stephen mackie

psychospace
2
introduction
chapter_ 2
chapter_ 1
chapter_ 3
affect in architecture, five go wandering in the city, affect as message
sinister quarter?, projection of anxiety, language of the sinister
Black Mill, an intervention
conclusion
references + bibliography
table of contents
appendices
abstract
Dundee University
School of Archictecture
Urban Contingencies
Tutors: Graeme Hutton +Lorens Holm
ID no. 040005822
words: approx 9200
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intimate group work separate document
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1
Abstract
Through experience, architecture has the power to evoke a diverse scope of emotional reactions within
us. Our city forces us to develop profound attachments to a variety of spaces. These attachments are
driven by our reaction towards spaces; we may identify areas of the city which feel unsafe or those
which are comfortable and it is these reactions that are integral if we wish to relate personally to the
city.
This thesis is an investigation into an understanding of how architecture can affect its inhabitants
in different ways. Dening the role architecture plays in the creation of affects it will focus on one in
particular, the sinister. Through analyzing spaces that provoke an uneasy feeling from myself I pose
the question, can architecture in itself be sinister? This study is important because as architects we are
constantly striving to design an experience and in understanding how certain existing spaces provoke
certain responses we can use it to inform a design proposition.
The thesis looks at psychoanalysis for clues in the understanding of affect and then towards different
media including lm and writing where I can analyse how the author/director employs architecture in
an active role that frames and reects the emotions of the characters experience. The chosen media
for this study includes lm and creative writing as techniques that successfully articulate an emotional
reaction to a space. Analogue photography as well as subjective and objective drawing are also used
as tools for both the analysis of the spaces I am studying and a personal response to those spaces
using Dundee and its sinister spaces as a testing ground.
2
3
Introducti on
The elements that compose our architecture are not solely tangible and physical, they are also
psychological. Architecture has an extraordinary ability to affect us in powerful ways, provoking diverse
emotions including comfort, security, fear, happiness and anger. These affects create an attachment
to spaces, attachments that are hard to articulate but without doubt exist as commanding forces.
Architectures role extends far beyond the practicalities of enclosing functions; each building has our
personalities projected onto it, a true reection of the diversity of a city. This idea ignites the possibility
of each inhabitant responding to spaces in the city emotionally in a bid to avoid a population of bored
zombies.
We are bored in the city, we really have to strain to still discover mysteriesDarkness and obscurity
are banished by articial lighting, and the seasons by air conditioning. Night and summer are losing
their charm and dawn is disappearing. [Chtcheglov]
1
There is an unwillingness in architecture to confront certain affects regarded as undesirable. My
interest in the sinister developed as a reaction against the conventional treatment of urban sites which
incite threat, fear or discomfort; the erasure and cleansing of the dirt to be replaced by the new and
shiny. Fear is a natural emotion; one that is common to us all and our city should embrace its part in
the act of provoking it. We should not always have to turn to literature, lm and art to be stimulated in
this way. Buildings have the power to scare us equally, if not more; a lived affect, not a vicarious one.
This thesis aims to dene affect and its relationship with architecture in a bid to investigate its role
and importance within our built environment. This denition will then act as a tool for understanding
how architecture and affect engage with the inhabitants of a city from a macro scale down to intimate
pockets of space. Through both objective and subjective analysis, the thesis will interpret the collective
elements that create a particular affect and identify its inuence on a space. This research will broaden
my awareness of what composes space; not just objectively but also how we react and interpret this
reaction.
An aim for this research is to focus on one affect in particular, the sinister. This will investigate ideas
about what sinister architecture is and question whether it can exist, drawing inuence from lms that
place architecture in a prominent role in the provocation of reactions from the viewer and enhance a
sinister quality in the lms. My interests also lie in the representation of sinister space and how the use
of different media inuences the way in which we read a space and represent that reading.
4
Ideas about affect and the sinister will be investigated through a series of analysis and design projects;
thinking by doing. Through an architectural project the research will develop a language of the sinister.
I wish to investigate those gestures and moves that are possible in a space which maintain and/or adds
to the affect. I pose the question, is it even possible to nd an architectural program through the affect
of an existing building?
Chapter 1
Affect i n archi tecture
In examining architecture and affect it is important to rstly understand what affect is. This understanding
will give a basis for the agenda of this thesis and also a starting point for clues in the relationships
between affect and architecture. Stepping outside the world of architecture for a brief moment, I will
examine a piece of literature in which the relationship between architecture and affect is illustrated.
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Alan Poe is dependant upon architecture with affect to apply
further substance to the narrators description of the house:
upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows upon a few rank sedges and upon a few
white trunks of decaying trees
2
Poe employs provocative language to evoke a sense of dread and fear, describing the house in such a
way that ones imagination icks through a catalogue of archetypal haunted houses in their head and
projects this onto the page of the book [g.1]. These descriptions of the house hold dual importance;
not only do they portray the setting in a pragmatic sense but equally, depict a relationship between the
main protagonist and the house that mirrors his paranoia and anxiety.
Poes story suggests to us that architecture produces certain affects that are very much an integral
part of our experiences in life but it does not lead us to a denition of affect. The word affect originates
from the Latin word affectus
3
with its denition providing a vast diversity in meanings. From mental to
physical, temporary to permanent it proves difcult to narrow down to one single denition
4
. However,
we can then assume that it is possible for affect to occur everywhere in architecture, though some
affects are more pronounced and articulated than others. This difculty in dening is reinforced
when investigating the term affect within psychoanalytic theory. In The Language of Psychoanalysis,
Laplanche and Pontalis discern the role affect plays in psychoanalysis by describing it as rooted in
subjectivity and a way for humans to measure reactions towards something, transforming the intangible
into tangible:
5
g.1 Exterior sketch in
response to Poes description
of The House of Usher.
6
the affect is dened as the subjective transposition of the quantity of instinctual energy
5
This description reinforces the idea that affect manifests itself in all shapes and sizes by assigning it
to being either vague or well dened
6
which would again suggest then that all architecture produces
an affect. By its subjective nature it becomes difcult to nd further denition, though in Dylan Evans
Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis we can draw a direct relationship between it and architecture,
affect means that the subject is affected by his relation with the Other.
7
This advocates a symbiotic
relationship between the subject [you|me] and the object [architecture] inferring that without both
present, affect could not exist.
Affect is always attached to a place and the notion of place is fundamental to architecture. a place
can be dened as relational, historical and concerned with identity [Auge]
8
Architecture is created
from tangible [form, program and material] and intangible [affect] elements and both of these types of
element give a place identity; affect is thus intrinsically linked to architecture. Through the dissection
of the Freudian denition of affect as something vague or well dened
9
we can identify the role of
architecture in affect on three different levels, incidental, integral and protagonist [g.2]:
Incidental - The architecture need not play a prominent role, it can merely be the setting in which the
affect takes place. In a hospital, where experiencing joy and happiness of a new born child to grief
and sadness from the death of a loved one, the architecture frames the experience, giving it a context
though never heightening it.
