The project statement:

Shepley and Jones will take as their starting point Michael Philipson’s provocation to uncover those spaces that culture has not reached and to take Philipson further, to excavate those spaces or gaps that culture has somehow forgotten or that progress has left behind[1]. Through the everyday practice wandering, Shepley will sweep-trace the ‘ley-lines’ left by architects and urban planners, and Jones will conduct data-collection experiments. They will be joined by fellow artist Paul Heppell and an invited group of members of the public.

Through tracing and sweeping they will contour urban features, cracks and gaps, delineations and boundaries, exploring differences in the infrastructure precipitated by utopian and dystopian templates, and in-so-doing expose something between art and life – even if only momentarily. Data sweep drawings are often by-products of this process and the artists would hope to produce some for the Congress as a record of their dérives.

They propose starting from a pre-determined location (tbc) 1pm, 9^th September, with a group of up to 20 to join, and then proceed – drifting through a district of the city. The walk will last one hour (within a two-hour slot) allowing time for introductions, the walk, and then discussion.

[1] Phillipson, M. (1995) Managing ‘Tradition: The Plight of Aesthetic Practices and their Analysis in a Technoscientific Culture. In Jencks, C. (Ed.) 1995 Visual Culture 202-203. Routledge, London and New York.