Scarcroft Road / Bishopthorpe Road Junction, York:
Public art commission £7300

Artist Brief:
City of York Council is seeking to commission an artist to design and deliver permanent site specific art work/s to improve the visual appearance and public use of the grassed area at the junction of Scarcroft Rd / Bishopthorpe Rd, York.
The works will form a new landmark, reflecting the area and engendering a sense of place and pride locally.
The artist will work with local communities, engaging people in the design process to ensure the work is accessible and appropriate.

1st April 12.00pm: Deadline for expressions of interest
3rd April: shortlisting artists
20th April 3.30 – 5.30: On site consultation including shortlisted artists
18th May: Confirmation of contract
Oct 2009: Completion of work

If you would like to be considered for this commission please submit:
• Up to two A3 sheets showing examples of your previous work as relevant to this project.
A disc with up to 5 images of your previous work + 100 words briefly describing your work and how you would approach this commission. (The above information from short-listed artists will be shown to community groups for comments.)
• Two references or testimonials from previous work
• Your CV and artist’s statement.
To Emily Harvey, Arts and Culture, City of York Council, Mill House, North St, York YO1 6JD.
Email: Emily.Harvey@york.gov.uk or Kristina.Davey@york.gov.uk

Background information
Micklegate Ward Committee wishes to improve the appearance of the grassed area of land at the junction of Scarcroft Road and Bishopthorpe Road, adjacent to the perimeter of Bishopthorpe Road Car Park.
This is a prominent public space, with a high footfall, where people gather and meet. The final scheme will include consideration of seating, safety and maintenance and will be effective all year round both in daylight and after dark.
Local community groups will be involved in the initial selection of an artist to deliver these improvements.
A steering group including local councillors, CYC officers and community representatives will oversee the project.

The role of the artist
The artist will be committed to engaging local groups such as schools and residents associations through workshops and/or demonstrations, and be able to reflect this involvement within the production of their own work. A timetable of community contact time will be negotiated between the artist and the steering group.
The artist will be expected to work up designs and models for comment by the steering group and relevant CYC officers. The artist will work with the steering group to seek the relevant approvals and ensure the scheme is appropriate and deliverable. Evidence of current CRB clearance, public liability insurance and self-employed status will be required.
The artist will have access to their own work base, tools and equipment.

The fixed fee of £7300 includes
• Research and design of the scheme.
• All materials
• Attendance at agreed planning meetings, and liaison with project partners.
• Co-ordination and delivery of community activities relating to the design process.
• Fabrication and installation of work.
The artist will be contracted with the City of York Council through Arts Action York.

Plan of site:
Photographs of the site:




Additional information and constraints:
• The site is at the junction of Scarcroft Road and Bishopthorpe Road, adjacent to two busy roads.
• The site is just outside a conservation area.
• The space to used includes the two main green areas and seating indicated on the plan.
• Trees are valuable, particularly a mature lime tree, the root system of which is likely to spread over most of the open space there. Consultation with specific CYC departments will need to be undertaken before any ground works are planned.
• A pyracantha hedge will be planted along the wall running from the hairdressers round to the car park.
• There is electricity to the site.
• Water, mains cables, gas, signal cables run underneath the footpaths, which must remain in place.
• There are no height restrictions for the site, although the trees may well restrict the height of any installations. Final proposals must be agreed with CYC officers.
• The view of the road junction should not be impeded in any way.

Google Street View

Worth mentioning that you can use Google street view to explore our Outside the White Cube map. Street View lets you view the selected street from an almost 360 degree vertical and horizontal axis using panoramic photography from a series of positions along certain streets. To do this you drag and drop the yellow man icon which is above the zoom slider onto a street highlighted in blue.

hey,


I am becoming increasingly interested in the idea of intervening into routine and the mundane things we do everyday. I want to do this in some quiet way that people might notice or might not.


Im thinking this would work best with public transport...and that i want to leave [something] on buses and trains for people to come across and perhaps respond to.

Im struggling to find many artists relating to this concept but there must be looooaaads.

Anyone got any ideas?

