Laurens Kolks > spatial design

Publishing in Public Spaces #3: Rooftop Communicator

A workshop and installation for St. Joost School of Art & Design, developed and executed in March 2022.

During a five day workshop students were challenged to address an issue through the design and realization of a temporary, monumental text installation on the roof of two buildings on the site of St. Joost School of Art & Design's Den Bosch location - a site that is situated close to the city's central railway station and encircled by biking paths, roads and railways.

While developing their design proposals, participating students were asked to incorporate the given that their designs might potentially address large and very diverse publics consisting of both people who see the installation just once and those who see it on a regular basis. With several proposals being developed, participants eventually settled on a design communicating a layered message that would slowly reveal itself as one passes by it more often.

Three individual signs spread across two seperate buildings communicate a short Dutch phrase that one might interpret in several ways. A short text, moreover, inspired by the participants' sense of being stuck in a permanent state of restlessness. As trains, cars, cyclists and pedestrians pass the signs by from several directions, the words and characters making up the phrase can be read from both left to right and right to left. On closer inspection, it becomes visible that the letters forming the words are made up of both flat and three-dimensional elements, facilitating different visual results under various lighting conditions.

Due to numerous circumstances during the signs' creation and placement, some characters got 'lost in construction' and parts of the phrase ended up being dislocated. Therefore, as a fascinating array of words and characters emerged, figuring out the complete text became quite a challenge for passers-by.

Production

Click here to see how Publishing in Public Spaces #3 was made.

Details

Temporary installation on the terrain of St. Joost School of Art & Design's Den Bosch location.

Text and graphic design:
Jesse Pauwe, Stijn Ros and Adriana Tobe.

Workshop team:
Romy Labarile, Jesse Pauwe, Stijn Ros, Adriana Tobe, Zara Visser, Milou Wagemakers and Christy Yee.

Workshop concept and production, teaching:
Laurens Kolks