Rain on Tartan

I need a bit longer to deliver my next issue so in the meantime please enjoy a film I made with Ben Clement as part of my architecture master’s thesis in 2023. I highly recommend reading Ben’s more in-depth refections on the background and technical side of the video.

tartan: a colloquial term for a polyurethane all-weather track surface

We invite you into what a track feels like. To witness its tides of movement from dawn to dusk. To hear its birds, traffic, footsteps, breathing, spitting, rain.

This film is about George Knott Reserve, our local public athletics track, home to the Collingwood Harriers. Non-linear, shot over several days, it captures the track’s unique atmosphere, ecology and function as a public space.

Best enjoyed with good audio, a big screen, and your full attention.

Our collaboration was spurred by my architecture master’s thesis, which examined the relationship between sport and urban space. Athletics tracks host diverse yet conflicting activities and interests, such as the training of recreational & professional athletes, schools & clubs, and private ownership & public access. Via interviews, design testing, photography, filmmaking and autoethnography (i.e. my double life as a professional track athlete), I explored how to design athletics tracks that are inclusive and valuable public spaces while meeting the needs of athletes.

Rain on Tartan helps transcend the visual by expressing spatial concepts of atmosphere and sensory connection to space. Observing this track and its demographics across changing weather and time reinforced the need for athletics facilities to cater to a large spectrum of people with abundant shelter & amenities. From a design perspective, making the film was an opportunity to connect with the club president and discuss his philosophy for creating a welcoming space to increase casual use and influence track culture. This demonstrated how the success of tracks as public spaces relies on track management to be aligned with inclusive objectives in facility development & design.

Tracks can seem like intimidating and specialist places, but our film shows how fully publicly accessible tracks can serve as public squares and gathering places, and showcases their lively, playful, funny, sometimes disgusting, beautiful personalities.

XO Trina and Ben