Gray Area

Norway Tourist Routes

May 2013

Ballet of the Steel Dinosaurs

The ballet of the steel dinosaurs 

Six listed cranes line Imperial basin, striding in line to Imperial Dry Dock. The six are of different designs, articulated and balanced according to soon-to-be redundant industrial requirements. We believe these industrial artefacts should be not simply retained, but re-animated as interactive elements of a new living vibrant city quarter. 

Leith has changed dramatically over the past fifty years, and in the next ten years will change further under the development of the proposed masterplan. We do not seek to preserve or conserve the 'Old Leith' in stasis. Our approach to the Leith of the future is somewhat like the reassemblage of dinosaur skeletons - just as skeletons become an entirely different entity on their reassembly (yet still undeniably give us the idea of a dinosaur), so we aim for the true nature of redundant infrastructures to be revealed in their alien reincarnation. We seek out and identify infrastructures, artefacts and elements of the industries that enabled Leith to prosper and reanimate them to life in new subverted ways in order for them to become part of the contemporary city.

Thus we take control of the cranes, adding electronic controls to the servos, replacing the human hands on the levers with computer link ups. The cranes become reanimated, ready to do our bidding. 

So what should they do? In the absence of the demand for heavy moving ability, what part of the massive industrial labour of loading and unloading do we ape or recreate? In the absence of ships and cargo, what modern (or virtual?) goods do we metaphorically move from ship to shore or shore to ship in remembrance of their former massive efforts? 

No and none. We reject the idea of such a reworking of history as false and naive. Instead we put the cranes to work moving daily to relentless natural cycles and by night to ephemeral, whimsical and truly contemporary human impulses. Through their slow, balletic and un-workmanlike movements, we aim to reveal their true power and the importance of their presence in Leith of the past and the future. 

At daybreak (come rain or shine) the cranes will wake and unfold, flower-like, to offer their tiny dinosaur heads to the sun, warming cold-bloodedly in the weak rays. Following the path of the sun across the sky, the cranes move in varying paths through the year and work as some oversize seasonal clock. At sunset, they fold into themselves and pause, as if gathering their thoughts before the frenzy of activity that fills the time from sundown until midnight. During this time, the cranes act independently of each other, with movements that are as fast as can realistically be expected from their structures. Responding in movement to mobile phone text messages from the public and website visitors, the cranes trace letters and messages in light across the night sky, much like a child signing their name with the light of a sparkler. These traces are not immediately discernable to the human eye due to the slow nature of the cranes, but can be viewed through specially adapted telescopes that capture the letters through video and long-exposure photograpy relayed on the website. Several of these viewers are distributed throughout the park opposite the cranes and allow an intimate viewing of the messages. Otherwise invisible, the messages drive the cranes into their graceful, dancing movements that would otherwise be alien to their former staccato, repetitive labour.

Group members: 
Ruth Bide (Drawing & Painting)
Christopher Gray (Architecture)
Rebecca MacDonald (Architecture)
Martine Pugh (Sculpture)