Giant Waterslide

source: lukejerram

On the 4th May this giant 95m (300ft) water slide was installed on Park Street in Bristol as part of Make Sunday Special and the Bristol Art Weekender. Running for one day only, it was an event people of the city will remember for many years to come.

96,573 people signed up for their chance to get a ‘ticket to slide’, through a ballot with only 360 tickets issued to a few lucky people on the day. Security clocked in 65,000 people who came to Park street to watch.

Film by Cinematica

Enabling people to navigate the streets of their city in a new way, the slide is a simple architectural intervention and a playful response to the urban landscape. Like many of Jerram’s projects the installation requires public participation to be activated. The person on the slide becomes the performer, while spectators either side watch on. The end result is a set of collective memories and stories that people will pass on.

“This massive urban slide transforms the street and asked people to take a fresh look at the potential of their city and the possibilities for transformation. Imagine if there were permanent slides right across cities?” said Luke

With an incline of 6.5 degrees, participants slid at an average of 18km/hr = 11.2mph.(calculated from this film). The slide was used by children and adults ranging in age from 5 to 73 years old.

Urban Slide Instruction Manual!
To enable organisations around the world to create their own ‘urban slide’, an 80 page pack of instructions has been created. The pack contains diagrams, risk assessments, a method statement, budget template, waiver form and everything you need to do for a slides planning and delivery. In return for the information, you will pay a small admin fee and make a donation to the charity Frank Water. Contact us here via email about receiving this DIY manual.

Bristol based charity FRANK Water were at the Park and Slide event, complete with blue wigs and collection buckets and raised a huge £1500 on the day. The DIY pack, which has proved vital for helping other organisations get their slide projects off the ground, has already raised a further £1500 for the charity.

Katie Alcott, FRANK Water’s Founder & CEO said “It’s incredibly exciting to be part of something as innovative as the Park & Slide that really did capture the imagination of the whole city and indeed the world! With support from Luke, FRANK Water has raised vital funds that’ll help us reach our aim for this year – to provide access to safe water for further 70,000 people across 80 communities, bringing our total number of people reached to more than 300,000.”

Film by Woven Films

The art project was funded in part through this Spacehive crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to all who donated!

Sponsorship
As described in the press, Luke turned down funding from major corporate sponsors, in favour of gathering local support for this project. ‘Park and Slide’ was not an opportunity to advertise fizzy drinks, swimming trunks or holidays to anyone.

Press Coverage After
Over 600 million people around the globe heard about the slide through the 350 news and press articles about the slide! Here are few links…BBC, ITV, Telegraph, Metro, DailyMail, Mirror, Independent, Guardian, Daily Mail, The Metro, Washington Post, NBC News, USA Today, Daily Express, BBC One Show, NHK Japanese TV, Discovery Channel (Canada), NPR, Repubblica Italy, + 350 more news articles here.

Press Coverage Before the Day
Guardian, ITV News (watch), USA Game Show, BBC Radio (Listen) , China News, Yahoo News, Gizmodo, BBC, Designboom, Bristol Evening Post, Guardian-Crowdfunding story.

Press Area
Journalists and bloggers can download these images for free for your use. Or here are some from Getty you’d need to pay for. Contact luke@lukejerram.com for further information. Here is the Press Release from the day. This was our URL www.bristolslide.com #BristolSlide

Collaborators
We would like to thank the following local organisations and companies for their kind support! Funding to help pay for additional security on site, came from Business West. Cowbells were provided by Hobgoblin Music Shop. Funding from EveryoneActive enabled a durable slide section to been made. Insurance was provided by Park Insurance. SpiritPR have managed the press and media with great finess! Thank you Entuplet for managing the ballot and ticketing. Thanks of course go to Bristol Event Volunteers, Bristol City Council, Richmond Event Management and AP security.

