Bring the happy

Bring the Happy is a project about happiness. An attempt to mark and map the happy memories from around the world. A public art installation, a digital archive and a live performance.

The project took over empty spaces in a city centres filling them with a giant map of that city. We asked passers by to leave a memory of moment of happiness from their lives, telling us where it took place on the map, what it was and how happy it made them feel out of 10.

“This is not about a happy-clappy happiness but things that illuminate an inner life and express an emotional world, encouraging the examined life along the border of mental wellbeing and a sense of meaning”
– The Guardian

Each memory was marked onto a permanent online map hosting over 6000 memories from all over the world. A glass marker is placed on the physical map in the spot the memory happened and the height of the maker is determined by the 1-10 happiness rating. Over time a glass cityscape emerges, a new emotional geography of a place.

The work culminates in an explosive live event, where the stories collected are retold, uncovering the living portrait of a place. The live event is a collaboration with the band Hope and Social; a moving, musical and interactive live performance.

All human life is here…The result is an emotional roller coaster. It is part spoken word and part music, part euphoric riot and part tear-jerking theatre”
– BBC online

Project supported and commissioned by Arts Council England, Leeds City Council, Leeds Town Hall, British Council, Leeds Markets, Warwick arts centre, Arc Stockton, Barnsley Civic, Kalieder, Northcott Theatre, The Albany, Brighton Festival, Trinity Theatre, Tbilisi International Festival, and the Cultural Spring.