'The Basin': The Rotor-Palms [Draft 1.0]

All Images: Floating Harbour, Bristol, April 2023 - April 2024

The rotor palms sway on high-level galvanised-steel lighting poles, employing flexibility and high standards across the entire region. This was the first high mast lighting in the UK, using 25 metre masts and 1000W MBF/U lamps. Prevailing westerlies and wide angles make perpendicularity a problem. Lens correction and transformation rituals become routine in post [the sequence of connections of all unit circles is solved according to the shortest path principle.] We note that technology innovators [powered by advances in robotics, battery power, imaging, communications, sensing and artificial intelligence], are on the cusp of delivering new breakthrough capabilities. Effective energy management strategies are an important part of the equation, and the lights themselves [which could be lowered by winding gear] appear to have been replaced. Information which reaches us from remote light sources reveals events occurring in the remote past, whilst distance may be implied through selective juxtapositions and experiments in relative scale.

Across the ocean, similar trees presided over transplanted and commodified souls. Phylogenetic studies reflect the complex evolutionary history of the West Indies and no single biogeographical pattern emerges. Instead, we seek those angles best suited to  pleasing silhouettes, whilst selectively omitting the profit-mansions on the cliff behind [a newer architecture overlaid]. The lights cast a retarded illumination where the revenues flowed - sticky with molasses and anaesthetised on baccy and rum. It was lucrative but risky business. The city is revealed to itself, recoiling in elegant disgust as the misery archive is slowly compiled [everyone was expected to work]. Light from the palms angles through the bond windows where pertinent records may be uncovered [unclear whether import data include customs duties]. Ventilation management should be a priority.

The oscillation may demonstrate accelerating fragmentation in pendant form. Under heavy rain and wind-rush, complete atomisation may occur. Shutter speeds must be considered carefully, with video capture eventually the more appropriate method. During periods of calm, the inverted rotors appear poised for memory-churn within The Basin. Strategic planting aims at comprehensive territorial illumination, but affords the upper carriageways clearer visibility. Down below, more perplexing, high-contrast geometries operate amongst  historical assemblages of angular shadow [light mostly travels in straight lines but time adopts an increasingly cubist aspect]. Nevertheless, some undulation may also occur at the surface. At such times, waves ripple back across concrete undersides - resulting in a blending of narratives [i.e. not a story anymore but part of history].

Lost wanderers are easily misdirected down there - descending to forget their sufferings where edges and distances grow ambiguous [don’t be a statistic]. Others, after the hardships and severities they have experienced, indulge themselves ashore. We wanted to see how well-lit it might be and to search for an answer really. Whether despair or intoxication are the cause is yet to be ascertained [what lies beneath?]. The smallest bit of information could make a huge difference in our investigation so, even if you don’t think it is important, we encourage people to still get in touch with us. The project has now become one of identification.

The incident response was observed at a remove from multiple viewpoints. However effective the safety management regime is, marine incidents do occur. The first officer jogged along The Basin’s rim, peering into the water from a fragile walkway. Emergency vehicles of all colours followed in sequence [eyewitnesses reported a ‘huge crowd’ gathered near the water, with multiple ambulances and fire engines at the scene]. An exclusion was effected under flickering concrete. Delegations are no substitute for the duty holder being directly involved. The brute rattle of rotating blades announced a searching hover, but other factors played a part [economic and social as well as philosophical]. From the footbridge we were able to watch those lingering to reflect. They will be involved in the associated planning work, and in events that once failed to unfold. With the level raised, a small vessel may be retrieved from the lock.

To facilitate the necessary temporal transference, is it possible to lift this entire droning landscape on flimsy propellors? The path can be optimised by solving either the path-planning problem [PPP] or the coverage-planning problem [CPP]. In implementing this scheme, a key output will be to develop and publish a ‘future of flight’ plan, setting out the coordinated vision. Consideration should be given to the following points:

• Even on a warm day, the strategic framework is imbued with paternalist overtones - but is interesting as it presents the reader with the notion that savages can learn under proper supervision.

