Unacceptably Intrusive Covert Surveillance

In the UK, it's a regrettable fact that we're used to being visually surveilled by closed circuit TV at all times and everywhere in public town-centre spaces - either by civic authorities when in public realm space, or by private security contractors when in commercially-operated space. Very often that commercially-operated urban space gives every appearance of being public realm space; a good example being the plaza on the top deck of Aberdeen's St Nicholas shopping centre, which connects pedestrian access between St Nicholas Street, the historic St Nicholas churchyard and Schoolhill/Upperkirkgate. It looks very much like public space, it provides a vital pedestrian access thoroughfare in the heart of the town and it just feels like a public realm space. But it isn't; it belongs to and is operated by Land Securities plc (LandSec, as they are known to insiders, is the UK's largest commercial property developer). Similarly, the border between public realm space and commercially-operated space is often ill-defined and it's difficult for the casual pedestrian to discern at what point his or her rights of way and freedom of assembly have been extinguished in favour of commercial exigencies. One of the most striking examples of this phenomenon in Aberdeen is the interface between the Rail Station and the Union Square shopping centre. The developers of the site have designed the commercial 'offering' (as they say) around pre-existing desire lines so that it's not easy for someone arriving by train in Aberdeen to find his or her way into public realm space without first passing through space which is part of the Union Square commercial venture and as so is operated by a private company.

Anyone who doubts that we have a good reason to be concerned about this; anyone who's prepared to trot out the old "if you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear" excuse for kowtowing to those who would surveil us at every possible opportunity should read this, and this, and this, and this. Oh, and this and this.

While we have serious concerns about the normalisation of blanket surveillance in urban space (at the risk of sounding starry-eyed naive) we at least preserve a hope that civil authorities do what they do in service of the greater good, on behalf of us all and answerable to our elected representatives. By contrast, surveillance undertaken by private security firms on behalf of the commercial operators of privately-owned urban space do so only in the service of profit, enhanced shareholder value (as they say). Still, though, at least we get warning of such surveillance - CCTV operators are obliged by law to display signs letting us all know that an area is covered by surveillance. These signs are indeed visible (adding ever more to streetfurniture clutter) in both town centre public and private realm spaces.

But now news reaches us via The Scotsman newspaper of an insidious new form of surveillance being 'rolled out' (as they say) across the shopping centres of Aberdeen.

Movements of shoppers tracked by 1984 phone technology

http://www.scotsman.com/business/technology/movements_of_shoppers_tracked_by_1984_phone_technology_1_2043604

>>>>>>> 

...unsuspecting shoppers who enter a shopping centre are now often tracked on a screen by retail staff – using their mobile phone signals to locate their path through the shops. 

Many Scottish centres are using the technology – which has been adopted by property giant Land Securities, which owns a large number of major shopping centres and has installed the tracking devices in ten of them – as well as rival Hammerson, which operates the technology at the Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow and plans to install at its Union Square development in Aberdeen this year. 

The Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, the Bon Accord and St Nicholas shopping centres in Aberdeen and Livingston’s The Centre are also among those north of the Border using FootPath, created by Path Intelligence, which is behind a range of technology to help shopping centre bosses plan their layouts. 

Path Intelligence chief executive Sharon Biggar refused to admit whether the technology was even in use in Scotland for “data protection” reasons – although she did acknowledge that it was utilised in centres in the UK and six other countries around the world.“We are not allowed to reveal the names of any of our clients because of data protection laws,” she told The Scotsman. However, while the company fiercely protects its paying clients, it does not give shoppers the same privacy. 

The refusal to list where this technology is in use means that shoppers are unaware that they are being tracked – unless they spot the small signs alerting them to the practice. However, even if they do see the signs, there is no option for them to opt out of the scheme without turning off their mobile phones. 

<<<<<<< 

To which we'd add that the great majority of today's mobile phone handsets cannot be fully powered down without removing the battery, and so your phone will respond to a tracking ping even if you might think you've turned it off. 

