ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

BY PROJECT BUNNY RABBIT

MORGAN TROWLAND, JULIAN MAYNARD SMITH, PETER BROOKS, KIM SPARKS, SHIREEN TAWIL, PAUL NELSON AND TOM BENNETT

All Along the Watchtower is a bamboo tensegrity pavilion designed by Project Bunny Rabbit. The structure is ultra light-weight and demountable for reconfiguration into diverse forms for uses ranging from social to siege. The design is based on structures pioneered by Buckminster Fuller in the 1950s.

The art installation was selected for construction alongside the winner of the 2021 Antepavilion Competition, Antechamber.  It was chosen for its visual impact,  its rapid construction and transportability and its embrace of the self-build criterion that is the essence of the competition.

The team say:

"Our bartizans of tensegrity bamboo towers, or ‘beacons’ as we lovingly call them, were born out of a need to speak truth to power and challenge the mainstream discourse about the Climate and Ecological Emergency we are facing. We used our beacons to physically occupy a space and disrupt the status quo— forcing our demand to be seen and heard. This pavilion is an evolution of our beacons. The beacons embody the characteristics necessary in guerrilla style confrontation with authority: agility, flexibility, adaptability, transportability, and security. They are instruments of nonviolent direct action in the face of encroaching authoritarianism."

As a result of sponsoring the structure, at 11 am on Friday 25/06/21 the Antepavillion site at Hoxton Docks was raided. TSG officers – a police division with a history of aggressive and violent tactics – used angle grinders and other power tools on external and internal doors, causing significant damage. Police then poured into the building and detained anyone they found, seizing various materials. Two people working on the site – who have no connection to Extinction Rebellion – were then arrested and held for 17 hours and their property was confiscated.  They were then released without charge for want of evidence but told they were being investigated for “conspiracy to commit public nuisance”.

The raid was conducted by the police in an attempt 'to pre-emptively crackdown on the Extinction Rebellion'. However, Antepavilion has no links to Extinction Rebellion beyond commissioning the construction of an art installation at their site using long-established ‘tensegrity’ structural principles.  Extinction Rebellion has sometimes used the same tensegrity principles to erect temporary structures at protest sites. The raid is clear evidence of the carte blanche powers police have been given to harass and intimidate, in the government’s efforts to crackdown on dissenting voices.  

Read more on the police raids here and the High Court’s ruling here