A Very Fine Day

'LadyFish' made by Glasgow Artists Studio - one of the winners in the 'People's Choice' category...displayed by tsBeall during the judging of The Govan Armada (photo Colin Tennant)

The sun shone, the river glistened, the trebuchet fired, the choir sang, the flags fluttered, the human megaphone announced, the cups were strung, the stories were telt, the languages were heard.......but most of people came, smiled and enjoyed being by the Clyde in Govan. Thank you to everyone who came and to everyone who has been involved in creating NothingAboutUs.....it has been immense!

A new public space by the river has been brought to life and many new working relationships and friendships have begun....Glorious Govan indeed!

Some photos are already coming in and we'd love to see yours and hear any thoughts that NothingAboutUs sparked in you:

Please email us at: aboutuswithoutus@gmail.com

Posting photos:

FB: GloriousGovan

Twitter: @GovanBeacon #GovanGI

Flickr: tag 'GovanGI'

We'll post some photos on the blog when we get our breath back....in the meantime Lizzie Freer from Fablevision has posted a set of photos on Facebook - here

Hanging Flags in the Sun

Jimmy Stringfellow of the Showpeople helping hang the Govan and Craigton Integration Network flags

It was a fast and furious morning today as the two remaining sets of Govan Flags went up in quick succession

Alexandra Bowie working with the Govan and Craigton Integration Network - sited by the Showpeople Site on Water Row

One of the flags made by Fiona Fleming with Platforum

The full set on Govan New Parish Church

3 Sets of Govan Flags in Context

Screenprints by Bead and Blether Group in the window of the Hopscotch Theatre Company

Fiona Fleming with A board at Govan Cross

Meanwhile the Tallship sent its final message of the week

The codes for reading the flags are - here

Down by the Riverside

Christopher Mason - Chair of the Clyde Maritime Trust (owners of the Tallship) with NothingAboutUs signal flags on the Poop Deck of the Tallship

Couple of nice chance encounters down at the Govan Ferry pontoon this morning - Christopher Mason of the Clyde Maritime Trust told me all about the history of the new Govan Ferry and his hopes for the future of this river crossing as a new and vital connection for the city....we talked about the importance of the Govan Stones and other key places in Govan and how the ferry was a vital artery of communication for the future of these.

Juliana Maantay of The City University, New York

Juliana Maantay is a new Fulbright Scholar at Glasgow School of Art - she was been shown around Govan by Julia Radcliffe of GSA, looking at 'leftover' spaces and some community projects. They discovered NothingAboutUs by accident and were very interested by the vision of Glorious Govan ....something for the future maybe

Todays Flags on the Tallship - code here

26th April 2012

1. The FINAL Armada building workshop at the GalGael Trust - details here

2. RAFT BUILDING with Martin Campbell and Hannah Brackston (Nomadic Workshop)......11am -1pm....in the open at Govan Cross. More details - here

work-in-progress: the raft

3. Hoisting of the remaining Govan Flags....Alexandra Bowie and Fiona Fleming lead their installation crews to position 2 more sets of newly created flags.....Afternoon...Govan Cross (Govan New Chursh and Showpeople's Site)

'Gather' Flag by Fiona Fleming and Platforum

And finally.....Happy Golden Wedding Anniversary to  Matt Baker's Mum and Dad. Helen Macgregor and David Baker were married on 26th April 1962 in Ayr Old Kirk. Congratulations!!

and the Tallship said......

Today's message from the Tallship - see Flag Codes - here

Flags are beginning to fly...

As promised, signal flags went up on Water Row in Govan today.  Luckily we got them up before the weather turned!

Readying the flags for hanging

 Still sunny on the way to Water Row

 

Signal Flags created by Geraldine Greene & Bead and Blether

Look out for more pictures when the sun comes out again!

Exchanging Language

NothingAboutUs' Ingrid Shearer receiving translated texts from the Govan and Craigton Integration Network in the Pearce Institute

Ingrid next to the NothingAboutUs noticeboard in the halowed halls of the Pearce Institute

Tuesday 24th April

1. The first set of Govan Flags will be hoisted on Water Row (G51 3UW) ....afternoon

2. The first of Martin Campbell's 'Rag and Bone' workshops - details here

3. The second message for Govan from the Tallship

Flag Codes on the Street

Flag Codes at Yorkhill Quay Ferry Pontoon

In truth our first flag signalling day was not a huge success - a few teething problems with the hanging technology on the Tallship....but hey tomorrow is another day and we have a new idea of how to hang the flags so that they are both visible and do not get rolled up into a knot.

For those who did see the flags - you were right, if you translated the message as 'I am 116 years old'
Failures of communication were a prerequisite of NothingAboutUs from it's very first imaginings.