This same Ms Biggar, of Path Intellegence, manufacturers of the intrusive surveillance technology, is also quoted in the Aberdeen Citizen freesheet ("BEST [sic] free newspaper in Scotland"):

"We are very open with the public. We ask our clients to have signage up where the system is operating. The signs are exactly the same as the ones for CCTV"

Yet, when we pass through Bon Accord and St Nicholas shopping centres, while we can see the signs which warn us of CCTV surveillance, we see no signs whatsoever warning us that we are to be subjected to this new form of distasteful electronic-tracking intrusion. The only indication of this novel and intimidating privacy-busting technology you get is if you manage to spot the sensors themselves. Here's one, it's about the size of a hardback book:

See if you can spot them next time you visit the Bon Accord and St Nicholas shopping centres! 

FootPath Technology 

http://www.pathintelligence.com/en/products/footpath/footpath-technology

>>>>>>> 

The Path Intelligence FootPath system consists of a small number of discreet monitoring units installed throughout the centre. These units calculate the movement of consumers without requiring the shopper to wear or carry any special equipment. The units measure signals from the consumers' mobile phones using unique technology that can locate a consumer's position to within a few metres. These units feed this data (24 hours a day 7 days a week) to a processing centre, where the data is audited and sophisticated statistical analysis is applied to create continuously updated information on the flow of shoppers throughout the centre. At any time the shopping centre management can access the data via PI's secure web-based reporting system.

The FootPath technology is the only system available on the market today that can gather information on shopper paths continuously and accurately. FootPath can be installed in one centre or across a portfolio, providing you with quantifiable information to help you monitor your centre and assess the impact of your business decisions.

[our emphasis]

<<<<<<< 

Interesting to note that the system is not closed; that is to say that it is not an discreet network within only the building it serves. Rather, the data that the system gathers is transmitted to a Path Intelligence central processing facility. (Who knows where? Most probably this function is itself outsourced to an offshore number crunching data centre.) The data, once analysed, is then distributed via the internet back to the subscriber. We cannot know whether this is local Bon Accord or St Nicholas centre management, or some central management facility of Land Securities plc. In any case, it's not just the shopping centre security contractor, nor the shopping centre management or owners who have access to information about your movements, the providers of the tracking technology also gather that data. We have to ask ourselves how we feel about this. Did you like the bit where they said that shoppers are "not required to wear or carry special equipment"? We suppose we should, at least, be thankful for that!

It is telling that, even as the operators of our shopping centres fail to notify us of the fact that this intrusive surveillance is taking place, the providers of the tracking technology make capital of the fact that the monitoring units are discreet. Why, unless they fear a backlash of public disgust and outrage, would the unobtrusive physical footprint of the tracking units be regarded as one of the benefits - the unique selling points (as they say) of this highly intrusive development in our cities? It's as if they're trying to keep their data-gathering activities as covert as possible.

Someone should tell them - if they've nothing to hide, then they've nothing to fear.

Have a Very Alcohol-mediated, Consumerist, Motorcentric, Advertising-driven and Illiterate, Xmas in Aberdeen!

I went to the barber. We like barbers, and we like the fact that there's a resurgence in their numbers on the streets of Aberdeen. Used to be, before the long boom, that there were lots of barbershops. Bastions of exclusive masculinity they were, where stoic-faced men and boys would sit or stand queuing around the edge of a smallish room, waiting in companionable silence or low-tone discussion for their turn on the barber's chair - impressively sturdy yet mildly frightening-looking in its functionality, sharing as it does a common ancestor with the dentist's chair. Ranged round the room - stonily staring either into the middle distance or at the chequerboard linoleum floor we would be; men together at one with the laminarity of our own smooth thoughts in that masculine mindscape which may flourish in quiet, understated and conducive spaces like the barbershop. Places like that are where best the masculine mindscape can range wide and smooth - idea upon idea distilling and concentrating, concatenating and ramifying; creative patterns merge and blossom - for it requires just that sort of continuous unity of environment and encounter for its best experience and function. The only sounds in the barbershop the whispered, measured tones of sober discussion, the hum of the electric clippers and the snick-snip of the finishing scissors, then a whispered "...and something for the weekend? Sir?" and the man currently being groomed was brushed down. He'd stand up, pay - and then it'd be your turn for the buzz-cut. No crap, no smalltalk, no faffing about, no feminisingly fragrant and functionally extraneous trichological 'product' - just an effing haircut, done expertly, quickly and cheaply by a grown man who you could trust had done exactly that same thing a million times before. You could have faith that in ten minutes flat he'd have you'd stepping out of the chair with your hair looking exactly like that of the NASA test-pilot you expected it to. What could possibly go wrong with such a simple activity, so quiet and uncomplicated a space, so straightforward a commercial relationship? 

