Talking Storywalks at Taunton CICCIC

Last night I was asked by the Somerset Art Galleries Trust (SAGT) to do a talk about myself as an artist and current practice. The event was at Taunton's Creative Innovation Centre or CICCIC for short and is a welcome hive of creativity within our county town.

Initially I talked about Storywalks and talked far too quickly about something which is simple but does take time for people to ingest. I then moved on to the Coleridge Way projects covering two of the three elements and completely forgetting the third! So many projects, so much going on in my mind - which to share first?

One element which wasn't forgotten was the QR code poetry of which the final tiles were installed in late September this year. This project involved poetry written by local pupils which I turned into QR Codes then laser etched them onto slate and finally installed on finger posts along the trail. In the image above Martin Joiner is scanning a QR code with his mobile phone and revealing a single poem from one pupil.

More about these from The Coleridge Way blog here.

The final section of my talk was about the Poetry Pin Project, which again revolves around digitally placing text to be electronically revealed using the smart phone browser. It uses the same system as the Storywalk's engine to power it, responding to where you are located as to whether you can read the poetry or not. After a while of talking about this I was interrupted with the words 'So can we have a poem then please?'

Of course I said yes and promptly pulled out my pink file and read two of my Poetry Pin Poems.

This poem sums up the autonomy of the project and even though it's financed by EDF Energy, they have no say over the content.

The Firm

Cut the ribbon
Prime the reactor
Pull the rods with the Chinese contractors
All smiles and shine to the chain reaction
Atomic construction policy distraction
Ramp it up till it's critical
Balancing parameters with the theoretical
Systems run and systems set
Black marks in history are hard to forget

So who'll be the first to charge their phone
Switch on the light Hoover the home
Who'll be the first to suck on this dial
Drink from the elixir of Frankenstein's vial

Who'll be the one who clocks up the bill
Plugs in their heater when the night turns to chill
Who'll despair when the future arrives
Energy poverty - pounds in the eyes

16 billion to prime this machine
But the profits oh the profits are far from lean

And we need this, we need this
For the dying and the poor
For the little old lady with white wellies by the door
For the child born early in the plastic box
For the factories and museums and the charity shops

For the tired
For the cold
For the vulnerable
For the old
For the good
For the many
For the pious
(If there are any)
For the darkness
For the ride
For the slowly rising tide
For the frail
For the infirm
And for the directors of this firm

I feel that when I lead any project it's important to get stuck in with whatever task I am asking people to do, and for the Poetry Pin Project I realised early on that if I am going to ask people to walk the trail and post site specific poetry I should do it myself.

Just before the end of the evening I set a challenge to each of the audience in turn with my Teasing Tags, the challenge goes a little like this.

You are welcome to take a teasing tag, but only on one condition, thatif you do, then you can only read it when you have forgotten you ever had it!

All but one accepted the challenge and above is Jenni Dutton revealing hers, not because she had forgotten, but more because she was being mischievous! But then the whole thing is playful and bending the rules is certainly part of that.

I wrapped up the evening with a simple message from one of my teasing tags.