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We start with a case of ‘now you see them, now you don’t…’ These adverts for the newly relaunched Shambles Market were emblazoned on 5-6 King’s Court, the building at the top of Shambles which is home to YorkMix among other notable enterprises.
But soon after going up they were coming down. Council workmen were despatched in a cherry picker to remove the signs on Thursday (April 9).
Not everyone was a fan of this new form of street art. By strange coincidence, York democracy champion Gwen Swinburn had tweeted this out earlier that very same day:
I wonder of @cityofyork is following the law by installing these at the end of the finest street in England? Views ? pic.twitter.com/2F6lOWfxnb
— Gwen Swinburn (@GSwinburn) April 7, 2015
And this followed a letter to the Press calling the signage dreadful and saying
– Elizabeth Harris, Bishopthorpe, York
What is the meaning of all this? The Diary has asked the council and will report back.
We have found one answer. It comes from the Diary‘s favourite new Twitter account, Prof Nathan, the “York-based digital media arts thinkovator” and “Visiting Professor of Disruption”.
He had this explanation…
@GSwinburn @theyorkmix @ralphharrington Intriguing informational experiment by @CityofYork … #unbranding is the new #branding
— ProfNathan (@nathanovation) April 9, 2015
Sent at 3.40am on Monday, March 23, it meant a very early start from someone who runs the council’s social media (or perhaps a very late night…)
It came with the single, rather enigmatic word: “jaaaaaam”.
That’s right, “jaaaaaam”.
And with it was a link and still from a YouTube video.
We failed to find the video, but our thanks go to Jo in the comments who did.
Here it is, and very groovy it is too…
The council Tweet was captured by David Dixon who noted:
The Tweet later disappeared. Can anyone throw some light on this strange piece of communication?