When the long boom came, the barbershops one by one began to disappear - we thought it was natural wastage - the old barbers retired and their premises became unisex salons. Full of 'lifestyle' magazines, conditioner/gel/mousse/whatever 'product' (to be sold on commission), pop music videos, and late-teenage girls who would charge a small fortune for taking up to an hour to make a frankly bad job of cutting your hair. Sometimes these places would have aquaria. But, worst of all - oh by far worst of all - the smalltalk; the juddering discontinuity of arbitrary inconsequential crapchat, destroying the unity of the masculine mindscape. 

Now that the long boom is at an end, and the politicians and commentariat begin to  think about ways to try and tell the electorate that a return to economic growth may not actually be feasible, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good and barbershops are returning to the urban scene in Aberdeen - we daresay it's the same story all over the country.

So, more or less on a whim, I walked into one of Holburn Street's growing number (seven at the most recent count) of barbershops which have recently begun to typify parts of the town-centre. All appeared as it should have been: chequerboard linoleum flooring; fuss-free interior; traditional-looking barber's chairs; no branded hair 'product'; a small queue of men with reassuringly blank looks. All correct. I expected that I shared a common frame of reference with barber and clientele alike. But I was wrong.

Regular readers will know that we at Other,Aberdeen believe that - rather than the ticket-price or up-to-datedness of gewgaw possessions; rather than the external veneer of mere ostentation; and rather than an overdraft of ersatz happiness from the bank of Boozy Britain, the key to well-being is to be sought in the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture, the strength of our relationships and the sustainability of our activities. So I was disappointed to to be subjected to the smalltalk of the barber who first asked me what sort of car I drive. (Living in the town centre, it's not necessary for me to own a car, so I do not.) That smalltalk opening gambit having failed, the barber then asked whether I would be out drinking that night. (I do not drink.) 

"What! Not even at Christmas?" 

< No. > 

"Are you not even going to take a drink on Christmas Day?" 

< No. I don't use it. > 

Eyebrows raised, and head shaking, the barber blew a breath out from between pursed lips: "Pffft".

Next I was asked what I expected to "get" for Christmas (I was not asked what I would be giving). And then, once my hair was cut and I had paid, I was handed a little seasonal promotional 'gift'; a barbershop-branded beer-bottle opener: "In case you change your mind and decide to have a wee cheeky beer or two over the festive season". The fact that I do not use alcohol simply could not, would not, fit into the barber's world view, especially at Christmas! 

Walking back home, I reflected on how misunderstood the straightforward desire for simplicity can be. At this time of year especially, and with the western world's economies undergoing the convulsions of phase change to a low- or no-growth future - we hope that simple, unmediated pleasures, unfreighted with commercial content and free from reliance upon fragile critical dependency networks become valued once again. I quickened my step, eager for the simple pleasures of hearth and home on that winter day. The day's consignment of Christmas cards awaited me in the vestibule. Among them, this gem:

Where to start with this copyright busting, advertising-subsumed, commercially complicit piece of seasonal "cheer", parasitising as it does upon the mass-culture iconography which has developed around the secondary arbitrage market for car insurance? Perhaps it is enough to simply point out that the producers of this Christmas card have mis-spelled "meerkat".

With Season's Greetings to all our readers!

