I’m fascinated by the way we experience time, rhythm, and dynamics in the built and natural environment. I am particularly drawn to railway architecture – almost certainly as a result of my grandfather’s career as a station master. I have fond memories of spending childhood holidays exploring the sights and sounds of the 1859 station building where he lived, and hearing stories of his experiences on the railway.
Perhaps as a consequence of this, the disused flat at Middlesbrough Station has a real familiarity to it. The light fittings and switches, the fireplaces, the peeling paint and wallpaper – each capturing different moments in the building’s history, and the levels of decay reflecting their impermanence.
However, the current station building was not the first railway station at Middlesbrough. The previous station was designed by Darlington-based architect John Middleton, opening in 1847, and closing less than 30 years later in 1874. The 16th of December 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the closure of this station.
When I was researching the building’s history, I came across this wonderful illustration of the faćade by Bill Fawcett, on his website about Railway Architecture of North East England:
It struck me that the short lifespan of the building must have seemed unimaginable when the station was first built, demonstrating the impact of rapid social and economic change.
The notion of destroying a building in order for it to grow and evolve struck me as an interesting theme to explore.
It brought to mind a number of artists and theorists who have referenced destruction as an essential part of the creative process, from Nietzche, to Picasso, to Raphael Montañez’s 1962 Destructivist Manifesto. In architectural theory, the ‘deconstructivist’ movement was highly influenced by the work of Jacques Derrida. In his ‘Of Grammatology’, Derrida discussed his ideas on ‘deconstruction’, highlighting the need to be free “from the classical categories of history” (Derrida, 1967).
For me, the neo-classical design of the 1847 station building articulates the term “classical categories of history” perfectly, and therefore provided an ideal form to be interpreted through a deconstructivist approach.
As a result, the final installation is a reimagining of the 1847 station, breaking the structure down into its component parts, and reassembling them into an abstract audio-visual form that captures the sense of de/re-construction as a creative and evolving process.
This approach extended to the sonic aspect of the piece. This was created by breaking the faćade down into its component parts, and using their relative positions and proportions as elements of a graphic score, which were then disassembled and rebuilt into a completely new musical structure.
With huge thanks to Peter J. Evans (fabrication), Steve Holmes and Jay Horner (AV technicians), the Navigator North team, and Mike Drewery at Middlesbrough Station.
Blog post written by Ed Carter reflecting on the development of his commission for Middlesbrough’s Most Creative Station programme.
‘Transient’ will be on display in Middlesbrough Railway Station until March 2025.