Beautiful postcards from children telling us their emotions

Just to remind you how I got the children to produce the postcards.
I have asked them to imagine a bus travelling to countries of emotions. If they could choose where to stop, which country of emotion will it be?

The message on the postcard is the answer.

This is almost the end of the project.

Today, I have collected all the postcards written by the children and I took their photographs. This is the end of the project in the street. I am exhausted but happy. I now need to think of a space to show postcards and photographs and imagine the way I want them displayed.

I realise that NEXT STOP LOVE was an ambitious project. I was not able to achieve all the objectives descibed in my funding application but I accomplished some and I think I delivered some quality when doing in. I never wanted to produce big quantities anyway, this is a non for profit project, I am not here to make a return.

Something puzzles me though.The fake bus stop fitted perfectly well into people's routine, perhaps too perfectly. I wanted to create a moment outside life and I think I did but the routine kept going as if a 'fake bus stop' was somehow accepted or tolerated into the usual landscape. People have no time.

Something else. I was talking to a friend who was thinking of a project but did not know how to go about it. I said to him: ' If I was able to put fake bus stops in the street, you can do anything as long as you believe in it.'

It strikes me that 'this society' allows a lots of things to happen but at the same time the society is very indifferent to it. We can do a lot of things but we dont care any more.

BIG BIG Postcards messages form the people of Putney

From today, I have decided to . show some of the postcards that people have written in the street. While they were on their way to work, university, the job center or shopping, they took 5 minutes of their time to tell me where they would like to travel emotionnally.

I know they are a bit BIG but I dont have time to resize now plus I want to make sure you can read them. I quite like them big but tell me if you don't.

I am just looking for a rack to leave my leaflets!

I didn't think it would be so hard to leave a little bit of information about my project in art galleries. You would think that these places would be happy to hear about any form of art happening elsewhere in the world, well let me tell you THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

I first went to the ICA and it was closed but I came in because the door was opened and someone asked me what I was doing there. I answered that I just wanted to leave some infomation about my project. This person told me that there was a rack for information but there was an organisation actually in charge of arranging the info on the rack and I needed to get in touch with them. TOO DIFFICULT.

I decided not to put any info on that rack (in fact I couldn't) but instead I prefered talking to the human being that was in front of me. After all, that was better than a rack! I told him about the project and asked him if perhaps he could display the poster in the staff room ? He was cool and said he would do it. I left and that was it. As I was leaving I passed the Mall Galleries and asked if I could leave some info, the lady said 'of course, I will find you place next to art horse'...no comment.

My next step was Tate Modern. I took a bus to St Paul's cathedral and crossed over on the bridge. At Tate, I looked for some kind of rack and I found one but all the info was about Tate, Tate in all formats, different colours leaflets saying exactly the same thing:Tate, Tate and Tate again.
Tate, the monopole of Art, interesting.  Despite that evident lack of external interest, I ventured to the information desk where I was told:' we used to have a rack where people could display public information but it has been removed so ....the best thing to do is to ask that man in the glass box...'. OK, so here am I in search of the man in the glass box. I found the glass box and two men inside. I went in.

One man talked to me asking me what I was doing there, I told him that the receptionist has sent me here regarding leaflets. He replied that the rack had disappeared and showed me the space where it used to be. GREAT, it used to be there but it is not anymore, what do I do now?

Then I realised that I had another human being in front of me and I decided to tell him all about the project. He loved it and wished me luck. I asked him if I could perhaps leave some leaflets in the restaurants on the tables. He replied 'try'.

To cut a long story short, I went to two big Art organisations today and I talked to two people. Perhaps I would have had the same impact with my leaflets in terms of return, except that now I still have my leaflets. The world is not ready for me yet, never mind I shall wait.

The blog audience so far

I am pleased to see that people are interested in fake bus stops in America both East and West coast, Italy, Germany, Senegal, France of course (Thanks to Andree and David), Taiwan (who would have thought?) and dear old England. Amazing...............

Who is next? Would love to have someone in every country so spread the 'world' please.

Speaking of audience, I spent some time this morning working on my press release and sending it to big daily papers. I know... but one needs to keep the faith.

Finally if you have some time, read this interesting article about a fake bus stop in a nursery home.
Looking forward to all your comments!
Francine.

Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer's patients from wandering off

German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer's patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops.

By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin 8:31PM BST 03 Jun 2008

The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf, which pitched an exact replica of a standard stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it.

The centre had been forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their often non-existent homes and families.

Then Benrath teamed up with a local care association called the "Old Lions". They went to the Rheinbahn transport network which supplied the bus stop.

"It sounds funny but it helps," said Franz-Josef Goebel, the chairman of the "Old Lions" association.

"Our members are 84 years old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works, but the long-term memory is still active.

What is this project really about?

Well first of all, it is about placing fake bus stop in the street with human sentiments instead of geographical locations. It is about diverting the sign from its meanning in its collective context.

Then I wanted to ask people ' What is the journey of your life? If you could map your life with feelings, what would they be?'

I was not sure that I would get my message accross so I decided to produce postcards and ask people in the street to write an answer to that question. They can draw something too.

