Asleep at the wheel...

Installation for IF Milton Keynes International Festival

Artist in Residence 2010

"Powerful" [The Times Newspaper]

[7500 visitors in 10 days]

I was invited to make an installation on the theme of 'cars' in the city of roundabouts. Through thinking around and beyond this theme,
I learned a lot about the implications of the way we live, and how our ravenous culture is feasting on our own planet. Pumping ourselves to a peak.
I created a ghost road of cars within a vacant supermarket as an informative portrait of that mind set, and how we can change it.
The exhibition reveals how I became enlightened towards making a diffrerence personally, and also waking up those
around me to move to a more sustainable way of living and thinking. I am not perfect, but I am now awake.

Asleep at the wheel… is a metaphor for how we are culturally careering down the fast lane of life in charge of
a lethal weapon with our head in a daydream and our foot to the floor with the expectation that the road goes on forever.

The exhibition is a thought-provoking and immersive sound installation for multiple car radios, that contemplates our future.
Exhibited in a vast disused supermarket, three-lanes of cars dissect the darkened interior, as the multiple hazard lights illuminate
the space, revealing the finite road of our consumer driven daydream. More more more is no longer a desirable destination.

You are invited to be a passenger in the back seats, as the in-car sound systems broadcast a collage of moving music and
motivating sound-bites. On the return journey the Lay-by Library area encourages you to explore positive ways to improve
our future together. Societiy's pedal to the metal attitude to our world is not sustainable and is running out of road.
We need to change gear, before we overtake ourselves . . . our windows of opportunity are slowly winding shut.
Come and celebrate new beginnings.

I spent my early years living on the edge of MK. [more back story below]

Location : Old Sainsbury's Supermarket, 703 Avebury Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes [opposite Iceland and the ski slope] 100 x 40m space

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As you return from the road experience you are signposted towards

'Alternative Routes' < The Lay-by Library
The reception & information desk > 'Services'

I decided to create an area of the exhibition for a series of books and films that have a positive message about the future
The table is made from 150 year old timber planks reclaimed from a train carriage built in Milton Keynes. A 3.5m round
coffee table is surrounded by comfy recycled sofas and hanging globe lights - The Lay-by Library. Where you are
invited to relax and absorb and inform with the 25 books & 4 films I found so inspiring. You can then write and share
your POSITIVE discoveries and Starlting Facts onto blank bookmarks. An area where you can relax and absorb.

the Services kiosk offers you free tea and coffee, with cake and friendly advice etc
I read that research has proven that when you take caffine, you are more succeptable to controversial information :->

My dad's copy of the Bert Kaempfert LP 'Sounds Sensational' plays in both areas... my favourite vinyl memory of him
read image below

Please watch the stunning videos below about where our
More More More - Now Now Now culture is leading us

'The Story of Stuff'
essential film by Annie Leonard

Below is an essential overview of the Post Peak Planet
interview with Richard Heinberg in 2 parts . glorious

Below is a very positive lecture by Rob Hopkins
the founder of Transition Towns
The most Uplifting and Positive and Proactive man in the room

Below is my short introduction film about the project
produced by the magic Ben James from TVMK.tv

In making this project I realised I too had to step up and do something myself
Best not sit and stare like a bunny into headlights waiitng for the car to hit
please accompany me in joining the international 10:10 initiative

'Wonderland'
CD Album of the music from 'Asleep at the wheel...'
I am currently beginning working on making this
due for release in 2011

'Asleep at the wheel... '
free Audiofile Album of the full 10 car soundscapes
I am currently beginning working on making this
due to upload in autumn 2010

The Times newspaper feature
says the festival makes Edinburgh seem like a tupperware party in comparison

BBC Radio 4 'Front Row' interview with Mark Lawson
Asleep is the last interview in the MK Festival feature [MP3 link here]

etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

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Project Back Story

My main point is that we are culturally 'asleep at the wheel' ... we have tunnel vision.
Combine this with the recent motor industry problems with thier ‘sticky accelerators’ and ‘broken brakes’
the installation serves as a pertinent metaphor of societies head long, pedal to the metal, attitude to the future,
a pile-up we can bypass if we wake from our collective daydream.

‘Tipping Point’, 'Ecological Intelligence', 'Peak Oil', Transition Towns, Carbon Tax, Plugin-Hybrid and
the 10:10 campaign are a few of the new sign posts by which we must navigate the road ahead.
There are alternatives, only the future remains ...

The misty car windows are animated by the multi flashing hazard lights. Quotes relating to the future are seen in the rear view mirror. The space is black-out, the experience is mesmerizing, and thought provoking I hope. I myself am as rooted in the problem as the rest of us. It is plainly true that my career as an international artist with mixed media only became possible due to cheap flights, cheap electronics, and the internet. I have learnt an incredible amount in working on this exhibition, and have turned a corner to improve my own habits and communicate my passionate discoveries. I am called an evangelist at home, but I explain that this is not an optional belief but a necessity with an incredibly
urgent mission to embark on together.