Integral - Architecture can be integral to the affect though it can sit in the background. An immersive
environment such as the home, a place we associate with safety, security and comfort, uses architecture
as a means of provoking these affects. We dene boundaries in order to determine this land is mine
and on this land we build and enclose ourselves from the outside world creating an interior space that
we control. Within these walls we build rooms that give us comfort in understanding that what goes on
behind the door cannot be viewed by anyone other that the people in that room. We are not always
aware of the architecture except in its absence; without it we would be exposed to the world.
Protagonist - Finally, it can be one of the main characters in the creation of affect, assisting in provoking
various emotions from the subject. An alien city can become a daunting place where a complex system
of streets and lanes leaves you disorientated and lost. The unfamiliar architecture homogenises the
character of the street and eventually you nd yourself in a dark overlooked alley that twist and turns
around blind corners and then relief as you see your hotel faade.
These three roles highlight the type of relationship we have with architecture and how it is impacting
on us through shifting narratives. This is not to say that a hospital can only perform an incidental
role in producing affect. The hospital can just as easily turn from the incidental background to an
ominous protagonist. Visiting a loved one at the hospital for their last moments before they pass away
is a traumatic experience and the sterile environment of the hospital causes discomfort. Entering the
hospital one becomes disorientated and confused through the abundance of seemingly identical wards
off endless labyrinthine corridors until entering the harsh uorescently lit room. These roles are not
dictated by the architecture itself, though through the narrative one projects, the architecture either
stands prominent or slips into the background.
7
g.2 The relationship between
architecture and a subject.
Incidental: where the architecture
sits in the background and does
not engage with the subject.
Integral: the architecture is
integeral but does not engage
with the subject.
Protagonist: the architecture
takes part in creating an affect.
8
Fi ve go wanderi ng i n the ci ty
These ideas on affect needed testing and I used the city of Dundee as my experimenting ground. We
formed a group of ve students who were keen to analyse the city at an intimate scale; ipping the
traditional top-down methods for analysis and adopting Charles and Ray Eames philosophy of Powers
of Ten
10
and walked the city. With a growing interest in the movement of The Situationists, led by Guy
Debord, we seized the opportunity to experiment with a method at the heart of their raison dtre, the
drive. The Situationists employed the drive as a method of exploring the city through drifting, being
guided by their desire to have their minds stimulated by the city:
let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they nd there
11
They believed that a city was not just organised by streets and buildings but that there also exists a
much more perceptive response to organisation, a citys psychogeography. Different areas of a city
affect the residents in various different ways thus creating varied ambiances. Spaces that are safe or
dangerous make one feel love or hate; the drive is the method employed in untangling this complex
system. By denition a drive is A mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban
society: a technique of transient passage through varied ambiances. Also used to designate a specic
period of continuous driving.
12
We took this denition as our starting point, our benchmark where we could add our own interpretation
and play. The time limit of our operation was only a few weeks thus pushing us to be much more
demanding and employ great rigor with the drives. There was a strong sense of a constant want,
wanting to be affected by the city, seeking the emotional reactions, to never be satised with what we
have found thus applying the pressure to seek out the affects we craved and for the city to answer back
and produce them. Every decision we made, every direction turned was made with complete conviction
and the urge to discover something exciting [g.3-5]. Full of curiosity, excitement and adrenalin through
risks we were willing to take, jumping fences, walls and trespassing constantly to get what we wanted.
We did not go down the next street because it happened to be next, there had to be something affecting
us, pulling us down it and we had to analyse this affect and record it.
9
g.3-5 Images from the drive.
10
Using the drive, we took cross sections through Dundee [g.6], guided by the ambition to experience
the city with heightened senses. As a group we each had an agenda for looking for different affects so
this inferred that the drives were diverse lines across the city, fragments of different perception and
drive. We can begin to abstract the lines away from their actual routes and think of them as product
of architecture and affect. They highlight a notion that we can be pulled through out cities by our
desires, these desires are intangible forces acting like magnets drawing us closer to our destination.
The drives become predetermined routes already laid out across the city that we follow in our heads
driven by desire. At the end of each drive we interpret a point that we have confronted as what we
were in search of and therefore no longer need to continue [g.7].
g.6 The four drives walked
across Dundee. A total distance
covered of 28.5km.
11
g.7 Montage exploring the notion that
the drives we walked were already
predetermined routes in our minds and
at the end of each drive we found our
desires. In my case the three sinister
spaces I study later in the thesis.
12
Affect as message
These cross sections of the city offered us an understanding of all that is happening throughout the
city and it became apparent that the Dundee we already knew was far different from the Dundee we
were discovering. On the drives we discovered spaces that we felt had a particular affect that drew us
towards and through them. These spaces began to reveal and articulate the importance of affect that
exists across the city and how they contribute to the way we, as urbanites, respond and interact with
the spaces. If a space does not produce a strong affect then the level of perception is likely to be more
passive therefore hindering the chance of opening up the space for further interpretation which could
potentially evolve the space into something much more dynamic. One affect has the potential to induce
multiple, contrasting perceptions which in turn layer the space.
Our initial response upon nding the spaces was one of surprise and discovery but we needed to
study these spaces in greater depth in order to understand what drew us to them that on rst glance
was not fully realised. Studies using montage, plans, drawings, reductive models helped us to analyse
and articulate the many different layers that built up and created these spaces. There are clear
relationships between the spaces in both their spatial quality and how they are occupied including;
interstitial or between spaces, places to ll time, ownership claimed through activity, spatial and/ or
material complexity, sense of being stumbled upon and sub culture.
It is the build up of layers in these spaces which produces their affect; they are integral to the spaces
being successful. For example, this build up of different layers is very prominent upon reection of our
discovery of the DPM park in the Hilltown area of Dundee [g.8]. Walking through Hilltown [an area that
was predominantly unfamiliar to us] the rst initial layer is the grafti on the dwarf walls and gable ends
of the tenement. Then shufing along the path, turning blind corners until we were fully absorbed into
the urban park. The grimy material quality of this park is complimented with a dynamic spatial quality
that adds more layers to the space. Vastly overlooked from ominous tower blocks and converted
farmhouses, the enclosed space is distanced from the Hilltown streets enhancing the feeling of a space
forgotten and taken control of by kids. The different typologies of housing that could watch over the
space from any angle give a variety of textures to the space but it is clearly only enjoyed by the few.
13
g.8 Elevation Plan expressing
the impact that different buildings
have on the grafti pitch which
contribute to how the space is
perceived and used.
The affect this space provokes determines who does and does not use it: spaces can discriminate
against people who are outside their comfort zone. This is not necessarily a negative thing; the
perception of the DPM park [grafti pitch] in Dundee varies from a mother pushing her child in a pram
to adolescents looking to be hidden away from the glare of adults [g.9]. The affect is then acting like
a message that is interpreted in different ways by different people, these messages are communicated
through a couple of elements. The grafti on the walls [g 10+11] behaves as warning signs to a
mother that anti-social behavior may be taking place and therefore it is not a safe environment for her
child. A route into the main football pitch turns blind corners causing those unfamiliar with the space
to shufe along, nervously imagining what awaits them around the next corner. This is in contrast to
the teenagers looking for a space to hang out; the grafti are welcoming signs, advertisement in a
language that they understand, communicating to them that this is a space where their activities are
welcomed. This affect is integral to the success of the DPM park. Even though the affect of this space
is perceived in two ways, the architecture is a protagonist in both scenarios. We could argue that for
the kids playing the architecture is integral but in the background, however, I would point out that due
to the overlooked nature of the site and how it is in constant observation from residents, it prevents the
space from descending into total dereliction to a point where even the kids do not want to use it.
