551 Laboratory
The kids don’t dance anymore.
They are perpetually on camera, suffocated by the endless threat of being recorded. George and his friends say “Dance like nobody's watching!"… (while they watch).
#551LAB is the laboratory of Andrew Maynard – a space for thoughts, experiments and play, unencumbered by logic, with no purpose other than to explore.
Sometimes the outcomes relate directly to his architectural practice, but mostly they do not. Ideas often emerge subconsciously across the page, often resulting in something delightfully juvenile. This space represents the hidden, inner workings of the mind. The key difference? People can peer right in. This public gaze creates a beautifully uneasy tension. Thoughts, explorations, and play that were once safely hidden within the closed pages of a sketchbook are now visible to the outside world. Does knowing there is a transient audience change the way the work is created? Andrew hopes not (…but it does).
Currently in the Lab
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Cyclops George (Orwell)
Have we become blind to the mass surveillance? Let’s ask George.
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Fitzroyalty
Unloved, unwanted, but you can always find a place on Brunswick Street.
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The Sketch Roll
Andrew has spent much of his life squirrelling away thoughts and ideas in sketchbooks. These explorations have often felt lost, as they hide within their pages. Andrew sought a way of having his thoughts spilled out in the open where they could be as grand or as small as he wished. More importantly they interact with each other rather than disappearing from view.
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Legacy Sketchbooks
Andrew revisits sketchbooks from as early as 1994, the year that he began studying architecture at the University of Tasmania. At the time he spent much of his time skateboarding, drawing and reading comics. His sketchbooks reflect his studies and interests. Recently Andrew has been revisiting his sketchbooks and selecting one sketch to replicate in sculpture.
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CV08
CV08 is the maître d'hôtel of the 551 laboratory. A thought experiment for the 2008 National Architecture Conference, where Andrew was asked to consider the future of the Australian suburb.