The project was conceived by my long term collaborators and friends Anagram, as a means of opening up conversations about the future of a place with the people that live there.

Two giant pairs of binoculars appeared on the streets of Stratford on Avon in September 2019.

The sculptures sparked a vital contemporary conversation: what will Stratford be like in 100 years time?

The design allowed for people to look through the view finder, and see an augmented image of the very same view, but in the future.

The Anagram team ran a series of creative workshops and spent time on the streets, musing with people from all walks of life on their hopes and dreams for the future.

Drawings and audio from these conversations were then transformed into vibrant animations, to play inside the binoculars as a layer over a real-time video feed of the view beyond. Each pair of binoculars had a different animated film on loop – focusing on different ideas and themes, and creating a conversation between the two locations.

The binoculars were designed for rapid assembly and disassembly and storage, but robust enough for public use.