public gathering at Hillstreet Shopping Centre

Sonic bikes are coming to Middlesbrough and we need your help!

We, the Bicrophonic Research Institute(BRI) together with the Auxilliary hosted an open gathering at Pineapple Black, Hillstreet Shopping centre  from 10.00 – 16.00h. We introduced the sonic bikes and our coming participatory project for Middlesbrough this summer and the news that we’ll be coming to build new bikes and mapped compositions to play from them as visitors ride and that we’re looking for people to help us do it.
Numbers were not vast but the enthusiasm was high and types of input wide. One of the most valuable things about the day was learning the truth behind what we had explored yesterday. Gresham for example threw up a lot of chat. ‘Oh you don’t want to go there after dark’, ‘Parliament Road is dangerous’,  ‘ No! it’s the soul of the place! ‘.  ‘ One evening a kid knocked at my door wanting to sell me a crossbow,  sure it works he said, sending an arrow through a parked car’s window on the other side of the street.’

And of course, mapping our zones together and sitting down and talking to people who live here told us so much. It’s very good to be away from the South and up in the North East.