The ghost road of dark cars are on a linear one way route heading towards a pitch black cul-de-sac dead end.
In opposition to this there is a circular communal table with a scattered library of books. It's made from recycled timber and reused local sofas and carpet tiles etc... The Lay-by Library attempts to offer you the chance to read and watch positive and enlightening information to empower you to learn that there are options to help resolve our global problem.

The clearest way I have found in my research is to sign up to the 10:10 initiative and try to join in reducing your carbon footprint. It is possible.. but you have to convince others. This has become the ambition of the work now...
Asleep at the wheel hopes to wake us up.

My dark interior looks with trepidation at the future we are all creating and ignoring [with childlike naivety].
My bright exterior tries to be positive and optimistic [as seen through a childhood gaze]. We exist in between.

If we don't say we care about the future of the earth then the politicians do not focus time on the issues.
They focus on what they think we are interested in. So start talking about it. I'm not a dinner party
bore to want to discuss these subjects. I feel it is essential. Pass on the videos below.

In the 70's and 80's my father Prof Glen Schaefer ran a department called Ecological Physics at Cranfield University UK
where he undertook applied research into alternatives to crop spraying and other issues that still face us today.
He was even exploring the idea of pulling supertankers with high level kites and so forth.

Helen's Story - Project Manager and Milton Keynes resident.
She mentioned it was the best possible way to spend her summer. here's why...

Janek asked me to write a little bit about my experiences managing this project, so here goes... Initially as with all new commissions (I expect) it was very difficult to run with the project. I had met Janek in the initial meeting with the festival and heard the ideas as quickly as they came and went. Slowly as I looked into the logistics of these ideas they turned into tangible plans. Some ideas were a little bit mental and filled me with fear and others that I warmed too. Thankfully Janek's ever positive responses to my research and his energy led us organically to produce 'Asleep at the wheel...' together.

After a very shaky start on site, a weeks delay getting into the venue and my house becoming project headquarters for the team, everything begun to fall into place. In actual fact, the delay was a blessing, and not only gave Janek and I the chance to get to know one another, but also gave Janek the opportunity to explore Milton Keynes, to stay in a transition town, and meet a whole network of good people doing good things in one way or another. From Talbot and the young people at Amazing Waste to my team of skilled technicians. The local knowledge and vision of the people that were keen to get involved and the services and products that they have helped us with has astounded me. Discovering that I had just moved to a Transition Town, and that there was a whole network of sustainable projects already practicing and helping my local community was, for me personally, a breath of fresh air.

When it come to the build it was a daunting task. The sheer scale of the building and volume of materials needed to achieve Janek's plans needed thought and planning. Not only to acquire the materials but also to know that they were not going to be wasted after the show. Tricky logistics including my team's availability (with families to keep happy and other jobs to consider), the impossible task of estimating the time and materials needed in this enormous space and our limited budget made it a challenging project. To blackout the windows alone took two people a week. Trouble shooting every issue on every car so that it would survive for 10 days and endure the rigours of the public was no small task, but Luke ensured that every eventuality was covered. And then after 5 weeks in the venue, the show opened and the response was brilliant. I had no idea what the footfall would be to the show so to discover that we had over 7500 visitors in 10 days. Reading the comments book, and hearing the feedback from Bob and our hosts has been very amazing.

So in short my expectations were far exceeded by the dedication and hard work of everyone involved, by the response of our visitors during the festival and some most excellent adventures with new friends. It was a pleasure working on 'Asleep at the wheel... ' with Janek and our team in a darkened derelict old Sainsbury and the perfect way to spend two of the sunniest months this summer 2010.

You can ask your electric supplier to switch your power to green energy tariff without extra cost - so phone them up - I did

After about 10 days into realising the scale of the problem ahead, and gaining a sense of personal responsability to begin my own changes
I was told I was being too evangelical, and asked to stop talking about it too much even if realtes to my own life or green ideas.
I must find a balance...

On 2nd June 2010 I bought and pumped my first tank of BioDeisel from Amazing Waste in Milton Keynes

the exhibition was opened by Geoff [?] who is heading up MK being a new electric car city epicentre

Bob the Kisok duty manager says the exhibition was the most successful in the history of MK arts !

Special thanks from me to Luke Williams for putting the whole show together so well
& the amazing Helen Wright who did an incredible job project managing
The exhibition success is greatly down tho their skill and dedication
so if you have any work for them write to me !

My fav observation of all comes from Spinal Tap live on stage at Live Earth in 2007..
Standing in front of the global audience of millions they said...

"We are all carbon based life forms .... So whatever you do, don't breath out !"

I don't see myself as a protestor or activist... we came up with the term Proactivist instead?