JAMES COUPE
art projects
The Edinburgh Castle Tourist Event
Categories: Art

dwn1A temporally displaced tourist event, this project was presented in two spaces: a tourist attraction was set up on Edinburgh Castle, and a tourist information centre was set up at Edinburgh College of Art.

At the Art College site, a room with one of the most splendid views of Edinburgh Castle in the city had all of its windows blocked out using a construction incorporating twenty video monitors. The monitors all faced out towards the Castle. For one week, a telescope was set up on Edinburgh castle, and advertised throughout the city as a tourist attraction. Looking through the telescope, visitors could see what was on the monitors at the Art College. Due to the geography of the city, it was not possible to see the monitor screens from anywhere else.

The telescope was then removed, and during the following week, a tourist information centre was set up at the Art College site, with the monitors still blocking the view of the Castle. The space featured three interviews with people who had seen the view from the telescope, and so knew what was on the monitors. Visitors to the tourist information centre had no way of finding out for themselves what was actually on the monitors; their only access to the event was through the interviews and documentation in the tourist information room. So the event sought to force visitors to renegotiate their relationship with the Castle through removing its physical presence and only allowing them to experience it second-hand, through strategies of mediation, mythology and disappointment.

INTERVIEWS: Interview with Rob Hunter Interview with Amna Malik Interview with David Moore

Categories: Art -