nonplaces
a film about the m8 motorway
exhibited at open desktop, RSA edinburgh
digital film (8 min), 2019
access here
in the city of glasgow,
there is a constant hum,
a murmur of
movement
in the background the whispers of
the m8 motorway,
as slices up the city
movement performed from robotic bodies
its path is a nonplace, a decimation of character
its construction has been described as
waking up one day to a sound
that never got switched off
nothing is oblivious to its legacy
in glasgow city, the m8 resulted in the
brutal
destruction and redesign
of existing urban structures
there are no neutral bodies, there
no cities that survive without a past of destruction,
urban design can be as vicious as a knife, sculpting, decimating
how do we account for the motorways sporadic jolts of beauty? or the occasional calming hum of its noise that can be almost
music
how do the bodies that were moved for the m8 live around its imposing form?
how can the city carve out
space for itself underneath
the movements of a body built out of
isolation