All the postcards and photographs of people will be displayed in a couple of months in one of wandsworth's library.

Anybody can write a postcard and have his/her photograph taken. In fact, I just had another idea.

First day at Putney Library: unplanned moment of interaction between people

I went there without any apprehension. I had no expectations. I had no target in terms of photographs to take or postcards to write. My only concern was to know whether I would be able to fix the bus stop. It is made of 2 heavy pieces no easy to assemble. Fortunately, people at the Putney library are great especially Rob. Rob works in the library, he saw that I was struggling and he came to help, together we managed to fix the portable bus stop. Then Rob suggests that I use a trolley to carry the bus stop outside.


I put the fake bus stop next to a bench and I sat down, waiting for something to happen. Soon I realised that nothing was going to happen if I didn't try to engage with people. Some people hardly saw the bus stop, some saw it immediately and stopped. Some ran away as if I was contagious.

I made two friends Clare and Benard. Both had a story to tell in relation to Putney Art School which is very closed to Putney library. They questionned whether my project was really art. We talked and I asked Clare to take my portrait next to the bus stop. I find myself talking to Clare and Bernard about emotions and life, the things we'd regret and the things we could still do. It was an unplanned not for profit moment of interaction between  human beings living in London.

From theory to reality: tomorrow Putney Library

Tomorrow, I will be outside Putney Library with the fake bus stop. I am not sure if I will be able to carry it on my own, I might need some help to do that. For the first few days, I will indicate Love and then later on during the week I will indicate Fear perhaps. How incredible to spend the day next to a bus stop indicating Love...I shall wait for Love all day. I have my camera ready as well as my postcards. Tomorrow I am hoping that I will be able to take a few photographs and collect a few postcards too. But the street is impredictible...and the people too. I think I am going to observe if the object speaks for itself.

WIX Primary School

Last thurday I did my first workshop with the children. The teachers had warned me that it would be very difficult to convey my message, 'too abstract' they told me, 'they are only 8'. So I started by asking them what they thought art was. They replied painting, pottery, sculpture, collage, photography...they knew quite a lot already, they even mentionned Picasso, Monet, Miro, Van Gogh. That was a really good start but it was time to speak about my project. I told them that I didnt know how to paint or sculpt or draw and in fact I was rather clumsy but one of the thing I was really good at was to have ideas and one day, as I was waiting for the bus, I wished a bus would come to take me to the country 'Love'. I wished buses would take me to emotions I wanted to experience. So I asked the children to tell me the 'countries of emotions' they would like to experience too. We then had the most amazing session with children coming up with about 20 different emotions : Jalousy, relief, joy, humour, kindness, rage, fear, pity, peace, sadness, panic, generosity, stress...That was all very good and both with the teacher we decided to give them the postcards. I explained how I wanted them to pick one emotion of their choice and explain how they could relate to it and write this on the postcard that would be sent to wandsworth art department. All these postcards would be shown at a later stage during an exhibition.

After the session, I was thrilled and excited. The children had got it immediately, it wasn't too abstract or too difficult, in fact it seems it was quite easy for them to escape to a country emotion.
One little boy said: 'I would like to travel to the country Love because I love a girl and I would like to take her there so I could marry her', another one said' I would like to travel to Envy, that way I would want everything on that planet food and toys'.

These children were exceptional!

Looking for volunteers

I have posted about three different ads on artjobs and they still did not pass the moderating system. So no volunteers so far. I have decided to email all the people I know and ask tem for help, we will see.

Project starting tomorrow at Wix Primary School

The project is starting tomorrow at Wix primary school, it is all very exciting, the fake dolly bus stop must be delivered to the school tomorrow too. It is going to be difficult to explain the project to 8 years old children. In fact, I have tried already with my son and showed him the picture with the feelings. I asked him, so what do you think of this picture? what does it say to you? He looked at me speechless and say 'I don't understand anything you are saying!'.... promising.

Perhaps this is a start, we can talk about the things that they actually don't understand.

Working on the press release

I just had two great telephone meetings, at last some contact with Transport for London, they are happy with the idea to put a fake bus stop in my children's school. Their PR department is going to help me with the press release too.I have just finished the press release and will send it to Transport for London for approval. I have realised that I need to CRB check myself if I want to do a workshop at school.

I am looking for people to help

I can't do it on my own, I have tried to speak to friends but although they sound enthusiastic at first, they are not showing any help. As a result I have decided to recrut people, one intern and volunteers to help me. I have posted an ad, let us wait and see.

Feelings for my bus stop

I have finally determined the feelings on the dolly bus stop. I am thinking of LOVE, FEAR, SOLITUDE and DIGNITY. Love because without love nothing is worth living, Fear because it is always between me and the other or sometimes between me and myself, Solitude because it is typical of our society and our time, Dignity because I feel we are in the process of losing it.

So I have sent an email to TFL with those feelings as they are supposed to produce the design. We are a month away from the project, I ope everything will be ready on time.

First post

Trying to record the happening of the project, so far nothing really, just emails, pictures, ideas and meetings.