Inspired by Park and Slide
As news of the Park and Slide spread around the globe, other cities were inspired to install their own urban slides. Our DIY pack has proved vital for many of these organisations in helping to get their project off the ground. See links for urban slides in San Francisco, Perth, Salt Lake City, Brechin, Sunderland, Camarthen, Bray, Derby, Chard, Derry, Wigan, Dungannon, Bristol USA.
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source: lukejerram

Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live arts projects. Living in the UK but working internationally for 17 years, Jerram has created a number of extraordinary art projects which have excited and inspired people around the globe. He is also Visiting Senior Research Fellow at CFPR, University of West of England.

Jerram has a set of different narratives that make up his practice which are developing in parallel with one another. He is known worldwide for his large scale public engagement artworks. Most recently his giant installation Park and Slide caught the world’s imagination. His celebrated street pianos installation ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ has been presented in over 46 cities so far, reaching an audience to date of over 6 million people around the world. Launched by the French Minister of Culture in Paris and Mayor Bloomberg in NYC, the installation has received press coverage in almost every newspaper and television station around the globe.

The Sky Orchestra is another critically acclaimed large scale touring project, which grew out of a three year NESTA Fellowship Jerram was awarded in 2001. In 2013 they flew over Derry/Londonderry for UK City of Culture. In 2011 the Mayor of London and LIFT commissioned Sky Orchestra to fly over London to celebrate the Olympics, and 30th anniversary of the LIFT festival. In 2007 they launched the Sydney Festival and in 2006 they were commissioned by the RSC and Fierce to fly over Statford-Upon-Avon.

Jerram’s Glass Microbiology artworks are in museum collections around the world including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Shanghai Museum of Glass, Wellcome Collection (London) and Corning Museum of Glass (USA). In 2010 Jerram won the coveted Rakow Award for this work and a fellowship at the Museum of Glass, Washington. In 2009 his sculptures were presented at Mori Museum, Tokyo along with work by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Leonardo da Vinci. Jerram’s sculptures are also respected in the scientific community with features in The Lancet, Scientific American, The BMJ and on the front cover of Nature Magazine.

Jerram has also created unusual gift artworks for his friends and family. In 2006 he made a Talking Engagement Ring for his girlfriend. The ring has his proposal etched onto the outside of it which can be played back using a miniature record player. In 2011, the Talking Ring project was presented at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Jerram builds and manages specialist teams of engineers, craftsmen and technicians to help him realise his works. From composers to glassblowers, medieval musicologists to hot air balloonists. In this way, he says “I’m only limited by my imagination in what can be produced. Anything is possible.”

Working with the ISVR (Institute of Sound and Vibration Research), University of Southampton the team were awarded a major grant from EPSRC and a further grant from the Arts Council England to design, build and tour his artwork Aeolus.

Jerram’s ongoing research of perception is fueled by the fact that he is colour-blind. He studies the qualities of space and perception in extreme locations, from the freezing forests of lapland to the sand dunes of the Sahara desert. New ways of seeing and new artworks emerge from these research field trips. Works such as Retinal Memory Volume, Sky Orchestra and his Glass Microbiology series have emerged from Jerram exploring the edges of perception. Published by The Watershed, ‘Art in Mind’ is a book written by Jerram that tracks much of his perceptual research.

Jerram also works as a creative consultant where he feels confident in applying his creativity to any new situation. In 2007 his presentation in London to the DCSF helped secure £0.5million of funding for interactive exhibits in Bideford school. Clients include RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company), the Wellcome Trust, Channel4 and the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company). Launched by the Queen of England in 2010 the RSC Gallery led from this consultancy work.

In 2000 Jerram taught in war torn Mostar, Bosnia and he continues to teach and lecture both in the UK and abroad. His most notable lectures include those at The Banff Centre, ROM – Royal Ontario Museum, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, Corning Museum, Wellcome Collection, Royal Collage of Art, The Ruskin School of Art, University of Washington, Nagoya University.

Luke Jerram lives in Bristol UK with his wife Shelina Jerram and two children.