Time crimes in the garden of pleasure

摘要

'Time crimes in the garden of pleasure' is a presentation of a series of design projects developed in relation to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens by the River Thames in London and the Urban Islands Studio on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. Each location is filled with complex geometries from geological, historical and environmental territories. We unpack these complexities and invent new vessels for the prevailing phenomenon of pleasure. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens existed for 198 years from 1661 to 1859 through times of great change. The old world became new, the familiar made strange. Advances in science, technology, architecture, art, philosophy and politics brought together the near and the far, the infinitesimal and the galactic, the past and the future. The Pleasure Gardens had to become a generator of great experimentation and novelty, a place where the new could be seen and heard. At their considerable zenith they were one of the largest and most complex businesses in Britain, innovating at large scale across many fields. [...] I no sooner entered, than I was dazzled and confounded with the variety of beauties that rushed all at once upon my eye. Imagine to yourself picturesque and striking objects; pavilions, groves, grottoes, temples, and cascades. Eyecatchers. Each one a theatre, an unnatural assembly of objects seemingly contrived to dazzle the eyes and divert the imagination. The whole fantastically illuminated with infinite lamps, arrayed in unfathomable galaxies of suns, stars, and constellations. A pleasure garden is an extraordinary business, a cradle of ingenuity and curious devices, a fount of architecture, art, games and music. However, underlying these elements is the real secret of its success, the fundamental ingredient, a particular blend of continuity and novelty.