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Richard Trevithick Be-tec Engine Legacy of a Visionary Inventor - Interactive Artwork

This project was an invited part of Design of the Times (Dott) Cornwall’s Design Season.

Dott Cornwall is a partnership between The Design Council, Cornwall Council, University College Falmouth and the Technology Strategy Board. Dott is a six week multi-site exhibition of design works at 16 locations. Several shipping containers were distributed around Cornwall, and participants were invited to install artworks thematising selected important Cornish scientists, engineers, artist and social contributors.

The work focuses on Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), a subject nominated by the Cornish Nationalist politician Loveday Jenkin. A mining engineer and inventor, Trevithick developed the first high pressure steam engine and the world’s first full scale working steam locomotive.

The installation responded to Trevithick’s biography through the form of a large structure housing a series of dioramas. Additionally a small model of Trevithick’s 1808 engine Catch Me Who Can*, could be pushed along in front of the dioramas, illuminating each as it passed.

The shipping container was situated at Carbis Bay, St Ives, and was open to the public for a month. The intuitive intelligibility of the design was evident during my invigilation, and visitors reported a greater understanding of a figure often overshadowed by contemporaries such as Stevenson and Watt. The novel simplicity of the interface, its narrative, illustrative and kinetic elements were approachable and engaging to visitors.

*Situated on a circular track in Bloomsbury. Paying a shilling, members of the public could experience ‘Mechanical power subduing animal speed.’