14
g.9 Montage showing grafti
covered walls and the impact
of the high rise and tenements
on the space.
15
g.10+11 Grafti on the gable ends of the
tenements: the warning or advertisement
messages.
16
Chapter 2
Si ni ster quarter
The affect that I am most interested in is the sinister, this idea was sparked from a passage in a
Situationist text that describes a potential city created from a series of districts that reect the diverse
feelings existing within our cities today. One of the identied districts is the Sinister Quarter:
The Sinister Quarterwould be difcult to get into and poorly lit at night as it is blindingly lit during the
day by an intensive use of reection [Chtcheglov]
13
This passage is vague in its description of the notion of a sinister quarter and possesses no real
substance for there ever being the potential for one. However, it does inspire an investigation into the
role architecture would play in producing an affect such as this. Would understanding alone that you
were in the labelled sinister quarter be substantial enough to provoke feelings of danger? I would
argue that this is not the case and that it would be essential for the architecture to take part in evoking
the uneasy feelings.
It is necessary to understand the meaning of the term sinister so that it is possible to analyse architecture
with the sinister in mind. The word sinister originates from the Latin world for left, sinestra
14+15
and is
associated with evil where a person who wrote with their left hand was considered to be possessed
by the devil. Today its meaning remains rooted in evil and encompasses the idea that sinister is a
threat, something that is alluded to but not necessarily executed which causes people to feel uneasy.
The important thing to understand about these denitions is that it is about provoking feelings of harm
and threat and not actual physical harm. The part that holds most relevance and forms the basis of
this investigation is that of threat and harm. Architecture that plays an active role in making one feel
uncomfortable or uneasy in their surroundings.
Proj ecti on of anxi ety
Anxiety is the only affect that is not deceptive. [Evans]
16
Taking affect, we can look at other disciplines that have employed architecture as a prominent character
at the heart of their narrative. This will provide a clearer understanding of the role architecture plays
in the creation of sinister affects and assist in answering questions such as; can the architecture
be sinister, or are they merely banal sets that have been lmed with stylistic techniques, deepening
their impact on the viewer? The medium of lm provides a good resource, as its sets are pieces of
architecture,
no longer an inert background, architecture now participates in the very emotion of the lm- the
surrounding no longer surround but enter the experience as presence [Vidler]
17
A lm that uses architecture as a prominent character in producing affect is the 1963 horror lm The
Haunting
18
, directed by Robert Wise [g.12]. The lm lures its viewers into an experiment into the
supernatural world of a haunted New England mansion riddled with a history of death. Anthropologist
Dr. Markway plays host to three test subjects [two of which are perceptible to paranormal activity
[Eleanor Lance and Theodora] and one who is an arrogant sceptic [Luke Sanderson] who are his mice
for provoking and bearing witness to things that go bump in the night. Throughout the lm the house
takes a particular interest in Eleanor, casting her under its possessive powers and eventually claiming
her as another victim.
17
g.12 The dark interior of Hillhouse
18
The techniques used in this lm are subtle but have a profound presence and power in allowing the
viewer to engage with the actors anxieties. In Eleanors rst encounter with Hill house it is overtly
brought to our attention that the main protagonists in this lm are not all human [the house gives a
wonderful performance as the actor in supporting role]. Instantly the spatial relationship between the
subject [Eleanor] and the object [the house] is established with Eleanor screeching her car to a halt as
she frightfully looks up, caught in the look of the house [g.13-15]. Her rst words describing what she
has been confronted with do not include traditional architectural terminology that we usually associate
with a house:
its staring at meVile VILE
19
The camera [representing Eleanors eyes] reinforces the xation with the object to the viewers by
focusing in to a tower element of the house; suggesting that here is where the haunting lives. [The
notion of the attic holding our fears is not a rare concept in cinema or indeed daily life. An attic: It
speaks of sordidness, want and crime Scheffaure
20
.]
The look that the house gives Eleanor, illustrated in this scene, is in reference to the concept developed
by J acques Lacan:
When the subject looks at an object, the object is always already gazing back at the subject
21

By establishing the house as the object and Eleanor, the subject it allows for the exploration of a
relationship between us and architecture as a dialogue between the subject getting caught in the
objects look and becoming xated by it.
19
g.13+14 Eleanors rst
encounter with Hillhouse
when she is caught in the
look of the tower.
g.15 Diagram showing
the subject looking at the
building and the building
looking back. The dotted
line represents the screen
of projection. In Eleanors
case, she projects that the
buildings look is vile.
20
A key element to the success of this lm is attributed to the viewer never learning what the haunting
is. As the lm progresses, its impact on the characters becomes increasingly apparent, particularly
on Eleanor. During the third night the now familiar sounds of the haunting bring the experiment to
Theodores bedroom. After the intense banging they realise that whatever it is making the noise is now
just the other side of the door. The door begins to bend in towards the room, bellowing out towards
them like a chest being pushed outwards to promote ones strength [g.16-20]. We can interpret the
bending of the door as follows. An unknown entity is pressing so hard against the door that it begins to
bend inwards, the guests know that the haunting is on the other side of the door. Their anxieties about
it begin to distort the reality of the room; twisting and warping the last obstacle protecting them from a
confrontation with the haunting. What we as the viewer are seeing is not real, we are seeing the twisted
reality of the test subjects minds.
g.16-20 The door which is acting as a screen
where the characters are projecting what lies on
the otherside bellows inwards from The Haunting
pressing against it.
16
21
17
18
19
20
22
The notion of warped space is a prominent theme in the set designs of the fantastical 1920s silent lm Das
Cabinet des Dr Caligari
22
, directed by Robert Wienein. This German expressionist masterpiece tells the
story of a series of mysterious murders which the residents of a German mountain village, Holstenwall
believe to be connected with Dr Caligari and his bizarre somnambulist, Cesare. On discovering that
Franciss friend Alan has been murdered, he and J ane begin to hunt down the suspected killers but nd
themselves in danger of becoming the next victims of Cesare.
the lmic art offered the potential to develop a new architecture of time and space unfettered by the
material constraints of gravity and daily life [Vidler]
23
The relationship between setting and plot has been explicit in its execution where the setting for
this story is just as radical and surreal as the plot itself. The lm depicts an obscure village where it
gives the impression that the architects have restrained themselves from the use of a single right-
angled square edge. The streets twist and buckle emphasising and exaggerating perspective and
foreshortening; walls loom over the cast creating claustrophobic space; shadows painted on the oors
and walls suggest a erce bright sun or moon; doors wretched in to sharpen geometries so that to
pass through them would risk loosing a limb; windows are painted in lightless black resembling endless
voids. This amalgamation of techniques creates a deviant world that absorbs the viewer and confuses
them in reection of the casts anxiety. Again, like The Haunting, is it possible that what we are seeing
is not a true depiction of the town and instead we are presented with a warped reality of the characters
minds, [which at the end of the lm we discover we are] where fear and anxiety take on the role as
architect to create these spaces that the cast inhabit [g.21-26].