Joyce Kozloff
Boys Art # 2 Nagasaki 2003

American artist, Joyce Kozloff 's highly decorative work reminds me of ancient maps, which combined practical geographical information with decoration, and images of mythical Gods and beasts. Yet Kozloffs work is both down to earth and politically charged, dealing with with the subjugation of peoples under the domination of Empire. Drawing inspiration from older civilizations, who's intricate patterns embody profound mythological and spiritual meanings.

Joyce Kozloff
Jodhpur Blue 1996.
Section 29 x 42.7 cm

39 foot piece. Cast paper & plaster, wood and enamel, paint, indian ink , collage on paper, watercolour on silk. Kozloff maps interweave images, recipes and extracts from books to form a rich patchwork mapping the human and cultural elements of a geographical site.

Consisting of 8 panels, depicting street maps, photographs, recipes and food.

From her exhibition, 'Crossed Purpose'.

Hi all

I've restructured the next two Tuesday sessions of the project, mainly to convene smaller crit groups to critique and advise on individual development of work. It is important you check your yorksj.ac.uk accounts where you'll find details.

Thanks 

Roddy

Dekochari

I have been looking at the flow of traffic (or lack of) within york but also outside of york, and thinking about the methods we use to get from A to B. It seems to me the best and almost definitely fastest way to do this in york which essentially has one road through it is on a bike, avoiding the constant traffic  jam that is york city centre. I then discovered the craze of dekochari within japan (deko - decoration, chari- bike), which is a very literal link between the bike and art. It comes from dekotora which are Japans celebrated art trucks, and dekochari is basically for dekotora enthusiasts who are too young to drive. They instead set about making there bicycle look as much like a truck as possible, these people are almost definitely crazy but I admire them for it.

Whitby Town View Webcam

York Minster Webcam

Scarborough Beach View Webcam

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/webcams/york_minster_constantine_webcam.shtml

http://www.ycrc.co.uk/webcam

Although requesting CCTV footage from the council was possible but not appropriate, They did provide me with these links to several live webcams in York, Whitby, Scarborough and various other places which i may use within my work. The Webcams aren't streaming over the net however, the images are refreshed every 5 minutes. 

Cildo Meireles
Physical Art: Cords / 30KM Extended Line 1969
Industrial cord, map wooden box 60x40x8cm.
From the ‘Geographical Mutations’ series

A conceptual artist, who questions the “physical, geometric, psychological, topographical and anthropological” boundries producing work which calls into question and refuses to be restricted by the political, physical or geographical, boundries. This small leather case, displaying a map of Brazil, combines and contains the earth from the borders of the two opposing states of Rio and Sao Paulo. This work is also a personnal reflection on this Brazilian artists childhood.

Mapping me!

After looking into Chris Drury I found out that he uses echocardiograms in some of his work. I thought this was very interesting as I had an echocardiogram a few years ago. I like the idea of mapping the body in this way. I have included here a picture from my echocardiogram, if you look carefully you can just see the different areas of my heart. This is in a way a personal map of a part of me. Instead of mapping on a conventional chart where things can be seen by the naked eye, this type of mapping looks into places that we cannot see without certain types of technology. A personal map of my heart!

“If you want to know something you should ...

...spend your time with somebody who knows something."

George Brecht & Robert Filliou, cited in Nieslony, Boris (date unknown) Art Of "Begegnung". Available from http://www.asa.de/magazine/iss3/15boris.htm#1 (accessed 12 March 2009)

Arrange a dialogue with “somebody who knows something” which could be helpful in developing your work. You should think of finding out something that is not yet evident from either the deriving/, mapping or public records brief. Interview them, show them your maps, explain your project, and discuss your ideas for your project with them. Listen to their responses and allow this to shape your developing ideas about art in context. Document this dialogue in a way of your own choosing and present your research at one of the next two sessions. 

just a couple quotes i found helpful to start thinking about outside the white cube art:

"The time for art is over. The point now is to realise art, to really create on every level of life..." (Situationist International, 1964, p3)

'The site is not simply a geographical location or architectual setting, but a network of social relations, a community, and the artist and his sponsors envision the artwork as an intergral extension of the community rather than an intrusive contribution from elsewhere"
(Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another, 2002, p6)

i think both texts were in our readers from last semester if you want to have a look.

Just Wondering.....

