On Friday October 6th 'No Hammer Needed' opened inside the covered midsection of the regenerated St Andrews Mews in the centre of Hastings town, East Sussex. The space is 5 minutes walk from the train station and is totally accessible on the ground floor.

I treated the space as a residency, with an 'open studio' event each weekend. So once the loading and tech setup was achieved it was great not having to pack it up and start again each week. I could leave everything setup as I had more security inside a shuttered unit within the main market with metal gates at both ends. However some biblical rains and flooding from storm Ciaran hit Hastings on the 13th October that further triggered a Southern Water drain pipe to burst nearby, closing a lot of local businesses down nearby for over a week. So I had to disassemble some of the electronic kit for a week.

What I did, how it evolved and what I learned by being there

I set out to open each Friday and Saturday from 5-9pm and later on by appointment only, as the area was still very quiet, luckily some public foot-fall from the restaurant next doors and Photo Hastings exhibition space that was open over the same time as me and much better advertised and known. If you need audience engagement then someone else would have to help.

The first weekend was quite different to the others, not just because it was before the floods and everyone presuming that this area was also shut, but due to my intitial rigidity. I had done similar setups many times before, these were events I was paid for or art shows, mainly with the vintage dentist chair faciliatating the light experience. I questioned why I was doing this without a research purpose or aim. The aesthetic of the first weekend to me is embarassingly pedestrian, the brainwave analysis is behind each participant like a white board and the music was chosen, but not made by me.

On Saturday afternoon I was open by 3pm and a different demographic of people were coming up, some family groups etc. At the front of the unit I had all the local heritage augmented reality artwork setup with large roller banners explaining most of the backgroud to each work (Apparitions for Hastings, and Pioneer for Brighton). This area is the realm of my work eploring seeing things that are no longer here, implemented by augmented reality on smartphones. The other realm was ahead and visible but only suitable for persons over 14 years due to the flashing lights experienced and  psychological intensity experienced with your eyes closed. 

I did not try to monetise my installation, I struggle with naming a price for an experience that is a hybrid of club. therapy, meditation and digital art. There have been discussions that artists are not cut-out to do this role, it reduces their abilities taking on this role.