In an attempt to gain a greater understanding of which factors have the power to cause an affect of
sinister I found it relevant to draw parallels between the uncanny and sinister in Sigmund Freuds
essay, The Uncanny.
It is undoubtedly related to what is frightening to what arouses dread and horror
24
With great rigor and persistence, Freud investigates the concept of the uncanny, attempting to dene
what is at the common core of perceiving something as uncanny. The themes discussed suggest
clues in where to focus my attention architecturally. The essay examines the relationship between the
uncanny and the German world unheimlich [unhomely]; that what is not known and familiar
25
. This
comparison is benecial when approaching the concept of sinister space by relating sinister to that
of unfamiliar for reasons that if something is unfamiliar then one has to be aware of the possibility for
23
g.21-26 These sketches
explore the idea of what
the sets of Dr Caligari
would look like if we
were not presented with
a warped reality.
21 22
23
25
24
26
24
threat or harm. We can draw a relationship between Freud and the lm The Haunting by suggesting that
the uncanny is something unknown. The inhabitants of the house then project their fears and anxieties
onto the familiar sounds in an attempt to transform the unknown into the known. However, due to the
characters never nding out the identity of the haunting it remains both not known and familiar.
Freuds discussion of the double in relation to the uncanny draws a relationship with architecture
through the idea of repetition, the repetition of the same features or character-traits
26
. The repetition
of facades creates areas of cities that are completely homogenised by an architectural style, homes
become indistinguishable; am I here, am I there? We become lost and nd ourselves turning corners
only to be presented with what is perceived to be the same street as before. The lifestyles of the
inhabitants of these repeated streets begin to reect their environment until our personalities have
been stripped away completely and we are left with numb robots going through the motions of life.
Freud discusses this very situation and its uncanny nature when lost in an unfamiliar city.
But after having wandered about for a time without enquiring my way, I suddenly found myself back in
the same street, where my presence was now beginning to excite attention. I hurried away once more,
only to arrive by another detour at the same place yet a third time.
27
Anthony Vidler has explored the relationship between architecture and the feeling of uncanny in his
book The Architectural Uncanny and how the uncanny through its German translation has a home in
architecture.
As a concept, then, the uncanny has, not unnaturally, found its metaphorical home in architecture:
rst in the house, haunted or not, that pretends to afford the utmost security while opening itself to the
secret intrusion of terror, and then the city, when what was once walled and intimate, the conrmation
of community has been rendered strange by the spatial incursions of modernity.
28
From the discussion above there are key points that can be taken forward in aiding a further understanding
of why some buildings elicit a sinister affect. The affects that objects produce does not reside in the
objects themselves, they are provoked from the subject that is in dialogue with it. The sinister is a way
of dening a reaction towards something, to articulate a feeling or response. It is a way of looking at an
object, or in the case of Eleanor and the house, it is the way the house is looking at her that she nds
sinister. This shows that for affects to exist there always needs to be an object and a subject, any object
can produce a certain affect it is just how we interpret the situation that can make it sinister.
25
Houses are not sinister, the sinister stems from the perceived human presence, or lack of, within the
house, thus it is only the projection we place onto the haunted house that makes them sinister. Not
every house will allow for the same projection for each person, it is the importance of narrative and
association with the object we are confronted with that determines how we respond. If a house lies
derelict and empty then it is sinister because in its emptiness it allows for projection, each empty room
acting as three-dimensional screen. The derelict building in society also has a collective association
with danger or anti-social behavior, when wandering around one there lies the potential risk that
someone is hiding out in the building and does not want to be found. By changing the narrative it is
easy to interpret the same object but in contrasting ways. Changing the scene in the haunting to one
of a happy family enjoying a birthday party their lush garden, the house immediately takes on a less
ominous role [g.27+28].
Architectures role in the producing of affect is then how much it allows for the subject to project their
anxieties on to the object. What makes a good screen? In order for something to act like a screen it
requires a certain emptiness, an opportunity with limitless options of confrontation. The vacant eye-
like windows
29
Poe describes are screens for projections, however, are they still screens when a gure
stands at the window? Yes, if the architecture has created an interior that does not show a face and
all you see is a silhouette because then there is still the option of projection, I can project an evil look
onto the face of the silhouette.
g.27+28 By changing the narrative
we can interpret Hillhouse in a
completely different way.
26
The l anguage of the si ni ster
Returning to the method of the drive, I set my desire gauge to sinister and explored the city for areas
and spaces that trigger an uncomfortable feeling. It was not long before I discovered three spaces
and buildings that lured me in through unease and danger. These three spaces varied dramatically in
their typology; a street with mirrored tenements on each side that leads to a staircase climbing up to
a housing scheme; a city centre back alley complete with ad hoc extensions and bin storage; and a
derelict jute Mill sitting within a vast derelict site
30
. All three of these spaces gave the opportunity for
me to project some kind of narrative that made me uncomfortable whilst engaging with the spaces.
Using a variety of methods I can draw attention to the elements that creates a screen for projection
and then how the architecture engages with the narrative that is projected. As part of my agenda I wish
to intervene with the derelict Mill, therefore it is necessary to construct an architectural language, a
palette of spatial and material devices to aid the process of designing: a language of the sinister.
The methods for this study are required to perform in a way that allows me to engage with the site in
a visceral way. I used numerous techniques though I found only a few offered the engagement I was
looking for. The use of analogue photography provided me with a tool that engrossed me in the image
I was attempting to capture; controlling aperture and shutter speed I could study various features such
as light, darkness and texture in one image. However, the capturing of the image was not the only way
I engaged with the space; detached away from the space, in the depths of the university dark rooms I
produced prints that again allowed me to understand what I had captured.
The unknown narratives:
Our curiosity of the unknown laid out ahead draws us in, the driving force that leads the way towards
possibilities of something threatening and harmful. These unknowns provide a platform for our
imaginations to ascend into overdrive, projecting images of what we imagine to lie around the corner
or behind the window. These projections are initiated and dictated by the number of unknowns; the
greater the number the more intense the affect [in this case sinister] and thus increasing the possibility
for more disturbing projections. The amount of unknowns varies between different spaces and with a
greater amount of unknowns comes a greater paranoia. The faades of South Bafn Street [g. 29+30],
already touch the uneasy nerves from the relentless repetition of the windows mirrored on each side
of the street, and when moving through the space one becomes increasingly aware of the escalating
amount of unknowns [are people watching me? What is going on behind all these windows?]. This
crescendos when one is fully engorged in the space and all they see around them are vacant eye-like
27
g.29 Montage of technical and
narrative drawing. The narrative drawing
represents an emotional reaction to
being in the space illustrating the endless
repetition of the facade and repeated
windows representing lots of eyes.
g.30 Montage of South Bafn Street.
28
windows, forcing one to become submissive to their own projections. It is the architecture here that
produces this uneasy quality, allowing for one to create a narrative in their head which is completely
ctitious but it affects the way we experience of a space.
Using the unknowns in South Bafn Street, I was able to create a narrative explored through a piece of
creative writing [see appendices]. This piece gave an opportunity to experiment with the characteristics
of the space and how they dictate the narrative. The plot is based around a murder that had taken place
on the street and through the story I explored how the space changes due to the event that has just
occurred. In writing this piece it highlighted that if architecture allows for a projection to exist then the
elements that compose the space become more prominent and exaggerated in the whole experience.
