pavilion is seen as being on a constant guard, responding to the affairs of the environment with its insomniac eye. The skin fluctuates with movement, seemingly following the omnipresent populace. It is a reaction to the significance of surveillance in the wider Auckland city. Scarcely is there a site left unwatched by the so-called ‘big brother’.

The façade of the structure forms a continuous loop on the exterior. Positioned at equal intervals are series of outward facing speakers. Two microphones, at each end of the pavilion, pick up the signal of vehicles driving past the site. This audio data is then processed over a variety of channels. Delay is applied, whereby the time-delay of the sound wave is proportional to the distance from its origin. The slow decay of the effect creates a continuous Doppler effect, revolving around the building. The intensity of the sound becomes analogous to the buildings heightened consciousness; as the chaos of the site intensifies; as does the prevalence of the structures omniscient state. The sound resembles the notion of a siren, again purporting to the implication of surveillance.

The exterior façade lies opaque. It responds as a halfway point for the pavilion. Its transparency suggests activity within, without giving it away. It purports to suggest one scenario of the secrecy within, a scenario that eventually becomes misguided.

The occupants enter into a smaller series of spaces within the central mass of the pavilion. From here they have no recognition of the external site. Instead they are absorbed by the artworks, the projection and the sound displays. The art here is left untouched, in its original format, the spaces serving as a gallery in the traditional sense, letting the inhabitants become captivated by nothing except the pavilions primary purpose of display.

The internal movement travels through these spaces, finally opening into the marginal space between the two structural frameworks. From within this space the occupants, who were once watched, become the observers. The transparency permits movement of the façade to be carried through to within, acknowledging and inspecting the existence of external influences. They become the watchdog, the all-seeing Eye, as they are able to perceive the truthfulness of the pavilion in its entirety. From here everything is apparent; the mechanisms of movement, the cables and wires, the internal projections, and the external site. They become the pavilion; they become its innate introspection.