Based on the great experiments by the students from Sheffield we tested a way of making the station more visible last week.
The signs should be able to take down and redecorate according to what is happening inside the station – or in front of it where the market is happening.
More Photos here
In the third phase we facilitated concrete actions based on the new localised ideas and networks. In this case the idea was to make an incubator for local projects in the empty train station. One of our actions was to design and build a module for the old train station that had a number functions.
A bench
A table
A stage
Our idea was that the flexibility of this design makes it less finished and more open for new ideas and discussions.
We did some practical things that made the Station function better like building a common storage
Some local musicians passed by and noticed the bad acoustics in the biggest room in the station – it used to be the waiting area. We made a large acoustic curtain that improved the discussion “climate” in the building.
We tried out a number of ways to use the building with local people; a cinema evening
Eating together
DJ Dr Jazz pLayed some of his records. This was also a test of the new acoustic curtain to see if it improved the possibility to play music there. It did.
Finally we organised a number of public meetings that discussed the use of the building so far.
As a result of the meeting and the prototyping before that, the building is slowly coming alive with a formal association, a local theatre group setting up their plays and more music arrangements.See all the photos here
In the third phase we also worked with the langauge that is used to talk about the local community. In our case we discovered the word offshoots which was used to describe a number of actions in the community like:
The many additions to the self build houses or how you move into an existing old factory building.
A new curated walk was organised to discuss the offshoots in the community and formalising the use of that word. We also choose to use the word offshoots to describe the third phase in the CiTyBee process:
Concrete spatial actions: either building and taking space in a visual and functional way but also changing the way we talk about space. Offshoots are ongoing changes to what is already there. Always leaving little seeds of imperfection that makes it open to new stories, discussions and offshoots.
The Project “Sensing Hedehusene” was not a Supertanker project but by the UK mapping artist Christian Nold. We were engaged in a parallel participatory process that should ensure, that the results were relevant locally. That part was very important since it resulted in the seed for a local offshoot: a monthly market that began the year after.
In short the project placed a number of sensors that measured pollution and noise – and had three buttons that made it possible to vote.
The results of the pollution and noise measurings where shown as colours on a big balloon.
The technology did not really catch on locally but all the buzz created by involving the local mayor and important persons from the culture industry in Copenhagen created a “critical mass” of local people that started discussing the future og the small community.
And the outcome of that discussion was to work for 2 ideas: a local market – this idea was made real the year after in 2010 and is a good example of a local offshoot :
The second idea was to create a local place to meet in the old train station – which is slowly becoming a reality:
The whole process – both the part run by the artist and the involvement of local people is documented on this website (in Danish)
See a short video here – both in English and Danish
In a collaboration with a local theatre we played with the idea of making theatre more urban by making it Super Site Specific. We also wanted the workshop itself to be part of public space so thanks to Anders of Supertanker we got the different workshop groups out in public space like here on the train platform.
An early example of mapping in a very low tech and concrete way. Very fast to make and very useful for discussing our views on the town of Hedehusene.
One of the ideas from the workshop was to organise a market – mainly for building materials – to boost the DIY spirit of the town. The market idea would come back the year after – see more here
The other idea – and closer to Theatre was a local event where people in town could bring stuff on their trailers to a gathering where all the stuff could be exchanged. The trailers would be decorated and driven through town as a parade of local potentials….
See more Photos from the workshop here
Here you can see some of the sketches from the workshop. Many of them have become reality in the meantime. In the Social Housing area we choose to renovate an old Cirkuswagon that became an icon for that project. For CiTyBee we choose a more mobile Street Kitchen which in some ways resembles the “Peacock” in some of the sketches.
During the CiTyBee process in Hedehusene in 2012 we noticed that local people often used the term “Offshoots” to describe a number of actions in the community like:
The many additions to the self build houses, the re-appropriation of an existing old factory building, or a local association to fight for more local influence.
Offshoots are concrete spatial actions: building and taking space in a visual and functional way but also changing the way we talk about space. Offshoots are ongoing changes to what is already there. Always leaving little seeds of imperfection that make it open to new stories, discussions and further offshoots. This means that the process can begin again – making it less linear.
One consequence of “Offshoots” is the diversity that stems from houses being an expression of the people who lives there. Below is the sign saying “Forskelligartet” – danish for diverse.
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