<![CDATA['Signpost' - Blog]]>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:49:20 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Extended Showing at the Victoria]]>Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:59:42 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2011/07/extended-showing-at-the-victoria.htmlSometimes when things don't got to plan, it actually works in your favour - as in this case. We've been making plans for de-installation of the post, and during email conversations with Tony Allerston at the Victoria, he invited us to leave the post in place for a while longer. This is great for us, as an extended showing means an extended testing of the design and technology. But more important is that the invitation came unprompted from staff, who are the people encountering the post every day, and who would be the first point of contact for the public if they have issues or problems with it (and the first people to remind us about taking it down if it was a problem for staff themselves). Tony has mentioned that he has been watching people coming across the post and he has been generating interest in it, a fantastically supportive approach.

Integration with people, as well as with places, is for us a crucial aspect of siting our work in public places; although this is not a permanent installation, it's great to know we've not outstayed our welcome. The post will now be in place until 27 July.
]]><![CDATA[Signpost at Artside halfway point]]>Sun, 10 Jul 2011 04:25:05 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2011/07/signpost-at-artside-halfway-point.htmlSignpost has been up and running at the Victoria since last Thursday evening - so around eight days - and will be in place until next weekend, so at the halfway point it's useful to note the story so far.

It's the first time the post has been installed for longer than a day and we are both very happy with the results of a longer installation. From a technical perspective, there haven't been any major issues; the timer needed a little tweaking (mainly due to it being difficult to programme as exactly as we would have liked), but the work has started up and shut down reliably. We realised however, that we hadn't made those running times clear to our audiences; the running times are in line with the official opening and closing times of the Victoria, but the entrances are open beyond these times, and many people cut through from/to the station. So we've added a sign explaining running times so when it is off, audiences know it is off, not broken.

We've both spent some time watching how people interact with the post in this different environment, where the post is sited on a thoroughfare, rather than a destination. Not everyone stops, but most people look, and those who do stop are as diverse as our Chalkwell Park audiences, from children to pensioners and everyone in between.
]]><![CDATA[Artside - Signpost Installation]]>Fri, 01 Jul 2011 03:26:33 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2011/07/artside-signpost-installation.htmlA-a-a-nd we're off! Martin Dickens and Will Monte arrived yesterday afternoon to provide transport, muscle, and other logistical support (I provided the tea). The guys packed the post and base into Martin's van; a tight squeeze, but just made it, and they headed off, whilst I cycled to meet them at the Victoria. A bit of confusion over the service lift they had access to meant I was hanging around the wrong door, and they already had the base out on the site. But still plenty to do as the images show; post orientation, fitting the base, timer, and a final test before leaving it set as 'off' overnight. Stu and I checked the post this morning, tidied the grass, tested the headphone sockets, and tweaked the timer. Already, it's possible to see how many people pass by; several stopped to talk to us while we were setting up, and with fewer shops open on the first floor than the ground floor, there is less distraction. We'll be calling back from time to time to check how things are running and hopefully chat to a few more people.

Huge thanks to Martin and Will, and also to the Artside team and staff at the centre.
]]><![CDATA[Artside 2011 - Pause]]>Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:58:51 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2011/06/artside-2011-pause.htmlOver the last few weeks, Stuart (with occasional help from me) has been preparing the Signpost to show at the Victoria Plaza during Artside (1-16 July). Signpost has been hibernating quietly in the front room, but needed some tinkering and TLC. We found a typo on one of the subtitles (now corrected) and a power supply and cable needed replacing. We also needed to replace the artificial turf back on the base, as it had been removed for storage. Stuart has liaised with Artside organisers, and staff at the Victoria, and also worked with our electrician Paul, to PAT test a timer which will allow the post to switch on and off automatically. This means staff at the centre won't be required to do anything whilst it is in place, it should be totally self managing.

