Week 5 – Video Portrait (Team RMB)

RMB (Team 12)
Author: Bening Wardani – bwar5236
Team Members: Roy Yan Zibo – zyan4194 / Minyi Tsai – mtsa6146

We have interviewed Chris Pilarcik, a 29-year old skater from Sydney, Australia, who has been skateboarding for almost the entire of his life to understand the significance of skateboarding to individuals and also the emotional connection skaters have with skateparks. He shared about how he views skateboarding beyond just a type of sport, but also as a subcultural element of life and a way to express himself. He takes skateboarding as a way to meditate and an opportunity to focus on only one thing in his life. According to him, “nothing else matters when you skateboard, everything disappears.”

Watch the video below:

More detail about the interview:

He takes skateboarding as a way to meditate and an opportunity to focus on only one thing in his life. According to him, “nothing else matters when you skateboard, everything disappears.” Skateboarding is also a very social culture. Most of the skaters at the park do not know each other, but they still attempt to strike conversations with other people to form new friendships. He chooses to skate at Sydenham Green Skate Park not only because of its close proximity to his house, but also due to how the skating facilities
here are more well-designed than other parks, making his skating experiences more enjoyable. While he is aware of the fact that the area was given back to the community due to it deemed unfit as residential area, he does not know the historical significance of the numbering system in the site design. He also sees the designs of the secret garden to be just a normal garden without anything special. However, he is keen about the idea of designing interactive light and sound installations to enhance the experience at the park.

He agrees that art and skateboarding culture are closely linked and inspired by each
other as both are artistic forms of self-expression. An example of artistic expression in skateboarding culture will be the graffiti art around the skate park, with both subcultures deemed as ‘edgy’ and ‘rebellious’ by the general public due to their unconventional uses of spaces.

From our observations, like most adult skaters, Chris does not wear safety equipments such as helmets, elbow and knee pads when he skates. He states that as an adult, he is old enough to decide whether he needs these safety equipments, which can be seen as ‘uncool’ or ‘amateur’ to other adult skaters. Children are often the only ones seen with safety equipment around the park. Chris remarks that safety precautions are needed for
children and teenagers due to their weaker control of the wheel equipments. However, he is also supportive of the idea of wearing safety equipments with cool interactive elements on them.