Email: jesscpolley@gmail.com

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Spectacle

In the contemporary urban landscape, all the world’s a stage. Though the La Perouse headland was once the site of the first zoological gardens in Australia and home to generations of Snake Men exhibiting in Cann Park, to which audiences flocked, these audiences have become the players and seek not only to see but be seen.

Through a series of architectural interventions derived from ethereal tent structures and mechanised fun fair rides, SPECTACLE seeks to embody a carnival-like atmosphere, which evokes a sense of wonderment from the visitor. Spaces of varying scale across site are imbued with the devices of masquerade, panopticism and distortion, which curate an oscillating transition between a visitor’s position of vantage and concealment. The proposal seeks to re-enliven the site by reconnecting it to the former zoological state, only in its new form the visitors are the animals on display.

SPECTACLE aims to appeal not only to the contemporary millennial fixated on “instagrammability” and the curation of appearances, but it also seeks to draw locals and international travellers of all generations who seek wonderment. Though the proposal perpetuates the pageantry, feting and feasting of European culture embedded within the site, it comments upon our innate desire to take part in social voyeurism and raises the question of whether contemporary life is merely an illusory representation of itself or if amidst the society of spectacle, we can still seek out authentic experiences.

#seeandbeseen #spectacle #alltheworldsastage