PROJECT BACKGROUND 6 month artist commission hosted by Independent Photography as part of 'Peninsula'. The project involved weekly workshops with 80 local Greenwich Peninsula residents with the aim of re-exploring the area afresh with the help of a Bio Mapping device. The device invented by the artist measures the wearer’s Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is an indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with the wearer’s geographical location. The resulting ‘Emotion Maps’ encourage personal reflection on the complex relationship between oneself, the environment and ones fellow citizens. In a group, people then commented about their experiences and left annotations on the map. To create the communal Greenwich Emotion Map all the individual walks were aggregated to visulises a shared landscape of emotion. The map contains particular arousal hotspots reflecting many of the local discussions about regeneration of the Peninsual. As part of the commision we printed 1000 Greenwich Emotion Maps which have turned out to be a great success communicating the project locally as well as nationally and internationally. Locally every participant received a map and a number are available at the tourism office but the map was also distributed through arts venues such as the ICA and Tate Modern bookshops. While this participatory project is now at an end, the local discussions about physical and social change in the area are continuing and we hope the map will play a strong part in this discussion. |