Visual Culture: Andrea
The bikers of Acea
It’s about a ten meter long and one meter fifty centimetre tall wall of granite with the iconic bronze bikers on an arc with their different expression on their faces and bodies.
We see the bikers frozen in time, paddling on their way to work from a village and a city to the factory. Some biker have it easy while others are paddling heavy, one looks like he is racing to work being late and the one in the back looks like he might just woke up, all of them are on their way to work.
This monument functions almost as a divider of the city between the newer part of a town and the older part that goes along the water stream. Behind the bikers, the city hotel is, behind that is the cathedral and behind that is the town’s oldest Gymnasium and a continuation of the old Västerås. On the right hand of the bikers is elongation of the old architecture of Västerås city that goes along the water Svartån.
This very space-specific monument is viewed from the actual stones that the bikers, that are depicted, would ride on. With this monument we can imagine how a city evolves, how some streets remained and how some are dismissed for new buildings or communication network.
On the left hand of the bikers the city square is and next to it there is two brutalist buildings, one was recently turned into a shopping centre.
The history of Västerås city has traces as a classic French town developing like a snail-shell. But Västerås is also in a constant trying to catch up with its close neighbour Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Maybe because of this a little sister’s complex, Västerås is like the monument, it is between the old and the new, the big and the small.
To bring this monument into the contemporary I would develop an augmentation application that would be accessible by your mobile device. The monument would stand as it does and through the app you would see reinterpretation of the old architecture of the houses that has been replaced and of course the bikers on their way to work at Acea Brown Boveri (ABB).
It would show the richness of how Västerås once was. Together with the current town people would be biking on the path and in the augmentation. Perhaps it would be possible to make the Augmented-reality interact with the world and the A-R would follow cyclist passing by and cycle together with time. You could follow the cyclist and discover the beauty in the past. To make a better future.
Inspiration: Early video, Exiting the factory. https://vimeo.com/167787841
Image source:
https://www.vlt.se/artikel/stephen-bjar-ge-cyklister-prioritet-i-korsningar
https://www.vlt.se/logga-in/bildextra-kanda-platser-i-vasteras-centrum-da-och-nu
A walk in the town 