The role of art practice within VivaCity2020

The focus of this output builds on previous RAE submissions in 2007 in which Bendon created an exhibition of new video works commissioned by a EPSRC funded research consortia Vivacity2020 and AUNT-SUE (Accessibility and User Needs in Transport, Sustainability in the Urban Environment), a research consortium studying Sustainability and the 24-hour city. Two artists were commissioned to work with their material and their test bed research areas. The artists (Bendon and Jess Thom) have contributed to the ongoing discussions with the research teams and have a blog on the viacity website. The exhibition was part of London Architecture Week and the London Architecture Biennale (June 2006), an internationally recognised event. The expected audiences for the 2006 event were in excess of 100,000 visitors.
Bendon created three new works Skirting, Flight and Cheek by Jowl based on her time with the researchers. The work looks at various issues raised by the research teams, including city fringe areas (Shaw, S.) crime (Davey, C.L., Wootton, A.B., Cooper, R.)and continuity of activities in the city fringes (Penn, A.) Bendon also expanded the research field including the London biographer Peter Ackroyd (2001); sociologist Zukin, S.(1995); and Godard’s One or Two Things I know About Her (1967) to draw on wider discourses around urban development. The book brings together the work of all the work packages in a comprehensive approach to looking at sustainability in the urban environment. Bendon’s chapter focuses on interdisciplinarity and questions some fundamental design solution approaches from the perspective of an artist in residence on the project.