This project proposes a mechanical intervention alongside the stair at the east end of St. Alphage Gardens, London. The stair passes from a quiet part of the Barbican highwalk through the line of the adjacent surviving fragment of London's Roman wall (i.e. it crosses London's historic boundary) to St. Alphage Gardens (the site of the remains of two ruined churches). The intervention comprises a gantry which runs parallel to the stair also crossing the line of the wall and a spire like contraption which can move north and south along the gantry. The spire moves in response to people's movement on the staircase - its motor running for the same length of time as someone takes climbing or descending the stair (although it moves very slowly covering only a small distance in this time) and in the same direction (north for ascending, south for descending). The spire makes a gentle bell like clanking sound as it moves (a giant chime gives the spire its height). These movements are generated from the use of the stair in two ways. Firstly they are averaged out - the (continually recalculated) average interval between people using the stair and the average duration of ascending and descending it generate a regular backward and forward motion. Assuming that it will take on average less time to descend the stair than to ascend it the spire will gradually move to the south end and will need eventually to be reset. Secondly specific individual durations and intervals taken from 24 hours earlier generate an additional set of more sporadic movements which replay the events of yesterday.
Thus the project compares three different sorts of reading of the event of ascending and descending the staircase - the present (someone walking down the stair), a specific historical event (the machine reenacting the specific events of 24 hours earlier) and the averaged out general rhythm from the project's entire history. The project therefore locates the mundane present event of ascending and descending a staircase within the context of the history of that event and emphasises the significance of the existing stair's placement crossing London's historic boundary.