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone knows of any artists (other than obvious ones) who use either natural pattern, nature or firearms in their work. Any information would be much appreciated!
Thank you!
Sarah
x

Chris Drury

I realise this artist has been added before but thought this work was very different from the other.

This work is more concerned with a kind of mapping...after a visit to Antartica Drury 'mapped' or documented 'data' using echogram technology.

'The ice here is over 4 km. deep and the underlying Earth is hot, so a lake has formed. each line of biro represents over a hundred years in time and accumulation. Antarctica has been covered with ice for around 900,ooo years, which is about the time man has been on the Earth. An echogram, which is a radar image bounced through the ice from an aircraft and imaged in a computer. The image itself can be 20 m. or so long'. An interesting and visual use of data!!!

SurplusBargains (andrew beck)

This is just one example of the work to be found on the wooster collective, SurplusBargains is a Wellington based artist working mainly in the field of fly posting around new zealand, oh and check out his website http://www.surplusbargains.co.nz.

The Wooster Collective

http://www.woostercollective.com/

-woo·ster (noun)A street in the Soho section of New York City

-col·lec·tive (noun)Of, relating to, characteristic of, or made by a number of people acting as a group: a collective decision.

-The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

-Basically for anyone vagueley interested in street art, massive online archive/blog of the best street art being created around the world rite now.

In response to the data brief i have began to look at the CCTV presence in York. I acquired the locations of all 59 CCTV cameras in York and have plotted the majority of them on a map of the city. The presence of CCTV in the city center obviously suggests which areas need to be monitored in this way. I have tried to retrieve some footage through the council (they provided me with the locations and other helpful information also), however the project isn't really an appropriate reason for this info. I am continuing to develop ideas and collect information regarding surveillance in York.       

   

PhD candidate Nepusz Tamas mapped nearly four million relationships between the artists on Last.fm to turn them into an interactive map that's categorized by genre.
As one might expect, the rock zone (red) separates metal (gray) and pop (green). Reggae and ska (pink) exist in a little data peninsula equidistant from pop and rock. You can search for bands on the map to see where they fall, or enter any Last.fm user name to see where their favorite artists are on the map.

There is a 3D feel about this map.

I like the concept of, interactive.

Posted by-Mary Allardyce

City without clothes

Jana Morgan
Describes her work as exploring memory and other mental and linguistic constructs as they mediate the body's interaction with place.

Los Angeles Aerial # 3
Psychogeography of the crazy quilt (in the fashion of Jackson Pollock) 3' x 4' piece is a collage of vintage fabrics, men's neckties and painted / dyed fabrics, machine and hand stitching.

City Without Clothes (potentials of paradise)

work in progress-velvet, velour and fleece.

Morgan describes this piece as, "a work-in-progress, a sort of map to nowhere (as in utopia)," one from a series of aerial-psychogeography studies. She describes it as personal, in that it's potentially everywhere she ever imagined living, but has never visited. It articulates possibilities and parallel lives that may yet be lived.

Note the link in title to, Guy Debord's 1957 map, 'The Naked City'.
I love this work.
posted by-Mary Allardyce

quiled map

Los Angeles Aerial #3: One for the girls a womans touch.
Psychogeography of the crazy quilt
(in the fashion of Jackson Pollock)
mixed fibers and fabric on canvas 3' x 4'

Jana Morgan a visual artist who works conceptually through fiber, paint and language, also video, photography to construct personal narratives, exploring memory and other mental and linguistic constructs as they mediate the body's interaction with place.

I love this work.
Posted by-Mary Allardyce

I have recently been reading Chris Drury's book, Silent Spaces. He is a land artist creating works in site specific spaces. His body of work includes ephemeral assemblies of natural materials, in the mode associated with Andy Goldsworthy, as well as more-permanent landscape art, works on paper, and indoor installations.
Some of Drury's lasting works are "cloud chambers", darkened caverns constructed of local rock, turf, or other materials. Each chamber has a hole in the roof which serves as a pinhole camera; viewers may enter the chamber and observe the image of the sky and clouds projected onto the walls and floor. On paper, he uses a variety of unusual media---notably mushroom spore prints, dung, and peat---as a source of color and patterns, which he might overlay with text or fingerprints, or underlay with maps or other geographic images. More recently, Drury has produced works associated with the body, working in residence with hospitals and incorporating echocardiogram data and blood into his art.

