Andrew spent a few days last week as one of the guest speakers at the Symposia conference held in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales. One of the other speakers at the conference was Tasmanian based artist Justy Phillips.

Phillips is a native of Great Britain now based in Hobart Tasmania, who lectures at the Design Faculty at the University of Tasmania. In 2006, along with artist James Newitt, Phillips dreamed up a unique community project – write/here. The project is a special event that combines conceptual thinking, research, writing, graphic design, along with fund raising, planning, the fine art of diplomacy and hundreds of hours of old fashioned persistence.

In April 2007, all the major advertising billboard sites in Hobart’s CBD, twenty seven spaces, were taken over by splashes of red with white type, dressed with the thoughts and impressions from residents of Hobart. The write/here project took Hobart by storm for 10 days, during the Ten Days on the Island festival. The event changed the way locals of thought about the community, divided and brought together public opinion and revealed the impact of advertising in the public space.

Phillips and Newitt has captured this extraordinary project in a splendid publication that documents the intent right through to the making. Visit write/here for your copy.