• Those entrusted with code-related responsibilities must be appropriately trained, experienced and qualified to undertake their duties This enables them to monitor situations in real time.

• The temperature in open water can remain very cold, causing a physical reaction which can make it difficult to control breathing.

The more drone functions become autonomous and intelligent, the greater the benefits and efficiencies will be. A transposition of readings might thus be enacted on the spatial plane, with new colonisations following as a result. Clearly, we need a smart, efficient ‘virtual infrastructure’ [air traffic management and ulcerated state systems], in order that the trajectory might be extended. 

N.B: How remote is the control? We have identified a number of potential command posts, but in reality, the constant contact that was part of plantation life was seen as being demeaning.

'The Basin': Silted [Draft 1.0]

 

All Images: Floating Harbour, Bristol, April 2023 - April 2024

Across the region, significant tracts remain in suspension. Shift and deposition are prime arbiters here and time is both fluvial and coagulate in nature. Because the moon follows an elliptical path around the Earth, the distance between them varies by about 31,000 miles over the course of a month [the entire project betrays an elliptical profile]. Ebb/flood-dominance is strongly dependent on the ratio between the amplitude of the M2 tidal constituent [1.5 m] and the average depth of the tidal channel at mid-tide [2 m]. Morphology is provisional and we stand at the interface between becoming and territoriality. As is clearly understood, the transport and deposition of riverine mud is the primary agent of landscape construction and evolution across the majority of Earth's surface. Time flows in, time flows out [twice every day - disgorging]. Liquid and solid states hand-off as tons of sludge are dragged through the channel and the city’s regulating valves. Accretion rates during winter are likely to be smaller due to river outflows weakening flood currents and strengthening ebb currents, but progress is still retarded overall. Elsewhere, the retreating levels reveal the shallows-bike; the grounded trolley - attractively beached in glistening centimetres. All may run aground here - it appears. Silt builds up and reduces the depth, making it difficult for ships to navigate.

Many people believe that the Moon’s gravitational force also affects humans, as our bodies are made up of approximately 70% fluid. In the present study, resting heart rate [HR] and blood pressure [BP], physical fitness index [PFI], peak HR and BP immediately after step test, and recovery HR and BP after step test, were measured during different phases of the lunar month in 76 male university students [age 23.7 ± 1.7 years]. The moon can make periodic alterations on the liquid area in which our body cells swim, so that we may talk about the biological tides that alter the mood and bring about the behavioural changes. [Unreliably sourced local folklore describes entrapped drownings and parachuting suicides awaiting inflow]. In light of this, it is important that previous entanglements are reviewed across decades as the healing/solidification occurs [repeat visits are implied]. Research data may clarify certain delusions, even as others are jettisoned [i.e. the moon does not directly affect on the human behaviour, but it changes the proportions of the electromagnetic forces in the cosmos, and that leads to troubles among the imbalanced people], but the chance remains that vessels may succumb to a rising bed. Inertia creeps, along with drag coefficients. 

N.B: The diminishing capacity of the flow to maintain a washload transport state [P < 0.8] for the floc-size distribution due to decreasing u* allows for the coarse fraction of the floc-size distribution to exceed the PB and interact with the bed through either ephemeral or perennial deposition.

A vast mechanism was constructed to regulate the flows and provide a stable container for  trade, but the old ad-hoc consultation was not sufficient to ensure that the work was done properly. Basically, they found they had created the largest open sewer in the country and the 'miasma of the Float' was blamed for fevers and sickness. Freelance indy_rev tech bros fell over/under, but their enterprise became disputed and mired. A salaries were accepted in the face of the immensity [these were the essential technocrats]. 

Photographs show: 

[c.]  A small cadre of dedicated stalwarts meeting to formulate strategy.

[b.]  Inflatable vessels describing lazy arcs across the surface of the Basin.

[c.]  Specialist craft being transported in. 

