Wired Wood

Myself and Mark cameron were commissioned by Urban Vision in Stoke on Trent to make a flashmob bluetooth wood that moved around the town of Longton.

Wired Wood sought to create a dialogue around the lack of green spaces in Longton Town Centre and surrounding neighbourhoods.  A series of interventions took place in different locations around the town centre that adopted a flash mob approach of appearing in different places for a short amount of time . The installations consisted of a group of 5 x 8ft, 4 x 6ft x 4 x 4ft and 8 x 2ft trees made from wood that appeared unexpectedly in very public places.

The interventions illustrated a deepset existing conversation between the local residents about the understanding of the wider implications of green spaces. Besides the aesthetic nature of green spaces, residents understood that the increase of the footfall in the town centre would lead to the reinvesting of external businesses and the increase of social pride in the shared regenerated spaces.

Wired wood and the other buzzes commissions created a platform of public address, that seeded a catalyst for social change by reuniting the townsfolk with the belief that the art interventions of the Longton Buzzes project have set in motion direct actions to be realised in the coming months.

[flickrset id=”72157623158186506″ thumbnail=”square” photos=”” overlay=”true” size=”medium”]

The wood made an appearance at the Impression Gallery as part of Forest, an educational space to run along side the Ben Rivers exhibition.