People’s Plinth Augmented reality art gives city a voice
PEOPLE visiting the site of the toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol will be able to see new statues on the empty plinth thanks to a ground-breaking art installation.
The People’s Platform will create digitally built statues using augmented reality technology, and is being launched on the first anniversary of the day the slave trader’s statue was pulled down.
Created by a team of artists and digital creatives from the CARGO project, The People’s Platform will mean anyone scanning a QR code next to the empty Colston plinth will be able to see augmented reality statues and works of art on the plinth itself, just by walking around it and holding up their phone.
Those behind the project said that while the debate still goes on about what should or shouldn’t be put on the empty plinth, this was a good way of using the space for alternative works of art.
The idea was the brainchild of St Pauls poet and activist Lawrence Hoo. Before the statue was toppled in 2020, his CARGO project was backed by the likes of Massive Attack and other Bristol creatives to develop art installations, education packs and subject curriculums to teach more about the heroes of enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America, who led uprisings and the fight for the abolition of slavery.
After the Colston Statue was toppled a year ago, Mr Hoo and CARGO’s creatives began developing the People’s Platform, inviting people to submit ideas and artwork to be turned into virtual statues, sculptures and works of art.
Submissions for works of art can still be entered at peoplesplatform.co.uk.
Mr Hoo said: “The reason for doing it was to give all Bristolians the opportunity to be part of a decision on what they might want to see on the plinth.
“It was a way to try to bring the city together to try to give as many people as possible the opportunity to have a say in something they felt the city was still trying to control.”
Mr Hoo said that, long term, he didn’t want the plinth to remain.
“If it’s not going to be the People’s Platform, which could run forever... remove that plinth and have a bike rack here. Have something there that’s useful for everybody to use,” he said.
The cutting-edge technology at the heart of People’s Platform has been developed in conjunction with AR experts apache.co.uk, 8thwall.com and We Are Salt agency. It works to reduce barriers of engagement by not requiring an app download and launching directly from a web browser allowing all people with a smartphone to engage for free.
A number of local Bristol artists have had their ideas turned into augmented reality works of art, including Jazz Thompson, 27, an illustrator and designer based in Bristol.
“I created the sculpture of a head that is kind of like a collage,” she said. “Each patchwork is a print from a different African country.
“It’s really crazy to know people are going to be able to see it, not in a physical space, but in a virtual space.”
Aleks Vladimirov is not an artist but a researcher, and his idea was “literally just a few words on paper” that the CARGO team have turned into a work of augmented reality art.
“I just put my idea forward and I was quite surprised it was one of the few that got picked,” he said.
“I was trying to make the point that history is different from the past.
“There is a simple argument that says ‘why topple statues, when it’s in the past?,’ but the story we tell ourselves today is very important about the future.
“I say it’s my art piece, but I literally wrote a few words, and the guys put together the art work – it’s the splash of the statue in the harbour.”
Mr Vladmirov was not living in Bristol when the statue came down, but had been trying to persuade his wife to move here from their home in Shrewsbury. The statue toppling convinced her to move.
“This is where history is being made at the moment, and I want to be where it is happening. I’m one of those people who runs towards the tornado,” he said.
❝ It was a way to try to bring the city together to... have a say in something they felt the city was still trying to control
Lawrence Hoo