Cosmic Rays
An installation at H.Q. im Loop, Zurich curated by Iona Ruegg and Jiajia Zhang, supported by Pool Architects
Moving images and sound collide across two photographic developing trays containing molasses – a ‘conversation’ of footage from Bini’s abandoned test facility, Mushroom Field site experiments of the mid-1960s, to scenes of present-day Tokyo and Hakodate. The split-screen image is collaged together with a double-layered soundtrack, the sound and image often reversed or turned upside down. The Binishell’s architectural radars listen to the sounds (artificial and real) from images of travel, barriers and technology in Japan, at the same time amplifying environmental sound. Abandoned and reclaimed by nature, they remain as monuments to ‘Unfinished Architecture’.
The architect Dante Bini exhibited his ‘Binishells’ in Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan. At the same time he designed ‘La Cupola’ for Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti within Costa Paradiso, a tourist destination in Sardinia. The ‘Mushroom Field’ site, a 1970s utopian vision set against a backdrop of the first moon landing, widespread anti-war protests, and environmentalism. It was a time when architects experimented with radical designs as an instrument of political, social and cultural critique. Bini in particular was interested in building structures on the moon (‘Early Lunar Bases’), and creating levitating cities: the TRY megastructure concept, an unrealised project commissioned by Shimizu Corporation for Tokyo Bay.
‘Cosmic Rays’, installation at H.Q. im loop © Gilly Booth, ‘Table Door’ installation © Iona Ruegg
Gallery film installation Double Trespassing, H.Q. im loop © Gilly Booth
Mushroom field experiment
Film stills of Dante Bini’s experimental ‘Mushroom field’ site, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. A collaborative research trip between Gilly Booth, Chris Horrocks and Stephen Barber in 2016. Supported by a grant from Kingston University.
Architect Dante Bini exhibited his ‘Binishells’ in Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan. At the same time he designed ‘La Cupola’ for Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti within Costa Paradiso, a tourist destination in Sardinia. The ‘Mushroom Field’ site, a 1970s utopian vision set against a backdrop of the first moon landing, widespread anti-war protests, and environmentalism. It was a time when architects experimented with radical designs as an instrument of political, social and cultural critique. Bini in particular was interested in building structures on the moon (‘Early Lunar Bases’), and creating levitating cities: the TRY megastructure concept, an unrealised project commissioned by Shimizu Corporation for Tokyo Bay.
The Seaweed Exchange
A current project investigating the relationship of seaweed to cultural memory and environmental information: how bio-feedback may be translated into sound, choral orchestration, light and visual representation. An on-going collaboration with the writer and performance artist, Professor Stephen Barber.
Research supported by a grant from the Sasikawa Foundation 2019
EDUARDO PAOLOZZI: Archaeology of a future
An essay film currently in production, embodying the voice of the late visionary artist Eduardo Paolozzi who accompanies us through a cinematic landscape of art, architecture, Mussolini’s fascist camps, archive material, visual poems, rubbish and robots.
Tentacular Thinking
An arts lab residency sponsored by National Theatre Wales Professional Development Lab at the Reading Room, gallery Pembrokeshire, Wales. Taking Donna Haraway’s essay Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene as a starting point for artists; Abigail Sidebotham, Christine Cooper, Gilly Booth, Simon Whitehead and Seán Vicary collaborated, during a self initiated professional development lab, to explore Animism; the ancient belief system that attributes all things — animals, plants, rocks, weather systems, language, technology — as being connected, animated and alive.
Double Trespassing
An experimental short film supported by an Arts Council International Development Award. Exhibited December 2017 as part of ‘The Museum of the Unwanted’
Artist Gilly Booth and academic Eleonora Raspi went on a road trip to find the abandoned ‘Cupola’ designed by architect Dante Bini in 1969 for the Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni and his girlfriend actress Monica Vitti. Entering through a broken window armed with a camera and tripod there was evidence that they were not alone. This film portrait was shot in one hour against fading light. After Antonioni’s death, and a period of agreed silence, the revealed location attracted visitors to its architecture of lost love.
Direction & Editing : Gilly Booth, Sound composition : Mike Silver, Graphics : Paul Plowman
Exhibited as part of Inaction, London curated by WATCH-IT gallery, Museum of the Unwanted, at Waldhaus Dolder, Zurich, curated by artist/curator Clare Goodwin, Blow Up, Chicago Film Festival and H.Q im loop, Zurich curated by Ilona Ruegg and Jiajia Hefei
Choreographed Architecture
A film performance collaboration between Gilly Booth and performer Desiree Ballantyne, commissioned by Altro to celebrate100 years of the Bauhaus. Shot on location at Oscar Schlemmer’s Master House, Debelon Factory and Bauhaus.
director and editor – Gilly Booth, sound composition – Phoebe Osbourne and Luca Nasciuti, graphics – Paul Plowman
Studio of Objects
hijack led the project Studio of Objects, with research partner Kingston University, technology partner Touchpress and Dacapo after receiving a Digital R&D Award for the Arts from Nesta/AHRC/Arts Council to support their project Studio of Objects. The project used a 360-degree archaeological laser scan to capture the preserved studio of artist EduardoPaolozzi. The 3D scans used revolutionary code for tablets to explore how users interact and navigate the studio with this innovative technology.
Also supported by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, V&A, Tate Modern, British Library, Pallant House Gallery and the Paolozzi Foundation.
Space Electronic, then & now
An installation exhibited within the Venice Architectural Biennale 2014. Curator Dr Catherine Rossi collaborated with Gilly Booth to create a short film for the exhibition. The film draws upon the archive of the Florentine discotheque Space Electronic from 1969 to the present day – a site for dance, progressive rock, art installations, performance art and architectural happenings.
Curated by Dr Catherine Rossi and designed by Ben Kelly studio. Film direction and editing: Gilly Booth, Research – Catherine Rossi, Soundtrack – Mike Silver, Graphics – Paul Plowman and AV Consultancy – Dominic Robson. Special thanks to Carlo Caldini, Gruppo 9999 and Elettra Fiumi for use of their archival material.
A Modernist in Suburbia
A short documentary film collaboration between the film maker Gilly Booth and academic Dr Fiona Fisher on the life and work of the British architect Kenneth Wood, funded by the AHRC and supported by Kingston University. Initially exhibited at the Stanley Picker Gallery as part of The Occupants: Contemporary Perspectives on the Picker House, 2012. This is the first film on Kenneth Wood. A Modernist in Suburbia highlights his early career including his travels to Vancouver and Manhattan, his early architectural innovations in building methods and materials, and his later commissions for homes in London’s leafy Surrey, where his modernist vision for architecture reconciles itself with the natural elements of suburban scenography. The documentary includes access to Wood’s architecture, his journals and personal archive, and a unique interview with Wood himself as he reaches his late-80s. A Modernist in Suburbia is the first documentary film to explore the heritage of suburban British modernist architecture through the biographical detail of one of its unsung yet critically important practitioners.
Director & Editor: Gilly Booth, Researcher & Writer: Dr Fiona Fisher, Director of Photography: Jack Mealing, Graphic Designer: Paul Plowman, Original Music: Jonny Trunk, Soho remix & sound dub: Sharron Harris, Saxaphone: Andy Brindley, Additional sound recording: Dominic Robson, Woman in red dress: Beatrice McHugh a hijack production 2012
