Trip part one: Serpentine Pavilion

After a nerve wracking exercise in solo navigation, the first stop of the trip was to the Serpentine Pavillion. I had never been there before, to the gallery nor even Hyde Park beyond Wireless festival and Hard Rock Calling, so the entire surroundings of the installation were also a new experience.

Wandering around and sketching was the main activity. After establishing the general feel of the place (I say general, it was like a giant hollow space doughnut, it could also be likened to a shed snake skin or the leftovers of a giant's cast over a broken bone) I attempted to take a few panorama shots from the inside of the structure.

This was the only one that wasn't an abysmal failure. The central circle is almost fully intact, just as it was when lying down and looking up. I thought it interesting that there was a huge, flat stone in the centre actually; as perfect as it was to flop down on and stare at the sky, it had a strange isolating effect - sat in the middle you felt very much isolated from those on the outside, as if all your attention was being channelled upwards into the sky.

I wonder if the feeling would still be there if the weather hadn't been quite so pleasant?

Possibly my favourite feature was the window. It felt entirely out of place (in a place that felt out of place) and provided a small portal into the outside world, as if to provide a small manner of context to the alien experience.

Yet another feature was the interior - again, aided by the good weather was the most unsettling feature of all - the walls were warm. Not simply warm in colour (they were a rather striking, mottled gold) but warm to the touch. At first it seemed like there was some form of highly impractical heating, but touching the walls left you even more reminded of the earlier impressions concerning snake skins. And snakes. Or aliens. After all, the concept of an alien craft having a 'life' of its own is surely older than Doctor Who.

Besides taking photos and putting other senses to memory, I completed three rough sketches of the area, then a fourth which I cut out two sections from - it was an experiment inspired by the use of negative space and light in the space-doughnut. 

And finally, a feature of the installation that caught most of us by surprise, was the way the sound carried. Just like the whispering walls of a Roman amphitheatre, certain spots amplified sound. This was noticed when a conversation concerning the warm walls was interrupted by a woman half way around the curve talking enthusiastically about her recent weekend away. I say interrupted - we were quite stunned that we could not see the source of the voice that for the life of is could've been sat at our table.

Once I totally disregarded how odd many of the features were, I found it to be a very calming and enjoyable experience. However, as it would not do to disregard such a large quantity of attributes, I'll conclude that it was certainly memorable, unique, and worth visiting.