Hundreds gather on traffic island to watch active travel inspired projection show
Hundreds gathered in Edinburgh’s Southside on Friday night to marvel at a unique projection show inspired by active travel.
Projected on the walls at the junction of West Crosscauseway and Buccleuch Street, the immersive show, titled ‘Our Streets,’ showcased artwork from people in the local community.
Hosted by the Causey Development Trust, the production was animated by award-winning artists Robert Motyka and the Beetroots Collective and featured a soundscape designed by Marta Adamowicz, with original music from local singer songwriter Dan Abrahams.
Projected on the walls at the junction of West Crosscauseway and Buccleuch Street, the immersive show, titled ‘Our Streets,’ showcased artwork from people in the local community.
Hosted by the Causey Development Trust, the production was animated by award-winning artists Robert Motyka and the Beetroots Collective and featured a soundscape designed by Marta Adamowicz, with original music from local singer songwriter Dan Abrahams.
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00:00 [Music]
00:04 Hundreds gathered in Edinburgh's Southside on Friday night to watch a unique projection show
00:09 showcasing the work of local artists. Illuminating the walls of West Cross Causeway,
00:15 the stunning light show was inspired by active travel and saw artwork from the local community
00:20 projected onto the walls and animated across the building. Whilst a traffic island in the city's
00:26 Southside may seem like the unlikely venue for an art exhibition, local group the Causey
00:31 Development Trust have been working for over a decade to transform the urban area into a safer,
00:36 more welcoming space for the community. With plans to reduce vehicle traffic in the area,
00:42 the grassroots project also hopes to introduce wider pavements, additional trees, cycle parking
00:48 and host more creative events like this one. So we're here at the Causey which is located at West
00:54 Cross Causeway in South Edinburgh. I'm the chair of the Causey Development Trust and we've been
00:58 working for quite a long time to transform this space into a place for people that prioritises
01:03 active travel and sort of reclaim space for pedestrians. So we have a local, engaged local
01:09 architect to help transform the space and alongside sort of promoting active travel and reclaiming
01:14 that space for pedestrians, we really want to promote a place for community. We're very lucky
01:19 that over the past 17 years that this project has been underway and we've garnered huge local
01:23 support and many of our steering group are artists and they have engaged with local communities and
01:29 local groups to create a fantastic projection event. This is our second one, it's called Our
01:34 Street and again it's been inspired by active travel and being a pedestrian in Edinburgh city
01:41 centre. There are some teas and coffees and some biscuits if anybody is feeling cold or peckish.
01:48 Just up here next to me on my left, I'm not sure how much there is left but I'm sure they're going
01:52 to share. It's an amazing turnout when you put something on like this. I think people really,
01:57 it really resonates with people to be able to come together even in the outdoors in the chilly
02:04 weather to enjoy something creative and artistic like this and the fact it's been created by local
02:09 Edinburgh people I think just adds to that and I think there's a real desire here in the city to
02:15 create spaces that do people first rather than traffic. This project is called Our Streets and
02:24 the project was about active travel and reclaiming public spaces. This project was supported by the
02:33 SASTRANS with collaboration with Cossley Development Trust. We run a number of
02:38 workshops, art workshops with the local communities. So we were talking about their
02:43 favourite form of active travel, their favourite places in Edinburgh where they can walk or where
02:49 they can cycle but also we were asking about how they feel about the infrastructure for active
02:55 travel in Edinburgh. If they feel safe, if they're not feeling safe and what kind of improvements
03:00 can be done. We had a very good turnout and we screened this animation four times tonight.
03:12 This night really shows that people really enjoyed using public spaces in that way,
03:17 in a creative way, in a funny way. Some things were planned, some things weren't planned
03:22 but different communities they just brought something for that night to just make a good
03:28 atmosphere.