Discovery of the site: Venoge

Once arrived on the site, our attention was drawn to the rocks as their fragmentation, gaps and veins draw a multitude of paths to follow. It is this last aspect that we decided to dig in more in depth in this sequence measures. 

Hence, the concept of the line or the path is therefore at the real basis of our work.

Our next question was: what path should we follow? What rock should we choose? Why this one or another? 

It is true that what is mainly interesting about the rocks (at least the one we chose) is that they are a physical limit separating the land and the water. This thin border acts as a contrast between two opposite and complementary components that make up the plan or spatial view of the Venoge: land and water. 

This idea of contrast highly interested us. It is when we spotted a red piece of plastic standing nearby a rock and leaves emerging from its gaps that we decided that our line will not only follow the curves and the veins of the rock but also will be composed of points that express contrast between each other. 

"Nothing exists without its opposite"

-Chris Cutcher

                                  

            The place is situated near the lake,                         on the extremity of the beach

Besides the contrast land-water and the one made by nature-artificial object, we decided to use the idea of direction and oppose the top of the rock and its bottom (up&down). This list became the process of establishing our line, starting from the artificial point, pursuing to the leaves, reaching the top, connecting the bottom to the lake and coming back onto the land. 

                                                            Human/artificial to Nature                                                     

                                     UP & DOWN     

   FIRST STEP

Firstly, we decided to draw directly onto the rock what we wanted our line to look like. For this process, we used a rope, following the veins and reaching the points part of our criterias. 

      The rope strides the veins...                                       ... follow the natural curves

    STEP 2

     Step 2 was about:

• Choosing points on the rock, according to their meaning, position (along the curves) and heights. 
• Placing a flat surface above the rock, parallel to the ground, to allow the measures to be taken from the top. 
• Take the measures, heights, distances between the points, and report them on a notebook. 

STEP 3   

With all of our ideas in our heads, measures reported, pictures taken, step 3 was a time of understanding our project, calculating the scales and drawing. 

We came up with two drawings, one Monge's drawing of the measures taken from the flat surface above the rock, which means an inversed form of the rock. The other one is an unrolled section of the line, respecting the heights and distances, but in 2 dimensions rather than 3. 

    Monge's drawing of the inversed form of the rock

Unrolled drawing of the line

STEP 4

It is in this step that we did a mold of the unrolled version, obtained in the previous drawing.

We chose to work with the scale 1:3.33

This mold was the first try

STEP 5

Step 5 was surely the most difficult yet the most interesting part of the proccess. We built our mold, respecting the depths, the heights and the distances, according to the measures taken on the beach. To create a line, the shape obtained (surface between the points) was doubled. We therefore realized a reduction of the initial shape, to create a "wall", supporting by itself the line.

                           

To cover the in-between the two walls, we cut some triangles to adapt the different inclinaison to the different measures. Thus, all the pieces between the two walls, and between every points, are unique. 

This part was particularly interesting as, unlike the first mold, we really got a true impression of the points we actually measured on the rocks; their heights, their relation in space, their depths compared to each other other, their means and complexity. 

STEP 6

Step 6 was for us the achievement of 3 weeks of work. After reinforcing each and every wall, each and every piece, after padding the exterior of our mold with coton, we finally filled our mold with plaster.

   View from above

                                               

    View from the side

                                   The stains and imprefections we observed on the plaster were for

                       us a way to compare it with the imperfections and the marks present on the rock.