Almost Here: The Pool That Never Existed

Participants explore textures, ornaments and overlooked fragments inside Battersea Arts Centre. A phone becomes a tool for collecting a detail and recording the observations, memories or associations it prompts.

The process starts with attention to what is already there. A fragment of the building becomes possible evidence of another history, opening a space between observation and invention.

A web interface carries each trace through a sequence of capture, drawing and description. Participants outline an architectural detail and accompany it with a short piece of writing.

This sequence gives the contribution both a visual form and a personal interpretation. The archive holds different ways of seeing the same place, allowing individual observations to become material for the group.

The outlined traces are inflated or modified into three-dimensional forms. Textures and descriptions connect these objects to the pool’s fictional world.

A collected ornament can become an unfamiliar object, retaining a link to the building while suggesting another use. Making these artefacts lets participants develop the shared fiction through their own decisions.

A live audiovisual performance brings the contributions together. Generated objects, texts and moving images are projected into the space, allowing participants to encounter the pool they have collectively imagined.

The shift from a phone interface to a shared environment returns the collected material to the people who made it. Each trace can be experienced as part of a larger composition.

Creative learning unfolds through noticing, interpreting and making. The workshop connects these activities so that participants can move between their own observations and the group’s emerging world.

The pool exists through this exchange. Its temporary form makes imagination something people can practise together, using the building itself as a starting point.