'Signpost'
 
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.
 


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