The sluices have been changed and renewed several times since, but the arteries can still become blocked by time - and the synapses overlaid with gluey plaques. However, a more acidic diet may help to clear calcium sludges from bile ducts, and there is scope for easement by using the action of natural currents. Sample cores are taken, and the foul ooze excavated in order to separate constituent memories from historical emulsions, but flow rates are maintained overall. [Flocculation in both field and laboratory environments is a ubiquitous phenomenon that greatly increases the ability of cohesive sentiment to settle out from suspicion].

1. Dredging:

• Nozzles inject large volumes of water at low pressure directly onto the sediment build-up where history accumulates. 

• The process fluidises the sediment build-up, turning it into a density current which remains close to the water bed.

• The sediment is transported by natural phenomena to the final destination through the density current. An ongoing process of organic [re]formation is thus maintained.

• Many components of value have been reclaimed/repurposed as a consequence.

• An embrace of fluid dynamics has yielded significant rewards at all stages [e.g. improved clarity, greater resilience, etc.].

• Dredging operations remain potentially traumatic. Mariners are advised to approach and pass with caution at slow speed. The dredgers will keep a listening watch on VHF Channel 14. 

• Signalling may remain obscure. Vessels should proceed on the side of two green lights or two diamonds in vertical line].

2. Scouring:

• The Basin is drained according to a notified timetable, with tiny whirlpools captured on video by the curious.

• A powerful undertow is created, which sucks the silt out of the harbour and into the river.

• Massive flushing and the great reveal are both fundamental [and considered highly invigorating].

• Only through such radical exposure can the full scope of the Basin be fully appreciated.

• Apparently it’s something that happens quite regularly, with a schedule published on the harbourmaster’s website. 

• Surprisingly, these interventions may go largely unobserved [they only ever scour at lunchtime on weekdays, so most people are at work.] 

• Those unable to witness the spectacle may review the puddling on screens.

Where the damming was enacted, we may gaze down upon a consolidating tract. A micro-delta of rivulets sweats between mud shoulders [investigations have demonstrated that flocculation will occur in the presence of a high concentration of organics, particularly in response to the introduction of long-chain organic polymers such as Xanthum gum]. To one side, an ancient operating wheel is carefully chained and pleasingly silhouetted. The turn of certain events remain under lock and key, as, in March 1988, the sluice control was computerised and automated. This zone is both prehistoric and domestic in character, being plugged with a discarded miscellany: the cone; the bin; the mop; the batten. Each plunges to a given depth, dependant on trajectory, velocity and consistency. They await geological incorporation and archaeological cataloguing. A decapitated totem presides above the slime arena and arcane rituals, cargo cults, and colonising exchange may all be imagined at this site. However, we have our own dramatic sports to enact. Each token now plays its part in an absurdist clay-game, with interrelated narratives arcing and scores duly assigned.

In the summer months, heat and light combine to formulate a splitting crust. Having first tested weight-bearing capabilities, might we then successfully descend the ladder to mount expeditions across the surface of an alien planet? Correlations between psychology and topography are highly pertinent, whilst understanding the fate of muddy river sediment is fundamental to the global carbon cycle, coastal landscape resilience to sea-level rise, river restoration and river–floodplain morphodynamics on Earth and Mars. It is certainly true that one renowned explorer has already extracted impressive geometries from the slop - daubing a code of signs onto designated walls in the process. Our records show that this was foreshadowed even during the earliest cycles. Through such actions, fluid was transmuted to dust through accumulating impacts, and the drift appropriately documented. Encouragingly, bonds between the particles that comprise small, hyper-stable aggregates are strong, and a move towards consolidation is clearly indicated. Further work will be necessary to explore the controls on the yield strength of bonds between aggregates of varying sizes and bonds of various origin - with the insertion of a conical apparatus likely to represent the best route to a greater understanding.

