Andrew Shoben on public artworks that increase Gross Domestic Happiness

For Andrew Shoben public art is about so much more than the “bronze guy on a horse holding a sword”. With his company, greyworld, Shoben creates urban installations that are a lot of fun and often incorporate sound. 

Here at Design Indaba Conference he talks about some of his public installations – the kind that end up becoming some of the highest trending topics on Twitter in the whole world. From creating a suspended 2.5-tonne sun in Trafalgar Square to tuning street railings so that they play a tune when you run a stick along them, Shoben ultimately uses his work to increase people's "Gross Domestic Happiness".

Shoben also talks about his fully animatronic statue outside the Tate Modern, "Monument to the Unknown Artist", which copies the poses of passersby.

We wanted to make a grand statement about public art – Andrew Shoben.

Occasionally these works take on a life of their own, such in the case of this one when things went wrong with the mechatronics when the statue leant over to far. It's arm became jarred in a rather unfortunate repetitive motion.

So yes, we created the wanking statue outside the Tate Modern! says Shoben