The Ribbon Project

Further Info

This story was made at a four day workshop for artists interested in facilitating Bristol Stories workshops. The theme was “Maps and journeys”.

The workshop was led by Aikaterini Gegisian and Liz Milner and was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

Ribbon project. There’s a lot to notice when walking to work: little things, like the sign that tells you the name of a favourite street. A bridge walked under every day. The door to the best café in the world.

I wanted to mark these things, draw attention to them and share them. And this is how the Ribbon Project was born.

I decided that, for seven days, in October I would tie ribbons to the city, and invited everybody to do the same.

You didn’t have to live in Bristol to take part. You didn’t even have to live in a city. You could be anywhere in the world. The only thing I asked was that we tie the same colour ribbon on the same day.

So I gathered an email list, and when the time came, I mailed the designated colour the night before. Lots of people took part, some sent me photos, others told me anecdotes accrued through their time, and everyone had a sense of joy and sharing. And we were sharing with a city of strangers, a world of strangers, sharing our sense of charm, our desire to enchant.

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.

Pedestrian subway created by Alexandralee, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Overview of Bristol City created by Mevans, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

World map created by Daniello, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Ribbon images created by Hannah Godfrey, Sam Glazer, Mazzy, Leila Talmadge, Amandine Meunier, Tiffiny Aasen and Kathy Meakin, used under copyright licence.

Music created by Hannah Godfrey, used under copyright licence.