29 August 2009—laneway 1: Reiby Place
Kevin the workman:
Why the interest in the valves?
Do you know where you can stand on top of Sydney?
[Customs House]
You have a funny hobby
The bums love the laneways
There's a tunnel for Telstra cables from Balmain to North Sydney,
But it has caved in now.
The laneways won't change much
Here trucks will be coming up and down,
Everyone will have to move,
With their chairs and their coffees,
It'll give a whole new meaning to flat whites.
See these big roller doors,
They are entrances to robotic stackers,
Automatic, underground car parks.
People won't give up their parking lots,
Not when they are leased for $26,000
General sounds:
Equipment thrown in the back of a vehicle,
drone of machinery,
a bus roar,
hissing, clanking, spraying,
metallic swooshing,
a rhythmical beep,
muffled shouting,
small metal objects striking concrete,
cars flowing past,
accelerating, a bus roar,
songs on a radio,
material scraping as it's pulled free from confinement,
hip hop, a bus roar,
banging, doors slamming,
voices saying goodbye
[Experiment with sound poems abandoned as empty city laneways sound similar]
This is my record of the laneways. I hope in the future to use it to compare the changes that occurred after the government encouraged small businesses and the public to use the laneways more. It's a record of these urban spaces and the interesting conversations that occur or incidents that happen while I'm walking in them.
This is the map and I'm literally starting at number 1 and working my way through them. It's a chance for me to be a tourist again. To take a walk and see Sydney from a different perspective, mentally and visually. I like the idea of a project that won't come to fruition for years, to return to a place and see the change.
An idea which has stayed with me was expressed by Aldous Huxley in 'Doors of Perception'. He states that life is about relationships and change.
[Map from 'Laneway Business Development Program 2009/2010'–City of Sydney Council]