Chris Drury - Silent Spaces. Book

Map of An Englishman

Grayson Perry reveals the reasoning behind his controversial work:"I want to make something that lives with the eye as a beautiful piece of art, but on closer inspection, a polemic or an ideology will come out of it.
His 'Map of an Englishman', is a map of his own brain, with the appearance of an island, it bears the vague resemblance to the two sides of the human brain. At first sight it appears to be a mock-Tudor etch, but place names reveal a world of confusion, surrounded by Schizophrenia, Psychopath, Delirium, Bipolar Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa ect... a large creepy forest is named Fear and his many Church's, castles, hills and houses bear the names of character traits. Divided into counties such Romance, Tender, Bitch, Guru Cliche. There are only limited areas bearing the names Normal Easy. Posh is a region where the place names express elements we attribute to the social class we call posh: Chardonnay, School Run and Yoga Bulemic. Posted by - Mary Allardyce

A few of many photographs taken from the Gasworks in Whitby. The site is filled with the most random industrial looking structures and vehicles; Large diggers, derelict boats and even a hovercraft just to name a few. The site sits between a river and a railway track presumably so barges and trains could transport coal to the gasworks in order for it to produce gas. The Gasworks is obviously out of use now as coal-gas is no longer produced in the UK. Although I have always been aware of this place i know little about it and am currently trying to gather information and old photos as a form of data. The randomness and intrigue of the site is what initially drew me into visiting.      

Xavier Cortada

"My work aims to challenge us to find deeper meaning in our present lives by exploring the paths of those who came before us and our relationship to the natural world.
"In 'The Reclamation Project,' I hung 252 mangrove seedlings (in plastic, water-filled cups) at the Bass Museum and worked with volunteers to place another 2500 across South Beach, 'reclaiming' an island that once a lush coastal ecosystem thriving with mangroves.
"In January 2007 I traveled to the South Pole ate site-specific installations: for 'The Longitudinal Installation,' I arranged 24 shoes in a circle around the South Pole as a proxy for those affected by global climate change in the world above.
"In 'The 150,000-year Journey,' I used a moving ice sheet to mark time: I planted a mangrove seedling at the South Pole, embedded in the ice it will ride for 150,000 years towards the waters edge where, theoretically, it will set its roots. Juxtaposing Antarctica's geological time frames with human time frames, my art reaffirms the notion that we are simply custodians of the planet who should learn to live in harmony with nature."

http://www.greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-144.html

help !

anyone now how i can get the dit function to show when looking at the outsde the white cube map on google maps?
i can view but not edit it? thanks

reflecting by nick

can we go home now,or return to the charge,

if the desicion is left to you ,me what do we follow

whos in charge.Point point ,carry me on your cord,a

tattered thread ,with beads splitting,no more a base

im lost and longing.

Murders

I went to an English seminar not so long ago and the topic was about the murders in Philadelphia. Talking of statistics this map dots all the places where murders have occured. If you click on the website and click the red dots it reads more statistics, time, date, weapon etc. Most of the dots reads.. Firearms!! In Philli, nicknamed "KILLADELPHIA" there were 406 murders in 2007! I might compare this to york. Im guessing york may have less than 10 a year? Lets find out!

Richard Wentworth

Hi all...again!



I have found an artist who I thought creates the sort of photographs that I'm wanting to base my Outside the White Cube on; objects that belong to someone or belong inside that have been placed outside in an "un-natural" environment...basically objects that you wouldn't really see in this type of scenario; giving these objects a different meaning.

This artist is Richard Wentworth, and he describes his work better than I can, so here is a quote of his which I think best explains his photographs:

'I have always been very puzzled about the raw and the cooked. Am I sitting on a tree or is this assemblage of wood a chair? What draws me in is how things are convertible and how humans give meaning. There is something about mutability that I have always been attracted to. I mean, what is a television that is sitting on the roadside miles away from the electricity supply? Is it still a television? It's something to do with being dead yet alive. It's the small human acts that reach out to my way of seeing. Without someone being able to raise a brick and deposit the right amount of mortar then there would be no walls. That's all a wall is really - a lot of brick raising. A little human act multiplied. A half brick raised, though, can be a murder weapon.

