Pictures Not Homes

The project Pictures not Homes is the result of the partial excavation of Taplow House, a South East London estate block earmarked for renewal and ‘bettering’. This is a documentary project using contemporary archaeological recording practices; photogrammetry, reflectance transformation imaging [RTI] and 3D laser scanning. Pictures not Homes is material documentation of the urban regeneration process enabled by new-imaging technologies; the wreckage of place salvaged as file types. The title is a reversal of the slogan ‘HOMES NOT PICTURES’ daubed by protesters across ‘social’ artwork on a demolition site hoarding. This work wanders about appearance and dwelling, through pictures and homes, divisions and productions, data-sets and concrete abstractions. It is also a way to frame questions of what pictures do: questions of capacities, anxiety and ambivalence. It evokes an environment of barricades, sandbags, file types and data as ruin