Sidewalk
人行道
舗装
Bestrating Trottoir járda calçada
Plasterung Pavement ةفصرألا
תפצרמ Выстилка
pavimenTazione Πεζοδρόμιο ફરસબંધી
Contents Following page: the word for pavement translated into American, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Gujurati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Portuguese
Sources & Bibliography
Aesthetic
Inspiration
Dumping Ground
Communication
Function
Introduction 06 10 12 14 18 26 32
The streets tell the stories of the people who walk them. Over the passage of time these pavements have become marked with the trails of people as they leave their litter behind along with their trails of footprints‌ Ben Wilson
06
Introduction
Pavements are our universal home in the city: a shared space that we use every day. However, their utility and value are seen in different ways by different people. For some they are a means of traveling from A to B; they are a means of communication; they have inspired songwriters, artists and poets.
"Underneath all its engineering and operation, there is the revelation and realisation of something which is in the nature of a work of art".
07
Although referring to the Tube, this quote from Frank Pick, the first Chief Executive of London Transport, could equally refer to the pavement.
A person who looks down at their feet is considered to take a narrow, rather than visionary, view of the world. I wanted to look in another way.
The inspiration for this project came when visiting the Tate Modern and City Hall - the preliminary visual research tasks we were set. What struck me was how instinctively I was drawn to look up when exploring my environment. I always recall myfather telling me that it was only by looking up that I would discover the unexpected.
Alan Fletcher calls this The Art of Looking Sideways. I started looking down to see what I would find...
I’ve been walking in the same way the crack s in the pavement‌
08
as I did missing out Adele Atkins
09
Function
The street is the one public service that we use every day. It is the basic structure of the city. If well designed and well maintained it can have a positive impact on our lives. The Manual for Streets is the bible that public authorities consult when designing our streets. It is intended to ensure that good design practice is implemented consistently, but sensitively, across the UK.
The key recommendation of the Manual for Streets is that increased consideration should be given to the ‘place’ function of streets. This function is essentially what distinguishes a street from a road, where the main purpose is to facilitate movement.
Streets have five principal functions in all. In addition to those of place and movement, streets need to allow for access, they often need to provide room for parking, and they accommodate drainage, utilities and street lighting.
According to the Manual the sense of place is “fundamental to a richer and more fulfilling environment” and “the choice of surface materials… has a large part to play in achieving a sense of place”.
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Communication
Closer inspection of the pavement reveals that it is more than just the surface we walk on. It is a canvas for communication where messages are recorded and signs to aid navigation can be found. The surface is used as a bulletin board by councils, utility companies and the people who dig up our streets. Our pavements and roads are littered with coloured marks. These seemingly meaningless series of dots and lines are a hieroglyphic language.
They mark the position of the network of underground pipes and cables so that road gangs avoid them when they dig up the roads and pavements. They indicate to the road marking crews where to paint the yellow lines and zig zags that dictate where we should park or which direction to travel in. The traditional approach to paving materials has resulted in the rather drab streets that are found in the UK - repetitive shapes, simple patters and single pigmented colours.
Today the use of contrasting colour, pattern or texture to create patterns which can be symbolic (eg to delineate a route within a shared surface) or merely decorative The regular pattern of paving slabs is interrupted with raised tactile surfaces. Known as ‘tactile paving’ these are, carefully designed and placed to assist visually impaired pedestrians as they navigate the city.
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Dumping ground
We take this structure for granted. We use it as our dumping ground. We take the last drag on a cigarette and drop the butt; we spit out gum and leave it where it falls; we finish a can of Coke and rather than finding a litter bin we leave it to roll to its resting place in the gutter.
14
It starts life in a wrapper with a nice notice on the outside that says: “please use this wrapper prior to disposal”. It then enters the mouth where, mixed with saliva and often respiratory pathogens, and occasionally blood if you have recently been to a dentist for teeth cleaning, it is masticated and then given its exit in the form of excrement. This excrement is either spat on to the pavement or disposed of in other ways and carries with it certain dangers. As it hits the pavement, it is colloquially known as a ‘gum turd’. This ‘gum turd’ may retain viruses and bacteria for as long as it is wet Lord Selsdon of Croydon
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Inspiration
The pavement has inspired poets, artists and songwriters. Pavement art has been recorded in Europe since the 16th Century. In Italy, itinerant artists would decorate the streets with images of the Madonna using chalks and pastels. They became known as I Madonnari. The first known street painter in the US was Sidewalk Sam, who began painting on the streets of Boston in 1973.