Key Stakeholder

Other, Aberdeen

Private Enterprise Petit-Police at Union Square - UPDATE

Back in December, we posted about a bad experience at the hands of security staff at Aberdeen's controversial Union Square shopping centre. The post went viral, and to this day still generates a very high level of hits for this blog.

Yesterday, we received a comment on the original thread, which we thought warranted a blog-post all to itself, so here it is:

Interesting encounter this afternoon.

Had been for a meal in Yo Sushi with my sister and her two daughters (aged about six and seven I think). Afterwards one of them wanted to go on that trampoline / bungee rope thing in the main court. The child was happily springing up and down when one of the security guards approached us, pointed at a Japanese tourist taking photos, and asked if he was with us. 

We had never seen him before, so said no - at which they went over to him and demanded that he stopped taking photographs and leave.

My sister wasn't pleased with this and told the security guard that she was perfectly happy for him to take photographs if her children were fully closed and going about their normal activities, and felt the fact there was a problem with this was indicative of a sickness in society where everybody is under constant suspicion of being a paedophile.

Next up, the other Union Square person in charge of the trampolines got launched into a rather heated and patronizing flow - saying 'yes, they're fully clothed ... but what if he uses Photoshop to take your child's face and superimpose it onto a naked child's body" then he finished with "do you know how computers work?" - this was funny considering my sister did a post grad in computer programming and was a vice president at Deutsche Bank, working with computer security.

The first security guard went on to ask how she'd feel if she switched on her computer and was confronted by such a photograph - to which she replied that she wouldn't be seeing that on her computer because she wouldn't be looking for that sort of thing, and had filters to block it anyway. He then went on to say they had the same dangers when it came to people photographing the Union Square security cameras ... the photographer could be planning to blow up Union Square - or be a suicide bomber. My sister asked if they thought the tourist taking photos of her daughter was a suicide bomber? They said that you could never tell, he was ex-military, and these people are experts at covering their identity and could be wearing suits or anything.

By this point my sister was fairly openly laughing at them, and the security guards were pretty much shouting at her, while her daughter bounced away on her £5 trampoline session. At the end she just told them their policies were sick, and said that they had better be wary of her daughter when she put her mask and cloak back on (she was dressed as Batman) in case she was a plotting to blow up Union Square herself.

I didn't get involved in this argument myself, but must say it was quite amazing that my sister had to endure being shouted at and patronized by two knuckleheads while paying for her daughter to have five minutes of trampoline fun.

If anybody bothered reading this far, do you think the security guards were in the right?

Heh.

Thanks to this anonymous commenter for posting the story.

Clearly, these ex-military security guards believe themselves to be in the right. Union Square is their domain, and they protect those who come there.

Even a small risk is still a risk, so it's better safe than sorry. Everyone knows that them sick pediatricians always go about their sick perversion in public, and always prey on children who're accompanied by family members. Similarly everyone knows that those suicide bombers are somehow associated with Japan, where the cult of the kamakazi was invented after all - coincidence? I don't think so!

Anyhow, these pedos and suicide bombers aren't a match for the guys on our side, thank god! Those who wish to harm us in Union Square are so stupid they always telegraph their intentions by ostentatiously making obsessively extensive and slightly arty photographic surveys of their targets. The fools - they keep giving the game away! No wonder none of them have yet succeeded in their aim of bringing down the West by destroying Union Square! For, make no mistake, that is what they intend - nothing short of the destruction of our civilisation by striking at Aberdeen's newest generic shopping centre, which is the lynchpin of all Western commercial activity.

But with this incident we see the rise of a new and highly insidious threat to our comfortable western consumerist way of life - yes, the paedophile suicide bomber! The filthy b@stards!

It all adds up -
children + Japanese people + camera...
= Pedo suicide bomber
DEFCON 1. !!!

So we should congratulate these security operatives on their absolutism; stamping down on any aberrant behaviour keeps us all safe from these murderous suicidal foreign perverts. And it's better safe than sorry! We should be heartened that our operatives (our boys!) have a military background; perhaps they were posted to conflict hot-spots where Taliban and Al Qaeda IED's sharpened their hair-trigger reflexes.

