As part of a range of ideas for the Edinburgh Park Arts Strategy I proposed that our lead poet Janette Ayachi could develop street names for the new masterplan inspired by the 12 'herms' busts of famous Scottish poets which were already sited nearby. The names have been adopted by Parabola and are being implemented as the wider development is rolled out.
Janette said: "I wrote the naming strategy working with the lives of twelve leading Scottish poets as impetus. The stanza, or poem, for the sign comes first, capturing a poet’s personality, style or ethos, then the extraction of the word from the couplet to create the street name. Street names reflect realities, offer contemplation in pedestrian spaces, dialogue in public spaces, from the deeply abstract or satirically literal, both often correlated to a site-specific story. The legacy of the poets is also a site-specific story. I wanted the street names to reflect their cultural background, to serve as evidence of social history and social geography through the eyes of the poets, these were the themes they dedicated their voice to after all".