Go once in the street with a spray can. Spray your signature. Then go back the day after. I’m sure you’ll go back. Because when you leave something you leave part of yourself 19
Blek Le Rat
Pavement art developed in another direction, in the form of graffiti, the most high profile proponent of which is Banksy. However, Banksy was not the first artist to use the street in this way. That honour goes to Blek le Rat, a Parisian artist who started decorating the street in Paris in the 1980s. He is credited with inventing the life-sized stencil to produce works quickly, and which Banksy uses.
Over the following pages we look at some contemporary pavement inspired work.
20
Lyrics by Adele Atkins & Eg White
Chasing Pavements
I’ve made up my mind, Don’t need to think it over If I’m wrong, I am right Don’t need to look no further, This ain’t lust I know this is love But, if I tell the world I’ll never say enough ‘cause it was not said to you And that’s exactly what I need to do If I end up with you Should I give up, Or should I just keep chasin’ pavements Even if it leads nowhere Or would it be a waste Even if I knew my place Should I leave it there Should I give up, Or should I just keep chasin’ pavements Even if it leads nowhere 21
22
Chewing Gum Man 23
Ben Wilson started decorating chewing gum on the pavement about 7 years ago in Bethnal Green. His aim was to create a path through London, something he has not achieved. He decided to paint on the chewing gum left behind by Londoners for practical reasons... because he was painting on something already discarded, and which sat on the pavement, he could not be arrested for vandalism.
The Pothole Gardener
Steve Wheen is a video producer, and currently a student at Central St Martins. He created The Pothole Gardener and is part of a growing number of pothole gardeners sprouting up around the world. The movement started in the California College of the Arts around 2008. Pothole gardeners aim to highlight the poor conditions of our roads and pavements, and to bring a smile to the faces of people who spot them.
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Aesthetic
“Wabi-Sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West. Wabi-sabi can in its fullest expression be a way of life. At the very least, it is a particular type of beauty”. It has long been associated with the tea ceremony and developed as a reaction against the overly ornate, decorative objects
that had come to dominate the ceremony by the early 16thcentury. In some ways, it can be viewed in a similar light to Modernism which was itself “a radical departure from 19th-century classicism and eclecticism.”
Applying a selection of these rules, the pages that follow show observations of Wabi-Sabi on the pavements of London.
An attempt to define the aesthetic system was made by Leonard Koren in his book Wabi-Sabi for artists, designers and philiosophers. He believes it is an integrated approach to existence, spirituality, emotional well-being, behaviour and the look and feel of things.
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27
“Greatness� exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details
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The suggestion of natural process
29
Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy
30
Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness
31
A beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete
Picture credits and sources
All pictures are the author’s own except where stated
06 “The streets tell the stories…” Ben Wilson, Chewing Gum Art on the Streets www.youtube.com
07 “Underneath all its engineering…” Frank Pick, Chief Executive, London Transport, London Transport Museum
19 “Go once in the street…” “Blek le Rat, the man who gave birth to Banksy”, The Sunday Times, 8 June 2008
20 & 21 Adele Watkins & Eg White, Chasing Pavements, from the album 21, © XL 2011
24& 25 Photo credit: © Steve Wheen, 2011
08 & 09 “I’ve been walking the same way…” Adele Atkins, Hometown Glory, from the album 19, © XL 2009
10 Manual for Sreets, The Department of Transport, March 2007 © Crown copyright
26 “Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous…” and “a radical departure from 19th-century…” Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, Imperfect Publishing, 1994
27 to 31 All captions from Leonard Koren, WabiSabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
15 “It starts life…” Lord Selsdon in a House of Lords on chewing gum tax, 31October 2006
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Bibliography Books
Other publications
Design writing research Ellen Lupton & Abbott Miller Phaidon 1996
Manual for Streets Department for Transport 2007
Graphic Design Theory Helen Armstrong (ed.) Princeton Architectural Press 2009 Design as Art Bruno Munari Penguin 2008 Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers Leonard Koren Imperfect Publishing 1994
Guidance on the use of tactile paving surfaces Department for Transport Civilised Streets CABE 2008 Various guidance publications Interpave Websites www.pavingexpert.com www.wikipedia.com
David Hockney, A Bigger Picture Tim Barringer et al. Royal Academy of Arts 2012 Art of the 20th Century Ruhrberg et al. Taschen 2000
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Following page: the word for pavement translated into American, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Gujurati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Portuguese
Sidewalk
人行道
舗装
Bestrating Trottoir járda calçada
Plasterung Pavement ةفصرألا
תפצרמ Выстилка
pavimenTazione Πεζοδρόμιο ફરસબંધી 34