It will be the first time the post has been shown for more than a day, so it is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate how the post can operate in a publicly accessible area over a period of time. The centre has a footfall of 125,000 every week, and whilst we don't expect everyone who visits to spend time with the post, we do hope that some travellers - especially those using the Victoria as a link between central Southend and Southend Victoria Station - may take time out to wonder about it, fulfilling the Artside brief, "Pause".

We'll post images and more thoughts as Artside rolls out.
]]><![CDATA[Access by Design article]]>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:30:39 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2011/03/access-by-design-article.htmlThe Access by Design article about the Signpost project is on the way to the printers shortly. Access by Design is the quarterly journal of the Centre for Accessible Environments, who have kindly given us permission to post a digital version on our websites. So here it is!
signpost.pdf
File Size: 508 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Special thanks to Maddy Gray at CAE and Gerry MacNamara at Shape.
]]><![CDATA[Unlimited (which turned out to be pretty limited)]]>Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:10:13 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2010/12/unlimited-which-turned-out-to-be-pretty-limited.htmlAs the year came to an end, we finally heard the outcome of our application to the Unlimited funding programme - and we weren't successful. From the information we've had, it was oversubscribed and the funders would have needed three times the monies they had available to be able to support applicants, so on this occasion we just have to take it on the chin. As yet, it hasn't been announced who the successful applicants were, but we hope some support may have found it's way to Essex.

However, we've been invited to a meeting in January to look at other possibilities for taking the concept forward, so onwards & upwards! We're also working with Shape on an article about the Signpost pilot for the spring edition of 'Access by Design' (the magazine for the Centre for Accessible Environments), so with luck that will seed some interest with people and organisations who might not normally know about our work. We'll blog about that article in 2011 (so not long to wait). In the meantime, thank you to all the people who have given us such positive and useful feedback about the project; keep it coming
]]><![CDATA[Evaluation]]>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:59:45 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2010/10/evaluation.htmlToday marked the official end to the project as we submitted our final evaluation report to the Arts Council. Bar the final payment to be transferred, this means the end of the project for us and we have no more work to undertake. Or, if someone would like us to exhibit the work somewhere else then we're very open to offers...please do get in touch.


...and relax!
]]><![CDATA[Stats]]>Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:02:36 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2010/09/stats.htmlWell, we're slowly winding down the project now...quite a relief after the last few months. But there are still a few things outstanding. We have to write our evaluation of the project for the Arts Council and we have to finish off our application for the bigger project, which will be done later today and uploaded to the ACE website. One thing we noticed about the website is that no one used the forum. Maybe we should have started some threads of discussion on their to prompt a response...something we'll take on board for future work. But what we did notice is the impact of the blog and that quite a lot of you followed the progress of the project here. The great thing with Weebly (how we built the site and where you are now) is the great stats it provides...so we've included a screen grab of them to show you how things panned out over the course of the project.
Screen Grab of the project website statistics
Screen Grab of the project website statistics
]]><![CDATA[Village Green 2010]]>Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:38:01 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2010/09/village-green-2010.html We coerced a few lads out of bed early with the promise of a breakfast at the caff to help us transport and install the work. It was a bit chilly but sunny and they were in good spirits. They kindly bought us a coffee back after their fry up. We had a slight technical problem with one side of the amp, as the speakers on the short side wouldn't work. So after a lot of tinkering and head scratching, I had to rewire them to all be powered from the right hand channel, but this worked fine.

Gates were due to open to the public at 11 but there were quite a lot of people on site setting up, carrying stuff around, to-ing and fro-ing. So as soon as we were set up we had a slow but steady stream of people trickling over to have a look. Our location was a good one as we were central, near to the main avenue between the two halves of the site, close to Chalkwell Hall itself and as it turned out, next to a very popular coffee stall run by a chap named Joel. I also took large handfuls of flyers to each of the gates and asked the girls and boys there if they would hand them out to each of the attendees when they entered the festival site, which they did, so we're grateful to them for that.