My work is also attached to the limits of purposefulness. If something is discarded you can read that and see that it's been rejected. To me, there is something terribly beautiful in that. Formal things are incredibly important to me. I always see the crack in the glass before I see the window. I have always had this "sickness". I am interested in the aberrant.'

Wentworth

Katie =)

Dare I mention Banksy once again???

Hi all,





Since we were talking about surveillance today, I thought this work of Banksy's was appropriate for this topic...enjoy =D!

Katie =P

VICTOR PASSMORE "APOLLO PAVILLION"
This urban creation was comissioned by Peterlee County Councill,the artist Victor Passmore ,wanted to build a walk in walk out ,a place to linger to think dream,play as he said "a free anonymous monument".
this was the idea .
However by the 1970s "sunny blunts"became certainley a place to loiter.it became a drug den,litter strewn everywhere,a no go area ,and being next to a lake it became covered in mould a real sodding eyesore.I love this building its been panned by locals and critics,they are now coming round to the idea and spending money on it!

blind man eating winkles

OPENING THE DOOR WITH A PIN
HE GRUBS FOR PURCHASE,
TUGGING FREE
THE FIRM TWIST OF MEAT
CHEWING IT
AS HE ROOTS OUT THE NEXT .

SPECKLED WITH THE RUST/BROWN
CIRCLES,TRANSLUCENT AS SCABS,
HE COULD SIT HERE FOREVER;
THE RUSTLE OF THE PAPER BAG,
THE SHELLS SCRAPING,THE RUMMAGE
THE SHUCK OF THE WAVES

POEM FROM A PANTED FIELD BY ROBIN ROBERTSON

Oli Laruelle - Invisible Journeys

"Invisible Journeys is my first try at data visualisation. I have seen a few wifi geographical mapping, but they looked a bit too technical to my taste. Here, i aimed at a semi abstract visualisation while keeping the ability to extract sense out of the graphics. Below is one of the visualisation showing 4 different journeys. Bigger to smaller rings : London / Vescemont / Belfort / Barcelona.
Each circular item represent the recording of wireless networks along one journey.
The time dimension starts reading from the right then goes clockwise along the main black thick line.
Each successful node recording influences the time line thickness and adds a “pin” onto it. Red pins represents non encrypted networks other networks are the smaller black ones.
More images of the ongoing process can be found on my flickr set"

http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2008/ff_dataart_1603

http://yesyesnono.co.uk/article/30/invisible-journeys

The Mostar Bridge

The Mostar Bridge was a very famous and historical bridge before its destruction in 1993 during the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The elegant bridge spanned the River Neretva and was designed by the Ottoman (Turkish) architect Mimar Hayruddin. It was completed in 1566 after nines years of building and the surrounding town became a thriving trading centre. The bridge was 29 metres in length and stood at a height of 20 metres, a classic example of a single span, stone arch bridge and was an example of advanced technology in its time. It became a World Heritage site during the twentieth century.

In response to Roddy, i find it interesting how these bridges have a similar shape, whether it be for design or practical reasons. Possibly it was easier to construct like this, or maybe it was just for aesthetical purposes. I am also interested in what you said about reconstruction and substitution. The mostar bridge was rebuilt using some of the limestone salvaged from the riverbed below from the previous destroyed bridge.

The rebuilding of the bridge symbolises the reunification of Mostar and will be part of the healing process for this ethnically divided town. I think i will begin to look closely at York's bridges and the history behind them!

http://www.technologystudent.com/struct1/arch2.htm

Ouse Bridge (1821)

The original Roman bridge over the Ouse was eventually replaced by a wooden bridge built further downstream by the Vikings. In 1154, it collapsed under the weight of a crowd which had gathered to greet St William of York on his return from exile. It was replaced by a stone bridge, but part of this was swept away by floods in the winter of 1564-5. The repaired bridge of 1565 had a new central arch spanning 81ft, and was described by Defoe as "...near 70 foot [21 m] in diameter; it is, without exception, the greatest in England, some say it's as large as the Rialto at Venice," This bridge was dismantled between 1810 and 1818 in order to make way for the New Ouse Bridge, designed by Peter Atkinson the younger, completed in 1821.

An engraving of the Tudor-built bridge