'The Basin': The Cells [Draft 1.0]

 

All Images: Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2023 - April 2024

Spiral ascenders lead to imprisonment [with steel balustrades as seen across the scheme]. We face time within cells of text - entangled within crimes and misdemeanours. The conflicted narratives of our journey are scribbled onto the concrete and degrading polycarbonate of each panelak enclosure within the penal colony. The layered inscriptions are rehearsals for the mechanised operation, but, other than that, there is almost no decoration on the building. Are these the walls of the skull? Our final thoughts rattle around each sounding chamber but are enfolded into the roar of the machines, whose field of validity is situated in a sense between these great functionings and the bodies themselves. What the apparatuses and institutions operate is, in a sense, a micro-physics of power. How long will we remain here, suspended over the dock? Memory waits on remand and encrusts a slate that is never wiped. The evidence accumulates [does the case even progress?] and over-coding is a process without end. We have [with difficulty] gained some clues via calligraphic apertures and interstitial transparencies. Paradoxically, their overlapping left penal justice with innumerable loopholes, and so - the eventual verdict can only be imagined.

Further investigation reveals these to be open cells [unsealed all along]. Indeed, a significant aperture remains open to the pursuing elements, placing us close to ceaseless commerce. Is then the incarceration voluntary? If indeed monastic in nature [and thus scriptural], the prison functions in this as an apparatus of knowledge. Whatever the truth - we may pass through at any point, and define new tactics in order to reach a target that is now more subtle. Many such trajectories have been attempted, although, to date, each has merely led to another cell teetering above its coiled stairway [with steel balustrades as seen across the scheme]. Whilst alternative ramps of egress do exist, our mapping reveals such routes to be far from straightforward. Repeatedly, they double-back, curl into the labyrinth, or taper away to an impasse. It is the apparatus as a whole that produces ‘power' and distributes individuals in this permanent and continuous field where each attempt to escape is met with derision.

We must analyse rather the 'concrete systems of punishment', study them as social phenomena that cannot be accounted for by the juridical structure of society alone, nor by its fundamental ethical choices. We have formed the belief that the cells represent a duality - offering both welcome refuge [or at least - necessary respite] and the restriction of movement [chosen or otherwise]. The accommodation afforded is certainly squalid, and during crisis-events we have observed waves of fetid water being driven through a particular aperture with frightening force. Furthermore, their elevated position means the cells function as little more than blasting chambers when gales blow in. Nonetheless, at such times we remain content to squat there, pressed into the howling walls. Discipline makes possible the operation of a relational power that sustains itself by its own mechanism. So people actually see them - and they go inside and they look and they see how strong or safe they actually feel inside. To brave the conditions outside could be far more terrifying.

Subsequent observations have suggested one more possibility: namely, that the cells might  serve as checkpoints or way-stations on the journey. By their operation, the crowd [a compact mass, a locus of multiple exchanges, individualities merging together, a collective effect] is abolished and replaced by a collection of separated individualities. Stationed as they are upon ramped dual carriageways, each 7m wide, the cells offer an ideal matrix of strategic points from which to capture flow variations on either plane. The prison became a sort of permanent observatory that made it possible to distribute the varieties of vice or weakness, and we have ourselves exploited their potential as framing devices of a parallel and accelerating reality. Furthermore, it is well known that this entire sector may pivot at any time. In such circumstances, the cells afford a position in which the punishment of crime is not the sole element, and we must situate them in their field of operation. Certainly, we must not to overlook the partition of the fourth cell - with its glimpsed switchgear. Regardless of topographical convulsions, it is certain that the disciplinary space is always basically cellular.

The watchtower supervises from above. By the effect of backlighting, one can observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light, the small captive shadows in the cells of the periphery. Elevated upon a single stilt, the panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognise immediately. The roof slab is slightly Y-shaped which is reflected in the north and south elevations below, which are slightly canted inwards and have mullions between each vertical glazing bay. Exactly who lurks beyond those obscure windows? The more numerous those anonymous and temporary observers are, the greater the risk for the inmate of being surprised and the greater his anxious awareness of being observed. Access is from below the northern viaducts, where the forbidden gate remains ajar - but we have not yet dared to climb the dogleg stair. An entrance door is located at the head of the staircase on the north side [it is aluminium and glazed with a central horizontal transom]. Were we to gain access there, might we encounter ourselves already gazing down from within?