What is all the fuss about!...

david-le-mud — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:50:13 -0500

Mapping the Necklace came to life in the Durham Necklace Park over May 5-7 Bank Holiday weekend…and what a great success it was! Adding onto the some 25 original teams and one-off mappers, were another 30 teams of mappers or individuals agreeing to map.

Highlights of the weekend included a 12-strong team of teenagers Parkour performers (free-runners) creating a stunning spectacle in the City Centre and Wharton Park; a team of blind and partially sighted mappers exploring access in real detail; Triker 12 and Eritrean Adam, the energetic and vocal wheelchair team checking Park gradients and speeds; Readers of the Lost Art publicly creating the new Necklace Park historical graphic novel, chapter by chapter, in front of fascinated onlookers; a team of Belmont schoolchildren working with noted architects De Matos Storey Ryan to explore Belmont Viaduct; Play Mappers weekend-long creation of the Park “plike” (play hike); the Origami Mappers, Kit and Bridie Performance Mapping, the Busking Mappers, the Human Map, the Gazebo Boys, the Pinhole Mappers, the Wild Food Mappers; Venezuelan artist Cipriano Martinez creating a new multi-part “chaos mapping” piece especially for Mapping the Necklace; noted designer Simon Cavelle arriving from Australia to colour map the Necklace; Durham University Professor Alan Purvis and his team testing their new real time GPS tracking device through necklace Mappers; the Disorienteers mapping their life, loves, leisure and louche thoughts ;the Twinned City and Postcard Mapping; the Hindsight Mappers revising for their A-Levels; the unveiling of the first tiles of the New College art students’ ceramic mural Necklace Map; and the welcome return of the Shelter Girls, who helped start the whole process off a year ago.

Mappers clustered and logged in and out at the Necklace Park upload centre Clayport Library, spreading out daily into the 12 miles of the Durham Necklace Park where they met filmmakers to record their exploits. Many met on Sunday for a sunny Old Durham Gardens picnic and experience-sharing as guests of Dott 07 (and met Dott 07 Programme Director John Thackara, Design Festival Producer, Andy Hudson and Executive Producer Robert O’Dowd and his Mapping Daughters), and later in Fowlers Yard for locally brewed “Mellow Mapper” ale and more music.

There are so many people to thank and they all will be (copiously)…but top of the list are Dave and Jenny, the filmmakers who volunteered at a very late stage to take over on the audio-visual recording of the project, and without whom nothing would have been possible.

To come? Various personal takes on mapping through dog tracks, trees testimonials, Top Ten Mapping…fact, fiction, litter, vennel, poetry, dance, access, play mapping and much more memory mapping! AND KEEP BLOGGING on how was it for you!

Take a look at the Mapping the Necklace WEB GALLERY here. The Gallery is still being added to as it comes in, so keep checking for map updates!