5 Things to Know About Creating Big Installations for Public Spaces
Breakin’ it down with the Imagineer crew.
The team behind “Bridge,” a large-scale outdoor arts project celebrating the intersection of art, engineering and social change, shares tips on how you take a big idea and turn it into an even bigger reality. It’s the perfect stuff to get your wheels turning if you’re just starting to flirt with the idea of making playa-sized art for public spaces. Big thanks to Imagineer Productions’ Orit Azaz and Claire Maddocks for writing this piece. There’s a lot to consider!
🏗 1. ARTISTS + ENGINEERS? IT’S COMPLICATED
Imagineer discovered that there are many different kinds of engineers, each of whom will bring a different perspective, expertise and tolerance for risk and creative innovation. For “Bridge,” they eventually worked with four different kinds of engineers: large firm civil engineers, large firm event structural engineers, an independent event and entertainment industry structural engineer, and a circus engineer. For large firm structural engineers in particular, the imperative for certainty and to manage out all risks can be difficult/scary/career-threatening for them to engage lightly and quickly with creative concept and early stage design development. They might also feel challenged to retain the spirit and sense of creative enquiry when they return to their normal working environment. In the future, Imagineer says it will: recognize the different kinds of engineering expertise that might be needed; acknowledge the tension in working practices explicitly from the outset; and maintain regular contact throughout the design process, including reflective dialogue throughout.
⏰ 2. IT’LL TAKE MORE TIME THAN YOU THINK
Make a timeline for the whole design and production process, with a) clear milestones, and b) enough time to involve all relevant collaborators in each stage of iterative design and detailed decision making, taking into account the different time zones and working practices of each specialist. Involve an experienced project manager with brilliant verbal, written and online communication, coordination, foresight and people skills to ‘hold the space’ for the in-depth creative thinking and research that may be needed at each stage.
🎪 3. MOVEMENT ON STRUCTURES IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY
If you want people to do stuff on your structure, this needs to be considered and integrated into the design and engineering brief from the outset. Moving bodies exert different forces than fixed materials, and these need to be calculated as part of the process to ensure that the structures are fit for purpose
👣 4. SCALE, SPACE AND CONTEXT REALLY MATTER
The size of the artwork and how it is framed in its surroundings fundamentally affect what the artwork will mean, especially in busy urban areas.
🇬🇧 5. PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC EXPERIENCE
What’s the experience you want people to have in, on, under and in relation to your artwork? What other elements and objects will be needed to shape this experience (eg power, lighting, PA, security, front of house)? Build these into your creative concept design and planning from the outset, as these additional structures will impact on the audience and participant experience.
🔎 EXPLORE FURTHER
For more about “Bridge”:
For more about Imagineer Productions:
For more about socially engaged art practice in the UK:
For more about artists responding to inter-faith communities:
For more about public art stimulating a city-wide conversation:
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