In this story the repetition of the facades and the amount of windows sparked the idea for this narrative
exploring how they cause the protagonists great anxiety and paranoia.
The Mill building has great potential for projection of narratives onto the unknowns. From the exterior
the windows are like black pits that offer very little clue as to the character of the interior and presents
them as dark spaces when in contrast the majority of them are bright and illuminated. In the seemingly
endless interior, the empty spaces ow from one room to the next with each concealing what it fully
holds until immersed in that space; there is very little opportunity to peek around corners [g.31+32].
The spaces range from vast bright rooms lled only with columns to small dark spaces, some concealed
behind closed doors, however, the larger spaces are reduced to only a glimpse through small openings.
As one wanders around the Mill the curiosity of what lies in the space ahead is the attraction, there is
a perpetual possibility for projection in the spaces and even when all spaces have been revealed a few
steps into another allows the previous one to disappear and become an unknown again.
g.31 Section illustrating the unknowns
29
g.32 These plans illustrate the
different unknowns on each oor.
The darker the tone the greater the
unknown from the point of entrace on
each oor represented by the x.
x
x
x
x
Ground oor
First oor
Second oor
Third oor
Disorientation and confusion:
The Mill building gives a sense of disorientation and confusion not as explicit as that of the sets of
Dr Caligari but through different relationships on the site. The dichotomy of the relationship between
the subject and the object at the front [south elevation] and to the rear [north elevation] of the Mill
can confuse the relationship and reaction to the site. To the front, the building dominates the subject,
capturing it in its look [g.35+36]. The south elevation stands oppressively in the baron landscape
commanding the vast open space that disappears into the distance, looking towards the faade the
scale of its length and height lls peripheral vision with the decaying robust structure. The windows
frame the blackness of the interior and are articulated with such a rigour it is difcult to tell one from the
other. To the rear of the Mill there is a switch in the relationship of what is the object that is producing
the look [g.37+38], tenements sit high in the space, horseshoeing around and enclosing the site
detaching it visually from the city. This detachment allows for the subject to become fully absorbed in
the site, the steep topography climbs from the Mill emphasising the height and the presence of the ats
where windows disappear and new ones appear as you walk around the site which provide no place
to hide.
30
g.33 Section a-a
31
a
a
g.34 Site plan of William Halleys Mill
32
1
2
3
4
1
2
g.35+36 [images 1+2 on
plan] Show the oppressive
south elevation lling every
corner of your vision.
33
3
4
g.37+38 [images 3+4] Show the
enclosure created by the tenements
that look down on the site.
The interior of the Mill houses some subtleties that also confuse the explorer of the building. A series of
small, enclosed dark spaces occupy a volume to in the west of the building. Here lies the spiral staircase
and a series of spaces that do not adhere to the geometries, proportions and spatial organisation to the
rest of the Mill. Tight stairs that squash to a shoulders width; ceilings compress to graze the hairs on
the top of your head; the lack of views to the exterior world; oors manipulated to steal daylight from
the oor above all provoke feelings claustrophobia. These shifts are not represented or suggested on
any of the spaces outwith them which detaches it from the rest of the building giving the impression of
a stand alone building [g.39-42].
34
g.41 Second oor plan locating
space in the west of the Mill.
g.40 The narrow stairs that
lead down to the space.
g.39 Montage of the space. Light
creeping in from the cracks.
35
g.42 Section study of the space.
36
Route:
The way one travels through these spaces allows total immersion. The three spaces are not static;
they force a continuous movement through led by desires. This is due to the nature of the spaces; the
streets are places of transient movement and the Mills lack of comfortable spaces to rest due to the
scale and current condition of the building.
There are many possibilities for the beginning of trespassing on the site though the majority risk
injury and being caught. Scrambling over the wall to the south is one of the preferred options though
there is no point of entry to the Mill building from this side. Entrance requires a quick detour through
overgrowth, up and around the landscape where at second oor level you reach another point of
entrance. This entry to the site carries a greater risk of injury from clambering down the six metre high
gabions but avoids exposure to the trafc on Broughty Ferry road. The site begins to envelope you as
you descend down the steep, uneven topography through overgrown weeds and plants. Eventually
your feet make contact with the solid concrete ground oor that extends to the interior of the building.
All that is left to do it to hop the fence to enter the interior. This journey has already exposed multiple
views of the building from the front and back, higher than the building and now at ground oor, all just
to gain access to this heavily fortied structure [g.43-49].
g.43 Site plan showing the route
one has to take to gain access to
the interior of the building. The red
line represents the route, the xs
represent the entrance points to the
site and the numbers indicate where
the photos are taken g.44-49.
1
2
3
4
5
6
x
x
37
1
1
3
4
5
6
44
45
46
47
48
49
38
Within the interior too, the building has a way of forcing the explorer to discover its hidden spaces.
The main staircase that originally lead to the third oor attic is now blocked. So, one must climb
through a window in a nailed shut doorway in order to gain access to the spiral staircase to the west
of the building. This move opens up another dimension to the building by exposing rooms that before
remained undiscovered, the route through a building determining the spaces that one encounters on
the way. The route that one travels through the Mill is not explicitly expressed in the architecture. In its
own subtle way, the building draws its inhabitants through and forces them to engage with the different
spaces. This is achieved through the suggestive nature of the spaces and the notion that there is
always another space beyond the one presently in [g.50-53].
g.50 Ground oor: Walking
through a solid volume
of darkness to get to the
space beyond.
39
g.51-53 This sequence of photos
illustrate the notion that when
walking into a space one is always
presented with a space beyond the
one presently in.
1 2
3
1
2
3
40
Enveloping space:
The composition of space plays a major role in the creation of a sinister affect. In all three spaces the
notion of space swallowing the subject is very apparent. Although the spaces differ on rst glance,
similarities are drawn with the relationship between the body and an uncomfortable sense of enclosure.
This sense of enclosure differs from that of being in a room to that of a situation where the subject
feels a sense of being consumed and trapped by the space, where every progressive step is multiplied
by ten when trying to escape from the space. The notion of space consuming a subject is discussed
in Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia by Roger Caillois. He describes how creatures disguise
themselves by mimicking their environment,
space seems to be a devouring force. Space pursues them, encircles them, digests them in a gigantic
phagocytosis
31
The composition of Malt House Close, as with the nature of most back alleys, is very ad-hoc; shops
building extensions with complete disregard to the quality of space they create. These extensions have,
over time, morphed this alley into one of twists and turns around blind corners with multiple nooks for
creatures to lurk inside and rarely a clear line of sight to safety. This adds a high amount of tension as
the user slowly edges through the space, creeping around corners with heightened awareness of the
danger imposed on them [g.54+55].
As discussed with the Mill, the north side of the site has various elements that engulf the subject.
Surrounded by oppressive tenements and ats that detach the subject from the city with the only views
out of the site are those to the sky above. The steep topography gives an impression that one is below
ground level even though the base of the site is ground oor level of the Mill building. To escape from
the belly of the site would require a climb up the steep slopes, more difcult than the entry [g.56].
