Owen Daily Art, Design, Teaching

City as Archive

2015, Aug

–

Dundee Commons Festival

• Link to Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/INAZ7

• Link to Newspaper article about the project: The Courier

Situated in the centre of Dundee's Waterfront Redevelopment Owen Daily's posters draw upon his teaching experience with young people from Dundee's peripheral housing schemes.

Using public domain images, his posters reflect on experiences of disenfranchised young people through the established visual languages of power including heraldry, land ownership and the city's rich naval history.

How can the city's public history and personal voice be used to generate new narratives and understanding for Dundee?

It is hoped that the posters will open up conversations about shared space, place and belonging.

Where: Waterfront hoardings, Dock Street, DD1 3DP

From Thursday 27th August until Monday 28th September.

Artist's Notes

In investigating ideas of the commons I was struck by the symbolic representation of a "Gentleman", through his heraldic use of arms, in contrast to the "Simple", lower classes often treated like sheep.

Local gang names, Troop and Fleet mark territories and adopt the language of power and warfare. Troop, from the French Troupeau, meaning "flock".

Fleet: fast footed or many ships, linked into the harbour again. Both gangs use the language of land and sea, warfare and power.

Dundee has been sacked several times and the harbour was also a means of access to the city.

The etymology of Whitfield's "Shams" or Shamland is trickier. Sham land deals have been known, but not particulary in Dundee, as far as I know. However, "shams" is the Arabic word for "sun", hence the Heraldic pun.

Other works attempt to reference the locations maritime history, anchors, ropework, defences and of course, the Bell Rock lighthouse, which has protected many ships as the enter the Tay Estuary.

Dundee's historical connections with many exotic parts of the world, through the harbour are listed in "Sites of Formative Relationships" as are many sites significant to our young people.

"Columbus's Egg" is often cited as an example of "easy when you know how, or obvious after the fact". Hogarth's illustration of this incident in the life of the famous maritime explorer seemed to fit with the harbour and also serve as a reminder of how it easy to speak to one another, once you learn the language.

Excerpts of Jonathan Raban's influential book Soft City remind us that the harbour and Dundee itself, need all who live here to help shape the city.

In studying what makes a Happy City, Charles Montgomery reminds us it is a shared project.

Further quotations from Boyer's City of Collective Memory help us to see how the city can form a canvas for creativity, what it is and could be.

Almost all images are from the public domain, or Creative Commons, as are the excellent typefaces Linux Libertine and Biolinum.

With thanks to;

• PACE
• http://dundeecommonsfestival.wordpress.com
• http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk and
• http://www.streetadverts.com

Public Domain Sources:

• Beware of the danger signals that flag problems:.. Eleanor H. Porter friendship quote. online .
• Columbus Breaking the Egg' (Christopher Columbus) by William Hogarth - Egg of Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. online .
• Defence mechanisms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. online .
• Design - Graphic - Engraving - Sun anthropomorphized | Vintageprintable. online .
• Egg of Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. online .
• File:16th Century Artillerie.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. online .
• File:General View of the Bell Rock Works engraving by William Miller after A Carse.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. online .
• File:Wenceslas Hollar - Goats, sheep, and mole.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. online .
• Historical description of the town of Dundee - Charles Mackie - Google Books. online .
• LinuxLibertine.org | Public domain Fonts: Biolinum and Libertine. online .
• Minas Geraes-class battleships - Minas Geraes-class battleship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. online .
• Shams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. online .
• Sheep, after an 1810 copperplate engraving | Flickr - Photo Sharing! online .
• Universidad de Sevilla /Catalogo. online .
• Vector Art: Medieval Armor and Weapons Collage Vintage Vectors. online .
• Ashley, C.W., 1998. Ashley Book of Knots. Reissue edition ed. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
• Boyer, M.C., 1996. The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments. New Ed edition ed. MIT Press.
• Montgomery, C., 2015. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Penguin.
• Raban, J., 2008. Soft City. London: Picador.
• Jackson, G., Kinnear, K., 1991. The Trade and Shipping of Dundee 1780-1850. Dundee: Abertay Historical Society. online