Monday 23rd April

1.  *'Stalled Places Walk' (led by ts Beall)  - meet Pearce Institute at 2pm (event approx 2 hours) -===see here for more details

Govan Graving Docks - photo by Tom Manley

2. First Flag Message transmitted from the Tallship - flags hoisted by 10am and visible in the rigging of the Tallship throughout the day. Flag Codebreaking sheet  - here and at: Govan Ferry, Pearce Institute and on The Tallship

Ahoy! More flag making pictures from GCIN and Bead & Blether...

Our signal flag makers have been hard at work, and you'll be seeing the results flying on the southside very soon... In the meantime, here are some more pictures of them in construction. Featured below are Olivier, Ahmed, Sam and Assiata from GCIN and Gillian, Phil, Elizabeth, Katie, Sandra and Helen from Bead and Blether.

Flag Signalling - begins today!

NothingAboutUs shifts into a new phase this week - this starts with the first Flag message broadcast from the Tallship ....the rest is up to you - you have the flag code below to help you:

The flags on the Southside will start going up on Tuesday 24th April on 7 Water Row

Have a sneak peek at our Signal Flags...

Just a wee slideshow of our Signal Flag designs from Alex Bowie & GCIN, Geraldine Greene & Bead and Blether and Fiona Fleming & PlatForum.  More pics to come (including some of the work in progress).

We will be hanging these on Tues and Thurs this week on buildings in Govan, and the Tall Ship has it's own messages--a different one each day.

We will be publishing a 'Flag Code' so you can decipher these messages that each group chose this week--watch this space...

Govan Flag Making

Gillian and Katie

The women of the Bead and Blether group working on one of the sets of Govan Signalling Flags

Helen and Elizabeth

Gillian

Phil

Incoming....Flags

In production in Fiona Fleming's studio

156 Refused Refugees Forced into Destitution in Glasgow April 2012

One of the Govan Flags designed and made by Asylum Seekers in Govan as part of NothingAboutUs

Really disturbing news reached us yesterday from people in the group that have been working with Alexandra Bowie to make one of the sets of Govan Flags that will be flown next week as one of the ways of communicating across the river. Please watch the video below which describes the desperate situation that 156 people now find themselves in - these are people who have come to our country because the situation was so desperate in their home country that they needed to flee to safety.

video - here

 A public demonstration has been arranged but the members of the Govan group have little faith in this - suggesting that it is 'always the same people  who go and who hear what they have to say'.....they are very positive, however, about the very different audience that will see their flags in Govan and hear their voice in that way.

Glasgow, Art, TV and Govan

Matt Baker and Tara Beall ...contemporary art as a collective action

BBC Scotland's Newsnight last night looked at the launch of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and featured NothingAboutUs - you can watch the clip here (you need to scroll to 16 mins 40 secs)

Flag production 1

Govan flags in production at Alexandra Bowie's studio today

Flags and visibility

Halima and Neema working on a symbol for 'why'

Some images from Alexandra Bowie's workshops with folk from the Govan and Craigton Integration Network - looking at using flags to give a voice to people newly arrived in the area.

Group discussing the history of protest in Govan

Just some of the flags of countries represented by folk working with Alexandra's project

Signal Flags

One of the most famous uses of marine signal flags - Admiral Nelson signalling to his fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar 'Englerand Expects that every man will do his duty'

 One of the mains communication strands in NothingAboutUs is the use of Signal Flags to convey messages over long distances - we got interested in these flags a while back and they feature strongly in Sophie Manhire's lovely wee Flickr gizmo on the top right of the blog.

As you look deeper into the subject you begin to realise that there is more to this than initially meets the eye - there is no one universal flag code...in fact there are loads of them:

Compare the two systems above eg look at the flag for the letter M...completely different

NothingAboutUs using this phenomenom to underline the idea a multiplicity of voices are present in any conversation about the nature of a place.......the idea of somewhere 'speaking with one voice' is a dangerously outmoded idea.

In the project we are working with 4 specially created and different flag codes - one created by the crew of the Tallship (permanently moored on the North bank of the Clyde, opposite Govan) and the other three created by artists working with local groups in Govan. The artists working on the flag project are Geraldine Greene, Alexandra Bowie and Fiona Fleming

A group working yesterday on creating a set of flags around the role of women in Govan - projected image on the wall is Agnes McLean the prominent Trade Unionist from Govan who campaigned all her life for equal pay and conditions for working women.

Page from Alexandra Bowie's sketchbook with a list of the countries of origin of the people in the group she is working with to create a set of flags based on people who have newly arrived in Scotland

The Tallship will start signalling to Govan with flags on Monday 23rd April, the new Govan flags will start going up that week too - codes for reading the flags will be available in local shops and public places.