41
g.54+55 Photos of
Malt house close where
the space tightens and
consumes the subject in
the space.
g.56 Drawing of emotional response to the
enclosure of the Mill. The residential tenements loom
over the subjects head as they desend into the belly
of the site and the Mills mouth like openings ready
to swallow on into the interior space.
42
Details:
These spaces are peppered with tiny details; small gestures where their contribution to the affect
is not proportionate to their relative scale in the space
32
. In investigating the Mill through lm and
photography I record these details consisting of light, sound, texture, acoustics, wind and physical
elements. As I walked through the building I found that the details that have the greatest impact are
those that have the most ambiguity and look almost violent; chains that hang from the roof swing lightly
in the wind as if breezed past by something moments before confronting them. Short lengths of metal
rods are strategically welded to the columns outside of peripheral vision so you walk into them and tear
your skin, a piece of tape that blows in the wind in the corner of your eye is potentially mistaken for a
gure moving [g.57+58].

It is important to bring attention to the fact that these small details manage to have a signicant power
in a room full of tiny elements of decay. If the space were to be whitewashed and the details left
untouched, their contribution to the affect runs the risk of becoming contrived. In the current context the
details blend in and when one begins the journey of their discovery it magnies the affect they emit, to
isolate and articulate them in any way would bring attention to them and in turn weaken their affect.
g.57+58 Short rods of steel on a few
columns. Chains swinging in the wind.
The details that catch your eye as you
move through the spaces.
Trace:
All over the Mill site there are traces of demolished buildings that would once have been hives of
activity during the height of Dundees involvement in the jute industry. Walls in the north of the site still
exist to hold back the landscape from sliding down and ooding the ground oor with dirt [g.61]. To
the front, only rubble is left where once the entire site was crudely occupied by a single story building
[g.59]. On the faades we can see the painted interior walls where the now demolished parts of the
building would have once been attached. Now, the last remaining and original building stands hard in
the site to the south and in threat to the north]. These traces create a haunting experience of the site.
Even though the remains of the demolished building are very few, their presence in the site is profound;
the feeling that a deceased loved one is in the room with you by the presence of their ashes on the
mantelpiece.
43
g.60 The only site plan I could nd of
the demolished parts of the Mill
g.59 White paint on the facade, traces
indicating that the facade used to be an
interior.
g.61 The remains of the demolished parts of the Mill.
44
Chapter 3
Bl ack Mi l l
When exploring these different elements composing the language of the sinister I found myself with
the constant urge to explore various methods of representation. With a keen interest in lm as a
reference for understanding the sinister I found it apparent to experiment with it as a medium. This is
a collaboration project with fellow student Sean McAlister whose masters thesis shares themes which
have the potential to creatively compliment my own studies and add layers of complexity to the lm.
Pre-empting distortion of the image we set out various parameters for lming. Using only physical
tools [such as camera obscura, enlarger lenses and prism lenses] at the point of lming allowed us
to engage fully with the space and the type of distortion we felt was appropriate based on our own
experiences in the Mill.
The lm is a platform to clearly articulate a narrative that we have personally projected onto the
building; using the architecture as a main protagonist manipulating the story. The plot depicts a detective
instructed to check out a derelict Mill in Dundee. As he progresses through the ominous structure he
realises that he may not be alone and his isolation within the building is increasing his vulnerability to its
affects. The more immersed he becomes, the more the space around him distorts and warps to reect
his fears about the Mill. The detectives fear is not completely irrational as there is a second character
in the story following his every move. This characters vision of the world is completely distorted and
warped as a result of being consumed by the building; he can traverse effortlessly through walls and
oors remaining unnoticed. Is this because he and the building have become one, the line between
them barley exists? The answer to this question is left to the interpretation of the viewer.
The lm has succeeded in vividly articulating a personal response to the Mill, something that has
proved a struggle in other media throughout the year. A method for surveying the structure as a process
consisted of going through the building and picking out the elements that held a certain resonance upon
us. These elements were placed in relation to the body and how one would engage and experience
them. It was argued that simple shots had the greatest power over the ones that were distorted and
warped, this is due to in reality these elements do not require any special effects to enhance their
quality and they can simply just be what they are to evoke a response.
An interesting tension developed between the three points of view that the building is presented in the
lm. Two of these views are centred around the detective; what he sees and following his journey. The
third explores the idea of a character capable of traversing through the walls and oors with ease in
reference to the way in which an architect approaches a design; the architect has the ability to jump
effortlessly through spaces by layering up tracing paper and manipulating scale models. These points
of view empower the architect to design and view the whole experience of a building at once when in
reality the spaces are experienced from that of the viewer, in the lms case, the detective. The lm is
thus part survey, part proposal. Not a conventional survey of plan, section, elevation and dimensions
but a survey of experience and not a proposal of a design drawn up but a proposition of a narrative
and a reaction to a space. The projection of narrative through lm then acts as a device for informing
an intervention within the building.
45
g. 62 Stills from the lm Black Mill
46
An i nterventi on
Using the knowledge from developing a language of the sinister the thesis will intervene within the
Mill as a thinking machine for testing ideas about preserving and exaggerating existing affects. The
intervention is not the gentrication of a historic relic, it is rather sympathetic to the affects it produces
over its listed status. In choosing a brief for the Mill, there lies potential in a hybrid building, one that
takes two contrasting programmes and creates a dialogue between them. A hybrid of lm school and
dental practice is the proposition for this building. The lm school, like most arts based subjects,
sits comfortably in the decaying character of the Mill, an interesting dialogue is thus sparked when
contrasted against the sterile environment of the dental practice. The dental practice occupies a
relatively small proportion of the building though its location in the plan allows it to engage with both
the public and private elements of the lm school. Developing the standard lm school brief I propose
a programme which achieves a balance between both controlled and spontaneous lming spaces; thus
the entire building acts as a set for students who are provided with large, small, bright and dark spaces
as well as spaces suitable for writing, editing and rehearsals.

The physical intervention in the Mill takes the form of two cuts, these ssures respond to specic
existing or indeed absent relationships and how one is forced to engage with the building. The different
spatial relationships experienced in both the exterior to the north and south will be explored by these
cuts as they act as mediating space by drawing the exterior into the interior. They offer new vertical
spatial relationships and also explore the idea of route through the building, playing with the existing
illogical way one needs to travel to access various levels.
The rst cut slices beside the existing staircase and lift shaft. Upon entering from a small domestic
opening on the south elevation one is confronted with a tall and narrow space that focuses a view
towards the residential housing enclosing the site to the north; drawing in the look to the interior. This
tall space draws other relationships with the two programmes, it is here that the public visiting the lm
school exhibitions come into contact with the dental practice through the examination rooms looking
into the space. The form of the ssure bears no relationship with the south elevation so few clues about
the experience are given away until fully immersed in the space.
The second cut to the west is a contained space with a relationship to the landscape to the south. It is
a transitional space that mediates between the exterior of the south and the ground oor interior. When
inside the building it is a space that one must travel through to access different areas of the building,
forcing an interaction with the environment outside. Its monolithic form impacts on the interior space by
47
dictating voids in the oor plates and dening space around it. Its scale and proportion is as ominous
and overbearing as the south faade, an interstitial space that does not provide any shelter from the
feelings evoked.