It can't have been easy for these heroes, but we're benefitting from their sacrifice as we go about our innocent lives of consequence-free consumption. Is not consumer choice in free markets the one true freedom? Isn't that what we're still fighting for in Afganistan? Isn't that what we've achived in Iraq? Now, with the return of these heroes to their native soil, the front line has come home with them as they take up these jobs in our shopping centres which are the 'bastions' of our civilisation.

Some might say that these heros could use a course of counseling to re-integrate them into normal civilian life where threats to life and limb do not lurk around every corner. Some might say that the brutalisation these heroes have suffered ill serves them for public-facing jobs. Some might say that some of these guys are haunted by demons, that the things they have seen and the thoughts which they cannot dispel predispose them to paranoia and overreaction.

But we say: No! Bleeding-heart liberal politically-correct hand-wringingly cringeworthy attempts at 'understanding' these proud veterans only belittles them; emasculates them. These guys are men's men. They don't need namby-pambying mollycoddling. They can handle themselves just fine. The proof of this is that no paedo suicide pervert has yet succeeded in destroying Union Square.

It. Makes. Us. Proud.

College Street Multi Storey Car-Park.

Starting the new year with much in common with the way we blogged towards the end of the old, we paid a couple of visits to the other multi-storey car-park associated with Union Square; the College Street Multi Storey Car Park.

An interesting high quality modernist red-brick brick structure, the car park contrasts with the prevailing silver-grey which is usually regarded as characteristic of Aberdeen.  From the car park, [trainspotter alert] there's a great view of the arch viaduct which brings the railway from the south to Aberdeen and the Clayhills Engineering Works where passenger rolling stock is serviced.

From here, the rails extend south across the sea to join a network
which is uninterrupted from Vladivostok in the east to Lisbon in the west

And, surprise surprise! As ever when we visit the top-deck of an Aberdeen multi-storey car-park, we find a haven of peace and space. But don't just take our word for it, fellow psychogeographer of Aberdeen Lewis Dryburgh has shot this fantastic Ambient Video of the top-deck at South College Street. Enjoy:



Lovely. Do have a look at Lewis' other Ambient Videos on YouTube.

On one of our visits there was still a bit of snow about. And one solitary parked car, the red of its bodywork making a thrilling contrast with the blue-white day.

That single red highlight draws the eye -  making an almost martial statement, a bit like the little red dot on the black barrel of a Baretta Parabellum automatic, which shows that the safety catch is off. This red flash, we thought, by contrasting with the rest of the scene, merely serves to highlight the peaceful desertion which the College Street Car Park can offer.

Serene and paradoxically secluded in the open air in the centre of the town; calm on the top-deck as the life of the town bustles around the foot of the building, once again we find ourselves wanting to urge those in charge of these spaces to consider acknowledging their value as urban oases. Please - a couple of picnic benches, some container planting, a coffee vendor and Bob's yer uncle! A park! Sort of.

Indeed the South College Street Car Park was once used by some Aberdonians as urban open social space for leisure and sport. A blog commenter "Sam" emailed otheraberdeen@gmail.com to let us know that he shared our fascination in urban multi-storey car parks having this potential duality. He also told us about what was know as the "BT Comp".

College street or 'BT car park' as it was more commonly known was used for a long time in the Aberdeen skateboarding scene. Its rather strange that a car park can have a sort of alter existence or meaning. It was a standard car park by day but after 6pm when the attendants sulked off from work it became a social space for all skateboarders from across the city. Well, skateboarders and junkies who would inhabit the very bottom floor and the upper stairwells at night.

College street car park was also used annually for a number of years to play host to the BT comp. A one night only skateboard competition which would attract hundreds of people to congregate on the top floor to bear witness to an organized competition. Mayhem would be a good description. unfortunately though, as skateboarding became more popular generally a lot more kids would turn up and abuse the event which started to lead up to the end of the car park days. During the last comp a teenager fell to his death from the very top, im not sure of the story but from what i heard at the time they were larking about and being rather irresponsible by mucking around at the top ledge.

