Long-term photographic observation of Schlieren 2005-2020
A research project by Zurich University of the Arts/Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR)
Project management
Ulrich Görlich, Meret Wandeler
Partners
Town of Schlieren Building and Planning Department, Metron AG Department for Spatial Development, State Archives of the Canton of Zurich
Photography
Overall views 2005: Ulrich Görlich/Meret Wandeler, Re-photography 2007: Elmar Mauch, Re-photography 2009/2011/2013/2015/2017/2019: Christian Schwager
Detailed views 2005: Ulrich Görlich/Meret Wandeler
Detailed views 2010/11, 2015, 2020: Meret Wandeler
Project Goal
The Zurich University of the Arts/IFCAR documented the urban development of Schlieren, a suburban community to the west of Zurich, over a period of 15 years. Schlieren has experienced a spectacular development during these years. The population has risen from 13,000 to 20,000, and new residential quarters have sprung up on brownfield sites. The starting point of this long-term observation was the urban development concept compiled by Metron AG in 2005, which Schlieren has implemented in recent years. The photographic observation tracks how the measures proposed in the urban development concept affect the living environment. The project is designed as a case study. It uses the example of Schlieren to develop photographic methods for the visualisation of spatial development processes in the suburban area. The result is an image archive with over 1500 photographs and a documentation of the spatial transformation of an entire municipality that is unique in Switzerland.
Spatial research investigates spatial transformation by comparing maps, data and aerial photographs. In contrast, documentary photography is carried out on location. It records the sensory and emotive aspects of living environments that are essential to residents and users. These cannot be recorded in the abstract representational forms normally used in spatial observation. To enhance the traditional methods of spatial observation, the long-term observation is a new tool used to monitor urban development, which was tested by the Town of Schlieren’s Building and Planning Department and by Metron AG. The documentation of changes in Schlieren helps to identify issues that are generally of significance for urbanisation processes in the agglomeration area. The methods developed by Schlieren for photographic monitoring and the interdisciplinary collaboration are transferable to other municipalities.
Ulrich Görlich and Meret Wandeler developed a photographic observation concept and carried out a photographic inventory as part of a SNF/DORE research project in 2005/06. Since then, overall views were re-photographed every two years under identical photographic conditions at 63 locations throughout the city. Thematic detailed views of selected areas were photographed every five years. These images document individual objects that are characteristic of the usage and atmosphere in these spaces. The interplay between overall views and detailed views shows the processes of change that run in parallel but at different speeds. Photographic locations are in the town centre and the former industrial areas, where large new developments have been undertaken. In parallel, the project observes the discrete changes in residential areas and green spaces that are hardly noticeable in everyday life. Overviews and details form two complementary, mutually supplementary forms of photographic representation of space. In their interplay, they make different speeds of change processes visible.
Settlements and landscapes in Switzerland are subject to profound changes. How these processes of densification can be shaped is the subject of intense debate in politics and society. The project strives to make a photographic contribution to this debate and to contribute to raising public awareness of the issues surrounding sustainable urban development. The long-term observation of Schlieren was one of the first photographic research projects in the emerging field of artistic research at a Swiss art University and it established photography as a discipline of artistic research in its own right. In particular, photographic-artistic strategies for the representation of the processuality of spatial change were developed.
A systematic photographic visualisation of transformations in the agglomeration area does not yet exist in Switzerland. In this sense, the project constitutes basic research and contributes to a contemporary photographic image of Switzerland.
The entire image archive is available on this website. Newly created photographs were continuously uploaded. Residents, experts and the general public could therefore follow the process of urban development throughout the entire observation period.
Overview of project
Concept development 2005/06, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation/DORE:
- Development of the concept of photographic observation, archiving and website
- Photographic inventory
Ongoing documentation 2007-2020 by Zurich University of the Arts/IFCAR:
- Re-photographing of the 63 locations for overall views 2007, 2009, 2011 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
- Re-photographing the series of thematic detailed views 2010, 2015, 2020
Analysis and publication of results
- Intermediate results of the project were presented in exhibitions at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Stadthaus Schlieren, the Zentrum Architektur Zürich ZAZ Bellerive and the Museo ICO, Madrid, among others. In parallel, the project was regularly presented nationally and internationally at conferences, in the trade press and in the national media.
- For the residents in Schlieren, an exhibition was realized at the end of the project in the local museum Schlieren, which can be seen until the end of 2023.
- The final evaluation with a comprehensive visual presentation as well as analyses and interpretations from different professional perspectives of spatial research and photography will take place in the two-volume book publication "Stadtwerdung im Zeitraffer", which will be published in 2023 by the publishing house Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich in a German and English edition.
www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Archiving
State Archives of the Canton of Zurich:
The images and project documents in digital form are archived by the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich (StAZH). All resulting images (overall views and detailed views) are listed individually in the StAZH’s archive information system to ensure ease of use and a quick understanding of the project. The files are stored in a hybrid archive, i.e. all documents, whether image or text, are archived in both electronic and analogue form. An analogue archive is created by recording the supplied data onto microfilms.
Winterthur Museum of Photography:
In 2013, an installation was exhibited at Winterthur Museum of Photography as part of the exhibition “Concrete - Photography and Architecture”. This has been added to the museum’s collection.
The entire project is archived at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Design, programming and maintenance of the website
Jürg Fausch, 372dpi GmbH Schaffhausen - 372dpi.ch