Both of these interventions are experiments with the notion of projection, not solely surfaces that the
lm school uses for physical projection but also where the occupants project their own visions of what
lies on the other side. The dental practices relationship to the rst cut allows glimpses of situations
where patients enter the examination room and become silhouetted behind opaque glass, playing with
the idea that we know that someone is in the dentist chair but we do not know the full story allowing
us to project our own ideas about this legal torture. The second cut obstructs an interaction with the
spaces on either side of its walls, which act as screens on which we project what we believe to be
lurking on the other side. It is now the architecture that has become the screen for the projection of
our fears.
g. 63 Site plan showing concept
sketch of ssures and their relation to
the context. The rst cut relates to the
housing to the north and the second
cut relates to the landscape to the
south.
48
g. 64 Interior space of rst cut
illustrates the relationship to the
housing and the dental practice.
g. 65 Section showing the
relationship to the housing that
encloses the north of the site.
49
g. 67 Section showing the
relationship to landscape to the
south.
g. 66 The second cut illustrating its
relationship to the landscape to the
south.
50
Concl usi on
Throughout the course of the year my thesis has brought to light the power that a piece of architecture
can hold over an individual, not predicting that I would become fully immersed in the recording and
understanding of the William Halley Mill and that one piece of architecture could hold so many levels
of complexity that contribute to the affect. The importance of subjectivity in architecture is illustrated
through architecture and affect, showing how and why individuals nd attachment to particular spaces
and places.
The exploration of ideas regarding architecture and affect in this thesis has shed light on the initial
accusation that architecture directly produces affect by instead identifying that every piece of
architecture has the potential to house affect. The affect only manifests itself when a subject projects
a narrative onto a screen or space, inferring that in order for the phenomenon to exist there needs to
be both architecture and subject present. It is in our engagement with the architecture which forms a
relationship with affect, the way a building looks at us and the interpretation of that look.
An affect has the greatest potential when there exists a certain emptiness in the architecture, an
ambiguity in the truth which forces us to predict what lies ahead. A space that is sinister is only sinister
because we use the architecture as a screen to project our fears and anxieties. This projection has the
ability to exaggerate and warp architecture, enhancing the feelings that we experience. One cannot
create sinister architecture but rather use architecture as a device to allow people to interpret the
situation as they perceive it. There is a danger of creating something arbitrary whilst designing with
the ambition of constructing sinister experience. The architects role is rather to allow for interpretation,
creating situations with ambiguity so that the subject must use their own imagination in the space.
Walls and doors are no longer objects that divide and dene space but projection screens for our
minds.
For me, this thesis has the possibility of informing future studies in two distinct ways. Firstly, the
thesis has brought to my attention the importance of different perceptions of the same space; how
one building could be considered both sinister and beautiful at the same time, that those things which
cause us to experience such different and contrasting emotions are in fact one and the same. For
example this room is beautiful but this room is also sinister, the physical composition of elements
remains constant but the affects are in opposition. Secondly, a more focused study into the notion of
warped space through our psychological experience of it; how a contradiction between the realities of
space and how we perceive them in our mind show diverse results.
51
52
References
1. Quote by Ivan Chtcheglov, from the Formulary for a New Urbanism, originally published in 1953,
and again in the Internationale Situationiste no.1, 1958. Taken from Theory of the Drive and other
Situationist Writings on the City edited by Libero Andreotti and Xavier Costa.
2. Quote from the short story The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Alan Poe rst published in
1839.
3. Denition researched in the Oxford Latin Dictionary.
4. Denition researched in the Oxford English Dictionary.
5. Quote from the entry on Affect in The Language of Psychoanalysis, by J ean Laplanche and J ean-
Bertrand Pontalis. A dictionary that explains the theories and concepts developed by Sigmund Freud.
6. Ibid.
7. Quote from the entry on Affect in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, by Dylan
Evans. A dictionary explaining the theories developed by J acques Lacan.
8. Quote from Non-Places, An Introduction to Supermodernity by Marc Auge, in the chapter From
Places to Non-Places
9. Quote from the entry on Affect in The Language of Psychoanalysis, by J ean Laplanche and J ean-
Bertrand Pontalis. A dictionary that explains the theories and concepts developed by Sigmund Freud.
10. Developed by Charles and Ray Eames the Powers of Ten, explores the relative size of things from
the microscopic to the cosmic http://www.powersof10.com/
11. Quote from Theory Of The Derive by Guy Debord, originally published in Les Levres Nues no.8,
1956. Taken from Theory of the Drive and other Situationist Writings on the City edited by Libero
Andreotti and Xavier Costa.
12. Quote from Internationale Situationiste no.1, by unsigned, 1958. Taken from Theory of the Drive
53
and other Situationist Writings on the City edited by Libero Andreotti and Xavier Costa.
13. Quote by Ivan Chtcheglov, from the Formulary for a New Urbanism, originally published in 1953,
and again in the Internationale Situationiste no.1, 1958. Taken from Theory of the Drive and other
Situationist Writings on the City edited by Libero Andreotti and Xavier Costa.
14. Denition researched in the Oxford Latin Dictionary
15. Denition researched in the Oxford English Dictionary
16. Quote from the entry on Affect in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, by Dylan
Evans. A dictionary explaining the theories developed by J acques Lacan.
17. Quote from Warped Space, Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture by Anthony Vidler, in
the chapter The Explosion of Space
18. Film The Haunting directed by Robert Wise, 1963
19. Lines from the lm The Haunting that Eleanor says. It is interesting to point out that vile is an
anagram of evil and live.
20. Quote from Warped Space, Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture by Anthony Vidler, in
the chapter The Explosion of Space where he is referencing The Vivifying of Space, by Herman G.
Scheffauer
21. Quote from the entry on Gaze in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, by Dylan
Evans. A dictionary explaining the theories developed by J acques Lacan.
22. Film Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari directed by Robert Wiene, 1920
23. Quote from Warped Space, Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture by Anthony Vidler, in
the chapter The Explosion of Space
24. Quote from The Uncanny by Sigmund Freud, rst published in 1919
54
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Quote from the introduction of The Architectural Uncanny by Anthony Vidler
29. Quote from the short story The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Alan Poe rst published in
1839.
30. It is important to state that in the current condition of the Mill it does inuence the way one travels
through the site and the building.
31. Quote from Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia by Roger Caillois rst published in 1935
32. In the book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan, But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock,
edited by Slavoj Ziezek, he writes in the chapter In His Bold Gaze My Ruin Is Writ Large , about the
signicance of details in Hitchcocks lms. Explaining that Hitchcock would focus the camera on an
object for a split second longer than was nessesery to draw our attention to it and by the transxed
gaze of the charcter, the detail sticks out.
55
Image References
1 - 2. Authors own drawing.
3 - 5. Authors own photo.
6 - 8. Authors own image.
9 - 11. Authors own photo.
12 - 14. Stills from The Haunting.
15. Authors own diagram in reference to
Lorens Holms diagram about architecture
and the gaze.
16. Authors own diagram.
17 - 20. Still from The Haunting.
21+23+25. Still from Das Cabinet des Dr
Caligari.
22+24+26. Authors own drawing.
27. Still from The Haunting.
28. Montage with a still from The Haunting.
29. Authors own drawing.
30. Authors own image.
31 - 34. Authors own drawing.
