It began with turning to a random page in the local Sydney street directory. Without consulting Google Maps, I visited that random page (62km north-west of Sydney in a suburb named Londonderry) to try and find an intriguing site. Whilst approaching the area, I came across this 300m long graffiti wall. This wall intrigued me, I really wanted to know what was on the other side.

Upon further exploration, I found out that this wall belonged to The Northern Auto Wreckers (a company that takes apart and refurbishes wrecked cars) and what was on the other side was their car storage junk yard. What was also odd was that these cars, even though they were wrecked and dismantled had been sorted and arranged in a very precise and orderly way (an ordered chaos).

This initial intrigue inspired me to create a machine that could help break the visual barrier of the graffiti wall: the expanding periscope. This periscope is site-specific in that it is designed to be attached onto the wall. Recordings were made of what could be seen on the other side. From this machine, the project became all about vision and also about the celebration of the car, which led to the design of The Londonderry: Drive-In Cinema + Motel.

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