Hard Bop

Hard Bop is a public artwork developed in collaboration with the San Francisco Mayors Office, Landscape Architects and Community Consultation, with the aim of regenerating a community space in the heart of Fillmore, San Francisco. Selected by peer review, via open competition organised by Sculpturesite, in the US, Canada and UK, the project is an example of a evolving research imperative of Atkin’s with the regeneration of public space through collaboration alongside designers and architects. Research for the work addressed the following questions: • How to regenerate a rundown area and reinstate it as a community meeting place, a location for performances and a hub for business growth. • How to create a landmark acknowledging the world-renowned Jazz heritage of Fillmore (Harlem of the West Coast) and link it to the present day. • How to redefine the locale through the process of regeneration, using children’s workshops: local radio interviews: ABC TV news items: exhibition of documentary film. the neighborhood Fillmore Centre, in order to test and project concepts to the wider audience of the District Research processes involved: Testing a range of reflective materials that could be perceived as ‘celebratory’; Consultation (British Stainless Steel Advisory Service) on the grade and type of stainless steel to withstand the urban & saline atmosphere of San Francisco; Testing different grades of polishing that will be reflective and simultaneously deliver low maintenance; Devising forms that translate recognizable references to musical rhythm into sculptural form: Using MAYA software to test how to reflect notions of spontaneity, which equate with musical rhythm and to further inform viewer interpretation of the sculpture with musical instrument-based references, such as Machine Head Keys, carved in granite; How to surmount the sculpture onto a water feature so that the confluence of audible water movement can intertwine with the rhythmic structure of the stainless steel reflective surfaces.