Pentagonal Pool

photographs byMike Chisholm

2006

All images copyright 2006 Mike Chisholm

22 Dale Valley RoadSouthamptonSO16 6QRUnited Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)2380 771317Email: mic@soton.ac.uk

The Highfield Campus of Southampton University is where I work. Through it — barely noticed, I imagine, by most ofthe staff and students who cross it daily — runs a stream, which predates the university and forms the centre ofgravity of the campus landscaping done in the 1960s. During most lunch breaks since 1995 I have walked part or allof the 400m length of this stream, which takes about 40 minutes. My primary objective has been to take photo-graphs, but I have also listened, observed, and generally tried to be open to what was there.

This stream has two personalities: a formal landscaped channel, modelled in the sixties to flow through the heart ofthe new campus, and the remnant of the original "natural" channel. The transition between the two is marked by aweirpool, pentagonal in shape and about 25 square metres in area, where the stream reappears from a conduitwhich takes it underneath a nearby building. The level of water in the pool and its strength of flow depend on thetime of year, and the recent weather. Large quantities of natural and other debris can build up over the year, andan "island" of leaves, twigs and weed emerges as the water level falls, which is periodically dredged out.

The photographs in this sequence are all of this single Pentagonal Pool, and were made between 1999 and 2005.They were taken at the same time of day (roughly 12:30 pm), from one of three possible viewpoints, each roughlyten feet above the water's surface.

The last two decades have been Interesting Times for British universities. In the 1960s and 70s pressure for changecame from below, from students, which the universities more or less absorbed. Since the 1980s, however, pressurefor change has come from above, from government, and has resulted in permanent revolution. Inevitably, the verynature and purpose of higher education have come under scrutiny (some would say under threat), and this climateof turbulence and self-examination formed the background to my solitary lunchtime walks along a neglected streamrunning through the heart of one British university campus. Against this constant flow of change the PentagonalPool has served as a personal still point and scrying pool. I have tried to make use of the limited, repetitive visualrepertoire of elements offered by the pool to produce a patterned series of variations, exploring and reinforcing thelayered “same differences” that only long familiarity with a single place can reveal.

Part of this work was exhibited in the Hartley Library of the University of Southampton (under the title “Dry Light”,24 November 2004 – 28 February 2005) and an early version of the sequence was selected by the Southern Arts pho-tographic website Fotonet-South as an online exhibition in 2001.

Mike Chisholm, 2006

"The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from thewill and affections; whence proceed sciences which may be called'sciences as one would.' For what a man had rather were true he morereadily believes ... Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes im-perceptible, in which the affections colour and infect the understanding"

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

Pentagonal Pool

7

Pentagonal Pool

8

Pentagonal Pool

9

Pentagonal Pool

10

Pentagonal Pool

11

Pentagonal Pool

12

Pentagonal Pool

13

Pentagonal Pool

14

Pentagonal Pool

15

Pentagonal Pool

16

Pentagonal Pool

17

Pentagonal Pool

18

Pentagonal Pool

19

Pentagonal Pool

20

Pentagonal Pool

21

Pentagonal Pool

22

Pentagonal Pool

23

Pentagonal Pool

24

Pentagonal Pool

25

Pentagonal Pool

26

Pentagonal Pool

27

Pentagonal Pool

28

Pentagonal Pool

29

Pentagonal Pool

30

Pentagonal Pool

31

Pentagonal Pool

32

Pentagonal Pool

33

Pentagonal Pool

34

Pentagonal Pool

35

Pentagonal Pool

36

Pentagonal Pool

37

Pentagonal Pool

38

Pentagonal Pool

39

Pentagonal Pool

40

Pentagonal Pool

41

Pentagonal Pool

42

Pentagonal Pool

43

Pentagonal Pool

44

Pentagonal Pool

45

Pentagonal Pool

46

Pentagonal Pool

47

Pentagonal Pool

48

Pentagonal Pool

49

Pentagonal Pool

50

Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.

Francis Bacon, Of Nature in Men

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin withdoubts he shall end in certainties.

Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

Pentagonal Pool

51

Pentagonal Pool

52