Redrawing Soho

Rendezvous with Sam Steer, who will be the artist on the project, at Soho Theatre. Sam had just come from Magnificent Maps at the British Library. This includes Stephen Walter’s contemporary map of London as an island, composed of hand-drawn words related to local and personal information, and archaic maps of the world, with sea-monsters marking unknown territory.

We discussed the possibility of a plan of the future which draws on the look of these early maps, with rents, gaps and tears. A circular map of Soho with “Here Be Dragons” beyond, inventing future aesthetics from the past. Sam discussed the possibility of shifting from a 2D plan view to an image of an elevation, projected from the participant’s perspective and also of triggering animated drawings. I wondered whether something similar could be achieved in a less complex way, by walking. Zoomed-in to your location and tracking your movements, the simplified map could shift to reveal a higher level of detail, or an elevation as you reach one of the locations a performer will describe in detail. We talked about whether it would be possible to bring different styles of representation together on the networked canvas, perhaps related to the distance into the future, and how the aesthetic of the pre-drawn architecture should resemble that of the drawings Sam can produce immediately from listening to participants live. We took a look at the realtime sketching application that Elliot’s developing (see below) and Sam felt this would work well, that it’s limitations would be productive, although he did think that the tools proposed, selecting pencil sizes, colours and an eraser would be very useful. As he said, it’s possible, just possible he’ll make a mistake. We’re looking forward to trialing the networked drawing application during the week of 13th September, improvising between drawing and performing on the Soho streets. I pointed Sam towards Dan’s suggestion of Cloudmade as a way of adapting a bespoke future map.

Sam and myself walked through Soho as I narrated the project, pointing out possible locations, facades covered with scaffold-sheeting and buildings that will be demolished to make way for the Crossrail ticket office/station. We sat on the grass in Soho Square, by the statue of Charles II and Kirsty MacColl’s bench, inscribed with the words, “One day I’ll be waiting there”. I read my science fiction of Soho twenty years from now aloud and Sam listened, looking around and making connections from this possible to now. A helicopter hovering overhead became an unmanned drone and the half-timbered mock Tudor gardener’s hut became an etching on a glass and steel pavilion. As dusk came we were ushered out of Soho Square. We wondered whether, as the projections are reliant on darkness, we should be writing around an imagined Soho at twilight or at night. We like the materiality of unfolding the blank map and of this interface, but of course there would be some advantages to an iPad, being able to see it during Soho’s vibrant daytime and sit with it in a park on your lap.

Shortly after working with us on our project, Sam is probably touring America as the banjo player in a band. I can’t help imagining him getting up from his graphics tablet, appearing from behind the screen, like The Wizard of Oz, to play banjo as a conclusion to the gathering around the map, singing Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Future’ perhaps, from the balcony of the Soho Theatre. Only a playful imagining I promise. You can take a look at Sam’s previous work here.