In this project I created artwork that explores the private appropriation of public space through a relationship between grief and systemisation. Using roadside memorials as a starting point I used mathematical calculation to measure emotional impact. I undertook 10 walks of 3hrs 14min and 15sec. This is the approximate value of (PI) a geometric constant used in identifying values such as volume, circumference and mass. Data was collected from GPS and personal monitors to use in the creation of a set of drawings, prints and sculpture. The relationship between the human condition and systemisation has been an ongoing concern throughout my artistic career. I explore the relationship between something that has a high emotional or empathetic value such as grief against an impersonal, highly systemised, view of the world.

My previous work explored how the Jewish faith allows for the creation of Eruv’s, conceptual spaces that by the use of special boundaries extend the concept of the home to cover a much wider area. Jewish law states that Jews must not carry any item, no matter how big or small or for whatever purpose, outside the home on the Sabbath. The Eruv is a way of subverting this law. This space is at once imaginary and real, religious and secular, desired and imposed, observed and subverted. Of course such a space is very controversial. Opponents say it claims a public space as a private space and coverts it to a religious purpose, it raise issues of human rights, and that it’s divisive, creating a symbolic ghetto. Supporters reject these claims. Helping to complete the system by using the network, along with other technologies such as GPS mapping, I explored this space both real and imaginary and create a series of conceptual/real maps and markers.

In this project ten sites were selected as starting points, enabling me to reflect on the nature of public/private space and public/private grief throughout Wales. Folk memorials themselves are becoming highly contentious. One way to explore this is through the relationship between private and public data collected using sites of intense emotional impact as a starting point. In my Doctoral thesis I developed a theory of empathetic systemisation as a way of exploring the nature of Information Art. I believe that this provides a new and useful way of reflecting on a range of artistic practice. I wish to explore this theory in my practice to help develop this theory further and develop a practice of Information Art that is a genuine addition to practice in Wales.

The specific outcomes from this project is a body of work exploring this idea with the subsequent exhibition as an integral part of the work. The time for the exhibition is set at 3 days 14 hours and 15 minutes with 314 people invited. This is to carry through the systemisation of the project (again based on (PI)).

During my time undertaking my Doctoral study, my usual artistic practice was subsumed into a larger development of an artistic theory. Most of my activity was computer-based research. This project allowed me the opportunity to develop my practice in the landscape throughout Wales. The practical application of systems with an empathetic artistic practice will I hope generate new and innovate ways of working.

This project received funding from Arts Council Wales and University of Wales, Newport