Artist professor is boxing clever

DEAN of the Manchester School of Art, Professor David Crow, is one of the artists whose work has been chosen to decorate the streets of London as part of BT’s ArtBox project, which will continue the jubilee celebrations in the capital.

ArtBox sees 80 artists reimagine the traditional red telephone box, which was first designed to celebrate another jubilee – King George V’s silver jubilee.

They were given free reign to transform replicas of the “K6”, the classic red telephone box designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

For David’s box, two cameras on opposite sides of the roof of the box capture real time footage and bring people together on an LED curtain on the outside of the box.

Computer coding

David worked with Nick Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Computing, Andrea Zapp, from Manchester Media Lab, and Sue Merill and her technical team to create the box, which is titled “Connected”.

Three students, Chris Copeland, Oliver Atkinson and James Ruston, were also involved with creating the computer coding which made the design possible.

David said: “It has been a lovely collaboration with the computing department. Bringing science and art together in this way illustrates the strength we have at MMU in the sheer breadth of subjects.”

Other ArtBoxes were designed by Sir Peter Blake, Julien McDonald, Zaha Hadid and Zandra Rhodes. All 80 boxes will be unveiled in Trafalgar Square on Monday, before being taken to their various locations across London where they will be on display until 16 July.

Charity auction

At the end of that period all the boxes will be auctioned off at a Charity Gala Auction, with people also able to bid online via eBay.

All money raised will be donated to ChildLine, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year.