Australia

BACKGROUND: The chapter entitled 'Australia' in 'Periphery: Archaeology of Light' by Erieta Attali is the outcome of a research project conducted in collaboration with Martyn Hook. The book references the essence of ancient Greek cartology in which the edges of maps represented the outer limits of the known world. Attali's poetic and metaphorical photographs, in which architecture is depicted as a natural feature, inseparable from its context, present visual maps of temporal and spatial transformations at the outposts of human existence. While Hook was one of the editors of the book, he was also one of Attali's main collaborators on the 'Australia' chapter, featuring photographs taken in remote landscapes, supplemented by field notes taken during their journey. It also includes an interview by Hook which discusses the connection of Attali's photography to architecture and its landscape. CONTRIBUTION: Through this project, Attali and Hook sought to reveal the continuity between architecture and its landscape - experimenting with the transparency between object and context, such as the overlap between a building and its surroundings - through the medium of photography. It contributes a novel understanding of the experience of architecture through the medium of photography, through a blurring of the distinction between architecture and its representation. This collaborative project is an extension of Hook's ongoing research practice that attends to architecture's ecological context through a sensitive design approach. SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this project is attested to by its publication in the book 'Periphery' by Hatje Cantz, an internationally-renowned publisher of contemporary photography, art, architecture and design. It features texts by distinguished archaeologists, curators and architects such as Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, Marc Mimram and Kengo Kuma, amongst others. The book was reviewed in ArchDaily online.