Interactive sculptures for everyone!

Inspired by the essence of movement and how we interact with each other in our urban environment, Scribble is a playful new interactive sculpture project brought to you by Steve Bega, Rich Holland and John Hansard Gallery.

Our city is a playground, and through Scribble, we continue to explore how architectural forms and sculptures can be exhibited to encourage community engagement, promote physical literacy, develop strong connections with culture and improve mental health.

As a follow-up to #reshapingthesquare, John Hansard Gallery provided the opportunity for Rich Holland and Steve Bega to bring this new idea to life.

By exploring how physical forms can be placed in different locations within (any) city, we believe we can help to stimulate new conversations and approaches to how we interact with each other and our urban environments.

Treat these forms as mini stages, benches, play pieces… whatever you want them to be is what they are, that’s what brings them to life.

They have been made using weathering steel and are designed for you to play, dance, jump and scribble all over, enjoy!

The Story of Scribble - By Steve Bega

Scribble is an evolution of community lead, public space re-thinking work inspired by SAFESPACESSOTON, CLUBHOUSE, SPACETOCREATE and #RESHAPINGTHESQUARE

It started when I took a ride into Southampton with a roll of black-and-white film in a medium-format camera to photograph 12 spaces in Southampton.

After developing the negatives by hand at home, I printed copies of each location and began scribbling over them with tracing paper and acrylic pens.

I picked three colours, and approached it with the idea that one would represent an object or sculpture placed within the space, one would capture the movement of people interacting with the areas, and the other would convey a feeling or emotion.

The tracing paper allowed any illustration to be placed upon any space, enabling me to create a visual representation of how we might utilise public space and explore the impact of embellishments and added shapes within these areas.

It’s extremely abstract but was incredibly fun, and it sparked an idea of how this could be brought to life with physical objects, in real spaces with real people and emotions.

Scribble has since evolved into a collection of physical sculptures that can be reconfigured in endless ways and exhibited to encourage movement and spark conversations and new interactions within public spaces.

This has been made possible by the support and funding of John Hansard Gallery and has enabled Rich Holland and me to explore how we could bring this project to life. As part of this process, we have (and continue) to explore other designs and materials that balance accessibility, modularity, durability, and innovation, and are currently working on phase two in The New Forest in collaboration with Fluid Motion Theatre Company and The Handy Trust.

Phase 1 currently comprises custom-fabricated weathering steel and concrete, with the initial exhibition of these objects marking the start of their story; there is much more to come…

Scribble is a metaphor for movement, creativity, and play. So, ‘Scribble’ on them (in whatever way that means to you!)

These are interactive sculptures for EVERYONE, enjoy!

#SOTSEF

Thank you for joining us at #SOTSEF. All your artwork and ideas are currently being interpreted by Andy Bega and will be painted onto the sculptures ready for the summer!

Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements and events you can come see and get involved in again…