The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Live Adventures
manifest themselves in the spaces and boundaries of the urban environment.
Thus, rather than attempting to produce our observations from a traditionally
“oppositional” viewpoint, our work aims to connect different values and
ideas so as to encourage a certain reflective skepticism toward individual actions
and their collective results. Our work combines these social concerns
with certain formal and conceptual art-historical references in order to aestheticize
a “twisted critique” of the sites and contexts we engage with.
While our formal concerns fuse with an ideological engagement, we also
hope to retain an element of good humor.
CAMELOT
Camelot was a site-specific installation produced for City Limits, a group
show curated by Godfrey Burke and organized by Terry Shave, head of fine
art at Staffordshire University, in September 1996. The show consisted of an
exhibition in the university galleries and several new site-specific commissions
around the city of Stoke-on-Trent. When we visited, we intuitively
decided to work on one of the most neglected public sites.
The site in Albion Square is distinct yet typical of those found in
many other cities: a poorly planned intersection of heavy flows of foot and vehicle
traffic. Although the site marks the entrance to Hanley town center, it
is defined only by three irregularly shaped patches of trampled grass, flanked
with anti-pedestrian brickwork, and cut off by traffic on either side. Rather
than using a public art commission to superficially enhance the site, we decided
to produce something that would engage with the very conception of
“public.” In one sense, our piece—Camelot—was a literal interpretation of the
“city limits” theme, as it aimed to provoke reflection and debate on the physical
and social boundaries that often determine the patterns of city life.
Camelot used 120 meters of 3-meter-high steel palisade security fencing to
deny people access to these small, neglected fragments of public urban land.
By reinforcing the boundaries of these grass verges with an excessive
display of authority, we raised the status of the land through its enclosure.
In the context of the contemporary debate around security and access
within town centers, Camelot explored the political notion of the “tragedy of
the commons”—that is, the tendency of resources not under private ownership
to fall into neglect. While construction work was taking place we encountered
a great deal of very real—at times threatening—anger from local
people passing by or visiting the piece. Through many discussions, it became
apparent that the neglect of this site was held to be symptomatic of a
lack of communication between the electorate and their representatives on
the town council.