In PA04, we had to address themes of control and voyeurism. Foucault's Discipline and Punish was introduced to us. I enjoyed what we read, and bought the book. I don't think I finished reading it, but still I enjoyed what I did get through. I was interested in the idea of micromanagement, finding the descriptions of the prisoners' typical day fascinating. At the same time I was intrigued by road signs—how the same sign differs in its design across different countries; how each sign speaks to the road user through the use of shapes, colours and pictures; and how much one has to know to understand what each sign is saying, along with just how many road signs there are out there.

I started looking at artists (a lot of whom are in Bristol) who alter these signs, and other facets of the urban environment, in various ways. I thought I knew what I was doing, photographing signs, presenting them as a form of micromanagement. However, we had a one day show at the end of the semester, and this work was going to be assessed as part of the show; that is, both the work and our effort into the show was assessed as one. So the work had to be ready for that, and I lost my way with the work, finding that I couldn't make it work as I had originally intended. I decided to have just one image, rather than the many images I had thought I'd make.

This is that one image.