The introduction of Union square would also lead to more focus by the council on the use of College street car park. I think that the top floor also became part owned by an oil company so the employees would have a guaranteed car space. This meant 24 hour security which as you can imagine wouldn't take too kindly to the space being used by skateboarders and the like.

Many thanks for the information Sam - we really appreciate it! Sam also gave us a link to some footage shot at one of the BT Comps. Brilliant!



And, on a more downbeat note and with our sympathy to friends and relatives, here's a link to the BBC report of the tragic accident.

Well, all that sort of behaviour's over and done with now, and public use of the car-park is subject to published and displayed Terms and Conditions imposed by the management of Union Square, who now operate the car park.

We find the trumpeting of the use of number-plate recognition technology to be a highly sinister development. Not content with operating blanket surveillance upon us, non-governmental private operators have now taken it upon themselves to operate artificial-intelligence based tracking technology. Nice. We also note that they say:

"Records of vehicle registration numbers ... and images of vehicles and their drivers ... will be kept"

Which, in our opinion is totally unacceptable behaviour by a private organisation. That this impressive technology has been wrangled into a system used to extort parking fees from compliant consumers who have willingly traded their privacy for a dubious and short-lived convenience we find depressingly apt. It tells us a great deal.

Regular readers will know that we have had more than one  encounter with the people who are empowered to operate this surveillance and tracking technology at this site and at others. Our experience has caused us concern that the levels of skill, training and personal attributes demonstrated by these operators are not necessarily up to the standard which reasonable people might expect would be a minimum requirement for those charged with such onerous responsibilities. Still, number plate recognition robot systems overseen by teenagers less intelligent than the software they operate needn't trouble us pedestrians just yet and facial recognition software is still a good eighteen months away from being "productized" and we have not yet been "chipped". Not to our knowledge, at least.

We also noticed that the display sign T&C's point to the fact that further "Full terms and conditions are available" online (pdf). So we had a look at that too. We liked this bit:

The company has the right to exclusion rights in relation to persons who are causing ... unruly behaviour or misbehaving in any way and additionally in relation to persons who have no cause to be present on the car parking premises.

That'll be us, then. Because we came on foot.

Top Deck Trials

A little while ago, wandering around the centre of town, we crossed the top deck of the St Nicholas Centre. We think it's fair to say that this is now a strange place. There used to be a bustling Post Office, a Job Centre, a baker, a cafe, a cosmetic shop, the stationary outlet for WH Smiths and something else which we can't remember. Now, though, it has failed commercially; the shop units are boarded up and vacant.

It seems counter-intuitive that there should be this void, this vacuum at the very centre of the town, and of course, we have to ask: "why?"

We've already mentioned the unpleasant attitude displayed by those who enforce the already unpleasant surveillance system which blankets the deck with it's foul intrusion. But consumers are used to that sort of invasive prying, so that's probably not it.

No, we think that the big problem for the top deck of the St Nicholas Centre is two-fold. These are problems which the late-seventies master-planners and mid-eighties architects could not have foreseen. These are problems which cannot be overcome at this site, for they are problems which reside within the consumers themselves, not with the design of the shopping centre.

Firstly, the top-deck of the St Nicholas Centre is outside. This obliges hapless unsuspecting consumers to expose themselves to the wind and other meteorological phenomena for which they might not be psychologically, physically or sartorially prepared. It now being technologically possible (and therefore de-facto desirable) to upgrade to a life lived completely behind closed doors. Like a sort-of saturation-diving system but for producer/consumers.

Whereas the industrial diver goes from living-chamber to diving-bell to seabed worksite, all the while never exposed to the ambient environment; likewise the producer/consumer can go from apartment underground carpark into car to underground (or multistory) carpark at the workplace (or shopping centre), all the while never exposed to the ambient environment. It is revealing that the top decks of Aberdeen's multi-story carparks are invariably deserted - it is as if the producer/consumers are afraid to see the sky.

