Townley and Bradby – The Bowthorpe Experiment
13th - 15th May 2011
Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Commissioned by Invisible Dust, ‘The Bowthorpe Experiment’, by Townley and Bradby was an evening cycle tour designed to see the future of Norwich. The work was a collaboration between Townley and Bradby, Magnificent Revolution, and Jonathan P Watts that it took place on three evenings as part of the 2011 Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The tour travelled from Norwich city centre out to Bowthorpe, a development on the western edge of Norwich.
“The Bowthorpe Experiment’ is a mobile think-tank, a free-wheeling utopia, and a bike ride to the future. It is not a performance, we’re presenting you with the architecture of the imagination.”
The tour, invited members of the public to cycle together and was aided by music and stirring speeches to imagine the future as it might be if the benefits enjoyed in Bowthorpe (safe cycle routes separate from the motor traffic, plentiful parks, social housing and private housing) were rolled out across the rest of the city.
Image: © The Bowthorpe Experiment, Townley & Bradby. Photo by Julian Hughes.