From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Unbuilt Wing—A Navigation by Red Links
This work uses Surgipelago itself as a navigation tool. Participants should bring the live encyclopedia and a city map.
Participants navigate a city (primarily Newcastle) by following red links within Surgipelago—references to articles not yet written. For each red link discovered during reading, the walker travels to the physical location that article should describe. The archive becomes a map; the city becomes unfinished text.
Example: A passage mentions unwritten: "The Dirtheart Mural at King Street" . Participants walk to King Street, photograph what should be there, and return having *embodied* a missing article. The archive grows through the body's testimony.
The installation documents:
- How many red links fit an urban grid
- Whether physical locations confirm or contradict the fictional narrative
- The cycle formed by walking forward through the archive and backward through the city
Phase two invites walkers to nominate new red links—locations that should be articles. These become coordinates for future participants, building a physical index of the imagined city. The archive expands as it is walked; the walker becomes archivist.
Emerges from Their Most August Public Organ's concept: "our small-town eucalyptus version of Voyager's Golden Records."