Placing Voices - Voicing Places: Project Blog

[From: www.culturge.com]

The 63 interventions in the 7 series of 'Lost' take as subjects the things in our daily lives that we don't really think about that often, but ironically, when they go missing they can become a central story in the telling of a day's or life's adventures. In the spirit of Heidegger's object-oriented philosophy in 'Das Ding', the 'Lost' series highlights our ontological relationships to things that we rarely acknowledge until they become absent or broken.

Beyond its charming and insightful qualities, the 'Lost' project also illustrates the effectiveness of viral design in guerilla art interventions in the generation of lateral relationships and social reflection. Mobilising the passing moments waiting for buses or walking a long a footpath, the 'Lost' project offers an amusing and gentle provocation to think more broadly and laterally about how we engage in our world.

[From: http://grafarc.org]

The lead artist Jennie Savage assisted by Andrew Cochrane have developed a series of art events and responses to Walter Benjamin's unfinished Arcades Project on the the Parisian arcades. The events both interrogate the spaces from theoretical and aesthetic perspectives, but they also seek to engage with the communities of businesses, patrons and passersby who frequent the arcades, activating and enhancing the social percolations of urban architecture in inner city Cardiff.

The project features artist talks, peripatetic media (a la Janet Cardiff) and a 3D mapping project. Savage's process focuses on response and interaction with others hoping to draw out the constellations of linkages and meanings shared by all those frequenting the arcades.

Wander over to the project home site and peek into their happenings.

[From: http://www.photovoice.org/html/galleryandshop/publications/]

Dean Street pavement, Dublin
Sunday 26 Aug
12pm-6pm

I planned to draw a map in chalk on the pavement of the Liberties area of Dublin, by asking passers-by for advice. The Liberties is an old area of the city full of intricate streets which have seen vast development recently and which looks set to continue at a hectic pace. The local community is an eclectic mix of older people, people who’ve lived locally their whole lives, immigrants, students and young professionals moving in to newly built apartment blocks. There is a lot of social housing in the area, with the reputation of being one of the poorest parts of the city centre, as well as having a recognised drug problem. However, parts of the Liberties are being gentrified and local businesses combine traditional markets (Thomas Street and Meath Street) with architecture and design studios, art galleries and antique shops (Thomas Street and Francis Street).

I moved into an apartment on Francis Street recently and don’t know the layout of the area at all well. To draw a map, I’d need a lot of help from passers-by. I was a little worried that if it didn’t work, or if something negative happened I would still be living around the corner. I did an hour of mental preparation before I headed out. It was a warm Sunday afternoon at a busy intersection with a wide pavement. Businesses nearby were open – a video, tanning and internet shop, a bookmakers, two pubs (Fallon’s and Nash’s), a Spar and a gallery.

As soon as I’d written a sign on a sandwich board (Hello. I’m drawing a map of the area. Can you help?) someone stopped and asked what I was doing. A young man living locally who was so enthusiastic about the idea even before I’d opened a box of chalk I was quite surprised. He promised to return later in the afternoon and even to bring me some water.


I drew the opening part of the map: what I could see from the pavement of the intersection and the street signs that were visible. I marked where we were with an X. Though I do know many of the main roads (probably about 15% of the map) and their names, I only wanted to fill in what people told me to, with the spelling mistakes, the warped scale, the missing streets.

Apart from one bathroom break, from about 12.15 to 5.45 I had about four 5 minute breaks – the rest of the time was filled with talking to people, explaining the project and filling out the map. In terms of getting people involved the event was far more successful than I had imagined it would be. People stopped and talked for long periods of time, argued with each other about the layout and names of streets, phoned and texted friends for help, returned through the afternoon, went to get other people to come and help, went to find out the names of streets they had forgotten. There were no negative comments (to me anyway) and the enthusiasm people had for the idea was a little overwhelming.


I regret not having more time to take stock of what was going on, maybe make a note of some of the stories and local history that people came out with and ask more about specific things that arose.

Attitudes towards the map ranged from puzzle-solving to friendly competition. Some people focuse¬d on how to make sections join up, some wanted to have their street put on it, some wanted to just make sure they added some street or placename to it. Some people sounded concerned with my request for ‘help’, asking if I needed directions. A couple of people offered maps.

All kinds of people stopped – tourists, locals, Dubliners, immigrants, kids, architects, a local historian, a couple of junkies, an alcoholic street artist, students. Irish, French, Swedish, German, Polish, American. Men came back and forth from the two pubs. A passer-by insisted on giving me 5 euro. Someone bought me a coffee. A young man from the bookies and a young woman working in a gallery around the corner came back throughout the afternoon. People chatted to each other around me.

Someone started talking about how there wasn’t enough street art in the area. A woman living in Blackpitts said the council should have a ‘real’ map of the area carved into the pavement – she was always giving directions to people who were lost around the area. Someone suggested varnishing the chalk map to the pavement. Some people were happy for me to cheat the map in the areas where the scale didn’t match up, others got me to rub out bits that were wrong.

The first man came back and talked about doing a version based around disabled access. One woman marked in a local food co-op with its opening times. One kid wrote his name in a corner. A man marked the layout of a local derelict church and an underground river. I gave a couple of boxes of chalk to kids and one to the street artist, who said he liked to draw Vikings and then played Raglan Road on a tin whistle for me.

At 5.45pm I packed up. Someone in the doorway of Fallon’s offered me a pint, but I was tired and went home.





-Posted courtesy of Lian Bell

After seeing Ursula's play this past weekend, I thought we might start some conversations. Here's some provocation.

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