Wapping:audio tour

www.wappingaudio.org

Walk with me... An invitation tore-imagine the city

Katie Day, Elyssa Livergant and Matt Ball

Creation

Creation

The Derive

One of the basic situationist practises is the derive [literally: “drifting”], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Derives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of psychogeographical

effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.

Psychogeography

The study of the precise effects of geographical setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual.

Situationist International Text Library www.nothingness.org

Creation

●Individual walks and documentation●We read newspaper articles●Undertook collective story writing exercises●Undertook historical and field research of the area

Creation - InventoriesOBJECTS

Whiskeypirate patch

childrens paper sailing boats costumesthe waterthe Metro

brightly coloured bunting, red, white and blueribbon

a bench tea

traditional sweetsmy pills

photocameraa letter

a hidden map in the hold of the three sistersa small box with a treasure from the Balkans War

the crown jewels under the pirate’s coatred head scarf

a stiff g& t.an old van

There are notices surrounding the woods demanding ‘NO ENTRY. MENTAL MATT THE MISFIT MIDGET RESTS HERE.

Creation - Inventories

CHARACTERS

lost friendsthe missing river

my first wife my child

a crazy man Long John Silver

the Messiahthe piratesthe king

the selected few Matt

the queenWilliam Shakespeare

the women in wapping Captain Hook

my beloved Angelinathe priest

matt and his ex-girlfriendthe daring Captain Spirit

Creation - Inventories

LOCATIONS

the red bridgeornamental water gardens

the gallows the rear of Wellington Terrace

Henry’s bar wapping woods

a bench the hold of the three sisters

his fortressthat tiny island

Creation - Inventories

SITUATIONS and ACTIONS

a wake we sat in the woods

I first kissed himI said goodbye to my mummy

I cried the whole eveningwaiting for a boat to come and pick me up and help me forget him.

She shouted ‘help’. Nobody went to help herTake all the money and leave

The opening of News International was truly an affair to rememberHe was yelling. She was yelling

the priest had already begun to prepare the funeralI couldn’t tell if they were the police

tied up in the back of an old vanThey were all smiles and laughter

a birthday tea ceremony

Creation

The Wake

Creation

Re – mapping from memory

Creation - Maps

Creation - Maps

Creation

Matt says...

FOR ME WAPPING IS a PERSONAL experience. Its About one persons movement through time and space alone. This is how we experienced

Wapping on our initial meanderings – like a film set waiting to be occupied. We went out and wandered, alone. When we walked, things caught our

eyes; a disused shopping centre, a pirate ship, a lifebelt floating in a pond and they sparked off our imagination. We wanted to allow the walkers

imagination to be sparked too, so we created stories. Stories that reflected our experiences of the area. Stories stolen from people we met. Stories that mixed the history of the real Wapping – a history of Dockers and printworks – with a fictional history where legendary figures would sail the high seas on

peace missions or hang from a rope until they be dead for piracy. Throughout all the stories our focus was the human being at the centre of an

experience, and how this person interacts with their environment.

Route

The walk

Why we chose audio as our medium

The walk

The Walk and the Walker

The walk

MultiplicityMatt says...

The decision to focus on an elderly lady, was in a sense, calculated. A woman whose story instantly places her as part of my grandparents generation is one of the most easily associated with by the

largest number of people. This reassuring grandmotherly presence was able to introduce the walker to the other Wapping and in doing so make the Walker confront the multiple possibilities of the terrain through which they traverse. To see the environment we take for granted in a new light and create a space in which they might consider the streets of this odd piece of London real estate anew, in all its

beauty, history and bizarreness.

The walk

New / alternative perspectives / movement

What are we evaluating?