In Harlow it was very different. Instead of using an artist to work with architects to attempt an integration of art and architecture, the Harlow Arts Trust (6) was set up in 1953 to purchase sculptures to place around the town. Works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Lynn Chadwick were among the first to be acquired and these, along with subsequent acquisitions and commissions, were placed in residential and town centre locations. This policy could be described as turning the streets and squares of the town into a museum for the enjoyment of art for its own sake, unrelated in any way to the environment or culture into which it was placed. Richard Cork considers that, 'The weakness of such an approach lies however in its failure to develop a more integral accord between the art-works and the townscape they are intended to enliven.' (7) Some artists, commissioned to make sculptures, did attempt to relate them to specific sites. Ralph Brown's 'Meat Porters,' in the markets area of the town, is a good example of this but the work remains traditionally plinth-bound.

Seventy years before Rodin had fought with the city council of Calais to have his commissioned sculpture, "The Burghers of Calais," placed on the ground. He failed and today the sculpture sits on a plinth, as does the cast next to the Houses of Parliament in London. However a visit to the Rodin Museum in Paris reveals the work as Rodin had intended - on the ground, slightly larger than life size its powerful expressiveness overwhelming the viewer with its very proximity. Harlow's policy of purchasing and placing sculpture was in keeping with current practices in other western towns and cities. The purchase of a sculpture by Henry Moore for placing outside a new building, both here and abroad, seemed to become an ubiquitous imperative. There were also some commissions to artists to produce new sculptures though rarely did the resulting works bear any strong association with their locations. This gave rise to a number of derogatory terms for these works such as, 'parachute art', 'plonk art', 'the turd in the plaza' and 'cultural shrubbery.' The thinking and practice of many artists had begun to change and notions such as 'site-specificity' and 'the context is half the work' had begun to affect art practice. Artists objected to the limitations of the traditional commissioned sculpture and demanded opportunities to integrate their work more fully, not only as part of the physical environment, but also, and perhaps more critically, as part of the social and cultural environment in which the works were to exist.

It was in this climate of change that I wrote to several old and new towns in Scotland suggesting that they might employ me as their artist. I did not yet know of Pasmore's work but I had heard that the new towns of Skelmersdale and Cumbernauld had engaged artists and that artists were working for the London County Council Housing Department. I did not write to Glenrothes but serendipity played a part as the Chief Architect, Merlyn Williams and his deputy, John Coghill, had decided that the town, with one or two major commissions already in place, should have an artist of its own. The post was advertised in the national press, interviews were held and I was appointed in September 1968. I moved to the town and decided to rent a council house in order to experience new town living at first hand. I joined the Planning Department and set up my studio in the Direct Labour workshops among the joiners, plumbers, bricklayers, etc. Later I became a member of UCATT, the building workers' union.

As an artist I had already developed what could be described as a 'contextual' practice. This was reinforced by working in Nigeria for four years which had sensitised me to the notion of cultural imperialism. I certainly wanted to contribute as an artist to the developing built environment of the town but was also concerned to create opportunities for other townspeople to do so as well. Mark1 new towns were mostly built on greenfield sites and the citizenry had been imported. Thus new communities were struggling to form with little shared history and tradition and often with broken extended-family relationships. Glenrothes was little different and it seemed to me that one of the areas in which an artist could operate was in creating memorable landmarks within the fairly uniform, Radburn-type, housing areas and the incorporation of 'marks', however small, by local people. I organised groups of primary school children into modeling in relief their own individual ceramic tiles and signing them on the front. These were then fired and cemented onto walls adjacent to their local play areas. Secondary school pupils and adults painted murals and participated in other art projects. On one occasion I contrived, with some necessary subterfuge, a situation in which tenants were able to choose the colours of their own front doors; an unprecedented act at the time.