Secondly, the top-deck of the St Nicholas Centre is upstairs. This obliges the consumer to climb some stairs, thus unavoidably taking some exercise. Don't be silly! If you must exercise, the place to do that is in the controlled and mediated environment of the gym, where it's paid-for and therefore safe. And indoors.

Now the stationary outlet alone operates on the top of the St Nicholas Centre - solitary amid the foot-fall depleted devastation. Look upon my post-it pads and dispair! Nothing beside remains.

We like stationary well enough, but self-sealing envelopes and rollerball pens seem, well, somehow just not enough to justify the existence of this prime piece of real estate right in the heart of the city centre. And so, nature abhorring a vacuum, a sort of social market in urban space takes over. Re-development, re-use or re-invention inevitably follows (sooner or later) when a piece of real-estate becomes blighted.

Some people, when they see an area becoming run down with vacancy and blight, get all hand-wringingly "something should be done - it's a disgrace - etc". We don't - we find it thrilling to watch the urban environment weaving it's cocoon of vacancy - who knows the shape of the metamorphosed creature which will emerge! We think that such areas can become "edges" - and so we welcome blight, we embrace the run-down and we seek out the vacant.

Zimmer-rock guitarist "The Edge" (out of pension-pop outfit U2) once embarrassingly told an interviewer that he'd chosen his nom-de-plectrum because "the edge is the difference between something and nothing". Cringeworthy though this self-regarding aphorism might be, we think that there's something to it, especially when we look at the urban realm. Edges are where things are juxtaposed. And when diverse items (artifacts, attitudes, activities, architecture, people, whatever) are put together, opportunities exist for new developments (and not just real estate!) to take shape through a process of serendipitous accident or coincidence - this is the fountainhead of creativity.

So we were delighted to notice a few "edges" forming on the top deck of the St Nicholas Centre...

We watched some guys doing reeeeaaaaallly impressive trials-bike stuff there, much to the delight of a group of young asian girls who were hanging about eating pakoras in their eyecatchingly beautiful multicolour printed headscarves. Much preening and giggling and flirting and stunt-riding and otherwise showing off. We felt that there was quite a good community feel on the go. (Is this the Big Society?) The stunt riding was really entertaining; the riders were proud to show off their abilites to old farts like us.

A grumpy fat woman opened a window from the offices above and shouted her disapproval with threats. We shouted back at her to leave the kids alone. Was she never young herself? Perhaps she envied their fitness and good looks.

We've been in touch with the best of the trials bikers we saw that day. He's a young guy (damnhim) called Greg Wright who you can watch displaying his impressive skill on this video:

Like the best public art, activities like Greg's add colour, excitement, entertainment and diversity to our town. People like Greg and his parcourt and skateboarding colleagues are assets to this town and so it really bothers us when people do them down and try to marginalise them, as if they were street-drinkers or aggressive beggars or somesuch. They are not; they are athletes and artists on the cutting edge of something new. They are role-models and exemplars of skill development, fitness and an active life.

Greg is the only trials biker at his elite level who lives in Aberdeen. He's recently enjoyed the success of being placed 2nd in the elite section of a competition held in Edinburgh. The trials biking community is growing rapidly in Scotland, and there is the possibility of a Scottish tour competition developing with around six different locations around the country. Fort William is already a world centre of extreme cycling sports, and locations around Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen would be included on the itinerary.

Keep your eye out for Greg - he's well worth watching, and he's one to watch. His progression in the sport is something we should support. Our non-commercial dogma at Other Aberdeen prevents us from sponsoring him directly, but if any of our readers are interested in helping Greg out with a bit of cash for bike parts, travel expenses and the like, we can put you in touch. E-mail us using the link at the top left of the page.

We find it deliciously ironic that he should practise and hone his outdoor active skill on the top deck of the St Nicholas Centre - a place which failed in it's primary function as a shopping centre because it required a small level of outdoor activity on the part of its users.