Who Wants to Be?

On the 7/7/07, at 4pm in Norwich’s lovely Chapelfield Gardens, the people of Norwich collectively envisioned a new feature for the park by making proposals then discussing and voting in the world’s first direct democracy public game show!

Download the video at screening quality

“The People Speak offers an extraordinarily innovative and technologically exciting approach to socially engaged public art that enables ordinary people to feel energised, excited and fully involved in the process. Our ‘Chapelfield of Dreams’ project in Norwich gripped 300 people, most of them under 25, for nearly four hours in an open air game of ‘Who Wants To Be’ that allowed them to imagine their own vision for the park. Highly recommended!”

Nicky Adamson, director of The Garage arts centre.

You can see the suggestions people made on the

Chapelfield of Dreams Video Visualisation map!

If you’re from the press, you might want to read the press release.

For this project The People Speak worked with students from Norwich School of Art and Design, Earlham School and City College Norwich to gather as many ideas and schemes for the park as possible. There were suggestions ranging from ‘A giant Buddha’ to ‘an overpass’ so people can avoid the park’s notorious dodgy activities at night. Check the video to see what people finally decided!

You can also download the Chapelfield of Dreams report which explains the whole process with pretty pictures.

This new game of Who Wants to Be was commissioned as part of Contemporary Art Norwich ‘07, in collaboration with The Garage, Norwich School of Art and Design, Earlham School and City College Norwich.