Words on the Wharf

There are many things I dislike about working at Canary Wharf.  The vast steel and glass palaces, each more faceless than the last, the dead, soulless eyes of commuters, none of whose childhood dreams were to become a junior member of a derivatives salesforce or a senior project manager in IT.  Also the fact that even in mid-August, the chill wind off the Thames means the Wharf is plunged into an eternal winter.  These things I dislike.


Additionally, it's pretty much impossible to find lunch for under a fiver, and as a former resident of Tower Hamlets (in which borough Canary Wharf sits), it's astonishing to see the vast wealth on display - when barely a mile away, one of the most deprived areas in the country has seemingly no money spent on it - whilst the Wharf gets another three security guards in case a junior derivatives salesforce member gets his bike stolen.  Additionally the Jubilee Line is about as effective as hopping to work on a rollerskate, and they seem to strike more often than they work, meaning an hour's leisurely commute is usually turned into an hour and a half of snarling at the chav who's standing on my foot or reeking into my personal space.


But sometimes - just sometimes - it's all worthwhile.  They seem to have some interesting art projects going on at the Wharf.  Over the summer (well, what passes for summer at Canary Wharf), they had a project called Streetpianos  which was lovely; they basically put rickety old pianos all around the wharf, and chained a songbook to the piano - anyone could sit down and play.  This being Tower Hamlets, however, the "junior entrepreneurs" weren't slow; an exceptionally talented young black teenager I saw four or five times in one week, hogging the piano, and having improvised a busking bowl he'd chained to the leg of the piano stool.  I'm not sure that was the intention of the project, but everyone was enjoying his music, so why not?


Today though, I think I saw my favourite art project ever.  Those of you who know me know I'm not a massive fan of art in general.  Given the choice, I give art galleries a wide berth (and of course I'm given the choice; what sort of bizarre society would force you at gunpoint to the Louvre?).  I have been known to trek round the Tate Modern (which I fucking hate) saying, "I could have done that.  I could have done that.  I could have done that.  That's shit. I could have done that," and so on, until whoever I'm with tries to stab me in the face.  Unfortunately this is often seen as an avant garde performance and we normally get a round of appreciative applause and an encore.


But today I saw this.  It's an art project that fuses technology and nature, or some such bollocks.  But basically it takes a real-time feed from the Times website, and somehow, magically, makes words appear out of water.  I loved it.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.

It almost made up for the fact I watched a man in a large (life-size) paper boat almost sink into the Thames earlier today before he was rescued by Canary Wharf staff.  I bet he got fucking arts funding.  Sadly no pictures of that.


Hope you enjoy the video.  With luck the exhibition will be there for a few days, so why not pop down to the Wharf and have a look.  But not tomorrow.  There's a tube strike.  Of course there is.