35 - 36. Authors own photo.
37 - 39. Authors own image.
40. Authors own photo.
41 - 43. Authors own drawing.
44 - 49. Authors own image.
50 - 53. Authors own photo.
54 - 55. Authors own image.
56. Authors own drawing.
57 - 59. Authors own photo.
60. Drawings from A History of Halleys Mill
1822-1980
61. Authors own image.
62. Still from lm collaboration project with
Sean McAlister Black Mill
63 - 67. Authors own drawing.
56
Bi bl i ography
Andreotti, Libero; Costa, Xavier, Eds; 1996; Theory of the Drive and other Situationist Writings on the
City; Actar; Museum dArt Contemporani de Barcelona; Barcelona
Aug, Marc; 2006; Non-Places, An Introduction to Supermodernity; Verso; London
Douglas, Mary; 2002; Purity and Danger; Routledge; New York
Evans, Dylan; 2003; An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis; Brunner-Routledge; East
Sussex
Frank, Claudine; 2003; The Edge of Surrealism, A Roger Caillois Reader; Duke University Press,
Durham, NC
Freud, Sigmund; 2003; The Uncanny; Penguin Classics; London
Halley, J .R.L; 1980; A History of Halleys Mill 1822 1980; William Halley & Sons Ltd; Dundee
Laplanche, J ean; Pontalis; J ean-Bertrand; 2004; The Language of Psychoanalisis; Karnac; London
Poe, Edgar Allan; 1986; The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings; Penguin Classics;
London
Vidler. Anthony; 1992; The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely; The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
Vidler, Anthony; 2001; Warped Space: Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture; The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
White, Patricia; Female Spectator, Lesbian Specter: The Haunting; Colomina, Beatriz; 1992; Sexuality
and Space; Princeton Architectural Press; New York
Woods, Lebbeus; 1997; Radical Reconstruction; Princeton Architectural Press; New York
57
Zizek, Slavoj; 1992; Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan, (but were Afraid to ask
Hitchcock); Verso; London
Films:
Dassin, J ules; 1948; The Naked City; UK; Arrow Films
Welles, Orson; 1958; A Touch of Evil; UK; Universal Pictures UK
Wiene, Robert; 1920; Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari; UK; Eureka Enertainment
Wise, Robert; 1963; The Haunting; UK; Warner Home Video
58
Appendi ces
Consuming Street
As Mike watches the decapitated body being carted out in separate bags he ponders how last nights
events would change the atmosphere of where he lived. He did not know the person who was killed,
nor would half the people who live on the street. Though there was a change going on- a certain layer
of unease started to drape itself over the street that he felt would not lift.
Going about his usual morning routine before heading to work; shower, jerk off (usually in the shower),
shit, brush teeth and leave, he likes to skip breakfast as he feels this gives him extra time in bed.
Leaving the tenement he sees a large number of unfamiliar faces peering out at the gathering of police
and ambulance services. The media has already caught wind of the murder and arrive with note pads
and cameras at the ready, he presses on to work.
Work is nothing special, thoughts enter his head about when the police would turn at his door to
question if he knew anything about the events of last night. A quick sorry I didnt see a thing exchange
of numbers and details and he could get back to his life. Leaving work to walk home he fells the cold
air a lot more against his body. The dark winter nights of Dundee, are in full swing, he always enjoys
them, the sharpness makes him feel alive.
Approaching his street, he worries about it being crowded with curious neighbours and police all playing
Chinese whispers about what they heard or what they think happened last night. Hopefully he can slip
into his at and into a deep coma like sleep. Turning the corner into the street he is confounded by its
emptiness. Not a person in sight. The empty street is not alien to him but this time he knows something
is a miss.
Mikes receptiveness towards his surroundings sharpen- the street he lives in, the place he was so
familiar with has a new light. He walks towards his at. As he climbs the shallow slope, the tenements
on either side draw in from his peripheral vision. The street is blank, none of the windows are illuminated
for him to look into like every other night. The closer to the at he becomes, the more he nds the
street enveloping him. He starts to run, then sprint, bursts through the rarely locked door to the shared
stairwell, sprints up the stair, with shaking hands opens the front door, enters, slams the door, collapses
down and sits with his back pressed against the door. Out of breath and with the taste of stomach acids
on his tongue he tries to comprehend what the fuck just happened to him.
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12.30am, Mike wakes up from the cold draft, confused about the strange position his body is in when
slowly he realises he is still sitting with his back to the door. Making his way through the hallway to the
living room, allowing the streetlight to illuminate and guide the way. Slumping down in his armchair he
looks out the window scanning the street. Slowly observing from the far end where it meets the main
road, up past the faade on the opposite side that is identical to the one on his side. The windows in
the street, like black pits of no activity, repeated in a regimented manner up the street until they are met
by the high impenetrable wall that encloses the space. No life. Not a soul.
Rising up and standing in the window he observes and reects on how different his relationship towards
the street is from this position. In one of these pits he is in control of the space, he watches over it,
commanding it. He does not need to worry about the unknowns behind the other facades as he is a
unknown. This power was polar from his reactions in the street below. Although he could not see a
face, the sense of being watched took control of him, pushing him through the street like a puppet
submissive to his master. These thoughts made him uneasy, so he drops the blind and goes to be for
a night of broken sleep.
Waking at the usual time of 7.30am, Mike gets up and goes through his morning routine. It was the
weekend but he liked getting up and walking in the crisp morning air just as it gets light.
He locks the at and went down the stairs, neglecting to concern himself with last nights events when
returning from work and steppes out into the street. Startled in his motion forward by the unfamiliarity
of the street. Where is this? Is it the way the morning winter mist and sunrise is lling the space, like a
solid form, making it hazy and illegible? It is longer, much longer. The facades of the tenements loom
oppressively down on the space with more repeated windows watching over the street below. Mike
found himself back inside the stairwell, palpitating to come to terms with what was going on. He did not
understand it. He knew that the murder on the street would change it but it is incomprehensible what
was happening to him. The street is taking over him, drilling and tearing into his mind. It is a new place
and he wants out.
Opening the door there is a new kind of cold, a cold that clasps his skin tight and makes his body taut,
his heart drops. Walking. The nostalgia of last nights reactions intensied as he progressed down
the street. Walking did not bring the main road any closer. The facades began crushing down on him,
compressing his body to this insignicant being, pressuring him. His spine contorting to the point of
collapse. Something catches his eye.
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A gure, a face in the window bares down on him. Mike stops, does not look up but knows it is looking
at him. Frozen, rooted to the ground. He remembers this sensation from his childhood. He was out of
control and pissed his pants in the class. The teacher stared at him as he sat in his puddle of warm
urine on his chair- she couldnt see it but knew what he had done, his face said it all and she excused
him from class. He looks down at his blood stained trousers and runs back to the at. Inside he falls
at the toilet and pukes.
He cant leave the at. To leave would mean going into the street. The street knows what he has done.
The other residents should fear him for what he has done. But out there the control him. They use
the street as a device to punish him, to trap him. To kill him. If only he could get beyond the street. To
escape this place that once held no power over him. Trapped in his at as punishment for what he has
done, the street will soon get in to consume him.
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