The Kingston Navigation Wheel
Stanley Picker Gallery
Outer London Fund

Leading up to the London 2012 Olympics. I was commissioned in a programme of artist projects to explore the relationship between art and non-competitive sport. On the theme of walking, I designed the Kingston Navigation Wheel, a paper disc that visitors to Kingston use to explore alternative routes around the town, discovering individual and collective histories, and observing the details that make up their everyday surroundings.

The Kingston Navigation Wheel encouraged visitors to explore areas away from the main retail centre to uncover the ‘hidden’ Kingston through its key geographical, historical and cultural landmarks. The wheel is a revolvable paper disc which, through a series of questions and clues, leads the user on themed tours around Kingston revealing its hidden histories.

Research and design development

Research had a significant impact on how this project developed. In particular the history of pedestrianism, the Surrey Walking Club, the work of the victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge and the sporting pursuits of orienteering. The research for the project was developed through a series of walks, recording conversations with tour guides, archivists, historians, museum, art gallery staff and shopkeepers.

The wheel included five walks: 3 Fishes, Death, Made Here, Muybridge, and Three Bridges. A popular walk was the death walk; participants discovered that perfume shop Jo Malone was once the town’s mortuary, a plaque located inside Llyods bank tells the tale of Nipper the dog that was used to create the HMV Records logo, buried under the bank’s vaults. The walk ends with a visit to the town’s undertakers - which is also a funeral museum.

This project was featured in Blueprint, January 2013 by Gian Luca Amadei.
Archived in the Volvelle collection at Yale University, New York.