We were then joined by Linda, one of Damien's interpreters for the day and Emmie, Damien's mentee from the Artists of the Future project, who was kindly helping out for most of the day. The stream soon turned into a small river and by mid afternoon there were reasonable sized lakes of people coming over to see what happening. We were very pleased that our design and vision was having the desired effect. The signpost was visible from a long way away, above the heads of the crowds, and an effective mixture of familiar and strange for it to be curious and not intimidating.

As was always going to be the case at this diverse family friendly event, the audience was made up of people from all walks of life, and of all ages, which was one of the reasons we thought it would be great to exhibit at. After a while we realised that some people weren't sure what to do, so Emmie had a great idea of plugging the headphones in permanently so the audience had a entry point in how to engage with the work, and this worked very well.

With so much to experience at the event, we knew we'd have competition for people's attention, but as people didn't have to come and see the post at a particular time, many had a quick first look and came back later after seeing the relevant band/poet/workshop they'd come along for. Lots of younger children came up to the post, touching it, listening to the headphones and poking at the 'buttons' (our information icons, which of course didn't do anything), and many of them only left when their parents took them off somewhere else. More of the older children didn't seem to stick around as long as they may have agreed with the girl who said 'That music was rubbish!'. However, one older girl worked it all out by herself and took great pride in explaining to her siblings and friends about it all. One boy also used it to do a stunt on his BMX. Damien met two deaf children (and more hard of hearing adults) during the day and enjoyed talking to them about different ways of experiencing sound. An older lady asked her if the post was going to be permanent, and then talked about jazz concerts she'd attended in Colchester.

As with most work, if there is a personal, human element to the work, people will engage with it on a deeper level, and for us this is achieved by being there and talking through the different elements, how they work and how we work together as artists. So for the most part we were on hand to chat and talk to the audience, but at other times we just let it be and watched from afar to see how many people took notice of it or walked past, how people reacted to it, how long they stayed there and the expression of their faces.
Between us we attempted to try and keep an accurate count of people who actually engaged with the work, but after reaching the 400 figure, we had to start making estimates. The main reason for this was that during the middle part of the day, it became so busy that we went for long periods before being able to step back and make a note of numbers. But we estimated that the work must have been listened to, felt or read by upwards of 700 people, and seen by at least four times as many passers by. We have seen already quite a few pictures of it on peoples Facebook pages, including people we don't know.

It was also reassuring to speak to people who had been following the progress on our blog. One person commented 'I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to be like when you talked about it, but now I've seen it it makes perfect sense'. We also spoke to several people who live, or have lived, in Colchester and also people who have other connections to the town. It was also great to meet in person a man that had contributed a sound to our Vibe Cube Southend project, as all of our communication to date had been electronic.

At seven o'clock we decided we would shut the post down as it was getting really dark and cold and most of the audience that was left were heading to the music stages. A lady who used to live in Colchester spent at least half an hour listening with a lot of interest and we spoke to her about it all whilst packing down. Her friends helped us throw a tarp over the top and fix it securely before we went off to find some warm food and have a well earned sit down in the VIP area. We had to wait until 10 until we could get a van on site so went and had a beer in the comedy tent before Ian turned up. After we got him and the van onto the site, we dismantled the base and loaded everything with the help of a very well timed passing Jon Kipps and friends (for which we are very grateful). It was about half past 11 by the time we had unloaded and said goodbye to Ian. We were shattered but very happy and pleased at the whole day and how it panned out. We just left everything where it was and crashed.
]]><![CDATA[Setting Up at Village Green]]>Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:25:56 -0800http://www.signpostproject.co.uk/1/post/2010/09/setting-up-at-village-green.htmlBelow are some pictures of the Signpost base plate being screwed together, four men watching one man work (as is the way) a compass being used to align the post to 19 degrees and the finished post in place, ready for the public. Thanks to Ben, Andy, Paul and Will for their muscle.
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